List of Kare Kano characters
This is a list of the main characters from a manga series called Kare Kano and its anime adaptation. Kare Kano is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masami Tsuda. It was serialized in LaLa from 1996 to 2005 and collected in 21 tankōbon volumes by Hakusensha.
Miyazawa family
Yukino Miyazawa
Yukino Miyazawa, the female protagonist of the series, is a 15 year old who is a seemingly smart, attractive, athletic, and talented model student. Both her male and female peers express admiration for her, often asking her for help and commenting about her model-like features and characteristics.However, her "perfect" exterior is merely a façade to hide the fact that everything she does is done solely to receive praise from others, and that she acts in a slovenly manner 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 all night and ended up almost vomiting blood due to overexertion. She is described as the "anti-Girl Next Door" in an article by Newtype USA because of her perfectionism and deceitfulness. With so much praise, however, she never realized her lack of real friends outside of her family and was considered by her peers as a semi-approachable "guest". Everything 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 born out 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 façade 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 earns real friends besides Soichiro. She also believes that Reiji Arima is quite handsome and wishes that Soichiro will also become that handsome. She even accepts an expensive gift from her future father-in-law. She is also depressed when she discovers that Soichiro had been lying to her about his mother and Asaba informs her of that fact. 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. She 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. After graduating high school, she becomes a housewife for a few years before going to medical school. 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 two sons named Suoh and Ai who are fraternal twins.
Arima family
Soichiro Arima
Soichiro Arima, the male protagonist of the series, starts out as Yukino's rival at school, and ends up as her boyfriend and eventual husband. A handsome and popular boy, Soichiro excels at kendo and becomes a national champion. He is at first smitten with Yukino, unaware that she secretly hates him and constantly tries 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 that 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 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 becomes more in touch with his true self as he falls in love with her. However, he is apprehensive of the other feelings what emerge along with his love, such as his increasing jealousy of Yukino's other friendships, her activities and 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 through 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 for anyone but himself to be 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 such a critical point that it 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 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.
In their senior year of high school, Yukino becomes pregnant, and after getting over the initial shock, he tells her that he is happy of the news and marries her. Sixteen years later, they have three children together; their oldest child is a daughter named Sakura, a beautiful girl who resembles him in looks and talent, and their last two children are sons named Suoh and Ai, who are fraternal twins. 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 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. Reiji threatens to harm Yukino, upsetting Soichiro, and he holds a false pistol to his forehead in the center of a park. After spending 10 days together, both father and son grew fond of each other and reestablished their bond. Soichiro spends most of his time assisting his father, and Reiji rewards him by taking him to a nice dinner with Yukino. Unfortunately, he tells Soichiro to go home because he does not feel like a father and would be better off without him. When Soichiro and Yukino are ambushed by Ryoko, wanting to meet with Reiji, he comes to their aid. He leaves for New York once the event is over, but promises to return to Soichiro the following summer. Reconnecting with his father helps Soichiro deal with his problems and heal the wounds of his childhood.