I imagine this is most likely the end for Dagashi Kashi as anime, though I was totally convinced of that the first time around and look what happened.  The difference now is that the manga is about to end, so there’s even less incentive to make more anime when the series doesn’t sell many discs – the manga is quite popular, and it was probably to boost manga sales that the second season was greenlit in the first place.  I’ll certainly miss it – flaws and, there’s something thoroughly likeable about this show.

Season 2 was obviously somewhat limited (though perhaps not so much as I expected) in scope as a result of its half-length format.  It managed to pack a surprising amount of substance into those 11-minute chunks, but the finale was really hampered by being so truncated I think.  In the end the series kind of went for a “non-finale” finale, which isn’t totally out of character for it I suppose.  There was a bit of introspection here, but certainly nothing close to resolution.

One might have hoped that with Kokonotsu and Hotaru stuck in a rural train station overnight because of cancelled trains, something might have happened – if not that something, then at least some kind of acknowledgement that there’s mutual affection there.  We did get some candid self-awareness from Coconuts, but he never even asked Hotaru where she’d been – the whole thing was kind of a cute non-event.  If Buta-men and Mario Bros gum are the standout moments, you know things were kept pretty light.

And that’s the crux of all this for me, really.  I had a suspicion that Dagashi Kashi was actually a better show when Hotaru was offscreen (at least to my tastes) and I think I was kinda right.  It certainly was this season – perhaps with only half the length to work with, it was unable to cope with Hotaru’s overpowering presence and still manage to tell a story.  Hotaru is all facepulls and dagashi dissertations and boob shots – the moment she came back, there was a kind of reset button hit and we were back to the show we have for the first few episodes of this season.  I think Hotaru is so over-the-top that it’s hard for anything directly involving her to really come across as serious.

Well – it is what it is, I suppose.  And for all that I did prefer the first season (both in terms of storytelling and visual style) this one ended up being a lot better than I feared after the first couple of eps (whether Hotaru’s hiatus was the cause or not).  I think the new characters Beniyutaka and Hajime added some real diversity to the humor, and Hajime actually meaningfully contributed to several interesting plot developments.  There’s definitely a sense of being left wanting more, both from the individual episodes and the story itself, but that I feel that way at all is testament to how charming Dagashi Kashi is at its best.