WARNING:
This article contains SPOILERS
Yukino
Miyazawa is a Japanese high school freshman who is the envy
of classmates for her good grades and immaculate appearance.
However, her "perfect" exterior is a façade,
a charade she maintains to win praise. In the privacy of her
own home, she is spoiled, stubborn, and a slob, and studies
relentlessly and obsessively to maintain her grades. On entering
high school, she is knocked from her position at the top of
the class by Soichiro Arima, a handsome young man whose very
existence Yukino considers a threat to the praise on which she
thrives, and she vows to destroy him. When Soichiro confesses
that he has a crush on her, Yukino rejects him then boasts about
it at home. Her observant little sister Kano points out that
her rivalry with him comes from admiration, causing her to rethink
her own feelings.
Before
she can figure out if she hates or likes Soichiro, he visits
her home and discovers her being herself. He uses the information
to blackmail her into doing his student council work. At first
Yukino accepts it, coming to realize that he is also not the
perfect student he pretends to be. Tired of being used, Yukino
revolts and Soichiro apologizes, and admits he still loves her
and just wanted to spend time with her. Yukino realizes she
loves him as well, and together they resolve to abandon their
fake ways and be true to themselves, though she initially has
trouble breaking of her lifelong habit of pretend-perfection
and her competitive ways.
As
the series progresses, Yukino is able to open her true self
to others and earns her first real friends beyond Soichiro.
It is eventually revealed that Soichiro was striving to be perfect
in order to avoid turning "bad" like the parents who
abandoned him. Falling in love with Yukino, he is able to become
more true to himself, but he also finds himself becoming increasingly
jealous of Yukino's change bringing new friends and new activities
into her life, and of her having parts of her life that don't
involve him. When Yukino unknowingly hurts him, he becomes even
more jealous and afraid, and begins to wear another facade of
the "perfect boyfriend" in an effort to protect her
from his "ugly" self.
The
return of both of his parents into his life sends Soichiro into
a dark area, but helps him finally break free to truly be himself
as Yukino and their friends help him learn to lean on and trust
others. The end of the series shows Yukino and Soichiro in their
30s, with their three children, and gives updates on the various
friends they made along the way.
NOTE:
The anime adaptation uses the material from the first
seven volumes of the manga, stopping just before the school's
annual cultural festival.