Review of Dagashi Kashi

I feel like this series is more of an advertisement for a Japanese candy rather than an actual show trying to present a plot..... [Story]: (2/10) Kokonotsu's father owns a candy shop on a small rural countryside town. One day, a girl appeared and she tried to recruit his father to work for her company. He refused and so did Kokonotsu. Hotaru then decides to stay to try and convince Kokonotsu to work for her company. I have no idea why I decided to enter this show with expectations. The first episode was really interesting and I thought it was going to go somewhere. Even if theplot was going somewhere like a garbage, I'd rather have that than 12 episodes of pure advertisement for a candy. That's literally the whole show. Every single episode, Hotaru brings in a new candy or she randomly picks one of the candies in Kokonotsu's Father's Dagashi shop and then she explains the whole candy for you. The concept, how it's made, where it came from, what it tastes like, how you should eat it and etc. But wait there's more, Hotaru is not the only character who talks about candies. Every character in the show talks about candies.

I just explained the whole show for you so I have no more idea what to talk about..Oh that's right, the comedy and the fan-service. What I'm going to talk about right now is going to be purely subjective since not everyone found the show to be funny. I actually found this show a bit funny and it made me chuckle through the run. For example, Hotaru's crazy-ass personality made me laugh sometimes and Kokonotsu and Endou being desperate at whatever also made me laugh. I also noticed that some people found this show boring. For me, I only found the show boring at the first half. At the second half, I just, for whatever reason, enjoyed the remaining episodes. Maybe because I watched the show in English Dub or maybe I got used to watching a 24 minute candy commercial every week.

Just by looking at the cover, you'll know at first's glance the character who's going to be subjected to fanservice. Yep, that's Hotaru. The show is going to be playing with her extremely large breasts in almost every episode so strap on if you want to see candy crumbs falling on her breasts or if you want to see a Slimey/Watery white candy (I forget what it was called) exploding on her face.
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[Art/Animation]: (8.5/10)
The Art and the Character Design looks pretty average. It's what you'd expect from a Slice of Life show except I won't call this a Sol show since it's not labeled in the Genre tags. This show is created by Studio feel, the studio behind My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO and I honestly would have preferred if the character designs were almost the same as SNAFU TOO because the art in that show is feel's best work and this feels like half-assed. The animation is pretty good, though I wasn't expecting much since this show is just about candies.
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[Sound]: (7/10)
The soundtrack is....forgettable. Nothing really stood out and nothing attracted my attention. It was just a bunch of plain ass boring soundtracks. Now the OP and ED theme song(s)

The OP theme song is "Checkmate?!" by MICHI and "Hey! Calorie Queen" by Ayana Taketatsu. For a show about freaking candies, the Opening Animation didn't really make much sense... There was Star Wars-like segments feauturing Kokonotsu and some random guy that looked like Darth Vader, an Indiana Jones-like segments, characters flying in paper warplanes...you get what I'm trying to say. The OP theme song on the other hand is pretty average and it's somewhat catchy. The ED theme song is also average and the only reason why I would watch it is to watch the post-credit scene. You could say that I could have easily skipped the ED to watch the post-credit scene but.....it is what it is.
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[Characters]: (6.5/10)
The only highlights of this god-forsaken 24 minutes candy commercial is Hotaru. The rest of the characters are mediocre (Kokonotsu and Tou) to decent (Saya). Now to talk about the characters.

Hotaru is an innocent, candy loving girl who knows pretty much about every Dagashi out there in Japan. Like I said above, she's the highlights of this show. She's like the only interesting character in the show and is the only reason why I came back every week. She's also one of the reasons why the show is hilarious. Her personality, her innocent "act" that can be easily taken out of context, and the way she eats her candies freaking killed me. For example, there was one scene in the show where she was eating and chocking on a long and large candy. If you take a deeper look at the scene, the show makes it look like she's chocking on a large penis but it's just a giant and long pink candy.

Then there's the rest of the characters. Kokonotsu, Tou and Saya. Kokonotsu is a manga artist who lives in a Dagashi shop with his father and has to deal with Hotaru's crazy antics ever since she came into her shop. He's a mediocre character, that's all I gotta say. He's a bland and boring main character but the reason why he's not a forgettable character is because the show's character roster is super small. Then there's Tou, he's your typical perverted male character who likes to chase girls. I do like the chemistry between Kokonotsu and Tou which makes me like their characters at times. Then finally there's Saya, the only decent character in the series, just under Hotaru. What makes her interesting is her personality and she's also a "tsundere", my number one favourite character archetype.
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[Enjoyment]: (7/10)
Who said I can't enjoy a 24 minutes candy commercial? There are times where I found the show to be quite boring but most of the time, I did enjoy the show and it was a fun ride. Though, I won't be missing this show so good riddance.
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[VERDICT]
Despite "Dagashi Kashi" having a weak-ass plot, the characters, especially Hotaru, does make the show interesting to watch. I did learn something while watching this show. First is the meaning of "Dagashi" and second is the amount and the variety of dagashi out there in Japan which makes me want to try them out. If you love candies sooo much then this is a show for you but if you're looking for a regular slice-of-life then I guess this is an ok show but I won't be bringing my expectations up if I were you because there are a lot more slice-of-life shows out there that takes place in a rural Japan and is 100 times better than this show.

[OVERALL]: (7/10)

Pros:
+Entertaining show if you don't have any expectations
+Interesting characters
+Great Animation
+The show's comedy is hilarious at times

Cons:
-Candies, Candies, and a whole lot more Candies
-Forgettable Soundtrack
-A very weak slice-of-life when compared to other slice-of-life shows with similar settings but without the candies.