Manga / Dagashi Kashi

Dagashi Kashi is a manga series by Kotoyama, which was serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday from 2014 to 2018 and compiled into 11 volumes.

The story revolves around country boy Kokonotsu Shikada. His father runs a small family-owned candy shop and wants Kokonotsu to inherit one day. Kokonotsu wants nothing to do with the shop and aspires to become a manga artist instead. One day a weird but cute girl named Hotaru Shidare visits the shop. Hotaru is part of a famous family-owned sweets company, which she wants Kokonotsu's father to join. However, his father only agrees to if Kokonotsu can be convinced to take over the shop. She then makes it her mission to convince Kokonotsu to do so, no matter how long it takes.

The manga later received an anime adaptation, airing as part of the winter 2016 anime lineup, with a sequel airing as part of the Winter 2018 lineup.

Dagashi Kashi provides examples of:

• Affectionate Nickname: "Coconuts" for Kokonotsu by Tou and sometimes Saya (depending on the subs). It's a bit of an Embarrassing Nickname to him though.
• Alice Allusion: The anime's ending is a series of scenes from Alice in Wonderland with Saya as Alice and Hotaru as various Wonderland characters, including the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, and the Walrus (chasing mini-donuts with Tou and Kokonotsu's faces).
• Ambiguously Bi: Both Hotaru and Saya seem to have shades of this. More information on this page.
• Anachronism Stew: Played for laughs in the English dub where Commodore Matthew C. Perry for whatever unholy reason, speaks in a mixture of modern internet slang and like a valley girl.
• Artistic License – History: While Kokonotsu and Hotaru made a big deal about ramune being introduced to Japan by Matthew C. Perry in 1853, the drink was actually invented in 1872 by Alexander Cameron Sim and initially distributed in Kobe, not Uraga. In fact, the marble bottle that ramune is known for wasn't even created until that same year. The part about ramune being based on the English "lemonade" is correct, however, as it was the original flavor.
• Art Shift: A side effect of switching animation studios to Tezuka Production in season 2, the show's overall look resembles the manga more than the previous season did.
• Birds of a Feather: Kokonotsu doesn't like to to admit it, but he's almost as much of a dagashi nerd as Hotaru.
• Bland-Name Product: The magazine Kokonotsu sends his manga to is Shounen Monday, a riff on Shonen Sunday.
• Book Ends:
  • Hotaru is introduced sitting at a bus stop, struggling to open a metal dagashi container. The final episode of season 1 has her sitting at the same bus stop, trying to open the same container, until Kokonotsu shows her how to do it with a ten yen coin.
  • The panels of Kokonotsu's first sight of Hotaru are recreated in the manga ending.
• Career Versus Man: After Kokonotsu develops feelings for Hotaru, he pretty much has to decide between his career as a mangaka or his love for Hotaru, with her even proposing to him in the penultimate chapter before leaving (again). His answer? We don't know for sure. He does eventually make his debut as a mangaka and still refuses to inherit the shop, but Hotaru eventually comes back, and the series ends just on that note. While it is not conclusively stated, the manga arguably leans toward a "why not both" option since Kokonotsu is holding Hotaru's "winning" popsicle stick.
• Childhood Friends: The Endou siblings, Saya and Tou, have known and been friends with Kokonotsu since they were kids.
• Deep-Immersion Gaming: Evoked. Though she's not actually playing a game, Hotaru mentions recruiting Kokonotsu's father for her father's candy company as if she were in a role playing game. The anime also shows scenes as if she were an adventurer exploring unknown lands and fighting against monsters as well.
• Determinator: Hotaru will do whatever it takes to make Kokonotsu take over the family dagashi store in order to get his father to work for her father's candy company. Unfortunately he wants to be a manga artist instead, but she starts showing up rather frequently to try to get him to do it. Later, this shifts to her wanting him to work for her own future company instead.
• Distant Finale: The final chapter takes place a year after the penultimate one, showing what the cast is doing now.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Kokonotsu at times with Hotaru, who will occasionally but inadvertently use Erotic Eating. Or occasionally say things in a way that can be taken in the wrong context, such as asking him to be an adult... by drinking a non-alcoholic drink that looks like beer but is actually apple or pineapple juice.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Kokonotsu catches Hotaru and his dad at night in the store with the lights off making a sketchy deal. The dagashi that they have is treated like an addictive drug where Yo goes into withdrawal.
  • Hotaru has a major penchant for verbal (and visual) innuendos. A good example of this is when she asks Kokonotsu whether or not he wants to pass time at the train station by, uh, "sucking on it". ("It" being kombu hamakaze, obviously)
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Saya tends to hit her brother quite a bit, usually in response to his teasing her.
• Drunk on Milk: Hotaru somehow manages to get drunk on "Namaiki Beer", a non-alcoholic drink that only looks like beer which Kokonotsu mentions tastes like apple or pineapple juice. Could be this trope or Fake High, depending on whether she knew it doesn't actually have alcohol.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Meta example, and a literal early-bird cameo at that. Tomokazu Sugita lent his voice to Matthew C. Perry a good few months before he officially joined the cast as Beniyutaka Shidare.
• Engagement Challenge: Kokonotsu accidentally clears one set by Hotaru's father by being able to snap ice cream packs in half.
• Erotic Eating: Frequently, by Hotaru.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Hotaru has multiple rings in her iris. Her brother shares the same trait.
• Family Business: The candy shop's been in Kokonotsu's family for generations and his dad really wants him to inherit it.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Tou is the Foolish to Saya's Responsible, which irritates her to no end.
• Friendship Trinket:
  • Saya's goldfish, shown in the OP and in scenes taking place in her family's cafe is revealed to be this in episode 7, having been given to her by Kokonotsu when they were children, after a goldfish scooping stall owner takes pity on him for miserably losing. At the end of the episode, he is given another goldfish, which he also gives to Saya.
  • Hotaru's winning popsicle stick in season 2, following a season 1 Running Gag where she fails to get one, which she gives to Kokonotsu when she's Put on a Bus and doesn't return for some time, to be given back when she returns. In the final manga chapters, this is repeated with a one-year Time Skip.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Hotaru, who doesn't seem to care about being seen naked by Tou. She also doesn't see any problem with the thought of being tied up and blindfolded while having Kokonotsu put something long and pink in her mouth...
• Instant Expert: The Endo twins seem to have a knack for this.
  • Saya manages to become an instant expert at pretty much anything she picks up for the first time, without even knowing what it is just moments prior.
  • Tou became an expert monjayaki cook on the spot despite having never having had any training and only offered to take up Kokonotsu's post on a whim.
• Jokers Love Junk Food: The show is built on Japanese junk food and candy, with Hotaru Shidare as our guide. She's a Cloud Cuckoolander who thinks nothing of being seen naked by the male characters of the cast and with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the "dagashi" aka snack foods that Kokunatsu's family sells. She once causes herself a mouth ulcer by drinking copious amounts of a sweet drink made from a powder mix, and succeeds in making it worse by continuing to do so when stopping would have helped.
• Large Ham: Hotaru very much acts in this manner, especially when it comes to eating or describing snacks.
• Leg Focus: Saya gets a Feet-First Introduction in the OP.
• Like Brother and Sister: How Kokonotsu sees him and Saya, unfortunately for her.
• Limited Wardrobe:
  • Hotaru rarely wears anything else besides her trademark "casual lolita" outfit, switching to a different, mostly black one in winter.
  • Hajime has few other clothes besides her Office Lady outfit. Enforced, since those are the only clothes she owns, as she'd be homeless and jobless if not for Kokonotsu taking her in and all her pay goes to cover her living expenses.
• Love at First Sight: Kokonotsu is awestruck when he first sees Hotaru, who also coincidentally looks much like a girl he had been drawing for his manga.
• Love Triangle: Kokonotsu has a obvious crush on Hotaru, while Saya has had a crush on him for a while. Hotaru's feelings on the matter are a little vague, but there are hints that she might be interested in Kokonotsu.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Hotaru is a fairly textbook example: she barges suddenly into Kokonotsu's life, is extremely quirky and energetic, and her presence helps bring him out of the funk he's been in. She even looks a lot like his "ideal" girl he's been drawing in his manga.
• Missing Mom: Not once did anyone mention Kokonotsu's mother. Since she doesn't actually appear in the manga proper, it would be reasonable to assume she had either died or gotten divorced from Yo, the former of which seems more likely since she's been missing since his younger days.
• Mistaken for Gay: In the later chapters of the manga, Hajime is convinced that Saya has a crush on Hotaru, even leaving them alone for a while to give Saya some room to "confess". Saya herself is completely unaware of this.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Saya & Tou (they are twin siblings, after all). Saya has Cute Little Fangs most of the time, but when full teeth are called for, both get full-on shark teeth.
• Most Writers Are Writers: A manga whose protagonist is an aspiring manga artist.
• Mouth Cam: In Episode 9, there is a shot inside Hotaru's mouth that alternates between this trope and Mouthscreen. There are two sentient pieces of wata-pachi inside her mouth.
• Mundane Made Awesome
  • Hotaru will often burst into these moments when describing snacks. And she often uses it to describe mundane things she was doing, such as going to ask Kokonotsu's father to join her father's company, and treating it as if she were on a quest in a role playing game.
  • Kokonotsu's father tends to make use of this as well, such as when he tells Kokonotsu to take over the family shop. They end up "fighting" each other in obnoxious, over the top ways such as boxing each other as they engage in a little Ham-to-Ham Combat.
  • Hajime does this for HTML and Javascript coding when they make a website for the shop.
• Naked First Impression: The first time Tou sees Hotaru, she's just come out of the shower. Hotaru, for her part, doesn't seem to mind in the least, even telling Tou (who has been rendered unconscious by Saya) while she's still naked that he has a wonderful sister.
• Never Bareheaded: Hotaru is almost never shown without her black rose hair ornament. Saya always has two hair clips on her bangs.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: Kokonotsu's father Yo is usually seen working different odd jobs in each of his appearance when he's not at the store or goofing off, to generate additional income since dagashi-selling on its own isn't profitable enough. Or so he claims.
• Ninja Log: Kokonotsu's father does this in the first episode. After he falls to the floor as if he were dead, he immediately disappears, and places a hugging pillow in its place. As Kokonotsu looks it over, he then shows up by the hallway, and takes off somewhere, forcing his son to watch the shop for a while.
• Oblivious to Love: According to Tou, Saya has been in love with Kokonotsu for a long time and her feelings for him are very transparent. Kokonotsu is just too dense to realize it. Some episodes however imply that Kokonotsu has some romantic affection for her as well if the flashback in the sixth episode and the way he's beginning to look at her differently in the seventh are anything.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: It's possible Yo is doing this just to bring out Kokonotsu's knack of dagashi.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: For what is possibly the first time in Hotaru's life, she wins something from a Dagashi, but its also the time where she's Put on a Bus.
• Playing Doctor: Kokonotsu and Saya play this in a flashback in episode 6, but mostly not in the way Saya wanted: Kokonotsu played a quack who never "examined" her and just handed her a candy that came in pill-like blister packaging.
• Pun-Based Title: The title is a pun on "dagashi" (cheap sweets, with "kashi" meaning "sweets") and "daga, shikashi" (an insistent and pompous way of saying "however").
• Punny Name:
  • Kokonotsu = Coconuts
  • Hajime Owari = "Beginning-Ending" ("Ending-Beginning" in Japanese name order)
• Product Placement:
  • Notably, Dagashi Kashi features many real-world confectionery brands like Glico and Meiji, instead of settling for Brand X or Bland-Name Product per tradition. That is not to say it's not without made-up labels, though.
  • One chapter has Hotaru show off dagashi that came with special exclusive chapters of the Super Mario Bros. Manga Mania manga.
• Proper Tights with a Skirt: Hotaru almost always wears tights, so she can make her dress flutter around with impunity.
• Revival: For all of one chapter. For some reason the author took a quick break from their next series Yofukashi no Uta (same publisher) and drew an extra chapter for this one instead - set after the Distant Finale, but still leaving the implications of the ending up in the air.
• The Scrooge: Hotaru is especially guilty of this, despite coming from a rather well-off family. She would always bring the least amount of money possible anywhere, and would often fall for either ill-conceived get-rich-quick schemes or gambles that usually go south in an instant.
• Serious Business: Candy and snacks for Hotaru and Yo. As they tend to ham it up whenever they bring up.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Kokonotsu's father does this for him and Hotaru, and even mistakes her for his girlfriend at first. She then says she's in love with someone else, and then points to a character on the snack Kokonotsu was eating. He seems even more embarrassed by that, than the fact that she said she liked someone else first. Later, it seems that he's also aware of Saya's affections for Kokonotsu during episode 7, allowing and encouraging Kokonotsu to spend some time and have some fun with Saya at the ongoing festival.
  • Saya's brother Tou also flip flops between shipping Kokonotsu with either his sister or Hotaru.
• Ship Tease: Episode 7 is full of this for Kokonotsu x Saya.
• Shout-Out:
  • The first episode of the anime alone has several shout-outs. At one point Kokonotsu attacking his father turns into a brief Saint Seiya parody, with a galaxy and a Greek temple in the background, and the constellation of Pegasus replaced with a reindeer. Hotaru's fantasy looks like something out of Dragon Quest, that turns into a Dragon Ball parody the moment she has to face a dragon looking like an orange Shen Long (complete with seven heart-shaped Balls floating beside it).
  • There's also many references from Mobile Suit Gundam from RX-78 taking down two Zakus to Axis dropping into Earth.
  • The OP animation gives us shout-outs to the original Star Wars films with Kokonotsu as Luke Skywalker and his dad Yoh as Darth Vader duking it out with glowing candies that resemble lightsabers, and the Indiana Jones films with the Endou siblings cosplaying as Indiana Jones characters.
  • The ED gives us one for Alice in Wonderland.
  • In Chapter 3, Kokonotsu's father is able to form the face of Pochi-kun (a snack mascot) by flexing his back muscles, in a manner similar to Yujiro Hanma's "Oni's Face" from Baki the Grappler.
• Snow Means Death: After losing the manga contest, it begins to snow on Kokonotsu's way home. Possibly symbolizing the death of his dream to be a Manga artist. Luckily Hotaru convinces him not to give up.
• Strange Minds Think Alike - Hotaru, Tou and Yo all think a typhoon is the perfect time to go outside and run around.
• Take Up My Sword - Invoked by Hotaru while giving candy to Kokonatsu so that he can finish running the last 300 meters to the cafe.
• Tsundere: Saya is a Dere type. Overall a nice and pleasant person to everyone, but gets flustered whenever her crush on Kokonotsu is brought up. Or, you know, you just happened to be her brother who loves riling her up nearly all the time. Interestingly, she only occasionally plays up the tsun card with Kokonotsu every once in a while as she's usually seen actually being really nice to him whenever they talk.
• Urban Legends: Hotaru's knowledge of dagashi slips into this, though they are usually based on real-life urban legends on dagashi. For example, the Sonomanma gum "game", where you try to avoid the super sour one. Hotaru believed the packaging was the key to avoid it.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: All of the characters' eyes tend to look like this to some degree, but Saya and Tou are particularly extreme examples.

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