Review of Dagashi Kashi

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 feelsaimless 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