Splitter

Kashimashi is the story about a boy hit and killed by a spaceship, then aliens bring him back to life and reconstruct his body as that of a girl's because that's what they thought he was. Now that we're past the bogus premise, we can focus on the series as what it really is; a touching, thoughtful romance. After the smoke clears on the ridiculous catalyst, the series quickly turns into a love triangle between the newly-female Hazumu, the girl Yasuna whom Hazumu has always had a crush on, and Tomari who is Hazumu's childhood friend since he was a boy. The various reactions and plotprogression revolving around Hazumu's gender-bender are taken with extreme and realistic care, but just as the series picks up some serious steam, it is all exchanged for some needless episodes revolving around mostly useless supporting characters. Fortunately, the series dives back into the drama for the final round of episodes, demonstrating some serious characterization and relationship changes that make Kashimashi more than a throw-away love story. With a more thoughtful narrative comes more thoughtful characterization as well. Hazumu is a surprising character, not necessarily apathetic to his/her new gender, but not overdramatic about it either. The real shining stars in this drama though are Yasuna and Tomari. You know right off the bat Hazumu will end up with one of these girls (this IS labeled shoujo-ai after all), but they make the love triangle much more richly complex than it had to be with their own personal feelings. This is actually a good thing. Supporting characters are abound, mostly for comic relief, but they don't interfere with the main characters so they aren't too much of a distraction. The animation is pretty standard for today's anime, clean-looking and a relatively bright color pallette. It flows well throughout. The gentle melodies of the BGM are nice, but not particularly memorable. The OP is fair as well, but the ED deserves some special credit, being the melancholic gem of the music. Kashimashi is a series that, for me, becomes finer with every viewing and the subtleties to the characters shine more as well. It is a series that started with a ridculous premise and strived to overcome it's Achilles' heel to becomet he best romance it could be. Putting romance ahead of fanservice, Kashimashi is a delightful surprise of a series that, while a little cliched, never settles for being a cookie-cutter romantic drama. Overall I give Kashimashi an 8 out of 10

Venneh

Title: Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~ Manga, Game, Anime: The first incarnation of “Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~” was a manga series, with story by Satoru Akahori, and art by Yukimaru Katsura. It started its run on May 21, 2004 in Dengeki Comic Daioh, with a new chapter released every month; currently, there are four volumes out. The manga has been licensed Stateside by Seven Seas Entertainment, and the first volume was released on December 25th, 2006. A game based on the series, entitled “Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~: Hajimete No Natsu Monogatari”, was released on March 30, 2006, for the PlayStation 2, published by MarvelousInteractive and developed by VRIDGE. The game itself is a visual novel, and is rated 12+ by the Japanese rating system. And the anime itself was twelve episodes long, and ran in Japan from January 11 to March 29, 2006 on TV Tokyo. Studio Hibari, who are also famous for “Petite Cosette” (2004) and “Oroshitate Musical Nerima Daikon Brothers” (2006), was the studio behind this show, and Nobuaki Nakanishi directed. The anime has been licensed Stateside by Media Blasters as of October 2006, and runs under the title “Girl Meets Girl”. Story: Mkay, here's your basic series overview for Kashimashi: Boy (Hazumu) gets rejected by girl he's had a crush on (Yasuna), after being urged on by girl friend who may possibly have a crush on him (Tomari). Boy goes off by self, is slammed into by alien spaceship, which looks extremely phallic. Boy dies, is revived, and has a sex change. Rest of series centers around boy-turned-girl’s relationships with two aforementioned girls and others, and eventually ends up in a love triangle with the two girls. And that’s Kashimashi’s story in a nutshell. The story itself is full of plenty of twists and turns, and never plateaus. You get to know each and every character that’s involved in the main plot intimately. It also has a tendency to get to you, because of the both of the above; this series is probably the closest I’ve ever come to crying during an episode. The series ends up being a combination of screwball comedy, romance, with a hint of melodrama. Frankly, that’s a relief, considering that it easily could’ve taken a turn into hentai or something of the like. Fanservice does appear almost every episode, but it only plays a small part overall, and doesn’t drive the series. The only gripes that I have are that some characters have a tendency to fall into certain roles, and that just about everyone seems to fall in love with Hazumu at some point or another. Warning: In case you haven’t figured it out, this is a shojo-ai show. That means there are girls kissing. If you don’t like that, stay away from this series. Art: The art for this series is absolutely beautiful. The 2D is absolutely exquisite, and the colors they use take a turn towards either autumn or spring tones. It’s obvious when CG is used, sometimes, but, for the most part, it blends in well with the 2D. Music: Again, absolutely no gripes here. The OP and ED don’t particularly stand out, but they’re nice, all the same, and the background music itself tends more towards use of piano and strings. Might try and find it, as it’s very relaxing. Seiyuu: I couldn’t find anything wrong with the voices for this series. Every voice fit their respective character perfectly, and they sounded like I’d expect their characters to. Dub: N/A Length: Just right. Cutting a few episodes would’ve made it too short, and, originally, twelve episodes didn’t feel like enough, but the addition of the OVA was just what the series needed. Any longer just wouldn’t have felt right. Overall: A nice romance/screwball comedy, with plenty of twists and turns, characters you care about, beautiful music and art, and perfect length. Story: 8/10 Art: 8/10 Music: 8/10 Seiyuu: 8/10 Length: 7/10 Overall: 39/50; 78% (C)