After watching through all 12 episodes of Kashimashi, I gotta say I’m left with a sour taste in my mouth. It just was not innovative enough to make me want to keep this series. The characters where intreging enough to make me watch the entire thing through, but it really wasn’t something I was looking forward to.
The story of this anime would probably sound familiar to just about anyone who’s into drama/romance stories. The main character Hazumu is a shy boy who loves flowers and his school rooftop garden. After spending alot of time with Yasuna tending to the gardens, he tried his best to confess his love to Yasuna and was rejected. Heartbroken, Hazumu went to Mt. Kashimayama and got lost looking for flowers. He spotted a shooting star and started to make a wish, but the star got closer, and turned out to be a space ship heading straight for him. Having no time to do anything, the ship struck him in the face and vanished. The aliens openly apologized to the city and returned Hazumu to his original state, only instead of a boy, he returned as a girl. When placed back on earth there was two there to recover the newly turned girl, Yasuna and long time childhood friend, Tomari. Thus began a 12 episode long love triangle between them.
Good story idea huh? What better way to break from the norm that is romance dramas then to turn a boy, who is already in almost every way and looks a girl, into a fully fledged girl [with C-cups to be exact… yes they do cover that]. The story itself is a break down of just about any love triangle in Japan, with its own little quirks since Hazumu is now a girl. You have the tomboy Tomari who has known Hazumu since kindergarden. She looks after Hazumu and is always the outspoken one. Of course, in the past they had their little moments, like promising to marry each other and the like. It is almost too common of the norm for these two. Tomari was, at first, not able to express her love for Hazumu, due to the fact that they’ve been friends for so long and for the fact that he is a girl now. She only starts at it when Yasuna threatened to take him away for sure. Yasuna is the typical “quiet girl with long black hair” motif. She has another twist that adds to the story at the end of the anime, and that is she suffers from a condition that makes her unable to tell men apart. She sees men in a charred haze, and is only able to tell them apart by the sound of their voice and clothes. She turned down Hazumu because of this disorder, but with Hazumu being a girl now, she is able to fawn over him/her in all the yoai-ness that anime can offer.
Side characters in this anime are mainly for comical relief. The alien returns to observe earth and Hazumu’s love triangle unfold. He looks like a grown teletubby in a yellow suit and triable horn or whatever those things are. He is constantly stalked by a horny teacher who openly admits to being a virgin for 30-odd years [she reminds me of a non-nympho version of Mitsuka-sensei from DearS]. He came along with the ship, who is now a giddy child-like girl who others cannot see, but after several episodes, people magically just know and see her and think nothing of it. Hazumu’s long time friend Asuta, begins to take notice of his best buds changes and begins falling in love himself [he strugles with the fact that Hazumu is a guy friend but can’t over look the fact that she has breasts now]. But he never see’s the light of that sort of relationship. Hazumu considers him a friend and nothing more, and he’s constant attempts make for empty laughs.
The story is itself is also standard, despite the weird turn of events that happened to Hazumu. Its a tug of war with Hazumu in the middle for the most part. The story only starts to really get in the thick of it down towards the very last few episodes of the anime [last 3 or so]. A pact is made between Yasuna and Tomari to keep the relationship the way it is to keep Hazumu happy, but is almost immediately broken, causing for a fight and crying. Their big lesson at the end is that Hazumu must choose between the two and is unable to keep them both [the symbols used for this anime is of course flowers, you cannot keep two roses in the same pot for they’ll both wither and die…]. But thats where my biggest problem lies.
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The choice between the two was made up in one episode, but the problem is not with the decision more so then the reasons for it. On one hand you have Tomari, childhood friend who Hazumu grew up with. They made a marriage promise when Hazumu crossed a “scary” river as a challenge. She’s good but then you have Yasuna. Because the promise between herself and Tomari was broken when Tomari “cheated” and kissed Hazumu, her condition worsened and became unable to see boys nor girls now, including Hazumu. Wow, big story twist. Its the climax of the story and the only way to cure her is for her to willingly love Hazumu completely, and Hazumu must choose her to do so [as told by the alien, who’s own civilization is suffering from the same disease and only observed to see if there was a way to cure it]. Thus the only choice was to choose the one you can save…
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Whichever Hazumu choice was, it still doesn’t explain why it took an entire episode for the anime to come to an end. The choice was made at the very beginning and it was just a montage of the “final outing” between the one who lost and Hazumu. What’s not to get is the fact that they can continue being friends and see each other, but they over dramatized the event, leaving the final confession til the very end. And because this is one of those anime that likes happy endings, the very very last thing you witness is a scene that was cut off, obviously trying to make the audience tie in their own fantasy end so as to not feel saddened by the choice. It is way to blantent, a sad attempt at satisying everyone. I don’t think they ever explored the fact that Hazumu is going to forever stay biologically a girl, having children is impossible [the one who lost kept saying how she will be around for her kids]. Also, lets not forget that a three way is completely possible for yuri girls… but lets keep that for more mature and well put together anime.
Story aside, the work done on the anime is very much border-line par. The animations were done in a mix of CG and art. The quality of the two isn’t something that you’d consider eye candy, but got the job done, creating for sometimes very nice scenes, while keeping them simple and easy to work with. Questionable alien character designs aside, the character designs are not anything unique. Background characters were done mostly in a way to conceal their details [ie - no faces, no unique features]. The CG work was mainly shown at its worse with the penus shaped space ship that reminded me of Austin Powers. The best looking characters were the main characters of the triangle and even took their time with some fanservice in several episodes, but not enough to stray away from their for kids rating of the anime.
Sound on the other hand made it clear that this is probably something that guys may want to stay away from. My number one problem with this anime, besides the questionable ending, is the commercial break sound [which is called an eye-catch]. Its the most annoying sound you could use; you know the one sound effect that chimes in whenever something cute pops in briefly. They use that sound for every single episode, even after a really emotional scene just passed. It was a pain to listen to and I dreaded having to go through it a second time, which it does after comming back [so when watching without the commercials, its back to back sound torture]. Music in Kashimashi is just as equally misplaced, with nothing unique about it. Soundtrack-wise, its not something you’d want to be listening to alone.
But in the end, did I enjoy it? Yes and no. I enjoyed watching the three girls try their best to gain love but at the same time I’m constantly made aware of how artificial it all is. The story was built up to have these obvious twists [Hazumu turning into a girl, Yasuna and her condition, and Tomari being a tomboy]. It was painful knowing what may happen in the end and having it come true, right down to the very last bit that left you in the air as to what will happen between the three. The comedy was there to lighten the anime, but all in all, it was not necessary. I’m actually glad it was 12 episodes, it saved on how much time I was going to waste on it.
Bad comments aside, it is a good story to watch. There are alot of emotional parts that will get to you [aka the ending only] and there are some parts that make you feel the emotions, no mater how artificial the overall mood/scene is. You may like this if your into this, but if your looking for a grand anime to watch, this isn’t one of them.
