Dagashi Kashi

Episode 7

Hotaru only made a couple of brief appearances in this week's Dagashi Kashi, but that turned out to be for the best. Hotaru's presence generally leads to sequences that are endearing, but are also kind of wackily self-contained - while she does have a personality, her dagashi enthusiasm doesn't lend itself to gradual relationship work. And instead of playing around in her general comic space, this episode instead felt like a direct followup to last week's second act sequence in Saya's memories. This was Dagashi Kashi's festival episode, and it turns out this festival meant a lot more to Saya than it did to Hotaru.

The episode's eventual focus was directly implied in its first pair of scenes, where first Saya and then Kokonotsu spent a moment reflecting on the past. For Saya, this came in the form of a pair of kids rushing off to the festival before her; for Kokonotsu, it was his decision to ride to the festival in the back of his dad's truck, a little-kid choice that at this point only left him with an aching back. The show drew no attention to the significance of this choice, which was a nice bit of understatement - like with the ways Hotaru's current behavior often inherently implies more information about her childhood, moments like this demonstrate how Dagashi Kashi's storytelling can sometimes be more subtle than comedies or even many dramas tend to be. It's a small thing, but implying personality and feelings through character choices that aren't overtly called out definitely helps make Dagashi Kashi feel a bit more graceful and insightful than your average comedy.

The opening scenes of the festival were where Hotaru got most of her comedy bits in, from her awkward attempts to monologue dagashi facts while climbing a tree (a very Hotaru choice) to her plan to raise festival funds through cutting out tiny sugar shapes. But even that plan seemed like an echo of the childhood isolation hinted at last week - Hotaru had never been to a festival before, but she'd apparently bought the cheap attractions characteristic of festivals and practiced with them by herself at home. The more Hotaru's quirkiness seems reflective of a childhood lack, the better of a character she becomes.

But Hotaru was quickly replaced by Saya, as she arrived in a kimono with hopes of exploring the festival with Kokonotsu. Kokonotsu was as oblivious to her feelings as ever, but his dad was not; and in fact, even To-kun ended up chipping in to make sure Saya was able to get the date she wanted. There were almost no overt jokes from the midpoint of this episode onward, but that wasn't really the point; seeing these characters respond naturally to account for each other's feelings and enjoy their time together is the better part of this show.

The episode ended where it began, with Saya and Kokonotsu reenacting a childhood moment at the goldfish catching stall. It was a graceful way of tying a bow on the episode's narrative, and giving at least Saya a very tiny resolution. If Dagashi Kashi were a true romance or a more ambitious show in general, I'd feel frustrated at the lack of legitimate narrative progress here - even if it seems like this moment brought Kokonotsu and Saya closer together, in truth there was no tangible movement, and Kokonotsu's obliviousness to her feelings makes him lesser in both a character writing and narrative sense. But Dagashi Kashi is what it is; a fuzzy pillow with no pretensions of being anything more, stitched well and filled with, er, competently written feathers (okay, that one got away from me a little). It's not a great work, but it is a fine version of what it is trying to be.

Overall: B+

Dagashi Kashi is currently streaming on Funimation.

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