Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「OH MY Sugar Feeling!!」 (Oh My Shugā Fīringu!!) by Taketatsu Ayana
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「ビッグカッツとペペロンチーノと…」 (Biggukattsu to Peperonchiino to…)
“Big Katsu, Peperoncino, and…”
Dagashi Kashi is back, with half the episode run-time, but basically nothing else has changed. Same art style, same seiyuu, same glorious candy-centric comedy. Actually, quite a few things have changed under the hood—including the studio and most of the staff—but this first episode is a definite continuation. Fans of the first season can rest easy, and fans of the manga who were dissatisfied with the relative lack of Hotaru last time may find solace as well, because Hotaru was once again running the show.
Speaking of, Shidare Hotaru (Taketatsu Ayana) once again shows that tropes are not bad (trope!). She may be a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (trope!), but she’s a fantastic one, and imbues every dagashi she gushes about with such excitement and verve that you can’t help but get swept away—as Shikada “Coconuts” Kokonotsu (Abe Atsushi) once again found in the Big Katsu sketch. I chuckled at the anti-climax, and especially loved the running gag of summoning Hotaru, her showing up out of breath, but still trying to look cool. That’s why Hotaru is so great!
Not that the others are slackers. Coconutsu isn’t the main draw of this series, but he’s a competent PoV character who never detracts from the proceedings, and has enough personality to frequently add. I’m still a big fan of Endou Saya (Numakura Manami) myself, being the irredeemable shipper that I am, and she can tsukkomi with the best of them. And her older twin brother Endou You (Suzuki Tatsuhisa), as well as Coconutsu’s crazy father Shikada You (Fujiwara Keiji), are still delights, even if they didn’t play much of a role here, and You was responsible for the only oddly-paced moment of the episode, the run-down store reveal that was subsequently ignored for the rest of the skits.
Still, Dagashi Kashi is back, and not much has changed, so I’m not worried. I don’t know if I’ll blog this again—I’m about to go on a two-week vacation that will make blogging difficult, though it being latecast damn near scuttles any possibility all on its own—but I’ll definitely be watching it. Get ready to enjoy another season of dagashi mania!
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ED Sequence
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ED: 「おかしなわたしとはちみつのきみ」 (Okashi na Watashi to Hachimitsu no Kimi) by Hachimitsu Rocket
Preview
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Hotaru is still gorgeous, zany and fun to watch as ever. Glad to have her back.
Dagashi S2 will run for 12 eps.
The 12 eps will be collected in 2 Blurays with 6 eps each, with boxart by Dagashi’s mangaka.
http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2018/01/11-1/dagashi-kashi-manga-author-draws-tv-anime-2nd-season-blu-ray-box-arts
Word is the anime sales for S1 was quite bad, and the manga sales didn’t improve with the anime. So there’s some wondering as to how Dagashi got greenlit for a S2, cut-down runtime notwithstanding.
Well there are other factors such as tv ratings, dvr recordings, merchandising (Hotaru’s character design is well loved). Who knows, maybe the show brought more attention to dagashi and there were increased sales in candy. Overall, candy is important to the history of anime and that might also played a role in it being greenlit.
I don’t want to be that guy, but the visual art for this series lost a bit of its punch during the production transfer. It’s not like season 1 was the paragon of art and animation but the staff understood how to accentuate the strengths of the manga’s character designs. That’s not to say what was on display this episode was bad or anything, but there doesn’t seem to be any positive gains in visual fidelity for some of the character detail that was lost from season 1. Something like Haganai absolutely justified it’s art style change from season 1 to season 2 as the change allowed the characters to animate better and for the staff to focus on making the drawings visually interesting such as animating their clothes and hair better or adding more detail to their hair and facial expressions. In short, Haganai’s visuals in season 2 were better than they were in season 1 despite them toning down Buruki’s character art. I don’t see this being the case with dagashi kashi; they sacrificed some of the detail shading, elongated the faces, and washed out some of the tone in the characters’ color schemes (for example, Hotaru’s face looks paler and the change doesn’t add much to her character design). I sorta feared this would happen. Other than that, the candy-comedy is still in tact though. I have other criticisms but ill wait to see more episodes to confirm whether they have any validity.
You could be right. Honestly I only pay so much attention to the visuals, especially in a show like this, so any changes weren’t enough to register with me. It’s like if someone mentions a difference in the OST: you’re probably right, I don’t pay much attention to that.
haha yea, just go back to season 1 and look at Hotaru and then compare her to what she looks like this season; the changes might not jump at you at first glance but you’ll eventually notice how vivid and punctuated Hotaru’s season 1 design is in comparison.
https://randomc.net/image/Dagashi%20Kashi/Dagashi%20Kashi%202%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2001.jpg
So I’m guessing Kokonotsu is on his way to become a manga artist, declines inheriting the shop and Hotaru leaves town? If that’s actually how the season ends, that’s kind of depressing when you think about it… 🙁 Also, that wasted gashapon merchandise…
https://randomc.net/image/Dagashi%20Kashi/Dagashi%20Kashi%202%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2005.jpg
(*Hotaru catching her breath*) “Nobody expects the Dagashi Inquisi– (*more heavy breathing, nearly collapses*)” XD I wonder if this will be a running gag for this season?
https://randomc.net/image/Dagashi%20Kashi/Dagashi%20Kashi%202%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2020.jpg
Must… Not… Imagine… Moar KanColle!Yamato x Arpeggio!Takao yuri… (*nosebleeds*) And on the topic of actor allusions, I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit more than usual at the scene of Hotaru drinking ramune.
As for that skit about instant noodle-style spaghetti, I remember eating something like that back as a kid (though instead of pouring hot water in a cup, it involved heating the noodles from a pack in a small pot of water before draining the water and adding pre-prepared spaghetti sauce from a packet to the noodles) before that product was discontinued for some reason. I’d love to have it back instead of just seeing variations of instant pancit in stores.
Anyway, good to see Dagashi Kashi season 2 fill the gap left behind by Blend S, happy to hear both Ayana Taketatsu and Manami Numakura again, and glad to see Keiji “Prince Ali” Fujiwara back doing voice acting work. Also happy to see that the candy-related trivia and comedy is still on point. Looking forward to the new characters appearing in the next episodes.
I really love this show. It’s great to have it back.
Ottimo!
Other than Hotaru’s design change and the length being cut in half, it feels like Dagashi Kashi never left. The fun and wonder of the series is still in-tact, and I couldn’t be happier to see all of these characters again. I definitely like the OP/ED of this season alot more. I still stick by the notion I had in my Koizumi-san preview that Hotaru and Saya’s personalities helped justify the full half hour length, but I also think the 12 minute length would help ensure that viewers are left wanting more rather than tuning out. I thought Hotaru looked alot better in the first season, but it’s a small price to pay to see Hotaru and Saya once again.
@Choya…..”I definitely like the OP/ED of this season alot more.”…..WWAAAAAAAAAAAAAT???!!!!…bu-b-b-but….that funky first opening…not to mention it had better visual direction than what we got this season. And what about all the cute alice in wonderland imagery and Hotaru and Saya’s little dance…COME ON MAAANNNNN!!
I don’t know why, but for some reason the humour just didn’t ring for me. Even at a scant 12 minutes, I was kinda bored throughout the proceedings.
I’ll keep watching and hope it comes back swinging. I liked the first season.
Yeah same here.
Maybe it’s because this was just an re-introduction episode. But while cutting down the run time, it seems some of the spirit was cut off too.