Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl

As transgender woman myself, I thought I should give my two cents on this series.

Going into it, I was only aware of the bizarre occurrences that set the story going, and that people were very mixed on the series. Now that I've seen it, I can confidently say Kashimashi is a beautiful romance that unfortunately gets bogged down by the author trying to be funny.

I was very thankful to see that the series was void of any transphobic themes or jokes and was generally pretty respectful. Only thing I find strange is that throughout the course of the story, people constantly refer to Hazumu ... with male pronouns. There are some outliers sprinkled around here and there, but Hazumu doesn't ever object to being referred to one way or the other, so I'm going to assume she's cool with it. Gender is a fuck, be whatever the hell you wanna be. Oh and for anyone concerned that Hazumu turns back into a guy at the end of the series—don't worry, she doesn't. She becomes a girl at the end of episode 1 and never goes back.

The first two episodes consist of some very strange plot themes around aliens and... fanservice. They're unfortunately required for plot purposes, but if you can get past those two though, you'll finally be treated to the good stuff. Episodes 7 and 8, being the beach and "test of strength" episodes are basically filler and you could probably skip them entirely and only miss out on one or two important details. Basically any time you get a comedic scene you can just skip ahead until it's over to avoid any gross shit. Especially the dad, the dad is the WORST part of the show. I wish he just dropped dead.

If you can grin and bear through all the bad stuff, or find an edit that removes all of it, you'll find the rest of the series is really touching and heartbreaking at the same time. I adore the three main characters and didn't want to see any of them hurt. I'd elaborate further, but I don't want to spoil anything, but trust me, Hazumu, Yasuna, and Tomari are great and I love them.

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.

I did take my time to write the review because i wanted to think about why exactly i disliked this anime. Concerning Art and Sound the series is in my opinion and experience rather OKAY. There were better made anime in that time but there were much much worse ones.

The storytelling and the idea of the anime are pretty okay too. But what really ticks me off about this series is the obvious forceful behaviour to push and pull a non-heteronormative person into their predefinied position in society. Because of external influence a boy becomes a girl. That is a rather modern concept of breaking ... the habits and the rules our society embodies concerning the sexes. But the entire show focuses on ridiculing the "unnormal" behavior of a boy who is in the body of a girl and of the surroundings that tries to force this "unnormal" person into the heterosexual heteronormativity or reacts with great irritation because a girl dont act in the way she is expected to.

The protagonist themself is written in a way that they is nothing more than a pawn in the hands of those who decide how the society has to be and is completely denied to find their own way.

This series reflects in my opinion the normative, sexist and forceful aspects of modern society in which there is still no completely accepted place for intersex and transgender people either let alone for men and women who dont want to be restrained and repressed by the rules of their secietal sex.