First Impression – Dagashi Kashi
2016. The year we make contact candy porn
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What do you get when you mix the countryside of Non Non Biyori, the eccentricities of a very niche part of a specific consumer culture, and an oddball romantic subplot? You get these goobs, and bless you for it. |
The eccentricities are a feature!
So we have our average male lead, Coconuts Kokonotsu, a young man with his head in the clouds, and his dreams of becoming a hard-working mangaka. Standing in his way is his own father, a man on a mission to have his son take over the family candy store empire that he himself has inherited from his father and father before him. Add to that boiling cauldron of family…boiling things….is another boiling thing, one Hitagi, Nene, no Hotaru….yes Hotaru, the candy empire heiress and her schemes to take over world one piece of confection and Japanese snack at a time!!!
Shikada’s Candy Store. Being a shithead to small children since the later Edo period….
Well this one might just be on the double hard sell side for most of the outside of Japan audience. This sort of neighborhood candy store is not typically our thing, and we’ve not grown up with umaibo nor any of the other assorted fare the shows like to feature. But that doesn’t mean the show is without any merit. It has a neat little cast of characters that already fit with each other like puzzle pieces right off the bat; no stretching it out with ill timed duds or straining to find each other’s grooves, just right into the scheme with the humor and the gags like they’ve been friends for awhile.
Natto + All The Things! The FIEND!!!!!
To be sure, Hotaru is well worth watching, as she is the sort of high energy character you can get quite a bit out of, even if you aren’t at all familiar with half of the products she’s trying to talk about. The difference here is that the goods for sale are the smallest of details and not the whole of the thing. She’s very goal oriented and that energy helps her get to the prize she has her eyes fixed upon. Now with that in mind she is a bit daffy in the head, but that is just the sort of eccentric you need in a lead character of a comedy and to be expected of a driven “thinks outside the box” style entrepreneur the story is making her out to be. She comes of as complex, with contrasts rather than just one note after another…
Try to not piss of the person that serves you coffee….
Now whether or not you laugh is probably how much you’re willing to buy in Dagashikashi’s small town, rather homey, environment, it’s near endless display of candy store goods and the puns they can play off of them, or the gags that can be set up from them, and it’s level of wacky wordplay, slapstick, and general foolishness. It does have a back up plot in a developing romance between Kokonotsu and Saya with Hotaru being the spoiler and erstwhile manic pixie girl sort to Saya’s more comforting, yet still abrasive presence. Who the First Girl is depends on how you look at it, so be sure to check your hashtags before slavishly posting images on twitter every week. For me, I’m on #teampopcorn, as I’m happy to just watch and not have to be burdened with a choice….
Extras
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Well for my money, Studio feel. stepped right up to the plate and knocked one out of the park for this premier episode. The cast in instantly recognizable by feel alone and doesn’t feel stale or come of with that whiff of generic “standard character type A” cut and paste production shortcut. The background looks home-spun but doesn’t try to hit you with too much scenery porn (if there is such a thing). The designs are refreshing, have an original appeal to them, and are pretty darn sexy.
Speaking of which, Ayana Taketatsu is on a roll with Hotaru, which to me at least, is easily one of her most identifiable characters since OreImo’s Kirino. You can tell she’s having fun and is leading the cast into the same. So despite some of the cosmetic foreignness the show can bring, it’s fun and interesting beyond that and is a hoot and then some. It’s a very natural styled comedy with punchy gags and good times. Hope you enjoy it.
About skylion
All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Hmm… This opener didn’t really do it for me. It was off-putting and failed to create the motivation to get into the story. The pacing was sluggish and the jokes were lazy and lacked the injected humor to impress. I honestly found nothing funny about the “jokes”. The characters weren’t able to help the situation, either. The lead, Kokonotsu was dull to deal with in both appearance and personality as his father was annoying and Hotaru being a little too delusional for my taste. If any consolation, the animation was alright.
A rather poor first outing in my book that leaves much to be desired but to be fair, I’ll put the three episode rule into effect. Though there are no expectations present on my part.
Side note: This is no such thing as “Too much scenery porn”. Such thoughts themselves are blasphemous and warrants every pitchfork available.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Why? You don’t like the first episode. I don’t think it’s going to change in two weeks. Silly rule, needs to be discarded. A meal you dislike by sight isn’t going to suddenly change to the thing you want it to be just by adding a fortnight to the equation.
::slaps chest:: Come at this! I eat mobs for tea, and poop the tears of my enemies by default!
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
A “chance at redemption”, so to speak and to be fair that a show had an opportunity but blew it before getting scrapped. I manage my viewing in a certain way. If a series doesn’t outright repel me in an unforgivable manner in the first episode (Surely, you already have an idea to what I’m referring to), it gets another go to show me if it’s capable of being better.
I always screen my options before making an anime watch list, which is why my drop rate is always relatively low. This season like many before it, there are shows I automatically give a “pass and forget” vote based on the cover, what genre tags are involved and the synopsis. Any that get such a judgement is because what they’re offering isn’t appealing in the slightest. I even use the First Impressions to confirm my suspicions. Most of the time, when I read what a certain series I filtered out entailed, it proved I was better off not bothering giving a single glance.
What happens afterwards is up to the series itself. If it holds up, a good mention will be received. Should it do anything like dropping the ball by regressing to what put it on thin ice in the first place, lowering my motivation to continue or do something that completely rubs me the wrong way or produce irritating elements (General and/or personal), especially on multiple occasions, the axe will come down hard.
Your choice, your funeral so you’ll get no sympathy from me. I hear steel is especially tough on brital bones. Good luck.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
The denizens of the internet are a cowardly and superstitious lot…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I liked the overall show, but felt like they could pull Hotaru back to about 90% of that energy level and be right about perfect.
I think they got the feel of the little town, if you can even call it a town, just right. A lot like Non Non Biyori, although the goal of the show is different. I think the fact that You named his son Kokonotsu is kind of a funny indictment of his character, that we see confirmed in how he acts with Hotaru.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Also, I really love the character designs. They are just right.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I think Hotaru was just at the right levels, but week after week she could used a rest and tag Saya in…
I think You and Hotaru are more made for each other than anyone really, but that’s not where the show is headed either…
POWUH: iLurker with 8 comments
I was not wholly impressed by this. I’m a bit nit picky when it comes to situational comedy shows like this. I think that, despite the fact that it centers pretty much around a candy store, the scenery of rural Japan just makes me compare this to Non Non Biyori, which is silly (I know) as they are two different things.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…takes all kinds…
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
After reading the manga randomly after Sumiarii was talking about Dagashi I found it to be really fun and interesting! Anime wise having voices and character movements really helped things just like how adding music made Gakkou Gurashi extra creepy!
Hotaru is going to be everyone anime fans new waifu for the season LOL
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
There are some that are Team Saya….