I'm a huge fan of Kare Kano. I think people who follow me on social media probably have noticed that I like both the manga and the anime a lot. I think each has its good and bad points, although I think both are quite strong in its presentation.
The production of Kare Kano has always been quite mysterious and had many urban legends attached to it, and just kind of recently when the Blu-Ray version came out with a booklet with many interviews that many of these legends were finally dissolved for good. The one that actually always sounded the fishiest for me was that Masami Tsuda (the author of Kare Kano) was the one who actually didn't like the Gainax take on her work. Simply because it's bright clear for anyone who read the manga, that the last arc of the show is influenced by Anno's (psychological) vision of the characters.
The other urban legend is that as a result, Hideaki Anno (the legendary creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion) left the production of the last few episodes. To be fair to everyone, it more os less happened, but Anno really returned before the episode of that week was finished. Adding more to it, when this became widespread around here, few anime fans actually knew Japanese at all. Maybe what actually helped the rumor to spread, was that nobody actually doubted that Anno could do that.
I want to talk more about Kare Kano later, both the anime and the manga. But now, I want to talk about something related and a bit more obscure related to it.
Kare Kano had many newcomers at the time. Both the main characters and good part of the casting were composed of new voice actors. Many people speculated the reasoning of this choice - and once again the timing and the rumors made its way into popular discourse - the most popular one being that Gainax was out of money.
It's hard to pin down this one, because the people involved in the production generally say that time was the biggest problem in Kare Kano, not money specifically. The thing that I believe made this theory quite strong is that the Gainax president Takeshi Sawamura and his accountant Yoshikatsu Iwasaki were arrested for tax evasion and fraud barely four month after Kare Kano finished airing.
The end of Kare Kano is much discussed because it obviously didn't close it's story properly, how the production seemed kind of cheap and all the rumors that make it kind of more interesting. Kare Kano finished airing in March 26th, 1999. But something related to the show came out just some weeks before - the CD release of Getsu Setsu Ka, released on March 3rd.
"Getsu Setsu Ka" was an album recorded by three of the voice actors involved in the anime. The first one is Atsuko Enomoto (Yukino Miyazawa), while the others are Maria Yamamoto (Miyazawa Kano) and Yuki Watanabe (Tsukino Miyazawa). You may know both of them from the "Preview" by the end of the episode, where both appeared recording (Enomoto appeared frequently in the background too, as other voice actors).
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| From left to right: Atsuko Enomoto, Yuki Watanabe, Maria Yamamoto and Suzuki Chihiro |
The funny story is that despite being a huge Kare Kano fan, I actually don't have many Kare Kano stuff. I own the manga collection - and that's it. There many things which I'm less of a fan that I own way more stuff.
The other thing which I actually own is the Getsu Setsu Ka CD.
The timing seems a bit off to call it a promotion of the anime (since the anime had only four episodes after its release), but it was actually handled by Star Child, a label of King Records that was used to handle their animation releases (including their voice actors) and some live-actions. Star Child is defunct since 2016.
The CD has some musics of the anime, and some new songs as well. I'm a big showa and kayokyoku fan, and this album seems like something that came out in the mid-80's rather than in late 90's. It's really lovey-dovey all the way. This sounds a bit different if you know the early releases of Atsuko Enomoto, like her most famous song "Be My Angel" from the anime Angelic Layer - that is all about the early 2000 anime music vibe.
About the CD, it comes with a mini-photobook. I never saw the photobook scanned online, so I did it with my smartphone. Not as good as a real scanner of course, but it's better than nothing. In the end of the post, you can get the link for both the mini-photobook and the CD label. Just remember the scanning is amateurish to say the least, but good enough for curiosity.
I'll be comprising some of the scans for better reading and comments.
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| Cover, Back Cover, Inside Picture and CD. |
Through the photobook each is associated with a color. It's good to point out that "Getsu Setsu Ka" is based on a famous poem by Bai Juyi in the Tang Dinasty, which became more well known in Japan later in Edo period. The translation is "Snow, Moon and Flowers". Don't be confused.
Here is were things become a bit funny. I can imagine that they probably would want to somehow joke on the name Yuki (Snow) since this joke is kind of common, but they stick to the characters names logic (explained below). Instead, we have this order:
The reasoning for this is the first kanji of each of their characters, it is as follows:
Yukino - 雪野, where 雪 = Snow / Setsu
Tsukino - 月野, where 月 = Moon / Getsu
Kano - 花野, where 花 = Flower / Ka
As you may have noticed, some of these kanjis are best well known by their Kun readings Yuki, Tsuki and Hana. These readings presented above are the On.
Actually, I'd say the photobook is quite good - in my experience they usually don't put much effort in these mini-photobooks, but this one really just lacks in size (and maybe quantity) to a normal photobook.
They also posed with school uniforms - actually both Maria and Yuki were 17 at the time if you think it was probably taken by late 1998. Enomoto was two years olden than both. Obviously they were a bit too old to use the same uniforms than their characters, at least for Yuki and Maria - that sailor uniform would feel a bit out of place - even more for Yuki who is kind of tall (168cm) and looked more adult.
I won't be spoiling more because I want you to at least take a look at it!
About the album itself - like I said, I enjoy the 80's feeling of it, but a few songs I think everyone can enjoy. One is the already known "Yume no Naka e", which is the series ending but sung by Enomoto alone (like the first few episodes, before she starts dating Arima and Chihiro starts singing too! I love this to be honest). The other song is "Style", which is truly a good song.
Listening to the album and scanning everything in it made a bit sad that it was their only release as a trio. Actually, Enomoto came to collaborate with Yamamoto later, and they are real life friends. In her channel, she has a few videos hanging out with her.
Atsuko is actually very friendly in the internet, and frequently answers people in the comments of her videos. I saw her playing Mahjong quite a few times, and whenever she notices someone is not japanese, she does her best to speak english even when it's not needed. Such a sweetheart.
As of Yuki Watanabe, she retired of the industry a few years later (the last record of voice acting I can find is from 2003). I won't find the video, but someone actually asked Atsuko how Yuki was doing recently and she said she was busy but fine. I will update if I can find later the video or comment.
Yuki also had a blog in a service which is now defunct, but you can see the archive through Wayback Machine. From her blog you can see she has children too, what kind of explains why she's so busy. She probably was between the three of them the one who seemed more like a model (being taller probably gives this impression) - but well, I'm happy she seems to have found her way and is fine.
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UPDATE (March 25th, 2024)
Atuko Enomoto posted on her YouTube channel a photo with other seiyuus. One of them, with pink hair, is Mayumi Iizuka, best well known for her role as Misty (Kasumi) in Pokemon.
The other two are her Setsu Getsu Ka partners: Maria Yamamoto (Kano, in Kare Kano) and Yuki Watanabe (Tsukino). As far as I know, this is the first public picture of them together in decades.
It is also Yuki Watanabe's first public appearance at least since she left the industry in 2003. Apparently she never posted self pictures in her own defunct blog as well.
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| Upper photo, from left to right: Yuki Watanabe, Atsuko Enomoto, Maria Yamamoto e Mayumi Iizuka |
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| Atsuko Enomoto - "Be My Angel", her most famous release. |
Not exactly Kare Kano, but I own a copy of "Be My Angel" too. The very first version released had the cover printed in the plastic itself - but they apparently backtracked quickly, because it probably didn't go very well. My version is the common version, with the cover printed in paper. I like "Angelic Layer" too, it's kind of nostalgic for me because it reminds me of my early days on the internet.
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Thanks for reading.