What’s salty, bursting with flavor, and just a touch…crunchy? The most perfect snack—Umai-bou, of course! Oh, but then there’s also Fue Ramune, Baby Star Ramen, and the iconic Sakuma Drops. And you can’t forget about Wata-Pachi. So many tasty things—get in my mouth already!
Welcome to Shikada Dagashi where your sweet tooth can find heaven. Ninth in line to run this fine establishment, Kokonotsu Shikada—aka “Coconuts”—would rather spend his time creating manga than thinking about Dagashi. But when a strange girl named Hotaru appears at the shop to recruit his dad, he’s suddenly pulled into her world of snack food obsession! Determined to make Kokonotsu realize his calling, Hotaru visits the shop daily to discuss the beauty, ingenuity, and overall taste of Japan’s famous snacks. Will her love of snacks, and maybe more, rub off on him? Get ready to sink your teeth into these tantalizing delights!
Where to start with this anime. First and foremost this series is a slice of life anime that is about one thing: Japanese Candy/Snacks. No seriously, its all about snacks. The story is about a boy whose father owns a Dagashi shop and wants his son to run it. However, Kokonotsu is far from interested in getting involved. That is until Hotaru visits and challenges Kokonotsu about Dagashi. Beyond that, there isn’t really an end game plot. Thus why this series never made it past a single season order.
The characters are wacky to be sure. A lot of fan-servicing occurs throughout, even overdone in spots. The series tries to play on the ‘food porn’ genre that shows like Food Wars! gets right. Dagashi Kashi sadly is just not able to really make it to the level of Food Wars. Still, what you will get out of it is that you will learn a lot about Japanese candy/snack shops and the level of advertising that goes into them. Not unlike food here in the US, even Japan has many unique ways of advertising its various types of candy. From mascots to making fun games out of it, there is something for everyone.
Funimation even did a special segment on its Dubbletalk weekly show during the english dub called “Put it in your mouth”. Both a play on trying candy and the fan-servicing that occurred in the series; They each brought in Japanese candy like what was shown on a given episode to eat and try out. Some things were great and others not so much. Check out one of those episodes below.
https://youtu.be/J1ddxgkVRm8?t=5m36s
You can grab Dagashi Kashi the complete series over on Amazon.com on Blu-ray and DVD.
