Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl

I'm of two different minds of Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl. On a pure enjoyment level, I think it was great. I loved the characters and loved the twist and turns on their path to love. I just wish that the creators had taken the story seriously. Dissecting the story though, shows flaws that towards the end I could not ignore. The opening was totally idiotic. Someone wanted a yuri harem series, so instead of doing it in a mature way, they come up with a really stupid alien angle. A ship crashing into a mountain, killing male Hazumu. Their alien "space science" is able to restore him, but for some reason comes away from it as a girl. That is stupid, sorry creators, you could have done better. The ship crashed like a lawn dart. Come on! If a ship that size had really crashed, there would have been a crater the size of that entire city. Next, the comedy was unnecessary. It distracted from things. I swear, it is like they took Brock from Pokemon, made him even WORSE, and transported him to this anime. He is Hazumu's best friend and when he becomes a she, is super conflicted in Brock fashion, over how he feels. It could have been done SO much better had they just treated Asuta like a real person and not a cartoon character. The teacher was stupid, she should have died 50 times. The space aliens... stupid. They were a contrived add-on to check some sort of comedy box that the anime creators have and use. Her parents were stupid. Her father was a pervert verging on being a pedophile. I kind of liked the mom, because she kept kicking his ass. Ok. That was long... and if you are still reading, thank you. Now for the good stuff. Story: This was a lovely story of love and growing up, learning and maturing. All of the main characters (minus Ayuki, the most tragic character of the show) become more than they were at the start and they all find their happiness and it often is not what we think it was going to be. Love is love and is not limited by gender, race, job, etc. True love for someone is timeless. Art: I didn't like the art on this show. It was too comedic for the story. The exaggerations and the poor line quality and lack of any sort of subtlety really is a letdown. This story deserved a lot more from the art. The creators really let us down. Sound: Nothing to write home about. I liked the intro and end music. I didn't really notice the music during the show, so at least it didn't get in the way. The voice actors were ok, no one stood out to me, but at least no one was distracting in a bad way. Overall, it was serviceable. Characters: The girls were good, maybe even very good. They all had their own motivations, reasons, and they stood out from each other. They had their own reasons for loving Hazumu, which I appreciated. But I didn't like Hazumu. I consider him to be a crappy friend and a worse potential partner. His indecisiveness constantly hurt the girls, and his obliviousness about how his friend Asuta felt is criminal. As I said above, I consider Ayuki to be the most tragic figure of the show. Her refusal to "step on the stage" freezes her in place. She starts and ends the show exactly the same, even though I am certain that she was the third girl that loved Hazumu. Despite that though, she just does... nothing. It should have been developed and was a missed opportunity. But in the end, with all that salt set aside, I loved them all. Wipe all the comedy and other stuff away and it is a good cast that could, again, have been great had the creators taken the story seriously. Enjoyment: I know I have trashed the show a lot above... but I really enjoyed this series. I rooted for everyone. The stories tore at my heartstrings constantly and I find myself really passionate about the show. I am even considering writing a fan-fic recreation of the show as it SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE. Damn, I'm salty. Overall: I have been flickering between a 6 and a 7 since I started writing this review. I eventually went with a 7, because I honestly love Kashimashi, despite all its flaws. It told a beautiful love story with the twists and turns that love can take... and like I have said many time, I just wished the creators had given this show the love and subtlety that it deserved. With good art, better music, and several more drafts of the script, this could have been a masterpiece. Perhaps in another universe... PS: This review takes in account the 13th episode, the OVA. It is the real end of the show and changes a lot. PLEASE watch it.

I watched the dubbed version of this. It started out really weird and it was easily a wtf anime. It's just got this strange vibe to it. The characters are quite likeable - it's easy for me to hate characters, especially girls, but I couldn't hate any of them in this anime. It wasn't the most entertaining and the story can be pretty repetitive but for 13 episodes, it's not terrible. I did find myself laughing and smiling a few times, so it wasn't bad enough that it didn't engage with me at all. It was a bit frustrating, but I guess high school drama is meant to be that way, and I really liked the message at the end. The ending was quite nice, so while this anime is a bit weird, I wouldn't say not to watch it. If you have some time to spare or you're just interested, check it out.

Honestly, I am not good at writing reviews especially in this situation. Hashimashi is my favorite anime of all time it hits you on every level from super funny to just straight depressing. This show made me reflect a lot on my life and while it probably doesn't deserve all tens (what does?). It has greatly affected my life in ways I do not know how to explain; this show is the embodiment of what makes love so special and also how important it its to be able to balance the mixture of friendship and romance. Kashimashi is a masterpiece it cuts down to the core roots of what love really is about. This show is about trying to juggle between love and friendship and not everyone can win. I have never been so emotionally involved with and anime than this one although Strawberry Panic is pretty damn close (maybe better depending on my mood). Anyway I know this might not seem helpful due to my personal bias, but believe me if this is a genre you like your gonna love this show. I hope this can help someone out there who knows anime doesn't have to be what the world perceives it as.

I was not too sure about this series when I first read the synopsis. It had one major flaw. Boy gets rejected by girl, gets wiped out by spaceship and is then made into a girl too! However, once I got past that, things got interesting. The main character Hazumu definitely looked better as a girl, and it was hard to get over the fact that he was now a she. Tomari is cute, and a tomboy at that, but her connection with Huzumu was deep because of her childhood friendship. Yasuna was the girl who rejected him originally (although she has a valid reason too). Once that is out of the way the story becomes a problem because who will Huzumu fall in love with? and did any of them notice he is really a girl now? There is also the seemingly mysterious Ayuki who kept on throwing me off the trail. But, I am glad I stuck with it because its a bittersweet story with so much potential. Usually I watch the backgrounds for quality, but this time I was too engrossed in the characters and the nagging question of "how will they resolve this situation?" I did feel that the alien and his sidekick Jan-puu were a bit odd, but they helped provide comic relief that really had a part in what was a very interesting situation. It is a sweet story about friendship and fate and relationships, and yes, everybody lives sort of happily ever after, but there is still a hint of other things. This story may not appeal to everybody, but its well worth sticking with.

The storyline is a bit weird. Aliens? Come on now. I think they could've taken out the aliens and the way Yasuna can't see guys (then later on, no one) and it would've been a decent storyline about teenage girls who happen to have feelings for each other. Why did Hazumu need to go from a guy to a girl? I don't really see the point in that. Other than all that weirdness, it was a cute little romance anime.

KashiMashi has a very unique concept, even by anime standards, but still manages to tell a contrived, uninspired, story. They hit some right notes along the way, for example the scenes where Hazumu is learning to cope with her gender change, but the majority of the show felt pretty bland and unoriginal, and I had to force myself a little bit near the end in order to finish. The (extremely cheesy/cliché) OVA clears up any questions resulting from the shows ending, and while I was happy to see things work out for Tomari in the end (the only good character in the show), the OVA felt forced and a little bit unnecessary. On an unrelated note, the show's OP and ED were both very relaxing and enjoyable to listen to.

This anime was one of the main reasons my character is made, almost the same thing happened but in again a different scenario, ... (Off topic here) <My character a young male wanting to be so much like his mother and having her looks specialization and talents due to how extremely special she was and had a unknown but un-honorable death(even i don't know)but his father was dreadful enough to kept a secret that allowed Rommi(male version of rommy) To read the skies getting Ancient answers about his mother past being able to gain abilities that'll alternate his body(but in return it's like a sacrifice) causing him to morph into shapeshifting humanoids only learned within his family history. known that this power was too much for him to bare causing massive agony in both brain and heart slowly leading him to a painfully death, thank goodness his father cut off his own hand to form it into a second heart to save the boy's body, his father wasn't so pleased that he nearly lost his son due to him wanting to be more like his mother than his father.. but that he almost died attempting to learn something that was way out of his league, but in return after Rommi slowly regaining Consciousness only remembering his mother methods this has successfully formed his body into his mother's(more likely a daughter if he was a female). <On Topic> (if memory serves)Hazumu running into the forest due to him not being accepted or in terms feeling accepted because the girl hes been wanting >Yasuna, has rejected him not because she wasn't into him but more of the fact that she..was into girls? and how i saw this anime was when she sees males she sees them as a static texture like a TV, that was also probably the reason she rejected him, (its been very very long since i've watched this) because she couldn't "see him" i ask myself how deep must i go into this anime just to find a certain point on why she couldn't see males, was it because she was personally harassed? was it because she was more into females or..perhaps that maybe she couldn't see them because she was lost, this is just my opinion on how i saw the show not real facts but it is what it is.. besides the boy dying and being transformed into a female i find it very beautiful because not only it was a new experience to save his life, but for him to try something new =) ..well her~ anyways This anime is getting a Rank (10) for it's beautiful story and ways on throwing on the sheet without offending anyone A job well done team.

Aliens, a boy becomes a girl, and yuri....somehow good? That's right this show is actually good. First off, it is yuri, so that needs to be taken into consideration. I got into this anime because I was interested in this yuri thing. Turns out I chose the right show. If you are a yuri fan you will really like this! There is just enough physical activity that it doesn't take away from the show actually being good. It doesn't try to be just an in-your-face-yuri-fest. My only complaint is actually the alien aspect. While they do add to the story, I feel like it takes away from it being taken more seriously. The only thing is I don't know how else the boy could be turned into a girl genetically, so I suppose that is an issue. Either way, this is a fun, but serious and actually interesting yuri! I highly recommend it to fans.

My main issue with this series was that the first few episodes present what could be a solid grounding for a quite amusing comedy/romance affair but about one third or a quarter of the way in the series seems to loose its way and veers of into a frankly tedious series of unfortunate romantic collisions. The fact that I disliked two of the characters in the main love triangle didn’t help matters much. It helped even less that the remaining character in the love triangle, who I did like, gets completely shat on. The only reason I finished watching this series was probably due to the fact that I am almost obsessively against half watching/reading/playing something. It’s probably a good thing I did as the series does redeem itself somewhat at the end, but the weirdest thing about it is probably the main characters blasé reaction to the loss of his knob.

It starts with an over-the-top premise. A UFO crashes into a boy and, in the process of reviving him, the aliens accidentally turn him into a girl. This somewhat complicates things for the two girls who are in love with him/her, but not in the ways you might expect. I was also surprised that the aliens stuck around for the rest of the show, and became relevant again later on. Despite that, by episode 3 the world has lost interest in the body-swapped teenager who was globally annouced as the first human to have come in contact with aliens. I guess the news cycle moved on to a celebrity scandal or something. Instead the scope of the story narrows back to a high school rom-com for the most part. Some rom-coms blend their romance and comedy elements throughout. This one draws a definite line between the two. In some episodes it plays its high school yuri love triangle seriously. In other episodes it goes into goofy mode, playing its characters for laughs and bringing in a weird alien in a bodystocking. The romance and comedy never quite feel like they belong in the same series. Kashimashi is at its best as a comedy. When it switches to serious mode, it becomes apparent that most of the characters aren't particularly interesting. Boy-turned-girl Hazumu is so wishy-washy and indecisive that she would make Godai from Maison Ikkoku grind his teeth in frustration. Yasuna is defined by her weird anime disease, which the show doesn't explain particularly well until the end. Only pining childhood friend Tomari fares well in characterisation on the serious side of the story. Without getting into specifics, the show runs into another awkward structural problem near the end. The final episode of the TV series gives a conclusion that seems to wrap everything up, only for the sequel OVA to untie that neat bow and rewrap it in a completely different shape. While I preferred the note that the OVA ended on, the road it took to get there was rushed and messy, skipping past important plot developments and undermining much of what the last few episodes of the TV series built towards. The result is a show that has some good bits and pieces, but doesn't assemble them into a satisfying whole.

Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl is a bit of a different take on the Girls Love genre that only lightly existed when this came out, fifteen years ago. While there are obvious nods to the Trans-community, I would argue that this anime's goal wasn't to target that part of the LGBTQ+ group. For this review, I'll be reviewing the entire series, including the thirteenth episode that came out a little later and is listed on MAL as it's own entry. Story: Girl Meets Girl starts out with us showing schooler (their ages are never revealed) Hazumu asking out Yusana, but she rejects him. Saddened, he goes to the mountain for a hike, but gets lost and gets hit by an Alien spaceship. Yes, you read that correctly. To make up for this, the ship's pilot, Hitoshi, "regenerates" Hazumu, but explains that he needed to regenerate him into a girl. When she is regenerated and sent back down the mountain, Yusana and childhood friend, Tomari, are there to catch 'her'. Now in this new body, Hazumu needs to adjust to life as a girl, permanently. Honestly, the most problematic thing about the story is the first episode, just because of how wacky it feels, for a series that is meant to be mostly serious. I was tempted to type messy, but the writers clearly knew what they were doing. The entire premise of this gender change is really weird and I can understand why this sort of thing would bug that community. The thing is, after you finish that first episode, the rest of the series, story-wise, is really good. Yusana and Tomari help Hazumu adjust to her new gender and teach her how to be more ladylike - which is funny considering how much of a tomboy Tomari is. They do cover a bunch of stuff like how to dress and act, though this series really doesn't go for the shock value, so anything you might see in modern-day drama isn't present here. I liked that they touched on it without getting too fan-servicey. The rest of the series focuses on the obvious love triangle between Hazumu, Tomari and Yusana. There are some really great moments throughout and this series that does focus on trying to keep things light. You see this evident in most episodes, especially when Tomari and Yusana try and not be antagonistic with each other. I actually really welcome this because it keeps us from internally vilifying one or the other. It constantly feels both girls wants to have faith in both themselves, and the other, and it's just not something we see much of nowadays. Regardless of who you're cheering for here, I did find the conclusion of this love triangle to be slightly awkward. It's not that it's bad, but it feels like something just kind of... happens. You appreciate what they're going for, but it definitely threw me off a little. My understanding is that the source material was almost at the conclusion when this series finished, so that might explain the awkward ending. (8/10) Characters: Our main cast consists of Hazumu, Tomari and Yusana and there actually is a solid amount of depth on all three. One of Hazumu's hobbies seems to evolve around gardening, somewhat akin to Yui from Kase and the Morning Glories. She's quite knowledgeable about them and even brings a plant back from the mountains to care for on school grounds. Her childhood does seem somewhat complicated, but it seems implied that she is a girl "in her own brain", prior to the gender swap. They obviously could have expanded on this, but you'd be touching some pretty controversial territory and I'm not sure this series wanted to be that. We also learn that Hazumu's really not good at making decisions - she tries to make sure everyone happy and basically rejects any ideas about there being a downside to not picking one choice or the other. This is a great character trait because there's a lot of people out there that can relate and it does play a larger role in the series later on. Tomari grew up with Hazumu and ended up developing a crush for him pretty early on, which was maintained, even after the gender swap. This is fantastic because she clearly doesn't care what Hazumu looks like, going against the grain of what I assume to be a pretty young school-age. Tomari's great because she sticks up for her friends and almost acts like a guardian to her friends. Yeah, she's pretty tomboyish, but it works well here. Yusana actually also has an interesting past, as it's revealed early on that her eyes are literally blurred out whenever she looks at a male. This has obvious impacts on our cast, but that alone allows her to open her eyes as to what Hazumu means to her. It sets up a really touching story and I really like this angle over the more straight-forward one that Tomari has. However, above all else, she's clearly well liked upon her peers. Ayuki and Asuta round out their little circle of friends. Asuta is Hazumu "best bro", but after the genre swap, his role somewhat changes and it really feels like he doesn't have much of a role in the story. I sort of see why he was included, but the amount of screen time he got really bugged me because he never offered anything meaningful to the plot. Ayuki feels like she's in the same boat in that she's mostly irrelevant, though has some decent moments late in the series. Hitoshi and Jan are the two aliens from the ship that hit Hazumu, but I feel like they were mostly there to try and add comic relief here... which just didn't work for me. Their thing was that they were trying to gather data about human interactions, but I'm not entirely sold on... why? They could have hit Hazumi, left, and I wouldn't have missed out. While our main cast were incredibly strong here, I found myself not caring about the side cast nearly as much. Which is fine because our main three took up most of the runtime anyway. (8/10) Art: Being fifteen years old, you tend to forgive the lack of high-end art, but it was fine and never got to the point of unwatchability. For what it was, it delivered. And before you ask, no, this anime doesn't have much in terms of fan service - it likely wouldn't have fit much anyway. Aside that, visuals remained pretty consistent and, while you can never really call it pretty, it's enough to hold up. (7/10) Sound: The OST, OP and ED are mostly forgettable, but the VO work was actually pretty good. Something you have to remember is that the VO work back then was really unrefined and still learning how to grow. Some older classics like Pokémon and Dragonball Z were probably ahead of its time, but Girl Meets Girl has a cast that was mostly fine. Stephanie Sheh (Hazumu) was exceptional here and definitely didn't get enough credit back then for her fine work, especially from me. In fact, she actually does play Hazumu pre-gender swap really well too. Mona Marshall (Tomari) is definitely someone I'm not used to playing younger girls and I'm not sure this was the best casting choice. It sounds awkward at times, even if Marshall might be one of my favourite VOs who simply doesn't do much in the way of anime voice work anymore. Karen Strassman (Yusana) isn't anything I'd call special, as her work to this day has never impressed me too much - she actually sounded a lot like Mela Lee, weirdly enough. There are still some strong voices as side characters as well. (6/10) Overall Enjoyment: Girl Meets Girl was an enjoyable watch, even considering how old it is. The characters are super relatable the story's enjoyable after you get the weird stuff out of the way. (7/10)