After the smoke clears on the ridiculous catalyst, the series quickly turns into a love triangle between the newly-female Hazumu, the girl Yasuna whom Hazumu has always had a crush on, and Tomari who is Hazumu's childhood friend since he was a boy. The various reactions and plot progression revolving around Hazumu's gender-bender are taken with extreme and realistic care, but just as the series picks up some serious steam, it is all exchanged for some needless episodes revolving around mostly useless supporting characters. Fortunately, the series dives back into the drama for the final round of episodes, demonstrating some serious characterization and relationship changes that make Kashimashi more than a throw-away love story.
With a more thoughtful narrative comes more thoughtful characterization as well. Hazumu is a surprising character, not necessarily apathetic to his/her new gender, but not overdramatic about it either. The real shining stars in this drama though are Yasuna and Tomari. You know right off the bat Hazumu will end up with one of these girls (this IS labeled shoujo-ai after all), but they make the love triangle much more richly complex than it had to be with their own personal feelings. This is actually a good thing. Supporting characters are abound, mostly for comic relief, but they don't interfere with the main characters so they aren't too much of a distraction.
The animation is pretty standard for today's anime, clean-looking and a relatively bright color pallette. It flows well throughout.
The gentle melodies of the BGM are nice, but not particularly memorable. The OP is fair as well, but the ED deserves some special credit, being the melancholic gem of the music.
Kashimashi is a series that, for me, becomes finer with every viewing and the subtleties to the characters shine more as well. It is a series that started with a ridculous premise and strived to overcome it's Achilles' heel to becomet he best romance it could be. Putting romance ahead of fanservice, Kashimashi is a delightful surprise of a series that, while a little cliched, never settles for being a cookie-cutter romantic drama.
Overall I give Kashimashi an 8 out of 10
