The Essentials

Name: Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~
Genre:: Romance, Comedy, Sci-fi
Episodes: 12 TV episodes + 1 OVA episode
Released: January 11, 2006 – March 29, 2006; OVA: October 27, 2006
Based On: Manga Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~ by Satoru Akahori
Director: Nobuaki Nakanishi
Produced By: Bandai Visual, Lantis, Media Works, Studio Hibari
US Distribution By: Media Blasters

Cast

Review

Kashimashi is about a boy, Hazumu, who, one night, is wandering around a nearby mountain because he was rejected by his crush Yasuna, when an orbiting spaceship that was observing manking malfunctions and crashes on top of him.  The aliens are able to rebuild his body, but accidentally turn Hazumu into a girl.  This event has a disruptive affect on all his friends, including his best male friend Asuta but most especially on his best female friend Tomari, whose had her own crush on Hazumu for some time.

The story then progresses, with Hazumu, Tomari, and Yasuna now having to deal with the fact that Hazumu is now permanently a girl and all of their torn feelings as a result of that.  However, the show isn’t just all romance drama.  There is a very healthy amount of comedy, especially with Asuta who seems conflicted between Hazumu being his old best friend and perhaps now feeling more for him now that he’s a girl, as well as Tomari having to teach Hazumi the “proper” way to be a girl, despite the fact that she, herself, is very tomboyish.

Of course, one of the topics this series touches upon is the idea of same-sex relationships, with the Hazumu-Tomari-Yasuna all-girl love triangle.  This show deals with the situation by obviously creating a scenario that wouldn’t really happen in real life – Hazumu’s sex being changed by aliens – and using it to ask the question of if it’s OK for two people of the same sex to have a relationship.  I suppose an argument to be made that this is basically “cheating” since the character’s feelings for each other started when Hazumu was still a boy, but it still does bring up the question of, if it’s the “person” you love, then does the sex necessarily matter?  On this question, the three main characters seem to deal with this question differently for their own reasons.  I should note that this question isn’t really put out there directly, but it does seem to be festering under the surface for much of the series.

I felt that the feeling of the story was kind of uneven at first, with the first two episodes – especially episode 2 – being more comedic (Hazumu having to learn how to be a girl), but then switches into a more serious romantic angst mode in episodes 4 and 5.

The anime concluded with an OVA episode which actually flips which girl Hazumu ends up being with at the end of the series. I don’t really think this episode really doesn’t damage the series, but seemingly with most tack-on OVA episodes, it appears to be mostly unnecessary.

If you don’t mind a romance anime which is seriously lacking in males, then you’ll probably like Kashimashi.

Scores

Animation: 4/5
Story: 3/5
Music: 4/5
English Dubs: N/A

Overall: 4/5

First Watched: July 2006, October 2006 (OVA)
Do I Own: Yes
Do I Recommend: Yes