I have two gentlemen to thank for today’s review. First and foremost, Daniel P. who sponsored today’s review by hitting up my Wish List. Thank you very much Daniel! And secondly, Mike H. who just yesterday wrote me a wheedling email wanting to know when I would review this manga already. Mike – I’m reviewing it, ‘kay? Stop whining. ^_^

The plot of Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, Volume 3 is no different from my review of the Japanese edition in 2006. For a basic outline (with the usual mild spoilers) of the plot in Volume 3, please go ahead and read that review. This time I’m going to focus on the adaptation to English.

First of all, I continue to be both impressed and pleased by the translation and adaptation of this manga. Not only is Seven Seas attempting to capture the feel and sense of the original, but leaving honorifics and cultural relics untranslated, but in this issue I noticed a sincere effort to capture the *voice* of each character. This simply puts this adaptation orders above every other translated manga company out there, except for ALC. Because we also work hard to keep the character’s voices intact through our translations and adaptations.

If you know anything about me as a writer or editor, have ever attended a writing workshop with me, or even just read my Fanfic Writer’s Workshop, you’ll know that lack of “voice” in writing, much less translation, is my bete noir. I cannot stand it when all the characters in a book, manga, anime, whatever, sound the same. Rarely do they, in the original, but American translators, by virtue of being one person translating several chapters/volumes, often smooth out the voices to the point that all the differences in speech disappear. Maintaining them in any translation is difficult. And kudos to 7S for obviously working at it.

But.

(You just *knew* there had to be a “but,” right?)

Unless Tomari has all of a sudden become an old Jewish guy, I’m just not convinced that “putz” is the right word as a translation for “baka.” *I* don’t even use putz – and I’m an old Jewish woman. My Dad…*he* uses putz. “Idiot” “Moron” “Stupid” – all are perfectly good insults that don’t make Tomari sound like my father. ^_^

One other thing I wanted to point out on the good side: I noticed immediately that all the characters, save Sora-sensei (who is alien and a freak above that) now call Hazumu “she” or “her.” Well done. Thank you.

The Stupid Plot Complication Disorder (SPCD) this volume is far more exhausting than Yasuna’s merely not being able to see men, and I can swear to you that the conflicts, such as they are, will drag out for most of the next two volumes. But I’ll also council you to stick with the story, because IMHO, the end isn’t at all bad. Check back here for an upcoming review of the final volume, which came out this summer in Japan.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 7
Story – 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 4

Overall – 8

Asuta and his fantasies…total snooze. What a paucity of imagination that boy has.

I would like to start this review with a sad face in the direction of Seven Seas, since they told me that I’d be receiving review copies of their Yuri, but have so far not. Boo on you, S7.

Kashimashi ~ Girl Meets Girl, Volume 2, is, as was the first volume, an excellent adaptation into English. It is *such* a relief to be able to just have the honorifics as is, instead of watching the contortions of language necessary to make translations work, or to have to ignore the implied relationships because they have been removed. I’m not sure if it’s more like having an itch scratched or the absence of a pain one was barely aware of. In any case, It’s nice. :-)

Volume 2 focuses mostly on the creation and solidification of the three-way romance between Hazumu, childhood friend Tomari and first love Yasuna. We also learn that Hazumu not only lacks critical decision-making skills, but is tortured with the inability to make even the simplest choices. And, in between, we watch Hazumu’s best friend, Asuta, nosebleed over any number of situations with his formerly male, now a cute female, best friend. There’s also an odd chapter that explains Ayuki’s apparent passivity in human relationships, something that will come back later as the story develops.

I just went back and re-read my review of the Japanese edition of Kashimashi Volume 2 and I had to laugh at my last line, “I’ll tag along until it gets unbearable or Hazumu turns back into a guy, whichever comes first.” (But I can’t tell you why, just yet. The series has ended in Japan, although the final volume is not yet out. I’ll review the end when that becomes available.)

There are a few things I do want to comment on. One, the translation and adaptation remain excellent. I know how HARD it is to make translated manga make sense sometimes, and depending on the publisher, the title, the team, sometimes the translation is sensible…and sometimes not. This story actually makes sense in English – not something that is easy to do. Tomari’s tsundere (for non-otaku-speak people, call it “passive aggressive”) personality is especially handled well. It’s not just her being tsundere for the sake thereof…her reasons for her behavior are presented and explained in a way that actually makes sense.

Secondly, as a “transgender” story it’s probably not too bad. As Hazumu says, it’s not like she’s not confused or concerned from time to time, but everyone is treating her the same as always. Maybe that’s idealistic, but – isn’t that the ideal? We’re told, repeatedly, that Hazumu was very girly, he was like a girl, and in this volume, that he wanted to be a bride when he was a child. It’s not a huge leap to say that he was a girl in a boy’s body – again, dredging up Serge’s line at the ACen Yuri Panel, that the aliens fixed what nature had broken. So, in a sense, it is a representation of the ideal situation. That the person gains their true gender and everyone still loves them (in this case, more people love her now.)

As a story of lesbian love, it’s also idealistic. Neither Tomari nor Yasuna are concerned at *all* that they have feelings for another girl. The issue is not “I’m in love with a girl” but “I’m in love with Hazumu” which as it should be in a perfect non-assholish world. And really, the issue is “I won’t lose to her” more than anything else.

Lastly, I really enjoyed Ayuki imploring Hazumu, in her heart at least, to slow down and take her time and just enjoy the three-way dynamic. When, in the end chapter, god appears to concur, it somehow made me happy. I still think that the three of them make the least implausible threesome I’ve ever seen (something that the next volume will explore to a small degree.)

While we the audience might perceive this story to be about gender, by the end of Volume 2, it is no longer. Hazumu’s gender is female. Period. But we still talk about it, don’t we?

So, here’s today’s question for comment: If Hazumu turns back into a boy, would it affect your enjoyment of the series? Do you perceive this series as a Yuri series, a Transgender series or none of the above? Inquiring minds want to know!

Ratings:

Art – 8
Character – 8
Story – 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 5

Overall – 8

The more time I spend with these characters, the less I find anything to dislike.

I came to a conclusion today about yuri stories being “good” or “bad.” I was listening to the third Strawberry Panic Drama CD and I realized that, if Chikaru were a guy, most people would find him creepy and – in that particular scene – disgusting. And it dawned on me that that sort of defines what makes a story “good” or “bad”. If for instance, Chikane from Kannazuki no Miko had been a male character, would anyone *ever* attempt a rationalization of his behavior, much less openly declare it to be sexy? I think not.

So, going forward, when I comment that a series is “not good” you can take that to mean that, among other things, I think that if the characters were a hetero, rather than lesbian, couple the story would be boring, trite and/or vile. It’s a simpler criteria than trying to explain good writing all the time.

Ironically, none of that really applies to today’s review, as the character starts off as a boy. ^_^ I reviewed Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, Volume 1 in Japanese back in May 2005. Because the story has not changed at all, I will not be re-reviewing the story itself. If you are not sure whether you want to read the story, by all means, please visit that first review. I rated the Volume an overall 7, if that helps.

What I do want to talk about today is the quality of the transition into English of this story. Which is, let me be honest, very, very good.

If you are a regular reader of Okazu, you know that I am constantly disappointed in English adaptations of manga and anime that remove honorifics and cultural references.

Based on that alone, it’s fair to say that this volume of Kashimashi may well be the single best adaptation of a manga into English that I have ever seen.

Every honorific – even the silly ones…especially the silly ones – are preserved. Notes are added that make sense of the puns and cultural relics, and the reading audience is assumed to have several functioning brain cells. It was the proverbial breath of fresh air to me, let me tell you. Overall, this may well be one of the best translation/adaptations I’ve ever seen. It was a seamless reading experience for this reader of the original version – my highest compliment for a translation.

The print quality is good, and although it did not bother me in any way, you should know that the sound effects are left completely untranslated. As I’ve mentioned many times, I don’t read s/fx, indeed I hardly notice them for myself (although I pay attention for review purposes.)

The story remains yuri, although with that edge of marginalization that exists in so many current Dengeki yuri series. It retains the service, the goofball plot complications, the sad wretch of a pervtastic father, and the “I’m a girl now, so I have to do abc…” and of course the aliens, that make it hard to judge this book harshly, since it’s so obviously ridiculous.

Still not my favorite example of “Yuri”, Kashimashi (which, btw, also means a loud or rambunctious sound) makes a decent enough entry into the Yuri market – and an exceptional showing for Seven Seas. Keep up the work, guys – and get some GOOD Yuri titles, please! Ask me, and I’ll be glad to offer some suggestions.

Ratings for the story:

Art – 8
Characters – 7
Story – 5
Yuri- 9

Overall – 7

Ratings for the adaptation:

Translation: 9
Print Quality: 8 (not at all easy to do…)

Overall: 9

I’ve never read a manga in English that I didn’t personally publish that felt more like reading the Japanese original. Kudos to Seven Seas.