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.
