1 Yep.  Nice character designs, decent premise, lousy show.

I've read some of Pretty Face...  It's just not all that good.  Though that still doesn't explain why it hasn't been made into an anime yet.

2

According to Wikipedia, it was ended rather abruptly, and the final chapter is summaries of a number of possible endings.

But that too doesn't explain why it hasn't been turned into an anime. Just as well.

3 Here's that Wikipedia link.

4 Regarding Kashimashi it is what it says it is, Hazumu is made a girl thru and thru.  It is a love story at its core but it's also an exploration of the changing relationships due to the change in sex.  Especially on the female childhood friend who was in love with the boy who's now a girl.

5 I have no idea why people think a guy in a dress is innately funny. I mean, it's not offensive to me or anything, it's just whenever I see one of the Monty Python cast made up and dressed like a middle-aged woman, I have no idea why the audience is howling with laughter.

I think the whole gender bender thing in anime is just an extension of that, the sort of thing you can do when the characters are drawn instead of live actors. Again, I'm pretty indifferent to the use of this particular plot device, there have been shows that I've enjoyed that use gender bending and shows that I haven't enjoyed.

I read the first volume of Pretty Face. It's pretty tame, but the writing is pedestrian and I haven't quite been interested enough to want more.

6

'I have no idea why people think a guy in a dress is innately funny. I mean, it's not offensive to me or anything, it's just whenever I see one of the Monty Python cast made up and dressed like a middle-aged woman, I have no idea why the audience is howling with laughter.'

For some reason cross dressing is a staple of British comedy (I think it goes back to when only men could appear on stage). I grew up watching sitcoms and films where male characters would be unable to tell an obvious man in a dress from a woman, and find them attractive (even when they have a beard!)

I do rather enjoy a bit of gender confusion in anime (though I fear i have been broken by Minami-ke). I haven't seen all of Kashimashi yet, but I did watch all of Otome wa Boku whihc was amusing in places.

I feel your cultural upbring has a big  part of what we find funny and, often I find stuff funny but not for the reasons indtended- eg there was a series of Renault car adds a couple of years ago, that featured a father and daughter. All they ever said onscreen was 'Nicole' and 'Papa'. (this got spoofed a lot at the time).

In Minami-Ke there is a show within the show called Sensei and Niyomia-Kun, who do the same thing. It makes me laugh because I remember those ads, which I doubt the writers have ever heard of.

 

Andy