Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl

Poor Hazumu. First he gets turned down after confessing his love to Yasuna. Then, after climbing his favorite mountain to sulk over being rejected, a passing UFO crashes on him and kills him. Then the aliens put him back together again... as a girl! Worse, they then announce to everyone exactly what they did.

From Satoru Akahori, the creator of Saber Marionette J, Sorcerer Hunters, and Maze Megaburst Space.

"Kashimashi" is both the name of the town and school where the series is set ("Kashima-shi") and the Japanese word for "noisy". A Japanese proverb holds that "when three women get together, it's noisy (kashimashi)," the joke being that the kanji for "kashimashi" contains three of the characters (no pun intended) for "woman" or "female." (You may remember Tomo quoting it.)

Hazumu provides a rare case of Gender Bender where the one whose gender has been bent doesn't seem to really care that much about the predicament. In fact, it's possible she is actually happier this way. The Love Triangle in the show also gets presented in a pretty straightforward way, all but completely disregarding that the story is in fact about two girls who try to win the affection of another girl.

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Tropes used in Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl include:

• Against the Setting Sun
• All Men Are Perverts: Asuta's attraction toward Hazumu is treated as such, whereas Yasuna and Tomari's feelings are supposedly pure and deep.
  • Also Hazumu's dad, who seems waaaaay too into shared father-daughter special time (usually involving nudity or dad taking naughty pictures of Hazumu).Hazumu's mom will have none of it.
• Anvil on Head: Of the 10t weight variety.
• Applied Phlebotinum
• Artificial Riverbank
• Baka: Tomari addresses Hazumu quite a few times in this fashion.
• Baker's Dozen
• Beach Episode
• Beneath the Mask as the protagonist as a girl is now more free to act more feminine.
• Bedmate Reveal: Hazumu wakes up to find Jan-puu curled up against her the day after the aliens move in.
• Bicep-Polishing Gesture
• Blank White Eyes
• Blinding Bangs: We never see Hazumu's face as a male, only when he's a girl.
• Butt Monkey: Asuta and Namiko.
• Cherry Blossoms
• Childhood Marriage Promise: Hazumu and Tomari
  • Fulfilled in the episode 13 OVA.
• Christmas Cake: Namiko.
• Conspicuous CG: The butterfly from episode 8. Big time.
  • Jan-puu in spaceship form has this, too.
• Courtly Love: At least according to a French reviewer, who describes the central triangle as not so much carnal as similar to relationships found in Chrétien de Troyes's novels.
• Deadpan Snarker: Ayuki
• Different for Girls: Inverted -- Hazumu mostly takes her change in stride; it's tomboy Tomari, of all people, who insists on giving her lessons in being a girl. Hazumu's only difficulty is when she has to buy her first bra.
• Does Not Like Men: Yasuna and her inability to perceive men's faces keeps her from having any relationships with men, though in a slight subversion, this also affects her relationships with other girls.
• Dramatic Wind: The series could be a commercial for building windmills in Tokyo.
• Dropped a Bridget On Him: Poor, poor Asuta, whose feelings for Hazumu are only used for comic relief.
• Expressive Hair
• Face Fault
• Fan Service: The manga has a few omake with it. The anime seriously ups this quotient.
• Festival Episode
• First Girl Wins: Reversed in the episode 13 OVA, subverted completely in the manga.
  • Depends on which of the girls is viewed as first: Yasuna was the first introduced, but Tomari is Hazumu's childhood friend.
• First Kiss
• Foe-Tossing Charge: Tomari whips these out to get through throngs of reporters.
• Friendly Enemy: Yasuna and Tomari realize early on that they are rivals, but develop a friendship out of their mutual love for Hazumu
• Gayngst: Very mild and mostly in the first manga volume, but it's still there.
• Gecko Ending: The manga hadn't finished yet when the anime was made.
• Gender Bender
  • Second Law of Gender Bending
• Genki Girl: Jun Puu.
• The Glomp
• Gratuitous English: Mainly in the anime's OP ("eveybiddy, prease to meet you," etc.); the NASA scientists in the first episode speak correctly, but the wording is a bit...off. ("I'm afraid that that's the fact." "The estimated arrival point is...figured!")
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Fans of Keroro Gunso might be surprised hearing Keiji Fujiwara 's voice coming from someone they can see.
• Hidden Eyes: Hazumu always has these whenever he's shown as a male. Even as a young child. The audience only sees his/her eyes when he gets turned into a girl.
• Hot Mom: Hazumu's mother arguably qualifies.
• How We Got Here
• If It's You It's Okay: Tomari has to grapple with this early on after Hazumu's gender switch.
• Ignore the Fanservice: Hitoshi usually doesn't care about Namiko.
• Instant Seiza
• Invisible to Normals
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Used twice.
  • Ayuki is an interesting variant, as she seems to honestly prefer witnessing the beauty of Hazumu's relationship with Tomari or Yasuna rather than attempt to start up a relationship of her own.
• I Will Definitely Protect You: By Tomari to Hazumu. and possibly foreshadowing the ending considering the possible meanings of the phrase.
• Joshikousei
• Jumping the Gender Barrier
• Kimodameshi
• Large Ham Paired with Running gag, "Without a boyfriend for 35 years, I Tsuki Namiko..." will fall down a hole.
• Lethal Chef
• Looming Silhouette of Rage
• Love At First Sight: Combined with First Kiss, this is how Hazumu got killed. Jan-Puu fell in love with Hazumu and rushed in to kiss him...in spaceship form at a hair under the speed of light.
• Love Triangle
• Matchmaker Crush: Tomari pushes Hazumu to confess to Yasuna... but then increasingly owns up to her own feelings after his genderswap.
• Meaningful Name: Sora Hitoshi. It means spaceman.
• Media Scrum
• Meganekko: Ayuki.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Hazumu answers a lot of questions with "I really am a girl now." Then again, considering how feminine she was as a boy, it's always questioned about whether Hazumu is just freer to express that as a girl than as a boy.
• Ms. Fanservice: Hazumu
• Naked Apron Ah, preparing for a barbeque at the beach- Asuta gets a fire going at a grill, and when he's done he turns to see Hazumu wearing an apron over... their bikini. He is, of course, pleasantly surprised- and then the group turns to see Hitoshi doing a completely played straight rendition of the trope, complete with heart-shaped apron.

Hitoshi: Aprons aren't supposed to be worn like this?
Asuta: Hurry up and wear something! And then apologize to all the apron-wearing women of the world! Apologize!

• The Ojou: Yasuna
• Panty Shot: Referenced in the Different for Girls episode when the other girls are shown teaching Hazumu various techniques for overcoming the panty shot potential of their stereotypically short-skirted school uniforms.
• Pervert Dad
• Pun-Based Title / Visual Pun: The kanji 女 (pronounced onna) means "woman". Kashimashii is one possible pronunciation of the kanji 姦; this kanji is composed of three copies of 女, arranged in a triangle. So, the title can be interpreted as representing a triangle of three women. And to top it off, the place where the story is set is also called kashimashi, albeit written with different kanji: 鹿縞市, meaning "Kashima City". (Note that the original title of this manga is written phonetically, so it doesn't actually use the 姦 kanji, making it a Stealth Pun of sorts.)
• Robot Girl: Jan-Puu
• Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Of the "starter romance" variety -- a schoolmate dismisses Yasuna's interest in Hazumu as "immature".
• Running Gag
• Scary Shiny Glasses
• Schoolgirl Lesbians: In spades -- the main plot is a lesbian Love Triangle, there's a fourth girl in the picture, and at least one of the suitors has female admirers of her own.
• Seiza Squirm: Hazumu has no problems with the position, but Asuta and Tomari can't pull it off very long.
• Shipper on Deck: Hitoshi Sora
• Shopping Montage: Guess who needs a new wardrobe.
• Shounen
• Shout-Out: "Onee-nii-sama" is a reference to Maze Megaburst Space.
• Sleep Cute: At the end of the Beach Episode, natch
• Snow Means Love: Even in summer!
• Spaceship Girl: Jan-Puu-chan
• Stalker with a Crush: Namiko to Hitoshi.
• Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids
• Surprisingly Good English: NASA in episode one, at first. Sadly it falls apart and becomes Engrish.
• Talking to Plants: Hazumu
• There Are No Therapists: Even by Japanese standards this is a particularly egregious example. Hazumu gets killed by a spaceship landing on him, comes back to life through alien intervention, gets turned into a girl from the DNA up, gets his entire ordeal broadcast to the entirety of the people of Japan, is plagued by the paparazzi, exposed to questionable changes in care by his parents, and the only help he gets is from his childhood friend and the girl that rejected him in the first place.
• Third Law of Gender Bending
• Tomboy: Tomari
• Training Montage: Hazumu's "girl lessons" in episode 2
• Transsexualism: Implied with Hazumu.
• Tsundere: Tomari
• Twelve-Episode Anime: Including an OVA, titled A Girl Falls in Love with a Girl.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend - The last broadcast episode is largely dedicated to Tomari letting go of Hazumu so he can be with Yasuna. However... And then, of course, there's poor Asuta.
• The Unwanted Harem: Everyone, regardless of sex, species, or relation, wants Hazumu.
• Verbal Tic
• Vague Age
• Victorious Childhood Friend - A last-second finish for Tomari in both the anime and manga! In the manga, Hazumu finally shakes off her indecisiveness and cries out for Tomari over Yasuna in the last chapter. The anime OVA episode is a bit more spectacular, both reversing the Unlucky Childhood Friend end of the previous episode and giving the two an elaborate wedding ceremony (Hazumu carries Tomari).
• What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: A fairly standard Relationship Upgrade kiss in the OVA starts out as a Crowning Moment of Awwwsome, but turns unintentionally hysterical because of the sappy embellishments getting completely out of control.
• What Is This Thing You Call Love? - The alien's main reason for sticking around. They need to relearn love (and all other emotions) to restore their species desire to procreate.
• When the Clock Strikes Twelve
• Girls Love