Print Review: Kashimashi volumes 1-5 (complete)

Review Kashimashi volumes 1-5 (complete)Written by WarpshadowRating very good

Romantic stories come in all shapes and this story may be a love story between three girls made primarily for guys but I think it is a story that just about anybody should be able to appreciate.

Hazumu was a quiet but kind young man who fell in love with a girl named Yasuna but she rejected him. To get over the pain of loss he decided to climb the hill where the two met. In a shock unlike any other he was struck by an errant spaceship and when the aliens on their heal him he turned into a she. On the upside the transformation caused Yasuna to take a newfound interest in Hazumu but what does her childhood friend Tomari think of the situation with her friend's new gender and blossoming relationship?

Kashimashi is a romantic manga about a lesbian love triangle. Although this is a shonen manga (my suspicion is that the literary reason behind Hazumu's sex change was to help a male audience acclimate to a female viewpoint character) the fan service is rather mild. The manga is mostly focused on emotional appeals and the like which probably ties into it's main flaw, that the plot plods through Hazumu's love triangle problems, even to the point of pointing out his indecisiveness in volume two. Even so I found this to be a decent romantic manga that I would recommend to those looking for a different kind of story.