Anime 31636 Dagashi Kashi Reviews Filter Check 2

Dagashi Kashi
By Kokonotsu Yen (9 Yen, 50 Cent's Japanese half cousin)

I'll take you to the Dagashi shop
I'll let you lick the watapachi-pop
Go 'head girl don't you stop
Keep going 'til you hit the Toppo, whoa

I'll take you to the Dagashi shop (yeah)
Hotaru, one taste of what I got
... I'll have you spending all you got (come on)
Keep going 'til you hit the Hi-Chew, whoa

You could have it your way, how do you want it?
You gon' sip that Ramune, or should I put some Pocky on it?
Temperature rising, okay, let's go to the next level
Shikada-dashi jam-packed, hot as a tea kettle

Yeaaah, so, Dagashi Kashi: a show that serves basically as a 4.5 hour commercial for various Japanese candy manufacturers under the pretense of a slice of life comedy. This show started off as a curiosity to me- it was charming in its simplistic, unassuming stance- as nonthreatening as an anime can possibly be. Yet at the same time, the early episodes had some really strange happenings that I can only describe as "Japan". This novelty was endearing for a while, and with the backdrop of the candy store- I though this show could be a fun little niche thing for a while, but the novelty soon wore thin. The beginning was amusing, but then quickly fell into a plodding middle- especially given that Dagashi Kashi shows its hand very quickly, and then continues to play the same cards, in a sense. It picked up again around the ending, promising a little more in the way of romantic subplots, but like most shows of one cour in length- ends up going absolutely nowhere.

This show features one of, if not THE smallest cast I've ever seen in an anime. 5 characters- and one of them appears in maybe two episodes. There are RARELY even unnamed passers by in this show- it focuses solely on the main 4: Kokonotsu, Hotaru, Saya, and To.
Kokonotsu is our put upon protagonist- charged with running his absentee dad's candy shop (which apparently is famous, yet has no other customers besides mostly Hotaru, but also Saya and To). He flip flops between being white dwarf-level dense and a go-getter, but ultimately settles for being another trope-guy.
Hotaru is a rich heir to a prominent candy manufacturing family, whose airheaded-ness is surpassed by only her obsession with eating candy. So much so, that she even frequently hallucinates that she is talking to, making out with, or otherwise in 'actual' love with candy. She a freak, though.
Saya and To are twins, and the best friends (and possibly only other people in town?) of Kokonotsu. To is the typical good natured perv friend, and Saya happens to be a master of everything she attempts (our perfect human being character), except the ways of love.

One last thing of note is the artwork. The overall design is very minimalistic, but one specific part of the character designs will stick with me- the eyes. The characters in this show have some of the strangest eyes I've ever seen. Hotaru has spirals instead of pupils, and most of the other characters have extremely beady eyes or look incredibly sleep deprived. It adds another odd element to an oddity of a show.

Overall, this show is about as interesting as vanilla ice cream- but if learning the names of a bunch of Japanese candy and getting a sales pitch in animated form is exciting to you- by all means, give it a spin.

So Kokonotsu... do you wanna try becoming adults?

Say yes you beta bastard, say yes!

Anyways, Dagashi Kashi! This series was the one I was most interested in before it aired. Why? Because of that busty babe on the picture! And now, after watching it, I can confidently say that Dagashi Kashi was actually the complete opposite of what I thought it would be. I thought it was going to be a story about young Kokonotsu, an aspiring mangaka, and his struggles of dealing with Hotaru, that sweet sexy thang, who wants Kokonotsu to take over his dad's candy shop instead! Well, sure... that's kind of what ... the show is about. But is it really?

Nah.........

Dagashi Kashi is a textbook example of a "nothing happens" show. However, it isn't by any means boring! It isn't like Glasslip tier of nothing happens, it's more of like the things that do happen are borderline irrelevant to any sort of "plot" this show tries to tell.

Did I mention "plot?" Well, I take it back, for there is none. Dagashi Kashi purely consists of skits and character interactions. As entertaining as some of these skits are, they really don't add up to become some amazing story. Quite the opposite, actually, for they don't add up at all! They are all their own little equations.

And now most of you guys reading this review must wonder why I still give it a 6, and that is because Dagashi Kashi is by no means a bad show! In fact, it was one of the more enjoyable ones this season! Sure, since a lot of the jokes are about Japanese candy, and not a lot of you people are Japanese, you might think the jokes are incredibly hit or miss. But the extremely colorful and dynamic characters more than makes up for it! Dagashi Kashi is definitely an enjoyment > quality type of anime.

Pros:
- Great characters! They are all really characteristic and fun, and none of them are hateable.
- Very catchy OP and ED!
- I really like the character designs!
- Character interactions are very humorous.
- Surprisingly good use of flashbacks!
- There's romantic tension? What....

Cons:
- Less story than Musaigen.
- While the character interactions are spot on, the jokes themselves are very hit or miss. For most caucasians, you won't find most, if any of the jokes funny. I'm Chinese, and Chinese candies are close enough. (Not really.)
- No memorable OST.

Story: 4
But Yuni, there is no story? Why not a 1? Well, that's because the events that actually do happen within this "story" are actually pretty entertaining! Each skit is usually about a type of candy or some event based around candy. It's a story that focuses A LOT on first world problems. And these first world problems are like ridiculous ones. Whatever happens depends on the candy. Sometimes it's a history lesson about why that candy exists. Sometimes it's some competition that connects to the candy. Sometimes it's a flash back of a memory that was triggered by the candy. These events range from boring, to educational, to entertaining. But at the end of the day, the characters are the same, the plot hasn't progressed whatsoever, and yeah. NOTHING HAPPENS!!!!

Art: 8
The art is great, although nothing noteworthy or overly impressive. I do like the character designs though! This show does have a pretty unique and interesting character design, and I think it fits the characters well, especially Hotaru, who's character design makes her look both mature (BOOBIES) and childish.

Sound: 7
OP and ED are incredibly catchy! Other than that, sound is average. OST is there but you won't remember it, and the seiyuus do a good job expressing their characters!

Character: 9
Arguably the best aspect of this series, the characters of Dagashi Kashi are just so enjoyable! Their characteristics aren't the most unique, but they are just so colorful and hilarious! Hotaru's little antics and habits are really funny and you can just see the innocence just seep out of her. Saya is your typical flat tsundere, but she still has so much character to the point that she became my favorite character of the series. Also, the interactions between kid Saya and kid Kokonotsu during flashbacks were just adorable. Tou also has a lot of personality, and of course, Kokonotsu's dad is just hilarious! Kokonotsu himself is pretty generic, but he has his moments as well.

Enjoyment: 8
Dagashi Kashi was actually really fun to watch for the most part! Whenever it got entertaining, it got REALLY entertaining. However, there were parts where it got pretty boring, but the entertaining parts completely overshadow the boring ones!

Overall: 7
Dagashi Kashi is actually a pretty good show! It's light hearted and has no serious moments in it whatsoever, and is pretty much there just for fun. If you go in, don't expect any plot. But you may get some nice "plot" if you know what I mean ;)

TL;DR: Boob ice cream? Take my money.

"Take of that jacket!"

- Tou Endou 2016

I enjoyed this show. Even though nothing really happened and....OK FUCK THIS... this show is kinda bad but I enjoyed it..for some reason. Should you watch it? Well why don't cha' take a look here to find out.

Pros
- Art and Animation
- Interesting and very endearing cast (Hotaru, Tou, and Saya make the show)
- Catchy opening
... - Interesting OST (I'm kinda reaching here)
- Overall pleasant slice of life/comedy
Cons
- Comedy is a hit or miss (Sometimes I giggled, sometimes I fell asleep)
- Uninteresting MC
- No plot what so ever or at least no moving one
- Boring and Mundane at times

Overall...ok wait lets get this out the way..

SAYA BEST GIRL! FIGHT ME HOTARU LOVERS!! (ง'̀-'́)ง ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

Overall, I enjoyed the show but I rarely laughed and at times found myself extremely bored. As someone outside of japan, I didn't even understand the candy references and jokes, (Im not holding that against the show.) Also they have an initial plot but then don't go anywhere with it.I dont have much to say about this show. If you are looking to sit down and chill then this show might just be fore you. You won't know unless you watch it yourself

Give it a 3 episode rule.

So it ends........the food porn, that is. So far, this anime hasn't delivery much except show us audience all things that concern about the Japanese snack things. In fact I feel like watching something from TLC, which would be too obnoxious for the likes of Antony Bordain and Andrew Zimmer. I'd said too obnoxious because it still has that Japanese exaggeration element, where I feel like giving the author a head slap, but then again I'd appreciate the simplicity of the anime as a whole:

On the story side of this anime, I'd say that there isn't any story plot at all, it was just ... a guy who is a mangka wannabe, who has to take over the business and the story plot ends there when some odd buxom girl arrives in the scene and that where the food docu starts.......Let's face it, man, when the buxom girl starts to yap about Japanese snacks, you're no longer watching an entertaining anime but a docu....a very funny docu that is.

On the art side, ok so there isn't that quintessential knee high sock wearing bimbo, the replacement, some buxom girl in a Gothic lolita outfit, the only consultation about her is her big melons, hate to say it fashion-wise only Saya nailed it. Kokonutsu's fashion looks like something that's out of this world, Tou's fashion is that of some Hawaiian Haole whom them Hawaiians would like to feed to the Sharks. And You, more like some guy who should be in the farmlands.

Character side, I probably would have like Kokonutsu if he would be in a relationship with Saya, instead of an oddball like Hotaru, now Hotaru maybe entertaining, but I really can't imagine that an oddball like her would take a long journey back and forth everyday just to pester Kokonutsu into taking over his family business, now don't get me wrong even as an audience, I don't think that Hotaru should be commuting that long everyday just to go to Kokonutsu's place, I wish author Kotoyama should have put Hotaru in a situation where she gets to live with Kokonutsu and dad as most sudden girl appearance genre , at least she can keep on convincing him to take over the business and the ending- Kokonutsu agrees and she get's to go home and You get to work for her daddy. Saya, well she the usual childhood friend, but as the anime ends somehow the direction goes more on Kokonutsu heading towards the oddball Hotaru, frankly I can only pity her for being in a usual childhood friend position. Tou and You, they just serves as the comic relief, thought I would have prefer that Tou is cast as a hot cool guy rather than just Saya's punching bag.

Enjoyment side, it was enjoyable to a certain extent, especially when the focus is on Hotaru, sure there is that comedy element in it, but at time I would feel like skipping some episodes that were just too cheesy.

Since all that matters it the "Overall" I'm gonna give this anime a 6 as in "fair," the story lack a certain follow up where it ends when oddball girl comes in the picture. The fashion is only on Saya. Enjoyable as it maybe , some episode are just too cheesy, bust since the comedy live up to it, it really should have such score.

Btw this is my 1st review, pls bear with me.

Dagashi Kashi is quite a unique anime to come out in recent times. You may have seen a lot of monster of the week or villain of the week anime, but how many candy of the week anime have you seen. I sure haven’t seen any! The premise is quite interesting, as it’s fun to learn about candy, or referred to as dagashi in the series. The dagashi talk is fun and all, but the series leaves me wanting more from the series. The characters are interesting and it would have been nice to go in-depth with them. And the fact that the series feels ... aimless didn’t help either. Still, Dagashi Kashi gets its job done.

~{Story}~
The story focuses on Kokonotsu, a wannabe mangaka who works with his dad in maintaining their dagashi shop. One day a girl named Hotaru comes to their shop, wanting Kokonotsu’s to join their dagashi manufacturing company. This can only be possible is Kokonotsu decide to take over the shop after his father leaves. What first started out as a story about a girl trying to force a boy to take care of his shop, turned out to be a competition between the two to find out who’s more knowledgeable in dagashi. Every episodes gives us comedic situations revolving around dagashi and how the characters react and act in these situation. In every episode, we learn more about these dagashi candies and it’s really fun. There’s no real overarching story here. It won’t take long for you to forget about Kokonatsu’s dream to be a mangaka, or why Hotaru’s here in the first place. It would’ve been nice if more focus was given to these plot points. But the episodes revolving around dagashi are pretty entertaining, even if the content is a hit or miss.
Story: 5/10

~{Presentation}~
First of all, as I mentioned before, Dagashi Kashi has an episodic structure. Actually, for most of the times there’s more than one situation in each episode. Many of these stories don’t connect much with one another besides the characters. The overall main plot, which was mentioned fore, is just used as a frame, to hold all these episodes together. Every episode you get to learn more about dagashi and its really fun. The anime does a great job to teach you new stuff in a more interesting way than reading off a textbook. The anime then uses these dagashi to make a comedic moment. This showcases the creativity in the series is great, as it manages to make a moment out of these dagashi. Dagashi heavily relies on its comedy too get you attention and entertain. If a moment lacks comedy, it doesn’t feel very good. And unfortunately the content here is a hit or miss, though it’s mostly a hit. And the content can get a little too repetitive at times. But still, the style it goes for is great, and it does what it wants to achieve.
Presentation: 6/10

~{Character}~
The characters in Dagashi Kashi are quite good. A lot of them are very entertaining. First we have our main protagonist Kokonotsu, and the best this about him is his name. He’s an okay protagonist, nothing too special, but some of his reactions are pretty funny. Then you have Hotaru, a wacky, dim-minded, yet knowledgeable in dagashi girl, who’s conversations can become unintentionally lewd. She’s easily the most entertaining character in the anime and her love for dagashi never fails to impress me. Her being used as fanservice is a little bit annoying at times. Saya’s another entertaining character in this anime. Her tsundere-ish character isn’t actually annoying, but more refreshing. Here reactions to certain situations, and her OP-ness in luck-based games, are always impressive. Tou’s also pretty funny and an underused character. Also Kokonotsu’s just adds to the wackiness! The bunch of characters are really fun and its really entertaining seeing them react to certain situations. Though none of them get any development that adds depth to them, but for a strictly comedy series, its fine if the development is lacking.
Character: 7/10

~{Art}~,
Dagashi Kashi’s art style is a pretty unique one. By looking at the key visuals, it wouldn’t take much to notice that the character designs, particularly the face designs are pretty unique. Now whether these designs are good or bad is subjective, as it depends on one’s taste. Personally, they add a uniqueness and they can add a better comedic effect to some scenes. The eyes on most of the characters are pretty different. Most of the character’s pupils are tiny and it makes them look cross-eyed at times. Somehow, this just makes some of the comedy scenes feel better (and weirder). Hotaru’s ahegao-looking face just adds to the innuendos and the lewdness. And it also makes people misunderstand her words. The backgrounds in the anime are decent, nothing too special. The detaining isn’t much, but it’s the character designs that shine in Dagashi Kashi.
Art: 7/10

~{Animation}~
The animations in Dagashi Kashi are standard. There’s nothing that shows out to be special. At times, character movements lack the smoothness and fluidity I was hoping for. And the backgrounds do feel a bit to static, but it’s not bad. The anime still looks good and the at style does cover up the animation qualities. And for a slice-of-life comedy, there’s no need for the animations to be fantastic (unless you’re Nichijou that is). Still the animations work well, even if it doesn’t stand out. At least it’s consistent, or else inconsistency (even if its high point if phenomenal) doesn’t look good.
Animation: 6.5/10

~{Voice Acting}~
The voice acting is really impressive in Dagashi Kashi, as a lot of them do the comic timing properly. Kokonotsu’s seiyuu, Abe Atsushi, does a standard job. It isn’t anything too special, but it gets the job done. Taketatsu Ayana on the other hand does a fantastic job as Hotaru. She manages to succeed in making Hotaru a zany, weird, and really fun at the same time. She manages to make the character look dumb and smart at the same time. Numakura Manami also does a fairly good job as Saya. It’s not anything too special, but she does justice to the role. Suzuki Tatsuhisa as Tou on the other hand is great! He does a good job making Tou look like a dumb and not too bright guy, while making him likeable. Fujiwara Keiji does Kokonotsu’s dad, You, and he does a fantastic job. Fujiwara is a fantastic seiyuu do it isn’t surprising that he’ll do a great job in this comedic role. Overall, the cast does a great job in voice acting. Some do outshine others though.
Voice Acting: 7.5/10

~{Music}~
The music in Dagashi Kashi is really good too. The OP, “Checkmate!?”, is quite the underrated one this season. Personally, I find it really catchy, upbeat, and it totally matches the mood of the series. The vocals aren’t anything to special, but the music used for the OP splendid. The ED, “Hey! Calorie Queen” is also really good. Just like the OP, it’s fun and upbeat, and it even matches the anime’s content. The vocals are really good in this ED. The background music used in the anime is pretty decent. It works well during the more comedic scenes, but it doesn’t add too much. The background music doesn’t really stand out much, but it’s decent.
Music: 6.5/10

~{Enjoyment}~
A Part of me feels like I enjoyed Dagashi Kashi more than I should have. Its main plot is unfocused, and the content does get repetitive at times. But I couldn’t get enough of those characters and their silliness. I found myself enjoying seeing them interact with one another. And it was really fun learning about dagashi every week, even though I’m not a big candy fan myself. Also the unique art really does make this anime more intriguing. The silliness and over-the-top-ness makes me grin harder than I should. Some comedy is a miss, some of the reason can be because the jokes may not translate properly. Other than that, Dagashi Kashi has been a fun ride.
Enjoyment: 6/10

In the end, Dagashi Kashi does exactly what it needs to do; it has the characters doing wacky things and us learning about dagashi. It doesn’t try to achieve anything more than that, but it’s fine the way it is. With its loveable characters and some really good voice acting, the anime ended up being enjoyable, even if the content started to get repetitive. Dagashi Kashi is a flawed anime no doubt, but it’s fun because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The comedy may a hit or miss for some, but for the most time, it doesn’t miss. Dagashi Kashi is a unique and sweet (pun intended) anime from this season, and it’ll be hard to find something else similar to this.

+ Very enjoyable characters with wacky traits, supported by very good voice acting
+ Unique art and great character/facial designs
+ Teaches us about dagashi using its comedic situations in order to entertain while teaching
+ The comedy is very creative at times, and is over-the-top without being too nonsensical
- Content starts to get repetitive and does feel aimless at times
- The comedy, during some moments, is a hit or miss

Overall: 6.4/10

Ads are everywhere. It's estimated that on any given day, a person will see around 5,000 adverts a day for various things. And with the internet installing cookies that design ads around your interests, it's no wonder why this is such a competitive industry. Why am I talking about this? Well, Dagashi Kashi is basically one big advertisement. Seriously.

Story: Just because everyone on the show calls him that, we're going to refer to our main character as Coconuts. Now, Coconuts lives in a very small town out in the countryside. He dreams of becoming a mangaka and ... works tirelessly every day to make good manga. His father, You, on the other hand, has other plans. He wants his son to take over the family business, a dynasty that has spanned several generations. Owning...a candy store. It is here where Coconuts meets someone new to the village who embarks on a journey of candy and other penny food products.

Dagashi Kashi is, as I've stated before, one gigantic advertisement for Japanese candy and shop goods. The basic story line has our 4-5 characters split the screentime of a single episode into two parts. The A part has them talk about a candy or store good. The B part also has them talk about a candy or store good. A different candy or store good. And that is our whole plot. No seriously, that is our whole plot. As such, Dagashi is one of those shows that is more or less a one-trick pony. They spend each half episode talking about a specific type of candy only to go more in-depth with each origin, gimmick, and the shit you can do with each individual candy, before ending off the episode.

The show uses a form of comedy that bounces off of a straight man/funny man setup where we have the characters split off into one role or the other, and create this mix of exaggerated notes and whatnot to keep the show interesting. The overall atmosphere is rather calm as there really is nothing tension-wise in this series. Overall, story is basically nonexistent in Dagashi, as there is no real sense of progression or urgency to create something interesting. The show itself is like candy, where you can just start it, watch an episode, before putting it to the side so you can watch another episode a different day if you want, like a pack of M&Ms. It's very laid-back and can get kind of boring sometimes as a result of that.

Overview:
+ Educational? (I mean, if you're not from Japan, you're being educated on Japanese candy.)
- There's...really nothing going on. It's literally just candy.

Characters: Dagashi Kashi has 5 characters. 5. That's it. All of these characters are one-dimensional characters that really have nothing of real importance to them. There's no development, and you more or less have to go off of their innate traits in order to even relate and/or like any of them. As mentioned before, the show plays off of a straight man/funny man routine with the characters more or less evenly split amongst the two roles.

Coconuts. Main Protagonist. Wants to be a Mangaka, doesn't want to take over the candy shop business, but ironically knows far too much about candy and or snack foods than he really should. (More or less designated straight man.)

Hotaru. Main female Protagonist. Obsessed about candy and snacks. (That is an understatement might I add.) Eats Dagashi. Eats more Dagashi. Basically doesn't do anything else but eat Dagashi this entire runtime. Also kind of crazy. (More or less the designated funny woman.)

Tou. Coconuts's friend. The token pervert of the series. (Really, that's all we know about him. More or less a designated funny man more than anything else.)

Saya. Tou's twin sister who also has a crush on Coconuts. Not really a big fan of candy but deals with it on a constant basis nonetheless. Secret boss for a lot of things and a generally likable character. At least to me. (The designated straight woman in this case.)

You. Coconuts's dad. Doesn't act his age and appears the least in the whole series. Is also quite obsessed with candy himself.

As you can see, there really isn't much to say about any of these characters. The fact that there's not really much to talk about either of them, nor is there any possible way for me to really analyze them more than I already have really just drives home the fact that you can watch an episode of this stuff like...once a month, and you can go back to it really knowing what happens since there really isn't much to remember.

Overview:
+ Small cast. (Like...REALLY small cast.)
- Each member is...rather one dimensional.

Art: The art of Dagashi is drawn in a way that really doesn't have much in the way of memorabilia. It's drawn with a relatively unique style with the unique eye choice of being tiny dot pupils rather than big moe eyes, but on the flipside, there really isn't much to say about the artwork.

One thing to note is that they go a Shokugeki route with the art, making some scenes very...risque. Well, not risque, but the show sometimes insinuates things with its characters during some scenes and that gives off a bit of an ecchi feeling for the show.

Overview:
+/- Decent art
+/- Some ecchi/ecchi related moments

Sound: The OP is an energetic song to relate to the overall feel of the show in comparison to the fact that a lot of what the show does involves somewhat energetic sequences in order to keep itself interesting and entertaining. It's a decent OP, but it's not the best.

The ED on the other hand features an Alice in Wonderland inspired visuals with a sort of generic ED song. There really isn't much to say here. Point being, the OST isn't really all that memorable.

Overview
+/- Meh OST

Personal Enjoyment: Dagashi Kashi is...well it's a show. I don't really harbor many ill or positive feelings towards this show simply because of the fact that it stylized itself the way it did. The original manga for this series more or less is structured the same way, and concerning myself with the fact that they more or less did a faithful adaptation to the more or less one-note comedy gag manga featuring sweets and adverts doesn't seem fair.

Did I like this anime?

Out of everything about this anime, the one thing I liked most was Saya. Saya is by far my favorite character in this series and I don't know why. Maybe it's because she's not overly tsun and she's a tsundere type character I grew to like, but aside from that, I really have no explanation.

What didn't I like about this anime?

Honestly....really nothing. As mentioned before, this anime doesn't really evoke much hatred for me cause it more or less does its own thing, and there's just not much to say.

Would I recommend this anime?

If you want to learn about Japanese candy or just have some time to kill and you don't want to watch a 3 minute short, then here's Dagashi Kashi for you. There really isn't much to say about this show. It's a show devoted to telling its viewers what and how Japanese candy works, roughly tackling about 24 or so different snack foods that exist in the Japanese market today. As such, Dagashi merits more as a time waster than an actual series anime to get into. Just be mindful to bring a snack when watching, cause this show has been known to evoke in some...hunger, on occasion.

Final Note: Also, since this anime is basically a huge advertisement, I'mma put my own here because why not. Ahem. "Come down to PyraXadon's anime page! We got reviews, LOTS OF THEM. And I'm always active, so if you got any questions, I'll always be around! I also give out advice for reviewing. If...you want that, that is. Come on down!"

"What is your favourite slice of life anime?" What would be your answer for this question? most people would probably says "Oh, mushishi!" or "K-on!" but chances is, you're not gonna hear this anime mentioned a lot. It's definitely one of those shows that stands mostly tall within it's own fandom. So, how good is it? Well, read on.


First of all, let's start with the set-up of the show. It's a show about this kid who wants to be mangaka but is being forced to inherited the old candy shop of his father, comes with the help of our heroine (Shidare Hotaru), the story itself ... is more about dude's daily lifestyle. It's framed in a skit style that almost resembles a 4-koma anime that comes with a plus of candy trivia on the sides. I like how the story captures the rural lifestyle that gives off a feeling of nostalgia with many episodes starting with just a picture the environment that lets you bask within it's atmosphere. Also, have i said something about the candy trivia? Because, boy. I came out with a lot of useless trivia about japanese candy that would be only useful for specific small talks.


We then have the characters. There's really only 5 of them that you need to knows (Are there any bystander around? I don't remember) We got the eazygoing dad, the idiot best friend, the token tsundere, our mc, and lastly "Hotaru." the seasonal waifu that gets talked probably more than the anime itself. They never really broke the mold of their tropes but the show managed to surprisingly make their interaction cute with some funny spices being thrown here and there.


The art and sounds. The art serves pretty well for the anime though i do crave for a bit more "dynamic" to it that could make the talking scenes better. The artsyle is very simple, outside of the eyes which is.....the most memorable part with character like hotaru having "Rinnegan" like eyes for example. The ost didn't really leave much impression to me, but the op and ed is definitely very catchy. I would definitely reccomend anyone listening to it.


OVERALL: It's definitely not a show that aims to be a classic. It's relaxing, it got some funny moments here and there, it's the equivalent of the friend besides your chair in school telling small jokes on a boring class. It might be one of those more "filler" seasonal anime, but if you're in the mood for something to just plays before chilling on your bed, it's definitely not a bad choice at all.

Going into the anime season, there was a bit of hype for this particular series, but for what reason. The hype was for the characters and especially how they are designed. (Video review is up on my channel, here is the written)

Story - 6/10

Dagashi Kashi is set in a quiet rural village, where the occupants spend their time just chilling around, finding some fun things to do. The story is about Hotaru, who works as snacks company recruit, trying to convince the owner of a local dagashi shop to be an employer. However, Yo Shikada, who is the owner of the shop won’t simply agree ... to Hotaru’s term, unless she is able to convince his son, Kokonotsu to take up reigns as the head of the shop, but Kokonotsu has no intention of becoming the next head, as he has his own dreams. And so begins the wonderful attempts and stories on how Hotaru tries to convince Kokonotsu to take over the shop, through Dagashi.

The way the story is presented is that it’s all sketch based, so even though there is a overarching story, you hardly see it progress. There is not really if any progression at all. It’s all about the characters eating Dagashi in different ways. And if you don’t know what Dagashi is, it’s basically Japanese sweets. And that is there really is talk about the story. What I find annoying about the show is, how at times it does feel like was progressing, especially the few times they showed backstories and having characters ponder about the future, but in the end none of that ever really comes in to play, most of them feel like they don’t mean anything. And from there, the story gets kind of stale.

Characters - 7/10

The characters are probably the best part of the show, not for their developments but just for the fact they are fun characters to like.

Kokonotsu Shikada is the main protagonist, and he is setup to becoming the successor of the Dagashi shop, however he dreams to be a manga artist. Of course his dad and Hotaru want him to be next owner of the store. Even he has no intentions of becoming the next store owner, he is somewhat a control freak. As he will always criticise on how his dad runs the store, add that with the fact he has a really decent dagashi knowledge, so him becoming the next owner is not just for the sake of Hotaru, but he has the ability and potential to become one as well. The only development we really get from him at the very end is when he questions whether he wants to pursue his dreams or accept his fate and take over the dagashi shop. Outside of that I wouldn’t see say he’s greatly interesting.

Hotaru Shidare is one of the main girls of the show. She is a very weird character, a very eccentric individual having a completely profound love for dagashi. Literally all she ever eats is dagashi and she lives on dagashi. She is very knowledgeable when it comes to dagashi, and hences uses her knowledge to test Kokonotsu on his knowledge and the two usually end up butting heads with each other on even ground with their knowledge. Throughout the show, she doesn’t really show any sign of change, as if anything involving her, it’s about dagashi. We never really learn much of her backstory or motives.

Saya Endo is one of Kokonotsu’s childhood friends bearing crush on him as well. She is kind of the character to have around as the more straight level headed character, basically she a way for the characters who know a lot about dagashi to explain how to eat dagashi. Saya is not really enthusiastic about dagshi, but she does bear a hidden talent for playing different type of games. She probably shows the most character development, actually deciding what she wants, and she likes the fact she gets the hang around everyone, although sort of selfish of her, she wants everyone to stay together.

To Endo and Yo Shikada are other supporting characters that are kind of just around to provide more comedy to the table. What I like about the characters is their interactions with each other. The characters have good chemistry with each other and they complement each other’s unique personalities as well.

Animation and Sound - 6/10, 6/10

What somewhat made this anime pretty hype was the character designs of Hotaru and I think Saya. Hotaru is kind of out there, with her most distinguish feature being her big eyes, which to be honest looks like a Rinnegan. And Saya being sort of the opposite of her in almost every way has the tiniest eyes. The background and scenery is rather basic as there is not really much going on ever in the quiet town. What they do pretty well is get the dagashi designs right, as when they show it at the end of the episode, it looks very accurate. There are some nice subtle animation during the times when they start eating dagashi.I really like that all the characters have unique designs and very noticeable at the same time. For a slice of life show though, not a lot happens, so you wouldn’t get really complex animation.

What I can say about the OST, is that it’s really bouncy. Like the music suits the comedy genre and although it doesn’t add to the scenes all that much, it is somewhat enjoyable to listen to. You can some classical fancy triumph music in there as well. The opening is pretty catchy and has a nice rhythm to it, until it gets the chorus, which I don’t like it all that much. The ED, sung by Hotaru’s seiyu, is nice but, I’m not a huge fan of it, it sounds simple and kind of annoying.

Enjoyment - 7/10

I really appreciated that the anime tried to do something very different, making a show about Japanese sweets. But the way it was executed can get a little boring. For first few times when eat dagashi and all the creative ways of explaining how to eat can be entertaining, but it gets really repetitive and stale. Same with the comedy, the jokes get old over time. But what I do like about the show is character interactions, their conversations with each other, seeing their personalities collide. And to be honest, I liked the parts when they weren’t eating dagashi more than the parts when they were, because it got really repetitive in the way they presented it. But also the fact, I don’t know what dagashi is and if you don’t have any idea what dagashi is you’re probably not going to care as much, because you don’t know what it is, you don’t know if it’s good or not. The majority of the show is product placement.

Verdict - 6.5/10

As we draw closer to the end of the review, I give the story a 6, because it doesn’t really go anywhere when there a times when I thought it will progress, but it doesn’t. And it’s not much of a great story overall. But I do like the different sketches they can come up with, and appreciate the fact they try to do something very unique,

For the animation and sound, I give it a 6 and 6. The animation is not bad, it does good things here and there, but doesn’t blow me away. The art style is pretty good a unique, I like how they have very unique designs for the characters and make it very noticeable. The ost fits the comedy genre very well, but the OP and ED is rather skip able.

For the characters I give them a 7. Even though there is not really much development by any of the characters, I love the interactions and banter between the characters. Despite the contradicting personalities, they all have really good chemistry with each other.

As for my own personal enjoyment, I give it a 7. Yes the first few episodes were enjoyable, but the formula got old and boring. And the fact I don’t have a great knowledge and sense of dagashi, I couldn’t really care too much for what they were trying to promote. Basically it was product placement.

So for the overall score after rounding it all up, I give Dagashi Kashi a 6.5/10. If you don’t get bored and mind the repetitiveness it is an enjoyable show. I recommend this show to slice of life fans, and those with knowledge of dagashi, as this is mostly likely aimed towards you.

Part 1 English
Part 2 Bahasa Indonesia

--------------------------------------

Alright folks, gather round and let me tell you about this sweet little anime called Dagashi Kashi. Now, I gotta be honest with you, I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I fired this one up. But let me tell you, it's a real treat.

First off, let's talk about the story. It's not gonna blow your mind or anything, but it's definitely entertaining. We follow our main character Hotaru, as she tries to convince a dude named Kokonotsu to take over his family's candy shop. And let me tell you, this girl is passionate about candy. Like, borderline obsessed. ... But hey, it makes for some good laughs.

Now, the art style is pretty dang nice. It's got a real vibrant and colorful look to it, which fits the candy theme perfectly. And let's not forget about the 3 main characters - Hotaru, Kokonotsu, and his best friend Saya. They've all got their quirks and personalities that make them stand out.

The voice acting is solid too, with Hotaru's over-the-top enthusiasm for candy being particularly amusing. And the music? Well, it's nothing too special, but it gets the job done.

Overall, I had a good time watching Dagashi Kashi. It's not gonna change your life or anything, but it's a fun little anime that'll satisfy your sweet tooth. So, with a score of 7.3/10, I'd say it's definitely worth a watch.

--------------------------------------

Baiklah teman-teman, berkumpullah dan biarkan saya bercerita tentang anime yang sangat menyenangkan bernama Dagashi Kashi. Sekarang, harus saya akui, saya tidak yakin apa yang harus saya harapkan ketika menontonnya. Tetapi biarkan saya katakan, ini adalah hiburan yang sebenarnya.

Pertama-tama, mari kita bicara tentang ceritanya. Ini tidak akan mengubah pandangan hidup Anda atau apa pun, tetapi pasti menghibur. Kami mengikuti tokoh utama kami Hotaru, saat dia mencoba meyakinkan seorang pria bernama Kokonotsu untuk mengambil alih toko permen keluarganya. Dan biarkan saya katakan, gadis ini sangat bersemangat tentang permen. Seperti, hampir terobsesi. Tapi hei, itu menyenangkan untuk ditonton.

Sekarang, gaya seninya cukup bagus. Ini memiliki tampilan yang benar-benar cerah dan berwarna-warni, yang cocok dengan tema permen dengan sempurna. Dan jangan lupakan 3 karakter utama - Hotaru, Kokonotsu, dan teman baiknya Saya. Mereka semua memiliki keunikan dan kepribadian mereka yang membuat mereka menonjol.

Akting suara juga solid, dengan kegembiraan Hotaru yang berlebihan tentang permen menjadi sangat menghibur. Dan musiknya? Yah, itu tidak terlalu istimewa, tetapi cukup baik.

Secara keseluruhan, saya merasa senang menonton Dagashi Kashi. Ini tidak akan mengubah hidup Anda atau apa pun, tetapi ini adalah anime kecil yang menyenangkan yang akan memuaskan hasrat Anda akan permen. Jadi, dengan skor 7,3 / 10, saya akan mengatakan bahwa ini pasti layak ditonton.

Hey folks, this will be a review for Dagashi Kashi. I actually didn't think this anime was going to be a slice of life candy history show. I thought candy was going to be the backdrop, however it is the only drop and sadly I feel a bit disappointed. That however is my fault, not the fault of the anime. Lets talk about it a bit more.

The story, if you can call it that, begins with the introduction of a candy shop. This candy shop is in a small village in Japan and it is run by a weird father, and his son who ... wants to draw manga. The father wants the son to take over this shop, which has been in the family for generations. One day a girl arrives and tries to recruit the father, but he refuses unless this woman could convince his son to take over the family shop. That is the basic framework of the show.

From there Dagashi Kashi progresses in a slice of life pace. Each episode has some form of Dagashi which the female lead (Shidare, Hotaru) presents and explains. This at the beginning was generally used as a ploy to somehow convince (Shikada, Kokonotsu) to run the Dagashi shop. The explanations seem to be a mix of truth and exaggeration, though since I do not know about the candy being talked about I don't know if it is actually true or not. There are clearly some falsehoods however because this is how they try to drive in the comedy. The ending of the show got a bit more better at exploring the characters and other themes however the candy information never stops.

The art seemed lame at first, however I came to appreciate it almost immediately. The characters are done really well and it felt rather unique. Music wasn't terrible either.

The characters are as mentioned above. A father (Shikada, You), who seems to be incompetent and humorous but seems to be some Dagashi guru. Then his son (Shikada, Kokonotsu), who wants to draw manga. His personality is a bit more mellow, and he plays the role of the questioner, who prompts Hotaru into talking about Dagashi. His best friend (Endou, Tou), who is sort of the idiot character, and is truly the center of some of the best comedy in the show. His sister (Endou, Saya), who runs a cafe in the same town. She secretly likes Kokonotsu. Then finally we have (Shidare, Hotaru), who is this rich, crazy, dagashi loving person. She spends most of the time in the show, imparting knowledge, being unlucky and adding some sexual themes(though she herself is incredibly dense, or rather uninterested in things outside of dagashi).

The characters all have charm. I wish the romance elements were more put together, as Saya was cute. I did enjoy the times in between the candy lessons, as they tended to have a simplistic and comedic feel. Hotaru, was a huge distraction and wasn't really what I had hoped the show was centering around.

Overall this show isn't bad. However out of 12 episodes I think I managed to laugh three or four times. I would be willing to watch a season two, especially since nothing comes about by the end of the first. However this seemed like it was trying to hit a funny bone which I simply don't posses. If someone out there likes Hotaru and her antics you may find this a bit more enjoyable to watch. For those of you not interested in semi comedic candy lessons, you will probably be mostly bored and unamused like I was. This season has been a great one for new and unexplored ideas, however each of these seem to be boring and lame for one reason or another.

TLDR: Boring and non funny candy lectures. Nothing happens, no part of this anime progresses or comes to a conclusion. Saya was cute, though. Watch if you don't mind the candy bits.

Okay so this anime is pretty good, but only if you are into the subject matter.

For what it is it is pretty entertaining, if you are into japanese culture or overall learning more about weird little trivia, each episode has what's basically a little ad for some japanese candy, which might sound like a bore but the whole scenario that's played up for the ad is often very amusing, the characters are all pretty funny and vibrant, they all have a very destinct personality and are overall a joy to see them interact.

Speaking of characters, Saya and Hotaru (the two female leads) have a very ... large wardrobe and they look super cute on every scene, Hotaru especially, her outfits are always amazing, it's quite impressive what this anime can achieve with her one note style. The boys on the other hand are not so lucky on this department, we do see them in some different getup here and there but nothing to write home about (shocker that the cute girls get more attention i know)

Anyways now onto the bad, the anime is childishly "lewd" at times, the same old boob jokes or the misunderstanding of something, Hotaru's cluelessness often (actually its more like ALWAYS) leads to her being put on some lewd situation whenever the script allows, it never misses, if its raining you get to see her boobs thru the fabric of her shirt, and i'd give more examples but oh well, its eye roll after eye roll with her, its old and tired but oh well.

As for the cute moments, well, basically every single cute moment between Saya and our protagonist is cute, it has a lot of romantic tension, you can feel how badly she wants him to stay in town, the works!
Between Hotaru and our MC tho? Well... boob jokes, jokes about "sucking it" having her sprayed with what looks like......... [and so on]

Overall the stupid lewd fetishization takes it down, but i still think that it is at least a 6 and at most an 8, no real flaws aside from that one very dumb very eye rolling flaw that makes me give it a 7

Dagashi Kashi started out for me as a somewhat odd slice of life comedy about Japanese candy (dagashi). Now, since I'm not Japanese, I've never heard of any any of these bizarre but fairly ingenious candies, so at first I was fairly intrigued by the premise.

The art is pretty crisp, though this was made by feel. so I guess that's to be expected at this point. The Op/Ed are pretty good, and the art style is pretty different but I found it enjoyable. Hotaru's spirally eyes are a pretty good indication of just how bonkers she is.

The basic ... rundown of the plot is like so: Kokonotsu (Coconuts) is an aspiring manga artist who runs his father's Dagashi shop when his dad (Yo/You)is busy slacking off (which is most of the time). Apparently his dad is famous somehow though, so Hotaru, the heiress of a large Dagashi manufacturer, visits to convince Kokonotsu to take over his father's store so that Yo can work for Hotaru's father. Since Kokonostu is reluctant to give up on his dream of drawing manga, we now have the premise for the show: Hotaru must convince Kokonotsu that Dagashi are the Best Thing Ever.

There are some nice moments in the show, some good comedy, and I enjoyed it while I was watching it. However, I can't help but feel like part of that enjoyment was built on the assumption that the show would have a satisfying conclusion. In the end, it pretty much goes down like this:

Hotaru: "Make your decision."
Kokonotsu: "Do I really have to?"
Hotaru: "No, not really LOL"

He just sort of walks off with Hotaru, without deciding anything. I guess Saya is just left hanging, never seeing her beloved Coconuts again. I don't mind a simple and formulaic plot for the sake of advertising candy, but come on, at least finish what you started. If you're gonna have an ultimatum in episode 11, I'd expect a decision in episode 12.

I'd say that Dagashi Kashi is entertaining if you go in knowing that you're not going to get anything all that fulfilling out of this. This is one of those odd cases where the whole of the show is lesser than its parts individually. Ultimately, it fails to properly resolve the most basic of plots.

I can't really think of anything clever this time, so let's just start.

Story:
The plot is supposed to be about Hotaru trying to convince Coconuts to take over the candy store of his father. However, this is just an excuse to have these characters in this specific setting. This in itself wouldn't be much of a problem if they did something with it, but they don't. 80% of the time all we get is Hotaru introducing a new piece of candy to us and acting like it's the best thing since sliced bread. This shtick gets old very fast, especially if you don't really care about ... candies or their history.
3/10

Art:
The thing that got most people to watch this anime in the first place was the character design of Hotaru. She and Saya really do look pretty interesting, the boys however not so much. Animated, this effect fades quickly though. It almost looks as if they didn't get much of a budget to animate Dagashi Kashi, which also shows heavily in the opening, which is poorly animated. Hotarus candy fantasies look decent and are a nice change in style, but there aren't many of them. The ending looks kinda awkward with its realistic style of movement, but that may just be a question of taste. It's not a catastrophe, but it could be better.
5/10

Sound:
The voice acting is pretty good, even though the seiyuus don't have much to work with. Music in general was barely noticeable, which is still better than being annoying. The opening and ending songs weren't my cup of tea, but I gotta admit they were a little catchy.
7/10

Characters:
This show is supposed to be all around Hotaru, so it pretty much stands and falls with her character. It looks like there are only two possibilities, you either hate or love her. I found her to get very annoying very quickly, as there is nothing to her besides her candy addiction. Coconuts is a very boring character as well, having basically no personality. The Endou twins were more interesting and entertaining, so I'm glad the anime used them a bit more than the manga does (or so I heard). You is also pretty entertaining, but he rarely ever appears on screen, so I can't really count him. For such a small cast, it needed to be more dynamic and eccentric.
5/10

Enjoyment:
As I said, the jokes get old fast. People have defended Dagashi Kashi to be "apparently not your kind of comedy" but I don't think that's true. It just ain't funny most of the time. It did get me to laugh every now and then, but for a comedy, I expect much, much more. If you groan as much as you laugh when watching a comedy anime, there is something seriously wrong with it.
3/10

Overall:
4.6/10

**This will contain spoilers**

... Having said that, there's not really much to spoil as there's 0 story progression and character development. You could even go as far as to say there is no story in the first place. What we have here is pretty much an advertisement/ promotional anime for Japanese candy and snacks.

Let's start with what little there is to tell - the conflict. Our protagonist wants to be a manga artist, and his dad wants him to inherit his candy shop (and work there). ..... That's it. That's the whole conflict and backstory. Then comes a good looking girl who's obsessed with ... candy and claims to be the daughter of a huge candy company owner who wants the shop to join, and the protagonist's father immediately agrees.. Or rather sets a condition that if she gets his son to agree and inherit the shop, they will join. Since he's not eager to do that, she decides to stay in town and visit him every day to try change his mind. And there the story progression stops. Till the very end of it.

What's the rest then you ask? Fanservice with sexual suggestive themes and jokes, general comedy and just goofing around while advertising Japanese snacks and candy while going into their history. And as bad as that may sound, the result is actually somewhat enjoyable. How exactly that is is beyond me (and its not the fanservice, but it does help a bit).

Having said that, its not an AMAZING anime by any means, just a decent one, but one that is still worth a watch. 6.3/10

(This review has been adapted from my blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!)

One of my favorite candies is the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

Although not just any Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. I am not a fan of the regular-sized ones let alone the mammoth kind. Also, I don’t much care for the miniscule ones from the orange, portable bag. No, they have to be the bite-sized kind with the golden wrappers. Their peanut-butter-to-chocolate ratio is superb; I could eat them for hours.

In other words, Reese’s cups are just not the same without the gold. Similarly, Dagashi Kashi is nothing without its dagashi-driven damsel.

STORY

Candy, as Dagashi Kashi indirectly explains, ... is not the right word for the treats talked about in the anime. No, these delectable offerings are dagashi (hence the title). While they are mass produced in the same way as candy from America, dagashi are more than just taste and branding. They have special designs. They have particular purposes. They have a history worth learning.

So the anime takes this mindset to heart (and to mouth). Each episode is dedicated to a variety of dagashi that are more interesting than the next. A bottle filled with a sugar-like substance whose bottle can also be eaten. Heart-shaped chocolates meant to make one run farther. Caramels that were originally designed to deter cigarettes. Numerous dagashi are showcased over the course of the season. Too many to reasonably list.

To this end, Dagashi Kashi is extremely educational in its content. It talks about the mascots behind Baby-Star Ramen. It describes how there is no real significance to the eight letters of the Seven Neon dagashi. It tells the tale of how Miyako Kombu derived from the leftover bits of kombu, a local food.

Also on the dagashi industry itself. Some have extra winners to get more dagashi. Some can be used for more than just eating, like jumping rope or blowing whistles. Some have particular packaging with cute characters to entice kids to pick them over the many, many others.

In other words, like a dagashi store, Dagashi Kashi holds a veritable wealth of (educational) goodies.

Now, the anime understands that nothing but education can get stagnate, so it includes comedy and sexual material to alleviate this issue. The comedy is light, confectionary even, using silly reactions, goofy explanations, and personified dagashi to make the learning fun. The sexual material is likewise light, focusing on a flapped skirt or, almost always, Hotaru’s breasts.

Granted, because the sex does not deviate from her huge chest, it tends to be repetitive and lacking in creativity. Quite unlike the dagashi the anime so actively supports. Even so, the simplistic, not-over-the top direction it takes with the sex does go along with the dagashi motif. After all, dagashi themselves are simple but hugely popular treats.

Beyond the dagashi and the education and the sex, the anime doesn’t have much more. And that’s a problem. The overarching plot of Hotaru trying to convince Coconuts to take over his father’s shop gets addressed only sparingly and does not get resolved come the end of the season. The implied romantic feelings between the semi-love-triangle go nowhere. And the slice-of-life escapades that do not directly deal with dagashi – like going to a cultural festival – are too few and far between to be considered worthwhile.

Not that there has to be more. But when the anime regurgitates information about yet another dagashi, it makes the whole experience feel as though it lacks any substance, any purpose.

ANIMATION

Dagashi Kashi takes place almost entirely within the dagashi shop that Coconuts and his father run. The quaint place has its wooden walls lined with the treats, making it a fun little dive to hang out in.

The anime does venture outside of the shop, though. Saya and Endo’s café gets a few visits. A small spot near a river or a local pool are shown. The side of the road, a train station, and Hotaru’s mammoth mansion.

These places are not as detailed or prominent as the dagashi shop, but they help to highlight a common thread of the art: seclusion. Besides the cultural-festival episode and the few stragglers that pass by or into the shop, the anime is mostly devoid of other people. This secluded countryside comes off as very niche – just like the dagashi and the history they contain.

Actual animation ends up even stronger than the art. The reused setting gives the anime more resources to spend on expressive faces, blinking, and bodily movements. And of course, Hotaru’s breasts receive extra care to make them even more enticing than they already are.

Speaking of Hotaru, her character design is extremely strong. Medium-length purple hair with a black-rose hair piece. A black-and-white outfit with buttons, suspenders, frills, a skirt, and heels. Red nails. Blue-spiraled, mesmerizing eyes which reflect her overzealous passion. And a gorgeous figure that defies all of the dagashi she eats.

Saya’s design is not as stunning, but it’s still nice. Long, blonde hair that gets different makes. Multiple earring accessories. A tiny fang to make her slightly cuter. Varying outfits, like casual clothes and a yukata. And a slim, pretty figure. Similar to Hotaru, she is attractive. Dissimilar to Hotaru, her attractiveness comes not from eccentricity but rather simplicity.

While the rest of the designs are normal, other shout-outs are deserved. The ED’s Alice In Wonderland visuals are quite fun and fitting – Hotaru makes taking part in dagashi feel as though it were an imaginary (and possibly drug-induced) trip. And the “And so…” eye-catches were nice, too.

CHARACTERS

Dagashi Kashi has to rely on its characters to do most of the heavy lifting in the anime because substantive plot does not exist. Another way to look at it is that, because the setting takes place at a deserted countryside candy shop (and café), it puts a lot of emphasis on the characters. Pressure for them to command a presence.

Unfortunately, one character alone cannot carry the weight of all this dagashi – try as she may (and she would try).

Starting with the lesser characters, Endo is arguably the weakest of the bunch. As though he were around simply to balance out the boy-to-girl ratio, he does not have much in the way of characterization. He wants to be popular (to get with the ladies), and he almost reveals his sister’s feelings for Coconuts on more than one occasion. That’s the extent of his character.

Coconuts fails to be much of a character, too. He is painstakingly plain with zero personality and a go-with-the-flow attitude. His main purpose is not to be a main character but rather corroborate or introduce many of the dagashi facts that are brought up. On that front, he does fine, but that does not make him all that fun of a character.

Coconuts actually has another trait, but Dagashi Kashi does not seem to care for it. The reason why he does not want to take over his father’s dagashi shop is because he wishes to pursue a career in drawing manga. From what is shown, he has a knack for it. But the anime rarely uses this characteristic in conjunction with the dagashi, existing as little else besides a stepping stone for the premise.

You, Coconuts’s father, has a bit more going for him. He owns the dagashi shop the other characters hang out in. He runs an (unsuccessful) video channel. He is generally carefree to the point that Coconuts questions his father’s ability to do anything let alone run a business.

His main problem is similar to Endo and his son: You does not have much else. He does not have a close relationship with his son. He does not interact all that much with Saya and Endo. And the moments he does share with Hotaru are dominated by her presence. He does act as a comedic relief character, but, in a comedy anime, that does not mean much.

Saya pulls ahead of the men but only barely. She has a knack for coffee brewing, and, more importantly, she loves Coconuts. Of course, she refuses to make her feelings known, creating for many a moment of frustration.

Surprisingly, she does not care much for dagashi, yet she is skilled at all of the games and quirks related to them. Card flipping, marble shooting, and prize winning chief among her abilities. Similar to the rest, though, her character does not do much throughout the season. She blushes when Coconuts gets mentioned, and she can play a mean game of kendama (a ball attached with a string to a wooden catcher), but she does not bring much comedy or pizzazz on her own.

That’s a common issue with these four: They are inherently not interesting. Their traits, personalities, and actions fail to bring engaging interactions because what they say and what they do lacks style.

And then Hotaru shows up.

Hotaru more or less makes Dagashi Kashi. Without her, the anime would be nothing more than educational material. From the get-go, she is a titillating character. Yes, her massive breasts attract a lot of attention. But it is her craziness. Her bubbly personality. Her never-ending font of determination that make her a character one cannot help but like.

Besides her breasts, her defining trait is her incessant love of dagashi. Every part of her life – from curing a toothache to reading poetry – revolves around dagashi in one form or another. Indeed, the whole reason she showed up at the dagashi shop run by Coconuts and his father in the first place was because of dagashi-related business.

Throughout the whole season, Hotaru proves her worth constantly. She, like Coconuts, has a vast wealth of knowledge when it comes to dagashi. In fact, she is the one to usually spur the boy on. She brings about comedy with her fake-but-maybe-not accent as well as her ironically horrible luck when it comes to dagashi games. And her bouncing breasts, purple lingerie, and misunderstood mannerisms provide sexuality without overbearing the audience or taking away from the dagashi she preaches.

Compared to Hotaru, the four others are more boring than watching the guy who is watching paint dry. She overshadows Endo, Coconuts, You, and Saya. Twice over.

She outshines the rest to such a high degree that it begs the question: Does her complete domination serve a purpose?

Arguably, yes. From an outside perspective, dagashi is a tame topic. Sour shells, fortune-telling pieces, and powdered snacks are not the best conversation starters. That is, much like the main cast, dagashi is admittedly dull. But with the addition of extra facts, different outlooks, and better enthusiasm, dagashi quickly becomes interesting.

And that is exactly what Hotaru does. She makes dagashi fun, interesting, by bringing with her the traits, the ideas, and the mindset necessary to turn this boring topic into an intriguing one. Not just with dagashi, though. She applies her magic to the other characters, too. She shows that Endo has some smarts to him. She gets Coconuts to think differently about his life and about people. She demonstrates that You is more than just a lazy man. And she gets Saya to understand her own feelings a bit better.

Granted, these developments are small, and Hotaru is usually oblivious to these separate instances. But she no doubt makes the cast, like dagashi, more interesting than they were before she arrived. An outcome that even the most intense paint-dry-watching people could appreciate.

SOUND

Perhaps expectedly, the original soundtrack of Dagashi Kashi does not usually rely on more tame tracks. Instead, it heightens and lowers the tempo. Two tracks in particular stand out. The first is a slow, methodical tune that sounds as though it originates from the countryside with its languid sounds. The second is reminiscent of a Mexican standoff often played when the dagashi antics started rolling up the fun.

It’s an OST with a nice number of tracks (over forty), but, besides the two listed above, the whole package is not impressive in its offerings.

Voice acting mirrors the characters. Ayana Taketatsu as Hotaru shines with her energetic and sincere way of speaking whereas the rest of the cast provide acceptable performances for their roles (but nothing worth noting).

Moving on (or moving back to the beginning), the opening track is a nice addition to the anime. The vocalist’s leveled way of singing works well with the quickness of the instruments. In fact, comparing their combined effort to Dagashi Kashi itself, the contrast is large. By the halfway point, the piece adopts a more triumphant tone when both the singer and the beat reach loftier heights. While nothing is available to win (save for Coconuts’s willingness to run the dagashi shop), this new tone matches how the anime (i.e., Hotaru) views dagashi: like flying through the sky unimpeded.

But the true winner of the music is the ending track. Mixing accordions, castanets, and dainty chimes, the piece remains consistently fast and fun. Alongside the various hollers, the silly lyrics (“Calorie Queen!”), and the happy vibe, the ED comes together as a catchy piece that, like eating dagashi, is a treat to hear again and again.

ENJOYMENT

At the beginning of this one’s run, I was concerned that it would not go anywhere. My concerns, unfortunately, were met.

No matter the medium, a tale will always have an extremely hard time if it tries to bank on a single aspect. In this case, this aspect is Hotaru. To be fair, the anime does have its dagashi, but, to reiterate the earlier discussion, it is Hotaru’s involvement that makes the dagashi more than just treats to eat.

To that end, I myself found her to be quite the fun character. Her respectful nature towards the cast was nice. Her joking around with You was silly. And her general sexiness was hard to look away from. She was easily my most favorite part of the show.

As for the other characters, I cannot say I liked them all too much. Saya’s romantic feelings did have me smiling, and You’s “Yo…yo…” chant was goofy. But Coconuts himself and Endo as well rarely made me happy.

On the dagashi itself, I was not necessarily engrossed by the topic. But to give credit to the anime, I learned a lot about dagashi. While I had never heard of such specialized snacks before, and I more than likely still have a lot left to learn, it was cool being exposed to a piece of culture halfway across the globe. Even it at times the subject matter was not the most interesting.

Dagashi Kashi does what it can. The animation levels are nice and the different musical offerings are fun to listen to. Even so, the story lacks anything else besides information, everyone but Hotaru fails to impress, and the amount of entertainment plummets as a combined result. Reese’s gets gold; this one doesn’t even get bronze.

SUMMARY

Story: Fine, dagashi and education combine to create a simple tale that lacks substance

Animation: Good, okay artistic direction, meaningful seclusion, above average actual animation, and nice character designs for both Hotaru and Saya

Characters: Fine, Hotaru commands the purposefully boring cast

Sound: Fine, good OP, good ED, okay OST, and okay VA performances

Enjoyment: Bad, Hotaru is fun, lots of learning, but everything else fails to engross

Final Score: 5/10

Generally, the anime that I decide to review or watch have either been found by myself, or recommended by others. Dagashi Kashi followed the latter, as a few of my friends (knowing that I often review things) told me to check this anime out, saying that it was pretty good. And the sad part is that, though not bad by all means, because I went into it expecting more, Dagashi Kashi was disappointing.

The story is pretty much pointless, it rarely comes into play, and gets dropped after just a few episodes, so it's barely even worth mentioning.

The characters for the most part are fine, nothing ... really that special, but they're still at least kind of likable. Kokonotsu is a serviceable main character, with ambitions and goals, and enough personality. Saya and Tou have a kind of fun brother and sister dynamic that makes them a bit interesting, but neither of them stand out too much. But, Hotaru is easily my favorite. She is very in your face and loud, but that's honestly what makes her stand out. She is a fun character because of her loudness and crazy personality. Most of the comedy in the show comes from her and her wild antics. Kokonotsu's father, You, is also a very fun character too, providing a good amount of comedy.

The animation and music is pretty serviceable too, nothing special but it does the job.

The comedy was something I was really looking forward to. There are a lot of anime comedies that do a fantastic job, like Assassination Classroom, D-Frag, Sgt Frog, Space Dandy, and plenty of others. I was hoping I could put this one up there. But, unfortunately, the comedy feels a bit cluttered and unfocused, mainly because there are so many freaking food gags. The novelty of these gags wears off after a bit, and eventually I was just left watching and being mildly entertained, but I wasn't laughing. To be fair, the show can be funny, it isn't completely devoid of humor, but if it had focused more on other types of comedy and less on the food jokes, than it would've been better.

As it stands, Dagashi Kashi is.....fine. And for others, that is, well, fine. But for me, I was expecting and hoping for a bit more, for something good. And I was let down. But, I was at least entertained, so I can't say it was a waste of my time.

There are a lot of mixed feelings for this show for what I've read, but here's my take on it.

Is this show just a big advert with a giant boob girl? Yeah. Do I enjoy it? Yeah. Here's why:

-This show in reality has a pretty repetitive plot, however it's only 12 episodes long, so in that aspect it's not as bad as some viewers make it out to be, since lots of other anime have gotten away with it for hundreds of episodes. Every new episode usually would introduce a couple of snacks/candy, and doing stuff with them. The good part is, although the core ... of nearly every episode is the same, it's so short that every new installment has a new creative way to use the candies and tell it's story. In the long term such an anime can't last, but remember, it's so short that it doesn't matter.

-This anime lives up to it's "romantic subtext" theme by not having full-on romance moments, but definitely not missing out on making romance-based, or sexual jokes. At first you might think that this is ecchi, however make no mistake dear reader, it isn't. If you're looking for something 100% pure, this won't work for you, as there are some pervy moments in here, like any good old anime would.

-For Japanese people this isn't anything of significance, in fact they'd most likely write off this show as boring and unwanted. However, we're foreigners. We, humans, usually love and find new things exciting. That's why this series is mostly entertaining throughout the whole season. It does a good job at keeping you watching.

This anime is how to execute a repetitive plot in a good way. Can't watch anything like this again ngl, will get bored

(POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD) first review about anything so please bare with me lol. I’ll start off with the story/plot, well there isn’t really one. I get the shows name is “Dagashi” which is a meaning for inexpensive fun snacks and you can’t expect much from it, but from what I’ve seen from clips on social media I thought I’ll at least enjoy the show but I honestly didn’t. The whole 12 episodes and 20 minutes are almost always talking about different snacks and either how to eat them or their history and it’s fun and interesting in the first two episodes but then it just ... gets boring and repetitive. The story was honestly a 4/10 in my opinion and I think I’m being too nice, but the only reason I’ll give it a 4 is because of the 2-3 good episodes that it actually had that made me think this show does have some type of story that’s not about snacks. The biggest disappointment for me was that they have really good characters in my opinion that can make this show great if it just took a different spin or turn to it but it always went back to something tacky or just annoying topic about snacks. Overall if you want something to use for background noise or is just bored and have nothing to do watch this for sure as you might get some enjoyment from it. My overall rating is a 4/10 and that’s because the last episode carries the whole show in my opinion. I have seen Dagashi Kashi 2 and I can tell you that I enjoyed that way more but I won’t say much because of spoilers.

Dagashi Kashi has a format of episodes that rests on ministories, most of the time disconnected from each other, of sweet-tooth Hotaru Shidare talking about a wide variety of dagashi (Japanese snacks), mostly for the viewer, not only that her main purpose is to convince Coconuts to become the heir of his family Candy Store so his father, Yo, can work for Shidare's Company. Besides them there are just other two characters, Saya and Tou, siblings, that are Coconuts' friends, Saya has a crush on Coconuts since they were kids, but Coconuts is oblivious to that and his eyes are focused on Hotaru, which coincidentally ... looks like a character he created for his actual dream, being a mangaka.

The first episodes rely a lot on the candy "lore" and really seem like advertisements and they are quite boring to watch, however as episodes progress they become a bit more subtle and the Slice of Life genre shines more making the series a bit more enjoyable. And that's it, there isn't much more to tell here, Saya, Tou and Yo aren't developed that much, Coconuts as a protagonist has a little bit of development above the former, but your eyes probably went for Hotaru, innocent, oblivious, but naturally sexy Hotaru. There are plenty of moments that innuendos are strongly suggested with her, but actually she doesn't have any "ill" intent, she seems like a pure character despite a lot of the things she says sound dirty.

It is a light comedy, not something really funny; if you are into Japanese snacks you are in for a treat; but, let's face it most of us watched it because of Hotaru (even though I ended up cheering for Coconuts and Saya).

"Coconuts-kun, come to the Candy store~ S2"

want a good laugh at something that really makes no sense at all? Then I'd definitely say watch Dagashi Kashi. An anime about little to nothing aside from Japanese "junk food" or "snacks" and a girls drive to get a young boy to take over his dad family shop.

Not only is her drive wild, shes literally driven by Dagashi itself. The characters were alright, typical middle school students on summer vacation doing what middle school students would do during summer break if you lived in the country side of Japan.

Although aside from the summer festival, it seems nobody else lives in this small town, ... it did manage to give me a few laughs here and there making it more enjoyable. The story line was slim to none and it was left very open, but hey, who am i to criticize, right?