Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl Anime Review

Quick Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2011-02-25 (updated 2014-10-22)
• 2 stars out of 5 (?)

Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl takes a generic high-school romance and adds a gender-bending, anime-style twist. Sadly, it fails to do anything worthwhile with it, instead spending all its energy on warm-and-fuzzy, mildly bitter, mostly sweet romance. It's a pity, because the concept is practically designed to tackle tough gender issues, and there are a lot of interesting dramatic hooks that it seems either unwilling or unable to grab. It ends up spending most of its run on sappy romance sprinkled with weak, unfunny comedy before finally getting serious, by which point it took effort to start caring. Protagonist Hazumu is a bigger issue; she was effectively a girl to start with, rendering the gender-swap angle of the plot somewhat pointless, and she's practically a placeholder--the other two girls get nearly all the emotional focus and character development. On the plus side, it doesn't hold back on the yuri romance; there's at least a little chemistry, and the all-in romantic finale is satisfying so long as you don't think about it too hard. The soft-focus art is also pleasant, and the soundtrack does a lot with simple solo piano pieces that fit nicely. The Japanese acting is decent, but doesn't help much with the muddled characterization, unfortunate considering the decent resume of the cast.

On the whole, Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl is a candy-sweet but forgettable series--basically an entirely generic high-school romance with some yuri painted on to try and make it look more interesting. If you're not a yuri fan it's likely a waste of time, and even if you are you'll probably spend at least as much time waiting for something interesting to happen (or frustrated with the protagonist) as enjoying yourself.

Read the full-length review...

Full Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2011-02-25 (updated 2014-10-22)
• 2 stars out of 5 (?)

Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl takes a generic high-school romance and adds a gender-bending, anime-style twist. Sadly, it fails to do anything worthwhile with it, instead spending all its energy on flowery, mildly bitter, mostly sweet romance. The result is a generic yuri high-school romance, and a rather bland one at that.

It's a pity, because the concept has a lot of potential for amusing confusion, gender-identity wrestling, awkward romantic twists, even some sociological musing. All of which it utterly fails to capitalize on; every time it finds an interesting hook it seems either unwilling or unable to grab it. It ends up spending most of its run on fluff romance sprinkled with weak comedy. When it eventually tries to get serious and kick up the drama, it's hard to start caring.

I have nothing against oversweetened romance--Oh My Goddess thrives on it--but Kashimashi had the potential to be a lot more. Why bother needlessly complicating the story with interesting twists if all you're going to do with it is light romance? The manga has somewhat more going on, so I'm not sure who to blame, but the anime is mostly cute, teary-eyed, soft-focus seasoning, very little meat.

That it doesn't address any difficult social issues is particularly glaring. Some yuri fare--the seminal Maria Watches Over Us, for example--puts a narrow focus on individual relationships. Here, however, there's a gender-reversal literally broadcast to the whole world and an alien observer expressly watching the romance develop. It's like it was designed to tackle tough issues, but got too distracted by sappy romance and pastel flowers to bother.

Then there's sweet, innocent Hazumu, nominally the protagonist. To start with, she was effectively a girl from the beginning--the only way you knew "he" was supposed to be male was the boys' uniform. This was presumably to avoid the desire to go back to being a boy, but right off the bat that rendered the gender-swap angle of the plot sort of pointless.

More importantly, Hazumu is practically a placeholder--the other two girls get nearly all the emotional focus and character development. Theoretically, a big part of the drama is supposed to come from her indecisiveness--the half-hearted moral being "choose or you'll get neither"--but somebody apparently mistook "devoid of character" for "indecisive." She does finally develop a bit of personality toward the end, but by that point it's a little late.

Yasuna, the more feminine of the two love interests, is better. She has an unexpected amount of inner strength, making her more appealing than the average shy girl. She has a psychological problem that, while contrived, is intriguing, and it's eventually tied in with the alien subplot, explaining their interest in the whole affair. Sadly, while there are some good establishing bits, it doesn't really become significant until near the end. It also doesn't quite make sense; we're shown that there was no traumatic trigger, it "just happened." Why? Probably because somebody didn't have the stomach to do something substantive and painful to the character--the series is too sappy for that--and was too lazy to bother coming up with an excuse in lieu of anything uncomfortable.¹

Last is tomboy childhood friend Tomari. She's the generic hothead, but moderately appealing, not to mention mercifully less weepy than the other two. She also has one decent tragi-romantic speech near the end--really, the only meaningfully romantic thing in the whole show.

The triangle these three form is the core of the series, and the closest it manages to something original (ironically, not because of the gender-swap).

Pleasingly, they're quite clear that the yuri romance is, indeed, romance. Although it's the cute, blushing, hand-holding kind of romance, they consistently use the word "ren'ai"--romantic love--and there is proper kissing and even a ceremonial commitment. There's very little passion, but at least a little chemistry (as much as the bland protagonist allows, anyway).²

The one good thing about having such a passive protagonist is the role reversal she forces. Instead of the standard romantic lead trying to woo someone, it's the other way around--the shy, fragile one and the unsociable tomboy are both forced to take the active role and compete with each other. The additional twist is that, while both of the girls like Hazumu, and she likes both of them, only one of them needs her, and all three eventually realize it. The series is sort of vague about this, but it basically works.

Until the endgame, that is; after finally pulling off one unexpectedly decent dramatic crescendo, it proceeds to offhandedly rush through what should have been the most emotionally substantive and affecting scene in the show.

It was baffling to me that a series would spend half its length setting up a climactic breakthrough and then let it go to waste. Not to spoil too much, but the final/bonus episode that follows reveals why: In an attempt to have its cake and eat it too, an unexpected twist turns the tables. It's weird, because that episode is emotionally somewhat awkward and rather problematic, but it's also easily the best episode in the series--it goes all-in on the sweet romance, making for a satisfying finale so long as you don't think too hard about it.³

The remainder of the cast is underutilized. The most substantive, Ayuki, is a quiet, perceptive girl who is apparently interested in one of the main trio but makes a big point of being content to watch other people be happy from a distance. That's fine as far as this particular love triangle goes, but it frustrated the heck out of me; I couldn't decide whether I should feel sorry for her or just be annoyed by her aloof, knowing commentary. Having a character like that finally break her dispassionate shell and accept her desires would be interesting and humanizing, but the series leaves her as the wise observer--more of a plot device than a person.

The lone male friend, Asuta, is a complete waste. His confusion between existing friendship and unexpected attraction could have been spun into something interesting, even touching, but he's only onscreen when necessary as the butt of a joke. It also unintentionally sets up the main character as sort of a jerk, since Hazumu starts effectively ignoring Asuta as soon as he becomes a she. Hazumu's pervy dad and violent mom are likewise treated as pure jokes. The alien observer never does much, and his cloying mascot-masquerading-as-a-robo-girl, Jan-Puu, is just plain annoying.

The Japanese cast doesn't deserve too much blame for the mediocre drama and muddled characterization, but they don't help as much as they could have, either. In particular, Kana Ueda just doesn't give any force or depth to Hazumu's personality. Somewhat ironic, since she voiced Yumi, the protagonist in Maria Watches Over Us, whose defining feature was colorful energy. She also sounds exactly the same as a boy at the beginning, but that was apparently the fault of the director--it was supposed to be that way.⁴ The standout is versatile cute-girl-voice Yui Horie, who gives Tomari a decent amount of spunk and energy. The comedic supporting cast is reasonably strong; Daisuke Ono is funny as Asuta, and Yuko Mizutani as the hapless teacher does some hilarious screaming to go with her tendency to fall out of second-story windows, making cheap gags actually worth a laugh.

Visually, the series does relatively well with what looks to have been a modest budget. It's consistently pleasant-looking, and the soft-focus, pastel style matches the mellow mood. It also makes decent use of light and color--sunlit roofs and golden evenings. Its weak points are mediocre character animation, generic (if cute) character designs, and sparse backgrounds.

The soundtrack manages to do quite well with very little. Composed mostly of solo piano pieces, it doesn't sound cheap and is appropriate to the mood. The theme songs, sung by the cast, are pleasantly sweet.

On the whole, Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl is a pleasant but forgettable series. It fails to do anything interesting with the concept, the main character is a bland placeholder, and the drama is handled awkwardly more often than not--the potential for more is there, but it seems frustratingly unwilling to capitalize on it. It's basically an entirely generic high-school romance with some sci-fi and yuri painted on to try and make it look more interesting. If you're not a yuri fan it's likely a waste of time, and even if you are you'll probably spend at least as much time waiting for something interesting to happen (or frustrated with the protagonist) as enjoying yourself.

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Related Recommendations

The action/comedy/romance classic Ranma 1/2 of course does the less-permanent gender-swapping thing with a whole lot less awkward romance and a whole lot more shounen-style fighting. A little closer in theme is I My Me, Strawberry Eggs, which involves a guy pretending he's a girl rather than actually becoming one, but it actually does get into some more complex social/gender issues, and is also both funnier and more dramatically effective. For more straight yuri, there's the classic, florid Maria Watches Over Us as the vanguard of the modern genre, Blue Drop for a more dramatic (and weirder) sci-fi alien plot with less emphasis on romance, and Strawberry Panic, which is in the same general vein as this, but with less focus on humor and no supernatural elements. As for bittersweet adolescent romance with a twist of comedy and a dash of the supernatural, but no yuri, the classic Kimagure Orange Road TV series is a good pick that does a lot more within a similar framework, and the not-great-but-still-better-than-this Please Teacher has a somewhat similar romance-heavy alien-observer setup, but with age imbalanced rather than same-sex relationships being the focus.