I'm a guy who generally hates shoujo, in general I've loathed most everything in the genre I've read, however Kare Kano is a rare and wonderful exception.

The female protagonist is not an emotional masochist, has a strong will and is no pushover, yet she still manages to remain sweet and charming.

The male protagonist too has a backbone and a strong will, but unlike most male shoujo leads who are cruel, narcissistic sadists; he is kind, goodhearted and relatively emotionally stable. He makes for a wonderful change.

The supporting cast are all oddly charming and though Yukino has her ups and downs with many of them, she usually wins them over in the end.

Some of you may feel that a manga filled with likable characters would be boring, but Kare Kano manages to keep you charmed and entertained with every chapter.

Wow, the last week I've been reading Kare Kano and I've just finished the last volume. This manga has utterly destroyed my sleep in the last few day, but it doesn't matter in the least since it was so worth it.

Kare Kano might be the best manga I've read so far... in fact, I just decided that it is. The series is not all perfect, which is why I won't give it 10/10, but the boring parts were few and far between. The romance is top notch and the drama is amazing as well. I'm fond of the meet-sweetheart-in-school-stories and I've always liked stories where characters are mentally unstable / deceiving as well, so the story fits me like a glove. Thus, it's no great shock that I liked it extremely well.

What wasn't perfect? Well... the Steel snow-play part was quite boring, and sometimes it felt like the story was elaborating a little too much on grandfathers/etc in the Arima-family. I also wouldn't give the series such a high rating based on the first volumes. In my opinion, the story gets better and better and is at it's best, (we're talking 11 out of 10 here) somewhere around vol 15. Some 'darker' sections were needed to get the most out of the characters.

Oh well. the characters.. yea, you'll love them all, seriously. When it comes to the "students", I didn't even get annoyed when the story strayed away from the main couple, and that is something incredible in itself And that is true even if Yukino probably is my favorite manga/anime character of all time.

I thank the mangaka with all of my heart for creating this wonderful series. Read this, you probably won't regret it.

What to say about this series now? Just calling it one of the greatest romance/drama stories ever just doesn't do it justice.

Yukino is one of my favourites characters ever, and one of the more original concepts I've ever seen. This double-faced, incredibly sharp, amazingly strong-willed (yet sometimes insecure), partially evil but always funny girl is the character I'm gonna miss the most. It really is worth it reading the manga just to see her interact with the rest of the cast, with the world, and often just to follow her thought processes. Her reactions to developments are often surprising, yet endearing to the reader. Her simple but powerful "I never said no" little speech (you'll know it when you get there) remains one of the most touching and memorable (and unexpected) things I've ever read. Yes, she's that amazing and more.

Arima is also a good character, always interesting to read. He and his family are responsible for most of the drama in the series, specially in the second half of the manga (the part that's left out of the anime). In fact, he's pretty much the main character in this half. And although I was a little skeptic at first as the author hinted at his future developments, I have to admit Ms. Tsuda did a terrific job in this "Arima arc". Seeing Arima battle his personal demons was truly touching, and the outcome of all this was very satisfying.

The rest of the cast is also comprised of funny, charming, real, memorable characters, and it's a really nice thing that they are all (some more, some less) given space to show themselves and develop. I also love the fact that they are all given some sort of closure by story's end.

This manga does back story like no other. Starting from Yukino, you get to hear the story of her parents since their childhood. In Arima's side, you get to hear about his parents and their cousins, as adults, teenagers and children; about Arima's grandfather (quite a bit), and even about that guy's father, and it's all important to the story as a running theme is the effect parents have on their children's lives. All in all, five (!) generations are explored, to a different extent. And this is a good thing, because it deepens the story as it explains the motivations of the characters to act as they do.

So, to recap: this manga is an exploration of love between teenagers as they bloom and become adults (with its fun, tender and painful moments); it's a look at the world of parents, and how their actions can both screw or save their children; and it's a beautiful tale of young people trying to understand themselves, improve themselves, overcoming their burdens and finding out what their dreams are - and then launching on the life-long trip to fulfill them.

Please give a shot to one of the best shoujo mangas ever written.

... Last updated on April 25th, 2007, 8:16am

it's good,period. the plot,the character. (though it's kinda long)

I haven't finished it yet, but this series was okay. I wasn't as impressed but.. all in all it was fine.

This is a shoujo manga that truly ranks among the top ones. It's refreshing to not see a washed out, air-headed heroine but one that actually has a brain! It's nice and light hearted, with no unnecessary fanservice with more down to earth characters. It truly ranks up there with other great shoujo mangas like Ouran High School Host club.

no doubt one of my favorite mangas out there. <3 I really loveed Yukino and Arima. The other side characters had they're loveable moments too!

The manga-ka, I don't think, thoroughly thought about the characters enough. I think she had ideas about what to do about Arima and Yukino, and thus when the manga became popular, she added 'Arima's dark past'. But nonetheless, it was a very, very enjoyable read and I recommend it to all ages. (There were some mentionings of sex though LOL.)

=) But, please buy the manga since it's licensed and stuff.

Evolution of a mediocre series into a brilliance, although I must admit the "dark past haunting main character" portion is tad over used. Very enjoyable series though.

Wow, a very, very good manga. It has its slow and boring moments, but the great storyline and the deep characters more than make up for it. Definitely one of must read mangas out there.

Yeah, that was my comment

I'm surprised that this manga didn't have any reviews yet. Imo this is one of the mangas that set the standard (along with Marmalade Boy and Hana Yori Dango) for "shoujo comedy romance with a touch of drama" that are everywhere.

Imo this has the best type of ending (I haven't read the end yet, but know how it ends,) with a future perspective of the characters as well as closure to most (all?) the stories. It's very refreshing to witness a great work with an ending that has such closure. We all know how often mangas are left with open endings.

Having said that, I noticed that the author re-wrote some facts later in the story (How Arima met and fell in love with Yukino) that she explained in much details early in the work. Inconsistencies like this pisses me off, no matter how minor they are.

... Last updated on January 29th, 2007, 8:15pm