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Dagashi Kashi
Episode 11

by Nick Creamer,

How would you rate episode 11 of
Dagashi Kashi ?
Community score: 4.0

This week's Dagashi Kashi started off with Kokonotsu asking Hotaru a very reasonable question: why exactly did her father's company want to hire Yo in the first place? He's clearly not a particularly dedicated worker, given how often he foists his work off on his son, and his youtube channel certainly didn't demonstrate any secret gift for dagashi explanations. So what's so special about Yo? Hotaru enthusiastically embraces this question, and in order to demonstrate Yo at his best, she has all three of them (including Saya) hide in a cardboard box and spy on him.

Of course, Yo isn't actually some secret genius who only shares his talents when he's not being watched. So when he finds himself alone in the shop, he just starts munching on the merchandise and practicing his youtube jingle. This gives the three teens (or at least the two of them who seem to actually possess hormones) plenty of time to get uncomfortable, making this the first episode in quite a while that actually played around with intimacy and fanservice. There were boob and butt shots for Hotaru, moments of Kokonotsu feeling overwhelmed by both girls, and even an optimistic projection by Saya about Kokonotsu taking over the shop and sticking around forever. This material wasn't really aggressive enough to work as fanservice for its own sake, but was also too brief to work as an emotional bit. It just kinda was.

“Just kinda was” also reasonably describes the ending to the first half's story, where the arrival of two customers gave Yo a chance to demonstrate that his true talent is creating bonds with customers and making them feel happy they came to the shop. This was a pretty obvious place to take the story, but again, there weren't really any jokes here, nor were there significant emotional beats. Dagashi Kashi is a fairly even-keeled show at the best of times, but this sequence felt a little milquetoast even for that.

The episode's second half was also mostly harmless, but it fortunately demonstrated more of the show's strengths - a solid sense of rural summer atmosphere, as well as a strong rapport between the central characters. The conceit of this half was a simple but resonant one; Kokonotsu and Hotaru have missed the train, so now they need to wile away the awkward minutes in the heat as they wait for the next one to arrive. There was a brief fanservice joke here as well, which was mostly notable as a reminder of how much the show's given up on fanservice in general, as well as a long explanation of the history of one more dagashi, all leading into Hotaru reaffirming her dedication to getting an answer from Kokonotsu.

Hotaru was mostly in dagashi-information-booth mode through this sequence, but even for that, it was nice to see how much more natural her and Kokonotsu's relationship has become. The two can actually have offhand conversations now, whereas early in the series it always felt like Hotaru was performing a larger-than-life character. This sequence even had one legitimately compelling joke, in the form of the supremely weird fantasy Commodore Perry that Hotaru invented for her ramune story.

Overall, this episode felt a bit more sedate than usual, but it was otherwise pretty much textbook Dagashi Kashi. Some endearing character moments, some nice atmospheric bits, and maybe a joke or two. If you've been watching this far, this will not be an episode that surprises you.

Overall: B

Dagashi Kashi is currently streaming on Funimation.

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.


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