Kashimashi – 02

Summary:
While Hazumu is still adjusting to being a girl, the media is in a frenzy over her. Even her parents are acting weird, with her mother going crazy giving her new clothes and her father wanting to take a bath with her. For school, Hazumu now wears a girl’s uniform, much to the surprise of Tomari and Asuta. With the crowds of reporters outside, Tomari has to pull Hazumu out of her house and the two run the way to school. Hazumu has also become something of a spectacle for the students, so Tomari has to protect her there too. While they’re in the locker room, Tomari can’t help but remember Hazumu as a boy, and asks her if it’s ok that he’s now a she. Hazumu replies that there’s nothing she can do about it since her DNA was changed, but that even if her appearance is different, she’s still the same person. As the day progresses, it becomes apparent that Hazumu doesn’t know the finer points of being female, so Tomari has to stop her from doing things like flapping her skirt up and down because it’s feels refreshing, offering to show her breasts to Asuta, and flashing her panties while going up the stairs.
At the end of the school day, Hazumu briefly runs into Yasuna, but then goes with Tomari, Asuta, and Ayuki to buy bras. After finding out her measurements (70C), Hazumu asks for Tomari’s help in choosing a specific bra and putting it on. The entire situation once again reminds Tomari of her times with Hazumu when they were young. She goes home alone, still having a hard time accepting Hazumu as a girl, and pauses at a bridge to think about the time when she defended Hazumu from some bullies. Ayuki comes running to tell her that Hazumu is in trouble: the media crowd surrounded her. It’s Tomari who once again shows up to defend her and scare away the reporters. Hazumu’s tears and words of apology are the same as that time when they were young, and they make Tomari finally realize that Hazumu hasn’t really changed. Standing down the street, Yasuna, who followed Tomari, now sees Hazumu in Tomari’s arms.
After the ordeal is over, Hazumu goes home to find two strange looking people waiting for her in her room – the aliens.

ED Sequence

ED: 「みちしるべ」(Michi Shirube) by ゆうまお (Yuumao)
A good chorus on the song, and a good song overall. ED sequence just shows some stills of the girls, highlighting HazumuXYasuna and HazumuXTomari.

I like how they’re combining manga chapters to create episodes where a particular girl is in focus (Tomari and Yasuna thus far), but I’m slightly (only slightly) upset that they gave Yasuna’s role during the bra scene to Tomari. I guess that’s the tradeoff for giving Tomari basically the entire episode, but it kind of balances out since Yasuna got lots of extra screen time last episode and next week is about her too. Anyway, I enjoy the episode because it gives a deeper perspective for Tomari than we get in the manga. And a lot of the Hazumu-learning-the-ropes stuff is pretty funny.
The end of the episode introduces Sora Hitoshi and Jan-puu (the aliens), but their roles should be pretty minor for now – probably comic relief. But like I said, next week is a Yasuna episode and a pretty important one from the looks of it.