How His and Her Circumstances Breaks the #1 Writing Rule

Let's say you want to tell your audience that your character is angry. You could just have them say “I'm angry.” But how often does a person in real life ever plainly announce their anger that way? Have you ever been able to tell someone was angry without them telling you? What if instead of having our character say “I'm angry,” you write them entering their house and slamming the door behind them so hard that picture frames fall off the wall and shatter on the floor. Air hisses out of their mouths as they huff and puff through gritted teeth. That's usually better writing. That's what “show, don't tell” means. But what if I told you that Kare Kano breaks this golden rule of writing, and does so with incredible results?

I agree with this assessment of *Kare Kano* -- it made great use of a "tell before show" approach in its first episode, which remains one of the great opening episodes of any anime series. However, notwithstanding my agreement with the author, my first thought was that I have come across people who tell rather than show, which [inspired an article](https://thenewleafjournal.com/when-real-people-tell-dont-show/). Maybe the general writing rule needs some fine-tuning.