Kare Kano (aka: Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou) Vol. #11

By Eduardo M. Chavez     September 15, 2004
Release Date: September 01, 2004



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Tsuda Masami
Translated by:Michelle Kobayashi
Adapted by:

What They Say
Kazuma is the yin to his stepsister Tsubasa's yang - their relationship is like fire and ice. Kazuma is a famous singer loved by everyone in school... and Tsubasa has a bit of a schoolgirl crush on Kazuma! But how can a girl strike a chord with someone who is occupied with his music 24/7?

The Review
Packaging:
As TOKYOPOP has done for most of this series, they are using art from a Kare Kano art collection for their covers. TP's cover features Kazuma and Tsubasa together surrounded by ivy. The opposite cover does not have character art; instead the volume description is next to some more ivy. Very simple and appropriate, as Tsubasa and Kazuma take center stage for this entire volume. Inside the printing has much improved quite a bit, however I did notice some alignment issues with images getting cut off on a few pages. I really liked how well TOKYOPOP translated the mangaka notes and the extended ato-gaki. Very nice job there. I was also impressed by Jake Forbes' omake "Kare Kano Beat," as it works perfectly as an introduction to the cast and background of this quasi-side story. If those extras were not enough, there is an five-page interview with Tsuda-sensei along with notes about Tsuda's shorts collection. Very nice.

Artwork:
Tsuda's art is pretty nice, though I have to say it is not as good in this volume as it has been before. She tends to have a good mix of thick strong long lines making her characters often look out of scale. At the same time she occasionally gets pretty sketchy and often distorting her characters (especially her males) to the point where they almost all look alike. What I love about her art is the transition between normal and SD. She really makes a point of how people can occasionally be SD in real life when they want to be. Two of her characters are almost always SD'd, but when the lights go on they lose weight, gain height and become too sexy for their shirts! Tsuda's backgrounds can be pretty nice. She focuses her time in manpu and layouts more than background art but when they are present they look okay. She mentioned she went to a live house Akasaka Blitz (a rock hall in Tokyo) for research, but she really did not show much detail in her rendering of the space. Her layout is fantastic. She is really active with it, setting the pace and tone for the story. The layout is also active with the cast as it presents their mood and state of mind with manpu and plenty of aside soliloquy.

Text/SFX:
When TOYKOPOP started releasing this series more than a year ago, I was very vocal at my displeasure towards the translation. Changing dialogue, removing dialogue, out of context phrases were some of the few issues that took up pages when finally written down. I am happy to say that I no longer feel that way about this production. Kobayashi and Schilling do a great job on this volume. There were exactly 4 lines in the entire book that I found questionable and for a translator that is more than acceptable. The tone is good, the personalities are well done and even Tsuda's strange rants are nicely translated. For some reason, they have just started adding more honorifics. Some people might be thrown off a bit by the change so far into the series, but I say better late than never. Overall a great job! TOKYOPOP appears to have taken a page from Gutsoon!'s book in regards to SFX translation. While most SFX are not translated active SFX are. So if someone is making a sound, say chewing they translate it (in this case "gobble, gobble"). Now if fireworks are exploding they won't translate the "don don/booms". A little confusing but I still would like to see them all translated in some form or another.

Contents: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As Arima and Yukino take a brief vacation (from the spotlight of this drama), Tsuda shifts her focus to one of her more unique couples. The Shibahime kids individually are two of the more popular students in their high school. Tsubasa is considered to be one of the cutest people on campus. That cute exterior hides a very reclusive personality that opens up to a few. Those who are close to Tsubasa, know she is reserved, lonely and very protective of her friends. Earlier in the series her duels with then rival Yukino were legendary, but once they formed a friendship, Tsubasa became notorious for being attached physically to Yukino.

Azuma can be just as reserved as Tsubasa. His hobby does not let him be out of the spotlight, though. As the lead singer for an indie rock band, Azuma has to make a presence on stage and for the covers of magazines. Being the youngest member of his group there is plenty for him to learn about the culture, so he often questions his self-image. He often feels alone amongst friends, and he wonders what others truly feel about him.

Together these two do not appear to be brother and sister, especially with Tsubasa literally all over her brother. First impressions might lean toward lovers instead. What these two think about that might not be too far off either. Tsubasa loves her brother. She cares for him unconditionally, so she is having a difficult time with Kazuma growing up. In a way she considers Kazuma's music as threat to her love for him. She can see that music starting to take up a lot of his time and energy. It is almost as if music is taking control of his heart and taking him away from her. When she needs him most, his music is taking him away and there may not be anything she can do to prevent it. Kazuma can see it too, despite his insecurities about the stage. For Kazuma music is an escape. It takes him to a reality that he can control and that makes him comfortable. With every experience his mind and soul needs music more. Through music he realizes Tsubasa needs him just as bad, and even feels he may need her as well. Love is not as easy as music has been (the other members of Yin-yang know this well), but Kazuma is not ready to try. His mind is stuck on his music, which means he will have to hurt someone he loves to pursue it.

Comments
After a lot of drama and the start of the summer break, Kare Kano returns with a side-story. An unusual couple takes the stage as Arima and Yukino are relegated to a few pages in this volume. The Shibahime kids are very similar and as much as they care for each other they really do not know each other that well. What is funny about their relationship is that despite their efforts to spend time together neither one makes an effort to get involved with each other's world. This tends to happen a bit to siblings, but there appears to be something else brewing between these two and yet they continue to ignore each other's feelings. Tsubasa is very much an introverted person, like Kazuma, but she has friends she hangs out with, so things are not that bad. She just wants a younger brother to care for and be there for her always. Family is supposed to be like that and now that she knows she is no longer alone she wants to cherish that feeling. Kazuma does not know what he feels. He knows he loves his sister and cares

for her, but when he misinterprets some gossip his feelings start to change dramatically. His impression has been skewed and now it conflicts with his passion for music. As tries to change his relationship he starts to have a difficult time containing his frustration and understanding how he really feels. These emotions are easy to relate to. People sometimes do change their perspectives prematurely based on heresy and like in Kazuma's case the results are often pretty damaging. What I found intriguing is how Tsuda had these two be so close yet so far apart from each other. With every sequence when they should become closer, they tend to just hurt each other more. Really entertaining drama.

Even without the lead characters Kare Kano is still one of the better romance dramas available. Kazuma and Tsubasa's relationship was always a strange situation full of potential and I was pleasantly surprised to see Tsuda go back to the two in more detail. There have been other manga based on step-sibling romances (Marmalade Boy comes to mind), but despite the short length of the story Tsuda sets up her characters very well and quickly moves into character development. On the surface the contents may seem fantastic, and I wondered how much research she put into the indie band references, but she still churns out passionate stories filled with humor, romance and angst. And what I found really interesting about Tsuda's work is that she takes the time to work on almost everyone in her large cast individually, given readers a chance to relate to them all better. Kare Kano may go on random tangents a bit, but even Tsuda's tangets are often very entertaining on their own.

Fun.