Summary:
On an early morning trek, Hazumu heads to the top of Kashimayama while thinking about how much she loves both Tomari and Yasuna. She wonders what love is. As the day starts, Yasuna is packing her stuff away – it appears that she’s moving. Hazumu goes looking for Tomari, but she’s not at home. Hazumu finds Tomari at school watering the plants and tells her that she’s finally decided – she’s wants to be by Yasuna’s side. She then starts to apologize, but Tomari understands and sprays Hazumu with water. Tomari had wanted to play together, and Hazumu ends up agreeing to the request. They go biking, eating, hitting balls in the batting cage, trying to get a prize out of a game machine, CD shopping, and karaoking. After praying at a shrine, Hazumu asks Tomari what she had wished for. Hazumu reveals that she had hoped Yasuna would get better, and Tomari says that hers was the same.
Hazumu then has one last request: she wants to ride with Tomari on the same bike. They do so, but Tomari jokes about going to the ocean, triggering painful feelings in both girls. When Hazumu tries to hug Tomari from behind, she causes Tomari to lose her balance and causes the bike to tip over. Hazumu starts crying again, but Tomari reminds Hazumu that she’s already made her decision. Tomari starts recounting the time when Hazumu crossed the river to prove that he was going to be Tomari’s bridegroom. At that time, Tomari considered Hazumu hers – someone that she wouldn’t hand over, someone that no one could deprive her of. She had bragged about getting married to Hazumu, growing old together, and having children and grandchildren. The present Tomari tells Hazumu to go to Yasuna and even says that Hazumu is a guy, implying that Hazumu should take responsibility. But Tomari’s no longer able to hold back her own tears, and because she screams “Hazumu!,” Hazumu turns around and gives her a hug. Tomari then skips across the rocks in the river the same way Hazumu did back then. But when she turns around, Hazumu has already left for Yasuna. Ayuki, who had noticed the bikes before, now appears to give Tomari a shoulder to cry on. Tomari acts like she’s fine, so Ayuki hugs her and says that she’ll cry instead.
Yasuna has packed her stuff and left home. She drops her bag while crossing the street and a lady she can’t identify hands it back to her. Soon, her entire field of vision, not just the people, turns fuzzy and gray. But then a bright yellow figure – Hazumu – appears. Hazumu wants to be with Yasuna and declares that she loves her. Hearing those words once again reveals the world to Yasuna. Sora, who is watching them from his ship, starts talking about love. It is something that’s hard to talk about, and it cannot be seen. Love can cause pain and cause gaps to widen between people, but they want love anyway; it is their reason for living. The heart can go back and forth between a wide range of emotions, from laughter to tears to anger. But no matter how painful it is, without love, the lives that are lived lose their worth. Sora and Jan-puu then disappear in their spaceship, covering the world in a beautiful rain of sparkles. Yasuna decides not to leave after all, and everything returns to normal. One afternoon, Yasuna tells something to Hazumu and Hazumu in turn tells Tomari from the symbolic spot across the river, but we don’t hear what it is.

Eh, I think they spent too much time on Tomari for this to be a Yasuna ending. They spend the first 17 minutes on Tomari and Hazumu, resolve Yasuna’s problem in two minutes, and the rest is conclusion. Actually, they kind of left the ending open, so who knows. With Hazumu saying something to Tomari from across the river, they seem to be implying that the three girls will be together.
Maybe they’ll continue where they left off in the DVD 13th episode (yes there’s going to be a DVD 13th episode).
Having made that complaint, I found myself rooting for Tomari near the end here. She’s gotten a lot more character development and moments of angst in the past few episodes, and you can’t help but feel sympathetic for her after Hazumu chooses Yasuna.

Final Thoughts: It’s rare to find a series that follows the manga, but can go a step above and beyond to make it even better. That’s exactly what Kashimashi does for the first nine or so episodes. Over the course of the series, I changed from being a Yasuna fan to wanting all three girls to be together, and now I slightly lean towards Tomari. I didn’t like certain aspects of the final arc (the Yasuna ending and the lack of focus on Yasuna in this ending), but there was certainly a lot of angst getting there. I’m holding out and hoping that this episode isn’t the true ending and that title will go to the DVD episode.

45 Comments

  1. upon watching the anime and reading the manga as far as it’s been translated, i think the manga’s doing a better job. still, this was a decent ending to the series.

    firebrand
  2. yea..i started to hate both this manga and anime…so..i just stopped to watch the anime and read the summary here just to see…but..defintly the manga is better…especially..the one month thing about hazumu . it’s definintly the best past of the manga . ( yea , i hate hazumu )

    kurotsuki
  3. That would’ve made an… interesting ending, if they’d gone for the manga’s storyline right about now. Honestly, I’m a little conflicted about the endings for this and Magikano – I’m starting to despise reset endings, and while this ending was a Yasuna one… it’s still pretty open. I’m wondering how long those two would last, given the way they got together here.

    Haesslich
  4. Lovely ending, in my book. All the time spent with Tomari was great. Quite moving. Tamura Yukari was fabulous, as was Ueda Kana. And so were Horie Yui and Asano Masumi, for that matter. The openness of the future is interesting. My preferred ending is a threesome, and the very end holds out hope. Or else Ayuki is really in love with Tomari, not Hazumu. That wouldn’t be bad at all. There just wasn’t enough time to do justice to the one-month thing from the manga, which is pretty great in itself. And oh yes, I love Hazumu — or at least Ueda Kana, lol.

  5. Awww…..I’ll still prefer the 3 girls to be together instead of Hazumu and Yasuna. But reality is cruel so I suppose Hazumu can only choose either Tomari or Yasuna. And yeah, its weird to see 2 girls together so I’ll actually love to see Hazumu turn back into a guy again.

    dward
  6. No, Magikano was the reset… and I’m not sure how to feel about that. Given that MOON PHASE has confirmed there’s a DVD only episode for Kashimashi… I wonder what that’ll involve, and if it’ll take place after Ep 12, timeline-wise, or if there’s something else.

    It makes you wonder how Yasuna would handle things if Hazumu DID end up turning back into a guy…

    Haesslich
  7. Hazumo back into a guy? Come on, that’s one of the most interesting parts in this story.
    I would’nt like it. Damn, wanna start my Japanese study, wanna read the manga q.q

    *Chi*
  8. Is that a tear in Hazumu’s right cheek? I am hoping that Yasuna told Hazumu that she doesn’t have to choose her alone, considering the river spot is so significant for Tomari and Hazumu. Like someone said it pays to be petied. Good job Yasuna, you pyscho!

    golthin
  9. *blink blink*

    I can’t see this a good end; yasuna comes off as self centered to me. something about the ‘WAH! I’m not getting my way, so I”LL JUST GO BLIND!’ thing. if that’s all it takes to get hazumu’s attention, I pity the fool.

    again, I can’t say much in tomari’s favor here, either. just *accepting* such a thing degrades oneself.

    congrats yasuna, ya little wretch. *sigh*

    Z
  10. A nice ending towards the finale, as much as i was a yasuna fan since the manga come out. I really wish there would animate part of chapter 21+ there is always the manga to look forward to.

    “Z”
    I think you’ve exaggerated your point abit, Tomari also partially contributed towards Yasuna “Blindness” and if Yasuna was the self centered type she wouldn’t have attempt to leave town.

    Nemuru
  11. When I first heard of the manga for this series last year, I thought it was hentai. What little I heard left me thinking that Hazumu was a pervert and Yasuna a militant lesbian. Wow, talk about wrong first impressions, LOL. Since then, I have found this series to be one of the best this winter. It is also one of the few manga-based animes that is better than its source. For example, the anime does a much better job presenting the cause of Lacuna’s male blindness. In the manga, we just see a picture of her blurred-out father picking her up. In the anime, we find out that he is angry as he picks her up and that she can initially see him clearly.

    With this anime, you had a decent look at the nature of love and sexual attraction with some humor thrown in to make it more palatable. Though it didn’t get too deep, it was still interesting to contrast different levels of physical vs. emotional attraction for Hazumu by Tomari, Yasuna, Ayuki and Asuta. Both before and after the sex change. In my opinion, the person with the strongest emotion for the boy Hazumu was Tomari. She was also the person most affected by the sex change, even more than Hazumu him/herself. I admired the way she was able to handle the trauma. Her character and love for Hazumu became stronger as a result. You can certainly count me in the Tomari x Hazumu camp.

    Yasuna is, in my opinion, one of the wimpiest characters in fiction. First, she reacts hysterically to her father’s anger. This is followed by her rejection of Hazumu because she is afraid that eventually she won’t be able to see him. Then, because of his sex change, Hazumu becomes acceptable?! Rubbish! Her becoming blind because of Tomari’s “betrayal” was just too much.

    Ayuki, as the consummate observer, was an intriguing character. She was interesting source of commentary and advice throughout the entire series. Her feelings and reaction to Hazumu’s change was a neat contrast to both Tomari’s and Yasuna’s. She seemed to accept the change the same way she would have if Hazumu had gotten a different (and better) haircut.

    I wish they had treated Asuta’s feelings seriously. I guess that would have been too controversial. It goes back to the line from the old John Mellencamp song, “You can’t tell your best buddy that you love him.” The name of the song escapes me at the moment.

    Zendar
  12. I finally watched this, and the very end means that either Yasuna told her that she won’t mind sharing Hazumu with tomari or that Yasuna is leaving to study somewhere. Yasuna letting Hazumu’s hand go and then looking sad and then looking kindly and saying “Ano ne”; then Hazumu calling Tomari to the creek, crossing to the other side as when they were small and yelling to tomari “Tomari…ano ne” . “ano ne” = “You know what..”.

    By the way, I was freaking crying like a freaking baby for freaking 16 minutes during the Hazumu tomari date, damn show got to me :(. Now to wait for episode 13

    golthin
  13. Pandaharo, read the front page! there is going to be a DVD only episode 13. The TV run ended at 12
    if you want to watch the true end to the Anime version you have to buy the DVD. This is just bait to make people buy the DVD. :). So they gave a fake end for the TV version and hint it BIG time that it is not really an the end.

    golthin
  14. It looks like hazumu x yasuna end. However, in the last moment, yasuna tried to say something to hazumu and also hazume tried to say something to tomari after accrossing the river which is important for them. therefore, i think it may be finally hazumu x tomari end in the final episode in the dvd version.

    jpn
  15. In that last scene, Hazumu looks a bit too happy for someone who just broke up with Yasuna (who was, after all, her first choice). If the DVD ending actually changes anything, I think the betting is probably favouring HxYxT at this point.

    Guppy
  16. some pretty small-minded or immature comments mixed in some of the posts above … what made the story interesting was dealing with the new circumstances and how it affected relationships. Do we like people for who they are or what they look like (or what combination)?

    My take on Hazumu is that he was destroyed by the ship … but that the aliens were able to snapshot his memories, his personality, and a bit of DNA. From that they constructed an attractive girl with Hazumu’s memories and personality. The new environment, situation, and sense of self evolved from there. Basically, the “star trek transporter” situation (quantum replication).

    The two girls dealing with Hazumu 2.0 made for interesting storytelling but I kind of feel like they dropped the ball on his buddy’s dilemma and resolution. Lots of potential interest but they turned him into a sideline joke.

    Generally, I liked the series and will be interested in seeing how the manga plays out.

    Vexx
  17. After finally getting the chance to watch this (was busy with finals), I must say that it’s a very powerful ep, especially at the scene where Tomari and Hazumu were at the river crying and holding each other. Ayuki is without a doubt the best and smartest character of them all. It was very passionate to see her giving a hug to Tomari and crying gently.

    However….that doesn’t mean I’m not angry about this ep.

    I am litearlly furious. I just can’t seem to get over the stupid disease that Yasuna has. I’m sorry…I’ve seen a lot of anime… seen and heard a lot of made up stuff…but this is without a doubt the worst fake disease I have ever heard.

    Honestly, would you accept someone’s feelings after that person trampled on yours? I mean, this was Hazumu’s first confession and it just destroyed him/her.

    I understand what Hazumu is going through. Picking over two people that means so much to her. I still think she made the wrong choice. You can’t just ignore someone who has been through everything with you, whether it’s been the good times or the bad times. I Just hope that the manga has a better ending.

    Taishi
  18. uhh what happened? at the end where yasuna is holding hazumus hand and says “you know!”. what did she say? and what did hazumu say after run across the river? does the manga explain it? or is it one of those make up your own ending things.

    djblu3
  19. Eh, the ending was rather confusing but I’ve seen a lot of good replies here already about it.

    There is indeed a time laps between the scene where Yasuna tells something to Hazumu by the tree to when Hazumu tells something to Tomari across the river. Since the anime ended at the end of summer, they must have switched to their Fall uniforms, which also explains Hazumu’s stockings in the final scene. For the animators to make the point that there is a time laps must be something significant.

    As for the Hazumu/Yasuna/Tomari threesome that a lot have suggested as a possible ending of the 13th episode, I really doubt that would happen since it’d go against the main point in the anime, and that was that Hazumu had to end up chosing either one or the other.

    Also, everything from the 11th episode on was no where in the manga. The anime only followed the manga between episdoes 1 and 10, so the ending is still puzzling to me, since I’ve read all the available manga.

    Juhachi
  20. This is definately the best anime AND manga I’ve ever seen. I love how they keep a pretty firm barrier between the comedic scenes and the serious scenes. I hate it when people throw humor into the middle of a serious scene… it just ruins the mood…

    Anyway, I’m very satisfied with the Hazumu/Yasuna ending. I can’t see how people find Yasuna to be self centered. At times she comes off that way, but she isn’t. If anyone in the series is self centered, it’s Tomari. She expresses no interest twards Hazumu until she transforms and begins spending more time with Yasuna. Plus, how many times does she say “I don’t want to lose to her?”

    Hazumu and Yasuna are in love with eachother, but it takes time for Hazumu to realize that she can still love a girl even though she has become one herself. Yasuna is a pretty weak-willed character, so she has trouble taking risks. That’s why she “rejected” Hazumu in the first place. Personally, If I confessed my love to a girl like that and she said “I’m sorry!” and burst into tears, I’d know that she felt the same way, but there was something holding her back.

    I can’t wait to see the fansubbed version of ep 12, but I’m dieing to see ep 13! What will happen???? I hope that the three of them get together, beause even though I’m not a big Tomari fan, the second half of the series told me that Tomari and Yasuna also had feelings for eachother that developed during this whole ordeal.

    Though, I must admit, it would entertain me to no end if Hazumu ended up with Jan-puu.

    DurMan
  21. The episode was beautiful …. really heartfelt …. “demo”….

    The “coin flip” monogamous solutions are really the easy way out for the writers. Fortunately, we didn’t get that: in this series they made sure that either choice was painful but…. I don’t think Hazumu “chose” Yasuna — it was that at that moment Yasuna needed her more.

    My money is on the idea that down the road (in ep 13), Yasuna decides that Hazumu’s “choice” really wasn’t a choice … Hazumu *had* to choose Yasuna for fear of leaving her permamently exiled to a grey oblivion. Yasuna will free Hazumu (perhaps she goes to Paris to study music) and tell her to go to the person who needs her most now: Tomari.
    That theory depends on the idea that Yasuna has enough self confidence now that she doesn’t relapse if Hazumu steps out of sight.
    The other notion: a threesome – assumes that Yasuna returns to the idea that it is the three of them that are the most complementary – not any two of them (especially if Hazumu spends half her time with Yasuna staring out the window or accidently saying “Tomari”).

    Pure speculation on my part — (I’m not either a “Tomari shipper” or a “Yasuna shipper”, just trying to figure out what a 13th ep might have in store for us)

    Side comment: Having the comic buffoon teacher suddenly be serious at the end really didn’t fit. Asuta at least got more serious moments than she had (and I’m kind of happy to see the manga treats his dilemma about his friend more seriously while still adding some humor).

    vexx
  22. Regarding all those threesome and “monogamy is lame” fanboys ;P of course it was a bit of fresh air to have some people (ok, all girls =) consider trying to get happy all together…
    …but then again, that doesn’t seem to be the main point in this show. To me it looks much more, as it is all about learning to choose, learning to recognize what you want actually, not freezing the status quo. It reminds me very much about the love triangle(s) in Honey and Clover. It wasn’t just about deciding “who you want to be with” (Hazumu) but if you want to “get on the stage” anyway (Tomari) – as has been pointed out by Ayuki so nicely, which again reminds of Shuuji’s comment in episode 16 of Honey and Clover (that “3rd coice”, which Shuuji didn’t reveal, may be related to Hazumu’s indecisiveness trauma).
    But I can accept if you say, the show just wants to demonstrate, that forcing such decissions may result in suffering eventually. ;P
    And for episode 13, let’s hope Hazumu stays a girl… and Ayuki finally gets on stage, to get together with Tomari! =)
    (The signs about Ayuki were present since the first few episodes, but episode 12 made it clear IMHO – and look at Ayuki’s glance at 22:42 in episode 12. *runs*)

    CibiTori
  23. Umm… whats with the last part of this anime ? The parts where yasuna says ”you know…” to Hazumu and then Hazumu says ”you know…!” to tomari ? Why did they say that ? Its been bothering me any ideas guyz?

    cures
  24. Taishi, I don’t know if this will help you with appreciating what the writers were going for with the disease, but here is my guess at it. It’s a social commentary on our society, how changes in technology and our way of life are increasingly limiting our day to day physical interactions with people. We are more productive with emails, instant messaging, cell phones, etc…, but these tools tend to dehumanize our interactions with people. We are more likely to vent our frustration at someone on the other end of the keyboard, then we are in a face to face dealing. (Those customer service scripts they use always sound like broken records to me) We are less about trying to understand other people, then we are about getting something done. Like Sora said in the episode before, ” as civilization on our planet advanced, the interest in other persons was lost. …You could say it was a decline in the will to communicate.” Anyway that whole thing reminds me of Chobits and people prefering Persocoms over relationships with other people.

    Also, Thanks to Random Curiosity for exposing me to anime I might not have run across otherwise.

    JK
  25. I was quite disappointed by the ending with Tomari being left out. I just don’t understand how Hazumu could have choosen Yasuna. Hazumu has so much history with Tomari it’s ridiculous. They are pretty much the best of friends. With such an intimate connection, I have trouble believing Yasuna who in my opinion is a pretty dry character and if I may be so bold, shallow character, was the one Yasuna picked. I really doesn’t make sense. And Tomari’s lines from the river, “No… don’t throw me away.” pretty much sums it up. I really didn’t see a motivation for Hazumu’s decision. It’s as if Hazumu really did discard Tomari. Maybe Hazumu’s just tired of the same old thing. I feel sorry for Tomari, I really do. But maybe the ending is for the best, afterall Tomari deserves way better than Hazumu.

    One minor note: Going blind cause things aren’t going your way? What the hell? I mean seriously, that’s retarded.

    Momo
  26. In the manga, which doesn’t end this way, Hazumu has cancer and only 1 month left to live.

    The cancer is sucking away her destiny force.

    THen Tomari goes apeshit on her cause she’s got cancer and is dying soon.

    doublex
  27. Finally got myself to finish watching the series. Boy, the last (tv) episode sure is touching, with Tomari and Hazumu’s date. I’ve a feeling that for the 13th episode:

    1. Yasuna realised that Hazumu might have chosen her out of pity/guilt, and therefore
    2. Invites BOTH Hazumu and Tomari somewhere (long sleeves? I’m guessing, … winter? so…skiing?)
    3. While Hazumu have her fun (and the viewer gets their dosage of fanservice/comedy), Yasuna might let Tomari know that she wouldn’t want to be chosen by Hazumu because of her sickness
    4. Hence, ending the series back at square one, where everyone has a chance to win Hazumu’s affection again.

    Of course, I’m just speculating, but as some of the previous comments stated:
    1. When Yasuna let go of Hazumu’s hand to tell her something, she did looked sad
    2. Hazumu seemed a bit too happy to talk to Tomari, hence why I’m ruling out that Yasuna broke up with her. She simply look too excited.
    3. Like some of you have said (as well as what Yasuna said in previous episodes/chapters), it’s best for the 3 of them to be together. Hence, I wouldn’t be surprised if the producer decided to start everyone back at square one, because:
    * It allows an open ended ending, which just might suit a lot of people (keeping tomari/threesome fans happy)
    * It opens up possibilities to further cash in on the series with a sequel season (keeping the money-lovers within the company happy)

    Finally, the reason why I’m guessing a “vacation” episode… well, what else? A “Vacation” episode is imo the best way to stretch any story to a full 25 minutes while throwing in lots of fanservices to keep the viewers happy. It may be cliched, but at least it’s something that most viewers are familiar with. So with all the comedic possibilities, they can easily slip in some more serious, dramatic scenes without making the viewer feel too depressed.

    The ONLY thing standing between my speculation and what might actually happen, is that when Yasuna was talking to Hazumu, they were in short sleeves, but when Hazumu tried talking to Tomari, they were wearing long sleeves… so maybe Yasuna DID leave hazumu, and that last part where Hazumu looked all excited might be Yasuna coming back to visit them. But still, I kinda like my speculation, so I’m sticking with it for a while longer. 😀

    Can’t wait for episode 13!!!

    JoshieJosh
  28. I barely saw the last episode today and I guess I’m the minority here, I thought it was excellent I loved it. But gladly they left it open I’d hate this series to have ended already.

    Chris
  29. Question: Do we know when this thirteenth episode is coming out? I just got around to finishing the series today and I need some resolution in the DVD episode. Seriously. Seriously. For them to make such a point about Hazumu needing to be more decisive, only to have a decidedly open ended (read: indecisive) ending is bull. Even if the choice she makes is for all of them to be together, I want closure on it, not ambiguity.

    Personally I’m for the HxYxT ending just because I’d like to see more of that kind of open-mindedness in my anime. Honestly all this angst is unnecessary, it seems like if you – their jealousy over Hazumu, Tomari and Yasuna would probably be very close, so they should just get over it and be a big happy group. Everyone wins, except Ayuki and Asuta, but they are minor characters so who really gives a damn?

    Beckett
  30. ohayo mina san!! there is ova its cool for who love tomari and hazumu ((me)) anyway i love this anime sooo much but in ep 12 when tomari and hazumu `go biking, eating, hitting balls in the batting cage, trying to get a prize out of a game machine, CD shopping, and karaoking. then praying at a shrine` i want to know what is the image song name i love it so much so anyone who know it please please tell me arigatou mina if you help me.. ^__^!

    ash

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