Manga, Game, Anime: The first incarnation of “Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~” was a manga series, with story by Satoru Akahori, and art by Yukimaru Katsura. It started its run on May 21, 2004 in Dengeki Comic Daioh, with a new chapter released every month; currently, there are four volumes out. The manga has been licensed Stateside by Seven Seas Entertainment, and the first volume was released on December 25th, 2006.
A game based on the series, entitled “Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~: Hajimete No Natsu Monogatari”, was released on March 30, 2006, for the PlayStation 2, published by Marvelous Interactive and developed by VRIDGE. The game itself is a visual novel, and is rated 12+ by the Japanese rating system.
And the anime itself was twelve episodes long, and ran in Japan from January 11 to March 29, 2006 on TV Tokyo. Studio Hibari, who are also famous for “Petite Cosette” (2004) and “Oroshitate Musical Nerima Daikon Brothers” (2006), was the studio behind this show, and Nobuaki Nakanishi directed. The anime has been licensed Stateside by Media Blasters as of October 2006, and runs under the title “Girl Meets Girl”.
Story: Mkay, here's your basic series overview for Kashimashi:
Boy (Hazumu) gets rejected by girl he's had a crush on (Yasuna), after being urged on by girl friend who may possibly have a crush on him (Tomari). Boy goes off by self, is slammed into by alien spaceship, which looks extremely phallic. Boy dies, is revived, and has a sex change. Rest of series centers around boy-turned-girl’s relationships with two aforementioned girls and others, and eventually ends up in a love triangle with the two girls.
And that’s Kashimashi’s story in a nutshell. The story itself is full of plenty of twists and turns, and never plateaus. You get to know each and every character that’s involved in the main plot intimately. It also has a tendency to get to you, because of the both of the above; this series is probably the closest I’ve ever come to crying during an episode.
The series ends up being a combination of screwball comedy, romance, with a hint of melodrama. Frankly, that’s a relief, considering that it easily could’ve taken a turn into hentai or something of the like. Fanservice does appear almost every episode, but it only plays a small part overall, and doesn’t drive the series.
The only gripes that I have are that some characters have a tendency to fall into certain roles, and that just about everyone seems to fall in love with Hazumu at some point or another.
Warning: In case you haven’t figured it out, this is a shojo-ai show. That means there are girls kissing. If you don’t like that, stay away from this series.
Art: The art for this series is absolutely beautiful. The 2D is absolutely exquisite, and the colors they use take a turn towards either autumn or spring tones. It’s obvious when CG is used, sometimes, but, for the most part, it blends in well with the 2D.
Music: Again, absolutely no gripes here. The OP and ED don’t particularly stand out, but they’re nice, all the same, and the background music itself tends more towards use of piano and strings. Might try and find it, as it’s very relaxing.
Seiyuu: I couldn’t find anything wrong with the voices for this series. Every voice fit their respective character perfectly, and they sounded like I’d expect their characters to.
Dub: N/A
Length: Just right. Cutting a few episodes would’ve made it too short, and, originally, twelve episodes didn’t feel like enough, but the addition of the OVA was just what the series needed. Any longer just wouldn’t have felt right.
Overall: A nice romance/screwball comedy, with plenty of twists and turns, characters you care about, beautiful music and art, and perfect length.
Story: 8/10
Art: 8/10
Music: 8/10
Seiyuu: 8/10
Length: 7/10
Overall: 39/50; 78% (C)
