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You're getting at something here. However, though I like Kashimashi, it does not fully resonate my whole being. Maybe it's a little too melodramatic...make it more mental like Zettai Shonen and perhaps I'll like it even more.
What does resonate my whole being?
Marimite (another shoujo-ai show, but it's actually shoujo not seinen), Aria the Animation, anything YKK-like.
Some have classified anime I like as iyashi-kei, or healing, relaxing anime.
Others have classified them as Otome-kei type moe...moe stories with minimal male presence where the heroines are in an ideal innocent environment.
Put them together, and basically I like charming lighthearted slice-of-life stories about innocent girls. The innocence and lightheartedness is just as important as the femaleness of the settings. Heavy drama such as Kiminozo need not apply here. It might be possible to put innocence and lightheartedness in a male setting, I don't know, it might work, but no one has ever tried.
Here's how I analyze this. It's been often said that females give, and males take. However notice that the explanation for the male symbol:
"Borrowed from the astrological sigil of the planet Mars, this symbol represents men and masculine energy. It is composed of the circle of unity and the arrow of action.
Masculine energy is seen as yang - kinetic, active, expanding."
The active arrow of action, in effect, projects the essence of the self (circle of unity)...it essentially gives of itself. It is Purpose. It is Self-sacrifice. It is the Ideal. That is why messiah figures such as Jesus are male and could not be female. That is why we have no qualms in sending our sons to war to become cannon fodder. I bet that many people (me included) would feel very uncomfortable in sending daughters to war, even if they have proven to be capable aggressors.
Now compare and contrast a typical purpose-driven masculine story plot to a its-the-journey-that-matters feminine 'story' (or what even counts as story) plot. Iyashi-kei / Otome-kei anime fills that void nicely and provides the complement.
Though in my opinion Kashimashi is a little too melodramatic to qualify as full-fledged Iyashi / Otome-kei anime. Yes, it does drain a little, whereas the genre is supposed to be fully soothing, relaxing, uplifting.
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