Graphic Novel 1
Her name is Yukino Miyazawa.
She's intelligent, she's strong and fast, she's perfect.
And she's also a perfect lie.

Yuki's a perfect fraud. Her perfection she shows in public? Total showmanship. Her good natured personality? A total lie.

She has been wearing her mask of perfection for years and years and, for all intent and purposes, it looks like things aren't going to be changing anytime soon.

That is, however, until she enters High School and finds herself no longer at the top of the popularity food chain... apparently someone else, a perfect guy named Soichiro Arima, has usurped her place where she felt she deserved to be. That can't be good.

So she becomes obsessed with the downfall of Arima. However when he ends up finding out her deepest secret it looks like the tables are going to be turned against her.

And, yes, for a time it looks like he has the advantage -- but one thing leads to another and before you know it they seem to be enemies no longer, and may in fact become friends? Maybe even more?

But it seems that she isn't the only one hiding a secret, he has his own secrets.
How can possible love bloom if secrets keep getting in the way?

Also check out the stand alone bonus story at the back of the book (not at all connected to the series but it's a nice story). That and a bonus section by Masami Tsuda as well.

Graphic Novel 2
Now that the secrets seem to have been cleared away, and a dedication to be truthful to each other has been made, where does this strange love between perfectionist Yukino and Arima (dedicated to slaying the bitter "blood" of his past) go from last time?

That's exactly what Yukino wants to know after she botches her first chance to tell Arima her true feelings!

So, to this end, she schemes to tell him her feelings by hook or by crook. However it seems that, well, once the chance to admit her feelings have passed it would be a struggle to get a second chance!

But even if she finds a way she'll still have other obstacles shoved into the way of her perfect relationship plans with Arima including a Sports Festival that keeps the two apart, and a male named HideakI who seems to have plans to form his own "Maryland" with the "help" of Arima, whether he wants to be part of Project : Maryland or not.

Maryland. Maryland as in "Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb" and not the state of Maryland.

Finally we wrap with another chance to further the relationship during the Summer, as well as a "flashback" story to before/during Graphic Novel 1 filling in the "blanks" of the story so to speak.

That and another bonus section from Masami Tsuda.

Graphic Novel 3
So what will come from a summer of content?
How about a day of discontent?

After their test results come back after First Semester Final Exams it looks like the mighty (Yukino and Arima) have fallen... though Yukino has fallen far harder than Arima!

But is this a good reason for the school's guidance counselor to plot the "death" of the love between Yukino and Arima? Apparently he is dedicated to it's death even if it means using his trump card and calling a "parent/teacher conference" in his schemes to destroy their love.

But since this is only Graphic Novel 3 I don't think his scheme will succeed.
In fact we will find another chance for the relationship to deepen before a new crisis comes to Yukino that'll give her nothing but problems when Graphic Novel 4 hits... but that's for another review.
Time for a breakdown... review-wise that is.

Kare Kano Breakdown the 1st to 3rd
What's Hot?
When I first got ahold of this series I wondered whether or not I'd get into it.
That didn't seem to be a problem once I started reading it though. I was quickly drawn in and it was soon quite clear the series would be one of my favorites right off the bat.

Fun and quirky, gripping and yet light, it's a pretty good series that hopefully will have a good ending.
One of my favorite series that I look forward to reading!

What's Not?
Nothing. It's all good from the storytelling to the artwork. Solid work, no problems.

Moments to Remember
It's all memorable. Can't think of anything that is more memorable than anything else. All around it's good.

What to Ignore?
Maybe the fact that there's probably enough raw material to throw together a book of Masami Tsuda shorts and yet they seem to only be founds dispersed about Kare Kano books.
Ignore it. Maybe TOKYOPOP will one day collect it all together into one or two books. One can hope.

Overall?
Solidly done and quite the page turner, it is one of my favorites and packs quite abit that is good.
The storytelling is fun, strong, quirky and unique. The artwork is good. And it's a nice title that I can recommend without hesitation.
Give it a shot, I'm sure you'll like it!