"No more pretending, show express your real self"
KARE KANO
(His and Her Circumstances)
Yukino Miyazawa is a Japanese high school freshman who is the envy of classmates for her good grades and immaculate appearance. However, her "perfect" exterior is a façade, a charade she maintains to win praise. In the privacy of her own home, she is spoiled, stubborn, and a slob, and studies relentlessly and obsessively to maintain her grades. On entering high school, she is knocked from her position at the top of the class by Soichiro Arima, a handsome young man whose very existence Yukino considers a threat to the praise on which she thrives, and she vows to destroy him. When Soichiro confesses that he has a crush on her, Yukino rejects him then boasts about it at home. Her observant little sister Kano points out that her rivalry with him comes from admiration, causing her to rethink her own feelings.
Before she can figure out if she hates or likes Soichiro, he visits her home and discovers her being herself. He uses the information to blackmail her into doing his student council work. At first Yukino accepts it, coming to realize that he is also not the perfect student he pretends to be. Tired of being used, Yukino revolts and Soichiro apologizes, and admits he still loves her and just wanted to spend time with her. Yukino realizes she loves him as well, and together they resolve to abandon their fake ways and be true to themselves, though she initially has trouble breaking of her lifelong habit of pretend-perfection and her competitive ways.
As the series progresses, Yukino is able to open her true self to others and earns her first real friends beyond Soichiro. It is eventually revealed that Soichiro was striving to be perfect in order to avoid turning "bad" like the parents who abandoned him. Falling in love with Yukino, he is able to become more true to himself, but he also finds himself becoming increasingly jealous of Yukino's change bringing new friends and new activities into her life, and of her having parts of her life that don't involve him. When Yukino unknowingly hurts him, he becomes even more jealous and afraid, and begins to wear another facade of the "perfect boyfriend" in an effort to protect her from his "ugly" self.
In the Manga:
The return of both of his parents into his life sends Soichiro into a dark area, but helps him finally break free to truly be himself as Yukino and their friends help him learn to lean on and trust others. The end of the series shows Yukino and Soichiro in their 30s, with their three children, and gives updates on the various friends they made along the way.
Main Characters
(His and Her Circumstances)
Plot
Yukino Miyazawa is a Japanese high school freshman who is the envy of classmates for her good grades and immaculate appearance. However, her "perfect" exterior is a façade, a charade she maintains to win praise. In the privacy of her own home, she is spoiled, stubborn, and a slob, and studies relentlessly and obsessively to maintain her grades. On entering high school, she is knocked from her position at the top of the class by Soichiro Arima, a handsome young man whose very existence Yukino considers a threat to the praise on which she thrives, and she vows to destroy him. When Soichiro confesses that he has a crush on her, Yukino rejects him then boasts about it at home. Her observant little sister Kano points out that her rivalry with him comes from admiration, causing her to rethink her own feelings.
Before she can figure out if she hates or likes Soichiro, he visits her home and discovers her being herself. He uses the information to blackmail her into doing his student council work. At first Yukino accepts it, coming to realize that he is also not the perfect student he pretends to be. Tired of being used, Yukino revolts and Soichiro apologizes, and admits he still loves her and just wanted to spend time with her. Yukino realizes she loves him as well, and together they resolve to abandon their fake ways and be true to themselves, though she initially has trouble breaking of her lifelong habit of pretend-perfection and her competitive ways.
As the series progresses, Yukino is able to open her true self to others and earns her first real friends beyond Soichiro. It is eventually revealed that Soichiro was striving to be perfect in order to avoid turning "bad" like the parents who abandoned him. Falling in love with Yukino, he is able to become more true to himself, but he also finds himself becoming increasingly jealous of Yukino's change bringing new friends and new activities into her life, and of her having parts of her life that don't involve him. When Yukino unknowingly hurts him, he becomes even more jealous and afraid, and begins to wear another facade of the "perfect boyfriend" in an effort to protect her from his "ugly" self.
In the Manga:
The return of both of his parents into his life sends Soichiro into a dark area, but helps him finally break free to truly be himself as Yukino and their friends help him learn to lean on and trust others. The end of the series shows Yukino and Soichiro in their 30s, with their three children, and gives updates on the various friends they made along the way.
Main Characters
Yukino Miyazawa
mart, attractive, athletic and talented, Yukino Miyazawa had made herself to appear to be the model student. Both her male and female peers express their admiration for her, often asking her for help and commenting about her model features and characteristics. Her "perfect" exterior is a façade to hide the fact that everything she does is done solely to receive praise from others, and that she acts slovenly at home. She is a self-professed "queen of vanity", having been that way ever since childhood when her parents would praise her for the slightest actions. Yukino once practiced playing her recorder and almost vomiting blood from staying up all night practicing. She is described as the "anti-Girl Next Door" in an article by Newtype USA because of her perfection and deceitfulness. With so much praise, however, she never realized that she never had any real friends aside from her family, and was considered by her peers as a semi-approachable "guest". This all changes when Yukino meets Soichiro Arima, another model student who beats her high school entrance exam score, and is even more popular and athletic than Yukino.
Yukino is envious of her rival Soichiro, and works hard to top his grades. When Soichiro confesses that he has a crush on her, she rejects him and laughs about it afterwards. But her observant sister Kano points out that Yukino's rivalry with him is borne of admiration. This revelation is useless, however, as Yukino accidentally lets her guard down and Soichiro discovers her real self. After discovering that Soichiro is also maintaining a model-student facade for his own reasons, they become very good friends. Yukino resolves to abandon her fake ways and become true to herself, though she initially has some trouble letting go of her lifelong habit of pretend-perfection. Eventually, she is able to open her true self to others and finally earns real friends beyond Soichiro.
During her senior year in high school, Yukino becomes pregnant. She marries Soichiro after graduation, marrying at a young age as her parents did. Although her apparent goal in high school was to become a politician or a lawyer, it is later revealed that she wanted to be a doctor, but put the dream aside because it was financially out of her family's reach, and because Soichiro and Maho both wanted to be doctors too. She eventually becomes a doctor at a hospital run by the Arima family, specializing in reconstructive surgery. Sixteen years later, she is the mother of three children, a daughter named Sakura and a pair of male fraternal twins named Suoh and Ai.
According to Enoki Films USA's website, she would have been named "Yuki" in an Enoki Films dub.
Soichiro Arima
Smart, attractive, athletic, and talented like Yukino, Soichiro Arima becomes Yukino's rival at school. Very handsome and popular, Soichiro excels at kendo and becomes a national champion. He is at first smitten by Yukino, unaware that she secretly hated him and constantly tried to compete with him. After unwittingly discovering that Yukino is not the model student everyone thinks she is, Soichiro blackmails her into doing his school work so he can spend more time with her. After resolving the issue and becoming each other's first true friend, they eventually fall in love.
Yukino learns that Soichiro, like her, is making an effort to "be perfect" for a reason. While Yukino is motivated by praise and vanity, Soichiro is trying to cover his "real" self, a self damaged by childhood trauma that he fears may be destructive. Yukino and Soichiro were able to find an emotional sanctuary in each other.
While Soichiro comes from a distinguished family of doctors, he was abandoned by his parents, who were the family's disgrace, and raised by his uncle and aunt. Fearing that he may turn "bad" like his parents, he is always trying to hide behind a mask and is constantly fighting his own demons. As with Yukino, he feels more in touch with his true self as he falls in love. But along with love, he is apprehensive of his other emerging emotions, such as becoming increasingly jealous of Yukino's friends, her activities, her life without him. When Yukino unknowingly damages Soichiro's bond to her, he finds himself becoming jealous and afraid. So he begins to wear another facade that he hopes will fool her and protect her from his "ugly" self.
After a lifetime of striving to be "perfect", Soichiro's dark side begins to manifest itself by vengeful feelings against those that hurt him in his family, and he realizes that he has the ability to be cold and cruel. One aspect is his possessiveness of Yukino, hating any one but him being close with her. Hideaki told Takefumi that the only reason Hideaki was allowed to be friends with Yukino was because Soichiro knew that Hideaki would never fall in love with Yukino and she would never fall in love with him. When the charade reaches a critical point that threatens his relationship with Yukino, she steps up to save him by opening him to a true and complete love. After a number of violent outbursts (one of which has him making love to her in the school library rather suddenly, which later has him thinking she wasn't willing, and almost drives him mad) Soichiro finally understands that to love, he must be willing to trust and be trusted, even enduring the suffering that comes out of love. Yukino is able to convince Soichiro that she truly loves him for who he is, and that she is willing to support and suffer for him. From that point on, Soichiro truly and completely opens up to Yukino, his friends, and his beloved adopted parents.
Soichiro's union with Yukino has come full circle, as both are finally free from the oppression of the conflict within themselves. Even though Soichiro cannot forget the past, he no longer allows it to control and hurt himself or anyone else.
After high school, Soichiro marries Yukino and they have three children. Their oldest child is a daughter named Sakura, a beautiful girl who resembles him in looks and talent. Although his original ambition was to follow his family's profession and become a doctor, he follows his childhood dream and becomes a policeman. He eventually becomes a highly decorated police inspector, and is preparing to sit for the exams of a Commissioner's promotion (at the insistence of his superiors) at the age of 30.
Soichiro was also reunited with his father, Reiji Arima, a famous jazz pianist who lives in New York but returned to Japan for a concert. After spending 10 days together, both father and son grew fond of each other and reestablished their bond. Reconnecting with his father helps Soichiro deal with his problems and heal the wounds of his childhood.
During the second chapter of the manga (where by this time Soichiro already discovered Miyazawa's secret of vanity by the end of the first chapter) he playfully sings to himself that he likes "Lemon Tree" by Fool's Garden as he casually passes by Yukino. The author intended this reference to foreshadow Soichiro's feelings and events to come in the story, based on the lyrics. Interestingly, the song "Lemon Tree" was a massive hit in Asia for Fool's Garden in 1995, very uncharacteristic of a "rich kid" to listen to, which is in itself another hint at Soichiro's character.
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