Review of Dagashi Kashi

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 agreeto 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.