Dagashi Kashi / First Impressions

「ビンラムネとベビースターラーメンと…／ヤッターめんとすっぱいぶどうにご用心！と…」 (Binramune to Bebiisutaaraamen to…/ Yattaa men to Suppai Budou ni Goyoushin! To…)
“Bottled Ramune and Baby Star Ramen and… / Yattamen and Beware the Sour Grape and…”

It’s drugs, sex(iness), gambling, and YouTube in this week’s Dagashi Kashi.

Drugs Are Bad, M’kay

The first skit was stunning. That’s the only way I can think to describe it. I can’t imagine many seemingly wholesome comedies that would run with a skit that acts like a drug drama and sounds like an adultery drama when it’s really about candy. The drug angle was blatant, and hilarious for it, even if drugs are maybe something that shouldn’t be taken so lightly. (Or maybe that’s why we should joke about them all the time.) But am I the only one that feels like Hotaru and You-san get along a little too well at times? It almost seems like they’re the ones the doujin authors should be writing about instead of Hotaru and Kokonutsu. Er, I’m told.

“Yo, yo, this is your You.”

The strong opening skit was followed by an equally strong second one. Kokonutsu works well as a comedic foil, but it’s a lot of fun when he gets all crazy passionate about candy too. And I don’t blame Saya for blushing a bit. Passion is attractive, ne? But seriously, You-san. He’s great. If you’re going to have a skit without Hotaru, you’ve almost got to have him. He brings the bonkers in spades. (“Yo, yo, this is your You.” Hah!)

Unlucky in Candy

I enjoyed the second half of the episode as well, though I don’t have much to say about it. Hotaru’s candy failure and despair was amusing, especially when it was followed by a doomed match of Russian Roulette. I do so love Hotaru for her sketchy, completely un-self aware personality. (The author also did a good job of introducin just a little uncertainty by having Tou-kun jinx the match, before roping it back in once Hotaru realizes her failure.) As for Hotaru promising to do anything they ask if she loses … part of me hopes that reappears later (ala the Slap Bet), though the rest of me realizes that Dagashi Kashi is low on continuity, so it’s not likely. Damn. I have a million things I’d like to see them ask.

tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – It’s all drugs, sex(iness), gambling, and YouTube—oh, and there was some candy too #dagashikashi 05

Random thoughts:

  • Kids, don’t do what Hotaru-chan did this episode. Don’t do pretty much anything Hotaru-chan ever does either.

My first novel, Wage Slave Rebellion, is available now. (More info—now in paperback!) Sign up for my email list for a FREE sequel novella. Over at stephenwgee.com, the last four posts: Star Wars: The Force Awakens – The Introduction, What Star Wars: The Force Awakens did right, What Star Wars: The Force Awakens did wrong, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens – The Conclusion.

 

Preview

21 Comments

  2. Oh my goodness, the animated adaptation of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable hasn’t even aired yet, but Hotaru’s pulling out JoJo-esque poses left and right. (Must you add to the hype, Hotaru?!)

    Also, the show almost lost me there (in a bad way) with that (G-rated) “drug drama” skit. It’s good that Hotaru or You-san didn’t decide to snort that Bottled Ramune powder as if it were cocaine… (Though the more twisted h-doujin artists may get an idea out of that, if they haven’t already… *shudders*)

    Hotaru’s (apparent) misfortune with candy-related prizes was worth a chuckle, however. (Didn’t she get that one candy toy in the previous episode, though?)

    And finally, nice to see some variation on Hotaru’s otherwise limited wardrobe.

    Incognito
    Reply

  3. The bottle ramune skit originally ended with Kokonotsu realising he was duped; his dad and Hotaru were acting that whole thing out as an excuse for his dad to skive off for the next few days under the pretext of “going to get clean”. So by splicing a different skit on to the end, the reason for the whole scene was lost.

    Hanabira.Kage
    Reply

    1. That should never have been cut. I’ve never found drug-humor funny, but that would’ve at least ended the skit on a high note. This just brought down the next skit with bad time management since it seemed Yo was back that night, so the whole thing was over-dramatic for no reason.

      Aex
      Reply

    3. That makes sense. The skit didn’t bother me, but there was some worrying subtext that I knew could rub others the wrong way. The manga ending would have been better. Shame they didn’t go with that, especially since I thought the second half didn’t have as much potential (realized or otherwise).

      Stilts
      Reply

  5. Interestingly, the design change of the wrapper for the Sour Grapes must be really recent.

    In the manga chapter “Beware of Sour Grapes”, they still have the old wrapper and the gag ends up being that the rumor of the sunglasses showing which one is the sour grape is wrong.

    Unless the manga author missed that the design had changed and he still had some old ones for reference, the change of design must have happened in the last few months.

    Zannafar
    Reply

  9. Funny how different things in comedy bother different people. A lot of people I know were bothered by the drug skit, while I didn’t mind that but was kind of bothered by yo yo You uploading video of Coconutsu without his permission.

    Erimaki
    Reply

  11. Such a weird word, Doujin. I’ll look it up.

    You-San is the one that makes me laugh the most, last week when he finds Kokonutsu tied down and this week with his song. I love Hotaru’s entusiasm, but I want half episode with Saya+Kokonutsu.

    Solid comedy this week, best episode so far.

    Carma
    Reply

  12. Stupid candy powder. If there’s any type of candy I hated back in the day, it was that. All I ever did was choke on it (I doubt the Japanese version will be any different). Getting used to it my ass.

    Still though, skits with You are always a source of comedy gold. He’s such a scheming dork. And honestly, if You didn’t suck so much at it (and if he was, y’know, real), I’d actually watch his stuff on Youtube. I’d imagine the owner of a candy store would have access to a wide variety of weird foods to talk about (going the whole Stuart Ashen route and all that).

    And man, Hotaru. It’s easy to put her away as just another Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but not only does she show off how an archetype like that can work (an animated comedy is perfect for it) but she’s also just so damn entertaining. From her reaction faces to her obsessions to her over-the-top personality – no scene is boring with her around. She’d be best girl of the season if it wasn’t for Megumin.

    It almost seems like they’re the ones the doujin authors should be writing about instead of Hotaru and Kokonutsu.

    Don’t give me them any ideas, Stilts. Or do? The shipping part of my mind is confused now.

    Dvalinn
    Reply

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