About the Mangaka
Akahori Satoru is a multi talented chap,l working as a scriptwriter, novelist and manga author. He is best known for the Saber Marionette, Sakura Wars and Sorcerer Hunters series and he Video Girl Ai anime.
Most of Katsura Yukimaru works are based on stories from other media, notably video games. Some of her more notable works are Air, Ark and Yumeria (which I loved!!).
About the Manga
Well, after what feels like a decade (well, near three years), of them accusing me of sabotage, stalking, trying to destroy the company etc etc (see this earlier post) we finally get what we’ve all been waiting for, a reprint of Kashimashi YAY!!!!!
I’ll leave my SSE rant till the end, so you can read the review without prejudice. One point to raise however, SSE never replied to my email with a copy of the post including the rant. So after waiting four days I’m posting it as is.
Any way, moving on!!
Katsura’s art is without a doubt what makes this series so much awesomeness. The cover alone says it all for me, the soft and light, airy colours and awesome character designs on their own would have made me buy the volume.
However as I read the volume I grew more and more to love the characters. Kashimashi has some of the most expressive characters in manga that I’ve ever seen. Which is awesome, they all show their feelings on their faces and in body posture.
Katsura also does use some chibi characters, but she’s apparently learnt that less is more with these, and keeps them to a minimum. As a result I found I really liked the chibi characters and didn’t find my teeth grating over their usage.
Oddly, my two favourite characters are not the lead, I prefer Jan-Puu and Ayuki. Jan-Puu is just awesome. Her personality and actions are hilarious, and she’s just so damned cute. Ayuki has this weird mysterious thing going on, something about the way she acts makes me think she also is in love with Hazumu, but wont act on it for some reason.
The one thing I did notices is that almost all of the cast have those squishy faces that make me wanna sit pocking their cheeks hehe
Story wise it’s also an impressive quirk to a normal love triangle. A guy getting changed to a girl by accident, by aliens, and the escapades he goes through adjusting.
On the surface, and when I first heard of it, I was expecting another Pretty Face styled manga. However (and thankfully) I was surprised to find it as something else. Hazumu was always effeminate and the change doesn’t really change him (her) all that much.
Akahori writes a really interesting and interwoven story, as Hazumu has to come to terms with not only being a girl now; but also dealing with the attentions of a girl who rejected him when he was a boy.
I loved the way the story unfolded, and the reasons behind Yasuna were surprising, and added another unique element to the story.
What I was surprised by was the consistency of the story, it flowed really smoothly dealing with the initial changes and character personalities really well.
My only complaint were the changes to the story that SSE made. Most were minor, but the first and biggest in this volume was Hazumu. In the original Japanese version he was killed when Jan-Puu in ship form crashed into him. Which makes sense, I mean the ship is huge (2km), and the sex change comes from a mishap while bringing him back to life. In SSE version though, he’s injured and no plausible explanation is given. I mean it’s like, oh we fixed your broken leg, but sorry we gave you a sex change as well by accident. I mean come on guys!! Why mess with a good script 
The other changes, while minor, are an irritation I could have done without since I found it getting in the way of my enjoyment.
Also, I’m not sure this is a full trilogy, as in volumes one through three. Rather I got the impression they just split the chapters down the middle. Not a bad idea in theory, especially to maximise a two volume omnibus edition, since it’s only five volumes long.
Though TBH I would have preferred them to do that, have three volumes in the first, two in the second, with one of the single volume releases as a bonus, such as Voiceful.
I initially thought that the paper quality was bad, compared to the individual releases, but after checking it’s the same quality. I guess having the big volume in hand makes it look and feel a bit iffy.
For some reason they also decided to cut costs by removing the colour pages completely, leaving just the plain black and white ones. This is a disappointment, since I love Katsura’s art and would have loved to see the full colour pages.
One thing I did like was they kept the volume the same size as the normal manga, which means it doesn’t dig into the palm as much as the VizBig releases do.
Everything said, I did enjoy this volume (finally!!) and it does go onto my Essential Read list. Volume two is due for release in December, but I’ll believe it’s released when I have it in my hands
Where to Buy
July 5, 2009 @ 22:00.
THIS IS THE RIGHT POST FOR MY QUESTION.
Nice review, however I have a question. I’m pretty obsessive with my books, and I was wondering if the spine bent alot when you were reading it? I have lots of books with extremely rounded spines which is NOT a good thing. So is this volume sturdy or does the spine bend?
Hahah, thanks alot ^^’
And sorry I got it wrong on the other one ^^””’