It’s a testament to how much ground Dagashi Kashi has made up that I’m doing full posts on it despite it being half-length ( I guess the last short I did that for would have been Tonari no Seki-kun, at least some of the time).  I’m eating a certain amount of crow here, because I was pretty pessimistic about Dagashi Kashi’s chances to remain relevant as an actual story under this new director and studio, but – while it’s by no means on the same level as the first season – Season 2 has largely exceeded my expectations.

It’s also tempting to say this show is actually better without Hotaru, but I think that would be a gross oversimplification at best and misleading at worst.  It’s true that the past few eps have been excellent but so was Hotaru’s “final” appearance – I think it’s more about a focus on story and character over gag comedy and dagashi trivia than her actual absence.  The counter-argument, of course, is that Hotaru’s presence discourages that sort of storytelling in Dagashi Kashi – and yes, there may be some truth to that.

Episodes focused around Saya have always tended to be excellent, though, and this one was no exception.  She’s in a tough spot generally, given how much of a sibling Kokonotsu sees her as, but she goes on full tilt when she sees Hajime seeing him off in the morning.  And having to stew (and fantasize) about it all day at school doesn’t help matters.  She immediately heads over there afterwards in order to reconnoiter the situation first-hand, and figures out fairly quickly what’s really going on (and what isn’t).  She does get a nice bonus when Hajime mistakes her for Coconuts’ girlfriend…

That little episode reveals that Hajime may just not be a terrible saleswoman.  She is good at manipulating people, clearly – and even though she was asleep when Saya arrived, it’s hard to get too upset about that given that she probably hadn’t seen a custie all day.  Seriously – how do dagashi shops stay in business (indeed, most of them haven’t) competing against Lawson and 7-11 when a 35 Yen sale is a milestone?  Token dagashi trivia this week is the roll candy (as is so often the case, there was something vaguely erotic about that product exposition).

Next up Tou-kun stops by, intending to play “debt collector” with Coconuts (okay…) only to launch well into his spiel before he realizes it’s actually Hajime across the counter from him.  This is a really funny misunderstanding but, mostly stemming from Tou underestimating just how dim Hajime actually is – but once again, Hajime actually doesn’t do too badly here.  Given that she actually believed Tou was putting the squeeze on her for Shikada Dagashi’s debts (admittedly a stretch) her improv was quite effective.  Against a goof like Tou, anyway.  Might we be seeing the beginning of a beautiful partnership there, I wonder?