posts tagged “Kashimashi”
[Anime Reviews]
18 Apr 2006
Posted by Martin [Tags: Kashimashi]
It’s the end of the road for this delightful and touching romance story as Hazumu finally makes up his - sorry, her - mind about Tomari and Yasuna. I’m not going to spoil things for you but I will go as far as saying it’s as satisfactory an ending as anyone could expect from a messy love triangle! The ending made sense, it was in keeping with the series itself and there’s even enough left open for a sequel (I’ve heard rumours of an OVA but I’m not sure if and when this will materialise). Without dwelling too much on the conclusion (my file was glitchy so it froze up before the closing credits rolled, hence there being only two screenshots) I thought I’d post my thoughts on the major characters and plotlines.
The whole sex-change thing
I *think* that this is based on a yuri manga series so it was a given that the main character and love interest(s) would be female. This didn’t bother me in the slightest - a love story is a love story so as long as the characters’ feelings are genuine it doesn’t matter what gender they are. Granted, some of the main situations could have played out just the same with Hazumu staying as a boy but things wouldn’t have been quite as interesting! This plot device doesn’t harm the storytelling so the end result is a romance series with a difference.
Yasuna’s vision problem
Just a few quick thoughts on this one: I’m not sure how the manga portrays this but it seemed rather pointless at first. Fortunately it turns out to be a valid plot point towards the end so all is well.
Hazumu, Tomari and Yasuna
It’s odd that Hazumu does better as a girl than as a boy. While writing these reviews I’ve found myself thinking of her character as a ‘he’ and a ’she’ interchangeably but by the end it was hard to imagine Hazumu ever being male again. After all, she has adapted pretty well - the process being one of the more interesting aspects of the series!
Tomari is a really likeable character - her tomboy-ish air exaggerated Hazumu’s femininity (even as a boy!) but it was interesting to see how she comes to terms with her feelings and the whole situation. In a cast of likeable people she is probably the most engaging.
I never really warmed to Yasuna as much for some reason. Sure, she’s had real issues (her troubled relationship with her distant-looking family could have done with some more attention) and her feelings are genuine but she seemed all too ready to offload her pain onto others. I can’t say her character was unlikable though.
The supporting cast
Supporting characters often end up as archetypes/stereotypes in my limited experience but fortunately this isn’t so pronounced in Kashimashi. Asuta is the laddish male buddy, the teacher is suitably insane and so on but they at least have their roles to play in the story. Ayuki comes across as a passive spectator, which often left Tomari wondering if she was stalking her (I felt inclined to agree with Tomari on that point). I’m sure there’s some fancy name for a character in a film who explains things and draws attention to things for the viewer’s benefit…I don’t know. Anyway, Ayuki is around to offer advice and form a sort of narrative link between the whole love triangle thing and the viewer, and she does it well.
The teacher was funny at first but after a while her habit of falling over wore a little thin. I was actually hoping she would find a bit of romance before the end though…Hazumu’s parents on the other hand were really eccentric. Her dad’s obsession with photographing and trying to share a bath with his newly-converted daughter just wasn’t funny. Odd but not shocking and definitely not funny.
Summary
Well, I’ve let this entry run on longer than planned! Kashimashi started off cutesy and silly with a strange premise and fillerish middle section before getting into some pretty profound stuff about the meaning of love later on. This and the rather sugary shoujo-friendly art style reminded me a little of Chobits actually. So, am I glad I watched it? Yes. Would I watch it again? Probably. Would I watch any sequels? Again, yes. Would I go as far as buy an English language DVD, OST album and so on? Probably not. I wouldn’t rate it amongst my favourites but it’s still a cute, (occasionally) funny and (mostly) enjoyable romantic drama that managed to hold my attention to the end. Here endeth my first completed blogged fansub. ^_^
[No Comments]
[Anime Reviews]
17 Apr 2006
Posted by Martin [Tags: Kashimashi]
Following the dramatic events of ep 10, does Kashimashi fall back into filler territory? Hell no. It’s the penultimate instalment and as such the proverbial stuff has really begun to hit the fan! Two characters resort to physical violence, one is hospitalised (not through any physical injury, I might add!) and we acually find out why the aliens are on Earth!
The friendship between Yasuna and Tomari is well and truly over now; Hazumu is stuck in the middle of it all, trying to keep both happy and succeeding with neither, as Ayuki is keen to remind her in a very touching and profound scene (doesn’t anyone else find it strange how she just stands on the sidelines?). The weird medical condition that Yasuna has been suffering from takes a much more serious turn, hinted at by this ep’s subtitle The Things that Disappear from those Eyes.
I suppose now is a good opportunity to draw attention to this. Earlier on the series we see that Yasuna is unable to physically see men: they are grey, blurry and featureless figures. Apparently this has afflicted her since childhood but until now I merely thought of it as an unnecessary plot device to explain why she isn’t interested in them. In this episode Yasuna is losing the ability to see anyone, male or female which leads to the poor girl being pretty distressed. She finds this particularly upsetting since she is now unable to recall what even Hazumu looks like.
Hazumu is now torn between looking after Yasuna and spending time with Tomari, who is convinced that she is rejected by her lifelong friend. To cap it all, the alien guy Sora informs her that he and Jan-puu are leaving because their experiment has failed. It is at this point that all becomes clear with Yasuna’s condition - without giving too much away I finally understood why the writers came up with the ‘Yasuna selective blindness’ thing in the first place.
So, how will this series end? I’m pleased to say that I can’t say. Hazumu could be turned back into a boy or Tomari might even undergo a similar process and I wouldn’t be surprised either way. On the other hand Yasuna is in a lot of emotional pain right now, the cause of which being more significant than was first apparent.
[No Comments]
[Anime Reviews]
14 Apr 2006
Posted by Martin [Tags: Kashimashi]
The middle section of Kashimashi (or Kasimasi, depending on where you see it printed) was pretty filler-ish, complete with the obligatory ‘beach episode’ (although I must admit it did add something to the story) - what with plenty of other series catching my interest lately I was about to drop the series entirely and start on something else. Then ep 10 delivered some quite compelling drama that had me hooked once more.
It starts off pretty happily with four tickets to a sea-life park on offer. What could be a friends’ day out doesn’t quite go to plan when everyone except Hazumu and Yasuna are busy that day. The upshot is that most of Hazumu’s friends miss out on a fun day out and it ends up being a date of sorts between Hazumu and Yasuna. This causes a little awkwardness with Tomari but after Yasuna promises not to do anything to upset the status quo (see my earlier entry) things are all okay.
Hazumu and Yasuna have a great day with nothing untoward in the romance department (above). Not that Yasuna isn’t tempted while surrounded by cute romantic couples embracing in front of the dark and mysterious fish tanks (it reminds me of a romantic encounter in a Murakami novel but I’ll leave that for another time). They both decide to buy Tomari a souvenir and to make her feel extra special, go over to where she’s staying to deliver it.
It’s at this point where things go wrong. After a misunderstanding at the train station Tomari is convinced that Yasuna didn’t keep her end of the bargain after all, and before the episode is out we get to see Tomari kiss Hazumu at last (yuri fans: I can hear you cheering from here). Now, I didn’t have a problem with this to be honest. Yasuna had kissed Hazumu once before and expected Tomari to just stand there and accept it - now the tables are turned Yasuna feels betrayed. A shame, that, but now it seems the both of them are pretty much even but obviously Yasuna doesn’t see it that way and the fragile truce between Yasuna and Tomari is even more precarious.
With the ‘turning into a girl’ thing aside this is a simple but effective comedy drama with the love triangle being responsible for most of the emotional impact. As the old saying goes, three is a crowd and it was inevitable that unfortunate incidents like these would develop when two friends are trying to share the same girlfriend. It’s obviously not working but there are only two episodes to go in which this mess can be resolved! I think I’ll be seeing this series through to the end after all…
[No Comments]
[Anime Reviews]
06 Apr 2006
Posted by Martin [Tags: Kashimashi]
Many anime dramas and comedies involve some sort of love triangle - the genre seems to thrive on awkward situations, disasterous dates and star-crossed lovers embracing under sakura blossom trees. So, what does Kashimashi have to offer in addition to the well-worn cliches? A full, instantanous sex change, anyone?
Hazumu is a shy high schooler who is in love with his classmate Yasuna. After confessing his feelings and suffering from the rejection that ensues he takes time walking in the hills surrounding the town to clear his head. Suddenly an alien spaceship crashes into the earth at the precise point where Hazumu is standing, resulting in the aliens reviving him, using their superior technology to restore his health and apologising profusely. As you do. The only trouble is, they inadvertantly change Hazumu into a girl. Perfectly healthy and unchanged in every other way, but a girl nonetheless. Now Hazumu has to cope with a very sudden change in pretty much every aspect of his everyday life, plus the possibility that Yasuna is now interested in him…
Admittedly the premise is daft to the point of being hilarious and there are the token fan service gags and other bits of humour that wear thin pretty quickly but once the story gets into its stride the story is quite sweet and interesting. Hazumu starts experiencing adolescence from a female’s point of view, which adds a ’slice of life’ element; of course female viewers might be able to understand the difficulties he (or rather now, she) is experiencing better than I did!
Throughout Hazumu’s troubles her lifelong friend Tomari is always there to help, and the triangle is complete once Tomari realises that she loves Hazumu, even after the change. After that seemingly everyone starts taking a liking to Hazumu but the emphasis is on how things progress between Hazumu, Tomari and Yasuna.
One annoying aspect of Kashimashi that it shares with a lot of rom-coms is a number of unnecessary fan service elements and slapstick comedy that more often than not miss the mark and add little to the central romantic theme. With these niggles aside, the show is still enjoyable if not outstanding and at least it isn’t predictable at this stage. While the artwork is very ‘cute’ with pinks and pretty flowers everywhere (think CLAMP, yet cuter still) it is supposedly a shounen series - I find that a little odd, having to force myself to put up with the saccharine visuals and music in order to enjoy the drama of the story itself.
[No Comments]
