The subtitle of Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, Volume 2 is “Triangles Hurt” but what it really ought to be is “Tomari lies to herself, then stops.”
Because that’s what this volume is about, mostly. Tomari, having seen Hazumu and Yasuna kissing, jumps to the obvious conclusion that that kiss was sealing a deal between them. Hazumu liked Yasuna and now, for whatever reason, Yasuna returns the emotion. Except….
Tomari berates herself for dragging up old memories of lil’ Hazumu and she talking about getting married, and berates herself more for being jealous of Yasuna. She pretends to be happy for Hazumu, but is obviously being eaten up inside.
After a day at the beach, in which Yasuna does everything she can to include Tomari as a friend, Tomari has to finally be honest. As much for herself, she tells Yasuna that she likes Hazumu, too. And in a moment of gracious acceptance, Yasuna acknowledges her as a rival. I liked that quite a bit – so different from the usual snarky girl “you’re not worth me being worried” kind of thing. Also, completely unrealistic, but hey – aliens, spaceship in humanoid form, duh. If we’re going to look for realism in our Yuri, *this* is not the place to start. ^_^
Having admitted her feelings to herself, it’s a short step across a wide chasm for Tomari to admit her feelings to Hazumu. Surprisingly, it’s Hazumu herself who creates the opening, by bringing up the same memory that Tomari had been mulling over in the beginning.
We step aside from the main story a little to learn that Ayuki has no intention of ever telling the person she likes about how she feels. This will be the third time I have watched this episode and I’ve read it twice (once in each language) and I still think it looks like she likes Hazumu. I wonder if the mangaka started off with the harem idea, then changed courses for some reason.
This digression leads into our final episode of the volume in which we learn that Hazumu has a terminal case of the SPCD decideritis. She can not and has never been able to make up her mind. And there is still some small part of my soul that thinks that the fact that this is a plot complication is sad. (Aliens, Erica. Spaceship. Right, right….)
So at the end of the volume we’ve all moved forward into square one. Or should that be “triangle” one? Now, at least, all are clear on the landscape – Yasuna and Tomari both like Hazumu and Hazumu likes both of them and cannot decide between them. An admittedly difficult choice. Almost epic – the musician versus the athlete, the arts versus sport. Culture vs Activity. The result of this decision could change the world!
Or not.
The point is, the stage is set.
Technically this DVD was a mixed bag. It starts off really strong, with everyone referring to Hazumu as “she” then suddenly, for no reason, they all revert back to “he”. I watched the bits a few times when it first happened, because when they are referring back to Hazumu the child, it seems natural to use “he” but everyone somehow forgets to switch back when speaking of the current Hazumu. I wasn’t sure if that was an editing oversight, a translation decision, or no one noticed. But I did.
Aside from that the translation was pretty smooth, with the exception of the usual honorific thing that makes me unhappy. And the DVD comes with nifty interviews with the Japanese voice actors, which I always enjoy. They have nothing to say, but that’s okay – I like hearing them say it. ^_^
Ratings:
Art – 7
Story – 7
Music – 6
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 6
Overall – 8
Thanks once again to the generosity and kindness of Media Blasters for giving me this DVD to review – and for allowing us to show Kashimashi and Strawberry Panic!, and most of all to premiere Simoun at Yuricon’s Yurisai event!
