I suppose it says something about Dagashi Kashi’s commitment to the trivial that it wouldn’t be content simply to say that it had devoted an entire episode to a canker sore – no, it had to stretch the mouth ulcer arc to two episodes.  I admire its purity of purpose – the series is every bit as chuunibyou for stuff and nonsense as Hotaru is for snacks.  But in narrative terms I think this was probably a bridge too far, as this wasn’t one of Dagashi’s better episodes.

If you thought Hotaru looked bad last week, you’ve got another think coming, as she was carrying around what looked like a massive goiter on her cheek.  I suppose you have to give her credit for actually trying to abstain from candy for a few days in order to try and recover in time for the blockbuster release of the new Baby Star flavor (I’d actually be pretty jazzed about that too).  But this is Hotaru we’re talking about, so you know she has to go about being sensible in a totally idiotic way.  And I guess that’s fitting when the sensible advice you get is from Tou-kun.

First of all, she holes herself up in the massive house her father built for her (seriously?) and doesn’t tell anyone what’s going on.  It’s only because Coconuts is so worried that Hotaru hasn’t showed up at his shop for two days that he goes searching, which leads to a joint trip with Saya bearing what they assume will be get-well candy.  But even as the concerned Kokonotsu tries to entice her with various types of dagashi (a tiny elephant’s foot of yogurt called “Morocco“?  Love it.) Hotaru doesn’t spill the beans about what’s really going on here.

The punchline is that it turns out that even as Hotaru has been abstaining from candy to try and get better, she’s been drinking “medicine” that’s made from (guess what) candy.  As comic payoffs go it’s not one of Dagashi Kashi’s best, especially coming at the end of a full episode rather than a half-length chapter.  It’s not like this was a bad ep or anything – just not up to the rather lofty standard the series has been setting for the past several weeks.  Hopefully the finale next week will see the series go out with a bang.