Review: Dagashi Kashi
Dagashi Kashi is a slice of life, comedy romance based on
the manga of the same name. Now when it comes to anime adaptations of manga /
LNs I have actually read I am more than sceptical. Time and again a series have
fallen foul of the transition. Dagashi Kashi does fall into this category but
in a way that could have easily been resolved.
As is usual for a SOL series there is a plot but it takes the back burner for the majority of its run, occasionally popping up from time to time to remind that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Basically Hotaru arrives in a remote country side town looking for You Shikada to join her father’s sweet company. He only agrees to this on one condition: if she can convince his son Kokonotsu (who I will be referring to as his nickname of Coconuts) to run their family sweet shop instead of pursuing his mangaka dreams. Thus ensues Hotarus countless attempts to persuade Coconuts to run their shop. That is basically it. Along the way we meet other characters, well I say other characters but it’s just 2 basically: a brother and sister who are friends of Coconuts who run a cafĂ©.
As is usual for a SOL series there is a plot but it takes the back burner for the majority of its run, occasionally popping up from time to time to remind that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Basically Hotaru arrives in a remote country side town looking for You Shikada to join her father’s sweet company. He only agrees to this on one condition: if she can convince his son Kokonotsu (who I will be referring to as his nickname of Coconuts) to run their family sweet shop instead of pursuing his mangaka dreams. Thus ensues Hotarus countless attempts to persuade Coconuts to run their shop. That is basically it. Along the way we meet other characters, well I say other characters but it’s just 2 basically: a brother and sister who are friends of Coconuts who run a cafĂ©.
The show is about sweets, dagashi to be specific and it’s
fascinating to see the differences between what you get over there and what’s
available here in England. While there is some overlap others you just would
not see here and oh boy does it make you peckish! It makes you want to run to
your local sweet shop (we still have some of those!) and be consequently
disappointed because they don’t have this wacky Japanese snack you’re telling
them about.
It really takes you back to your childhood when you and
your friends would gather pocket money up together to get one of the new sweets
that were all the rage. That feeling is what gave me a strong reaction to this
series.
The characters here are key since it’s basically just
them. Hotaru is obsessed with dagashi, to the degree that pain caused from them
won’t stop her eating more of them. She is eccentric and child like in her
affection for dagashi. She IS the star of the show, no doubt about that as she
brings the bulk of the comedic elements and knowledge on dagashi. The other female
character Saya does bring here fair share of comedic elements as well and
complement Hotaru nicely.
The two weakest characters are the boys Coconuts and Tou.
Kind of an insert character, he’s bland, really bland. He has dreams of being a
mangaka and doesn’t want to run his dads dagashi shop. That is about it for
him. He falls into the stereotypical mold for a series like this, he’s dim on
just about every level but is, begrudgingly, quite knowledgeable about dagashi.
His dad is much more interesting, seemingly lazy yet kind hearted and he also,
like Hotaru brings a lot of comedic moments up.
There is an attempt at romance here but it is very weak.
Basically Coconuts falls for Hotaru and Saya for Coconuts but they never speak
their feelings, kind of clichĂ© I know but it’s also realistic, a lot of people
are not confident enough to let their feelings known, especially at that age.
Hotaru though is seemingly content with dagashi. It’s played with a bit in a
few episodes but nothing serious ever comes of it. It’s not engaging at all and
would have been better off without it, it feels forced in there to tick off
another box on the check list.
Some of my favourite parts of the series are the
imagination sequences. These are where Hotaru imagines the hardships that the
dagashi go through usually. This entails them taking on human like features and
they begin talking to each other. Whether it’s a ramune being disowned because
he has a hole in him and can't make a sound or a candy wandering through the
desert they are just wonderful and imaginative concoctions. Even the take on
how a dagashi such as ramune came to be was hilarious. Sadly there weren’t
enough of these.
There is also the odd bit of fan service and suggestive
scenes. Be it a trip to the pool, Hotaru spilling liquid on her shirt or her
suggestively eating a large stick like candy (you don’t get sweets that size
here or damn near anywhere). Not too much but a heads up if you don’t like fan
service because there are some crazy rascals out there who don’t.
Being a slice of life the animation is somewhat limited
which is okay, it matches the genre, there are some nice scenes when Hotaru or
one of the other characters is pulling off something special such as Hotaru
performing a lethal pitch or getting ready to spar with Coconuts’ dad, these
are given extra attention and they work well. The art matches the manga
faithfully and as always it’s nice to see a series brought to life in full
colour.
Music wise nothing grabbed my attention nor stayed in my
head that long after the series ended, or during it for that matter. Apart from
the OP by MICHI and ED by Ayana Taketasu which were cheery and catchy it was
fairly bland.
The main issue I have with this series is what
effectively killed my enjoyment of it compared to the manga: the pacing. Most
Dagashi Kashi chapters are about 8-10 pages long, a nice quick read that is
usually standalone in what it tells. Basically Hotaru (mainly) or one of the
other characters shows off a new dagashi, bit of comedy, perhaps a tad of fan
service and the occasional imagination sequence.
The anime however is a full 24 minutes per episode. So
how do they combat this? Simple, they thread multiple chapters together to try
and make a full episode. For example 1 episode taking place entirely in the
shop between Hotaru and Coconuts made up of 4 segments woven together as they
move onto a new dagashi, another dagashi and so on.
This is fine in principle but the execution kills it dead
90% of the time because of the pacing. Even with 3-4 chapters per episode that
is not enough to fill 24 minutes. This results in a lot of padding. Now don’t
get me wrong, this isn’t Toei level badness, oh no, but it does more than
enough to dampen much of the enjoyment. I get why they did it, short anime
don’t usually have the sales boost effect of standard length episodes but
whether it’s taking too long to open a wrapper, agonising over a move in a game
or hoping someone will have a nice reaction to a dagashi it is just
unnecessary.
Another criticism I have, and it may seem a strange one,
is that the show is very empty. Other than the main 5 there are barely any
people around bar one festival episode. Okay, it is set in a seemingly remote part
of Japan and other series do much the same but I don’t know, it still looks
weird to me, maybe in part down to the lack of stuff happening in the series.
You don’t notice it in the manga because of the smaller panels and focus on
characters but the padding brings it to the fore.
Overall Dagashi Kashi is a disappointment on few levels
but the ones it does disappoint on hit, and they hit hard. I really wanted to
love this, I really did but I just could not bring myself to. I wouldn’t
recommend unless you’re really into sweets or fancy something a tad quirky. If
you can go and read the manga though then you won’t regret it.
Studio: feel.
Aired: Winter 2016
Episodes: 12
Available: Amazon, CD Japan, Streaming
Studio: feel.
Aired: Winter 2016
Episodes: 12
Available: Amazon, CD Japan, Streaming
6/10
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