The story, if you can call it that, begins with the introduction of a candy shop. This candy shop is in a small village in Japan and it is run by a weird father, and his son who wants to draw manga. The father wants the son to take over this shop, which has been in the family for generations. One day a girl arrives and tries to recruit the father, but he refuses unless this woman could convince his son to take over the family shop. That is the basic framework of the show.
From there Dagashi Kashi progresses in a slice of life pace. Each episode has some form of Dagashi which the female lead (Shidare, Hotaru) presents and explains. This at the beginning was generally used as a ploy to somehow convince (Shikada, Kokonotsu) to run the Dagashi shop. The explanations seem to be a mix of truth and exaggeration, though since I do not know about the candy being talked about I don't know if it is actually true or not. There are clearly some falsehoods however because this is how they try to drive in the comedy. The ending of the show got a bit more better at exploring the characters and other themes however the candy information never stops.
The art seemed lame at first, however I came to appreciate it almost immediately. The characters are done really well and it felt rather unique. Music wasn't terrible either.
The characters are as mentioned above. A father (Shikada, You), who seems to be incompetent and humorous but seems to be some Dagashi guru. Then his son (Shikada, Kokonotsu), who wants to draw manga. His personality is a bit more mellow, and he plays the role of the questioner, who prompts Hotaru into talking about Dagashi. His best friend (Endou, Tou), who is sort of the idiot character, and is truly the center of some of the best comedy in the show. His sister (Endou, Saya), who runs a cafe in the same town. She secretly likes Kokonotsu. Then finally we have (Shidare, Hotaru), who is this rich, crazy, dagashi loving person. She spends most of the time in the show, imparting knowledge, being unlucky and adding some sexual themes(though she herself is incredibly dense, or rather uninterested in things outside of dagashi).
The characters all have charm. I wish the romance elements were more put together, as Saya was cute. I did enjoy the times in between the candy lessons, as they tended to have a simplistic and comedic feel. Hotaru, was a huge distraction and wasn't really what I had hoped the show was centering around.
Overall this show isn't bad. However out of 12 episodes I think I managed to laugh three or four times. I would be willing to watch a season two, especially since nothing comes about by the end of the first. However this seemed like it was trying to hit a funny bone which I simply don't posses. If someone out there likes Hotaru and her antics you may find this a bit more enjoyable to watch. For those of you not interested in semi comedic candy lessons, you will probably be mostly bored and unamused like I was. This season has been a great one for new and unexplored ideas, however each of these seem to be boring and lame for one reason or another.
TLDR: Boring and non funny candy lectures. Nothing happens, no part of this anime progresses or comes to a conclusion. Saya was cute, though. Watch if you don't mind the candy bits.
