Reversals

High school junior Hazumu, the central character of Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl (2006), is a fragile, sensitive boy who's more comfortable around plants than people. His friend Tomari has protected him since he was a child, but she joins his other friends, urging him to declare his love for Yasuna. When Yasuna rejects him, Hazumu wanders on a nearby mountain--and is hit by an alien spaceship when it crashes. The aliens regenerate his injured body, but they change his gender in the process. Hazumu takes the change calmly, although he has to learn to dress and behave like a proper Japanese girl. Although she regrets having rejected Hazuma when he was male, Yasuna likes him as a girl. Their affection makes Tomari jealous. Kashimashi sometimes feels like the female equivalent of a yaoi romance; it makes Gakuen Heaven and Revolutionary Girl Utena feel as normal as "The Bobsey Twins." In Japanese only. (Rated 13 and older: cartoon violence, nudity, risqué humor, suggested lesbianism) --Charles Solomon