Kashimashi induced the strongest emotional response an anime has produced in me for sometime, unfortunately that response was anger directed at the OVA ending. The main characters are three high school classmates Osaragi Hazumu, Kamiizumi Yasuna, and Kurusu Tomari. Hazumu is a somewhat effeminate boy easily described with words like kind and gentle. Yasuna is a quiet and lonely girl who suffers from a pretty unique form of androphobia (although Hazumu is the exception to that). They share an interest in gardening. Tomari is a tomboy who has protected Hazumu from bullies since they were both small children. The plot revolves around Hazumu’s sudden transformation into a girl (due to a very close encounter with an extraterrestrial scientist), and the love triangle that develops between the three of them afterwards.
The supporting characters are generally fun and interesting. Hazumu’s parents and Tsuki Namiko, one of her teachers (the only teacher depicted), exist almost solely for comic relief, but they aren’t overly intrusive (and on the scale of amusing to annoying they lean towards the amusing side). To some extent Soro Asuta, Hazumu’s only male friend, also serves as comic relief, but as he comes to grips with the fact that Hazumu is a very cute girl he presents an interesting (if never very serious) alternative to the main love triangle. I found the final member of Hazumu’s circle of friends, Mari Ayuki, to be particularly interesting. She is the only friend neither pursuing nor contemplating a relationship with Hazumu (although it is strongly hinted that she does have feelings for one of her friends, probably Hazumu, but the object of her affection is never explicitly identified). Ayuki is basically an emotional voyeur (that may be putting too harshly but it does get the point across), and is very content to remain an observer and not a participant in the unfolding drama (not that events allow her to completely get her wish). The final major supporting characters are Sora Hitoshi and Jan Pū. Hitoshi is the alien responsible for turning Hazumu into a girl, and is also an anthropologist who traveled to Earth to study love; Jan Pū is the spaceship’s anthropomorphic AI. Jan Pū’s primary functions in the anime are being cute, and providing comic relief. Hitoshi’s lack of understanding of human culture and his interactions with Namiko also results in a fair amount of comic relief. His study of love boils down to either observing Hazumu or placing Hazumu in situations where her relationship with her suitors could advance.The series opens during the aftermath of Hazumu confessing his love to Yasuna. After Yasuna rejects his confession Hazumu hikes up Mt. Kashima to find solace. As Hazumu walks up the mountain he reflects on his relationship with Yasuna and a series of flashbacks tell the back story of how they met and became friends as well as the encouragement and advice his friends gave him prior to him making his confession. Meanwhile Hazumu’s friends Asuta, Ayuki, Tomari learn of the results of his confession and concerned start searching for him. Eventually Tomari concludes Hazumu must have hiked up Mt. Kashima, so with Asuta and Ayuki in tow she starts up the mountain to find him. Interlaced through all of this are scenes of Yasuna showing signs of regret and hinting at that her rejection of Hazumu was undertaken rather reluctantly as she makes her own way up Mt. Kashima to return one of the two plants she and Hazumu transplanted from the mountainside to the school garden. Finally mixed in with all this terrestrial action is the goings on of Hitoshi’s spacecraft in orbit around Earth, and wouldn’t you know it the ship suffers engine failure.
While the alien ship is falling towards Earth Hazumu sees what he thinks is a shooting star only after making the obligatory wish (for a loving relationship naturally) does he realize something is amiss. Well apparently being rejected by the girl he loves wasn’t all the abuse the universe had in store for Hazumu on this day because the ship crash-lands directly onto the poor guy. Naturally Hitoshi feels very bad about this and with access to advanced alien technology is able to save Hazumu’s life, however one small mistake is made while rebuilding Hazumu’s body and he is turned irreversibly into a she. Acting in accordance with galactic law Hitoshi reveals its ship to the world and announces to everyone that he is very sorry for crashing into Osaragi Hazumu, and he is also very sorry about accidentally turning Hazumu into a girl, but asks that everyone please treat her with respect. Attracted by both the large alien spacecraft hovering over the mountain (engines apparently fixed) and by the announcement concerning Hazumu both Yasuna, and Tomari rush towards a clearing just in time to see an unconscious (also a very naked, and very female) Hazumu float down in a beam of light into their waiting arms. With Hazumu alive and returned to Earth the spacecraft disappears back into space, and the first episode comes to an end with Hazumu waking up to Yasuna and Tomori looking over her.
The next eleven episodes are spent setting up, fleshing out, and then resolving the love triangle between Hazumu, Yasuna, and Tomari. And it does so very nicely and in a rewarding fashion. It takes some work for Tomari to accept Hazumu as a girl, and Hazumu has to exert some effort to renew her friendship with Yasuna. When Yasuna tries to take her relationship with Hazumu beyond friendship it causes not only Tomari to deal with her feelings for Hazumu, but starts Hazumu down the path of actually coming to a decision. When that decision is finally made it makes sense given the internal logic on the anime, and I was generally happy with the outcome (admittedly I would have preferred Hazumu choose the other girl, but that doesn’t mean I hated the choice that was made). In other words it was a good, if bittersweet ending.Then I watched the OVA. My main problem with the OVA is that far too much happens in one 27 minute episode. It’s not that I’m unhappy with the results, it’s just everything was rushed, and there was little explanation of why the characters were undertaking the actions depicted. When there was explanation it consisted of something like this:
Char1: Hey Char2 do you remember when you did that thing?
Char2: Yes I do. It was a hard thing to do.
Char1: Why did you do that?
Char2: Well I did it for this reason (gives reason).
Char1: Yes I understand and accept your reason for doing that.
I have no idea how much (if any) manga was left to adapt after episode 12, and I have no doubt there were probably significant financial reasons making more than a 1 episode OVA unlikely, but all that aside from a purely story driven perspective the events of the OVA should have been broken up into 6-8 more episodes. This would have allowed time to actually show why the characters did what we are told they did in-between episode 12 and the start of the OVA. There would have been time to show why several characters underwent a change in attitude from episode 12 to the OVA allowing their behavior in the OVA to make sense. If there had been time to show all that I have no doubt I would have been completely satisfied with the outcome. In the end I feel like the OVA is just saying here let me in one episode completely change everything and provide a new resolution that totally negates the one the previous twelve episodes carefully worked towards.
Okay so I spent way more time talking about Kashimashi than I thought I would. So I’m going to have to save my thoughts on Kanon and Onegai Teacher for another post.
