This has been a surprising season for Dagashi Kashi in many respects, and that’s continuing right up until the final episodes.  No, not the return of Hotaru – that was pretty much a given.  But the way the series played the outro of the manga arc was quite a bit more serious and frankly dark than I anticipated.  It’s remarkable how plot-driven this season has turned out to be, given what things looked like after the first episode.

The kids (and Hajime, who’s right on the fringe of being one) do manage to finish Kokonotsu’s manga “Spin“, in time for him to make the three-hour train trip to “Leon” Mall (the joke is that Aeon shopping centers are omnipresent all over Japan).  Saya is of course getting caught up in the moment, but Hajime provides a word of caution – it might not be a good idea to plan a party, because Coconuts is likely to return “bummed out”.  Hajime is a great example of a character who transcends all expectations – despite her preposterous intro, she’s turned out to be multi-talented, reasonably dependable and strikingly clever and perceptive.

It’s pretty clear that this isn’t going to turn out well for Coconuts, but it still hurts to see him have his heart broken by the visiting editor (who isn’t especially cruel, just a little direct).  This is all played straight as an arrow – one could easily imagine the conversation playing out word for word.  The editor’s trained eye picks up that the manga was thrown together quickly, and that Kokonotsu hasn’t spent as much time on it as he needed to.  He doesn’t take it well, of course – who would?  But that’s because the words like “trouble focusing” hit uncomfortably close to home.

This is no less than the first real crisis of Coconuts’ adolescence.  He must weigh his dream to become a mangaka against his responsibilities for the shop – and the possibility that he might not hate them as much as he thought (not to mention that he may not have the talent to make his dream a reality).  It’s so painful, in fact, that he’s not upset when snow delays his train home because it means he won’t have to deal with the shame of facing his friends (who would be more than understanding and supportive, of course, since they love Coconuts for who he is).

It’s at this rather delicate moment that Hotaru returns to the scene at last – ambling through the snowstorm to wander into the desolate station waiting room where Kokonotsu sits alone and bereft.  This is obviously a very big coincidence, but suspension of disbelief is pretty much the hand stamp at the door where anything Hotaru is concerned.  We’ll see if her reappearance breaks the spell of grounded realism that’s been haloing Dagashi Kashi since she disappeared – she has been missed, but in some ways I think this series has thrived in Hotaru’s absence, which allowed it room to grow in ways unexpected and quite rewarding.