Dagashi Kashi 2 – 07

I confess, this second season of Dagashi Kashi is surprising me in several ways, some of which I’ve talked about over the past few weeks.  But one thing I certainly didn’t expect was for it to be a Hotaru-free zone for so long – I know this is all manga material, but to listen from the carping from manga fans about S1, I figured this one was going to be all Hotaru, all the time. Instead we haven’t seen head nor hair of her in three episodes (presumably she’s back at her own school for the moment).

I think the addition of some new blood to the cast is a good thing – I like the quartet (though you could arguably have added You-san) that the first season largely limited itself to, but a couple more zany characters aren’t a bad thing.  The first one was the konbini manager of course, and the second is a konbini castoff – Hajime Owari (Akasaki Chinatsu).  I mean for starters, you have to love that her name basically means “End and Beginning”, but she’s also loopy in a way that’s agreeably different from the other cast members.

Owari-san enters the mix after Kokonotsu advertises for a part-timer – which admirably answers my “what does the shop even do during the day?” question from last week.  We’ve seen Owari of course – she was the oddball in the konbini job ad – and it’s obvious pretty much from the beginning that Shikada Dagashi is her avenue of last resort, job-wise.  Simply put this girl is a disaster waiting to happen – dropped out of college, fired almost instantly from her only job, open about her tardiness and terrible work habits and not even to be bothered to come up with a new resume.  And once she finds out her potential new boss is a 15 year-old boy, she seriously moves into manipulating onee-san mode.

That said, Owari-san is clearly not dumb – just clueless about professionalism and responsibility-su.  She knows about Cubism (which annoys Coconuts, as he didn’t), she’s enthusiastic about certain odd things, and she does know how to play Cocounts well enough to get “hired” (though only to work for room).  Saya is naturally horrified when she sees Owari inside the shop when Coconuts leaves for school, but I don’t think she’s much of a threat in that department – more likely, just to the survival of the shop…