I would've at least liked to have seen the Culture Fest pay off in some way.
So many stories, so little time.

Oh thanks for the info. That's so sad because I would have loved to see the ending. I just gave up on the manga because it started to get really weird.

The anime does end weird.
It's because Hideaki Anno (the anime director) started the series adapted from the manga and he realized the manga's ending wasn't going to happen for several more years. The anime ran from 1998-1999. The manga went from 1996-2005.
Anno wanted to create his own ending for the show, one that would end with the characters happy and content in high school. This in my opinion was a much better idea than how the manga goes which progressively became more and more retarded. For example, Maho-14- dating and having a sexual relationship with a 28 year old man really has no ethical questions attached outside of "I, Maho, do this cause I like to". Or how about 2/3's of the cast becoming international superstars and world renowned individuals (life doesn't work out that way) Or how about Hideaki Asaba marrying one of Yukino's children when she turns 15. The manga just becomes this weak insular world where all concepts of reality are dropped so everyone can accomplish their dreams and intermarry among their group regardless of age or ethical issues.
Anywho, Anno was aware he was making an adaptation without a conclusion and wanted to fashion one that worked in the context of a 26 episode anime. The manga creator disagreed and the producers and everyone had to give into her demands. Realizing he had very little input left as a director Hideaki Anno finished up the episodes he was working on (the last episode he had any hand in making was the Flashback Episode about how Yukino's parents met) and left the show to pursue his own work in live action. In my opinion you can see a real drop in quality after Anno left. It's like someone is imitating his style but doesn't know what to do with it. And then the show just kinda becomes sucked up by this whole "Culture Fest" affair which sucks up most of the remaining episodes before leading to . nothing.
The whole affair's a shame cause the first half of "His and Her" is some of the most powerful directing I've ever seen. The second half isn't atrocious by any means (I really like the episode where everyone's a cut out storyboard element) but it feels like the heart isn't full there.
After the whole "His and Her" affair, director Hideaki Anno left serious anime directing for almost a decade doing his own life action films. He still occasionally did his friends some favors and did some moonlight work on some projects (he did some animation work on FLCL, Diebuster, and some other Gainax shows but nothing big). Anno didn't return to anime until he started up his "Rebuild of Evangelion" work which is what he's doing now.
There. It's on the Internet. Thus it's official

I loved the manga and I was so excited when I heard there was an anime. And I did like the anime up until the end too. It was really great up until the ending because it just felt so..open ended is the thing that comes to mind. And I know the manga wraps everything up nicely but still, I wish the anime could have been longer.

no more kareshi kanojo no jijou saw up to episode 26 and they were actually supposed to draw more, right? it's just that anno had a fight with the studio and left so that's why they've given it up?

Yeah they have it borders and barnes and nobles .. suncoast in fact .. if you go to
www.tokyopop.com
^these people distribute the english version of kare kano
it will list the stores you can purchase the books from.
I thought the manga and the anime are both prettty good

Yea, I hear that although the anime ended, that's not the actual end to the plot. The plot goes on in the manga. Which sucks for me, because I don't know where to look for the manga. Do they have it in America? Borders? Barnes and Nobles?

If you finished the anime, then you're on volume 7 or 8. Volume 16 is coming out sometime next week.

I agree, it's crucial that you read the manga if you are a fan of this series. It continues on for a very long time after the anime does, and I find it to be more entertaining than the anime. I highly recommend it.

In case you still don't know. there's continue version of Kare Kano on manga "comic book". The series you just saw on DVD is nothing compare to the manga.

I agree. The soc alled ending was terrible. I don't know why they introduced new characters into the latter part of the show, or why it had no real ending. Nothing was resolved, and the show didn't come to a definite end. It's a shame because Sakura was a favorite, and I agree that Kazuma and Tsubasa were downplayed. We still don't know what happened to Arima and Miyazawa..
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• Comic Book Guy