- Last week Saya gave out a line that quite possibly sums up the entire show:
“She’s about to do something.”
- Well, now we’ve reached the third episode mark, we can clearly see that Hotaru is using her mixture of encyclopedic knowledge and childish mannerisms (and thus doing literally anything) in order for Coconuts to see the bright side, and consider taking up her offer. However, as Dagashi Kashi seems to run on some kind of sitcom style and not really anything that resembles a story, we don’t get any indication that he either wants the store or cares about it. Sure enough, the knowledge he has of candy shines out, but that’s only the result of his maniacal father as well as the fact that being in the only candy store for like a million miles, he feels somehow compelled to know all of this stuff. Hotaru knows of his knowledge, and while her goading provides amusement to some, it gets grating and repetitive to others. Like me. It’s as if we’re put in a position where her joking around was funny the first time, but not anymore.
- Meanwhile, we’ve reached the point in the show where the internet has established two teams: Team Hotaru and Team Saya. My rage has put me firmly in Team Saya. At times the show disputes this, as we can clearly see that she and Hotaru enjoy each others’ company; Hotaru actually has found someone (other than Coconuts’ dad) that she can happily talk to, and Saya can just nod her head and laugh nervously. Her tsundere crush on Coconuts — may it be nothing new — has made the show something for me to watch other than having to deal with Hotaru. She’s a very very hard character to dislike; the very fact that she’s a rather ordinary girl who plays along with this madness (as opposed to Coconuts who is forced to) is a good thing. In my opinion, Saya has a touch of Oreimo‘s Kirino in her, with the uber-tsundere attitude, the hairstyle and dat fang. Interesting to know is that it’s Kirino’s voice (Ayana Taketatsu) is the one voicing Hotaru…
- Coconuts on the other hand has become an extremely dull character now, who seems to do nothing else but moan at his father for being an idiot. At the fact that he wants to be a mangaka more than a candy store owner. At having to deal with Hotaru’s sugar-induced antics. At the fact that he lives in such a rural location. The very fact that he moans when the AC is broke whilst wearing a huge sweatshirt is something else. The two girls have taken over the show, and while Hotaru is a central and integral part of the show (it would just be incredibly boring without her), Saya plays another crucial show in keeping the entire group sane. While she has to put up with her lecherous brother, she can tell that she is just as passionate about candy as Hotaru is, and she can interact sanely with Coconuts. While he doesn’t see her in the way she sees him, there’s still the fact that the two of them talk without blushing so much.
- One other thing about this show that has got me thinking are the candy products themselves. I respect the fact that Hotaru is happy and willing to inform us of all of these types of candy, how they taste, how they are meant to be eaten/drank/etc. When I started Dagashi Kashi I knew next to nothing, and now I know about non-alcoholic beer sachets that teach the Japanese children for when they’re allowed to drink properly. I also learned about ramune whistles that give out a sound that can only be heard decently in rural Japan, rice candy that doesn’t need to be opened (and eaten whole), butamen that can only be properly enjoyed in the hottest of hot summer days… By the end of the show, the list will be endless, and the Westerners will be desperate to get their hands on such products no doubt…and then realizing how much the import tax is.
- I do like that when I watch this, I’m reminded of other food-related anime shows. Like Koufuku Graffiti for instance, as well as the short show Wakako-zake. The former has a cohesive story with two cousins discovering more about each others’ palettes, and the latter is a petite little show about how an OL enjoys the time she has off work sampling the best of the best Japanese food. I enjoyed both of them as they were relatively simple, had eye-catching artwork, and that the characters were all people who could exist in reality. On the other hand, it’s only fair to say that Dagashi Kashi hasn’t won me over, and I blame Hotaru for that. I can only take so much insanity.
- I don’t really expect much more from this show; supporting Team Saya is keeping me sane though. But, to be honest, what was I really expecting? An actual story? This is a slice-of-life comedy show; nearly 85% of all slice-of-life comedy shows have no cohesive story. Four-koma adaptations like K-on! and Hidamari Sketch were well written enough that a story could be constructed around them. We can watch Hotaru eat more sugar and then later get withdrawals, and Coconuts looking bored and fed up, and Saya being…well…Saya, but that’s really it. It’s just a matter of whatever floats your boat.
