English Dub Review: Dagashi Kashi “Roll Candy, High Eight Chocolate, and…”

Owari takes the stage as the center of this episode’s comedy of errors.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

This week’s Dagashi Kashi brings us a whole host of shenanigans involving our newest arrival to the cast and resident klutz, Owari Hajime, who’s just started working at Shikada Dagashi as a part-timer. At the end of last week’s episode, Saya had just seen Owari waving goodbye to Koko as he went off to school, and her jealous mind goes basically where you’d expect it to. She spends all day at school wondering who this mysterious new hussie, and after school decides to get to the bottom of this herself.

Fearing that Owari has already seduced Koko into her clutches, she bursts through the door to the shop, only to find Owari soundly napping on her desk within. Not exactly the seductress Saya had envisioned her to be. Owari awakens with a jolt and falls backward in her chair, tumbling into the wall behind her, making a fantastic first impression with Saya. After getting on her feet, she explains her new position in the store, and though Saya’s anger is lessened at hearing that, she’s still pissed that Koko just hired some random woman. Her mood takes a turn, however, when Owari accidentally assumed Saya to be Koko’s girlfriend. Saya can barely contain her excitement at the prospect.

Wanting to impress her manager’s “girlfriend”, Owari gives her one of the candies from the store, a “Roll Candy.” Saya unwraps the candy, but finds a roll of paper inside. The two quickly realize that neither of them understands how this mysterious candy works, even though Owari should be the expert, considering its her job and all. Soon, they figure out that the candy is actually attached to the inside of the roll of paper, and has to be unrolled to be eaten. Basically, its a Japanese Fruit by the Foot. The two bond, laughing victoriously over their collective discovery of this candy. It seems the two are getting along well, until Koko returns and reveals that in addition to working there, Owari is a live-in employee at the shop. It’s one step forward and two steps back, as Saya’s mind, immediately returns to her scandalous notions.

The next day, Tou decides to stop by the shop and play a game of “Debt Collector” with Koko, a sort of improv charade where he pretends to be a debt collector coming to, well, collect from Koko. Tou puts a candy cigarette in his mouth, turns up his collar, and opens the door with his best yakuza impression, demanding that Koko pay the “debt” he owes him. Unfortunately for Tou, he finds that it’s not Koko in the store, but Owari, who’s a complete stranger to Tou. He turns away in embarrassment, mortified, but Owari isn’t in on the joke and thinks Tou is actually a debt collector, and she asks him to come back later. Meeting one misunderstanding with another, Tou thinks Owari is actually playing her part in the game, and therefore he needs to stay in character to match her good sportsmanship. He presses his debt collector routine, telling Owari that if she can’t pay, then she’ll have to pay the mafia with her body. Owari panics and begs him not to make her do such lewd things. Grinning, Tou agrees to the request, but only if she does something funny in return.

Much to her comedic credit, Owari acquiesces to “doing something funny”, and pretends to lose her glasses, only to put on a pair of chocolate dispensing glasses from the shop instead. Tou absolutely digs the bit, and, infatuated with the candy glasses, decides to buy some to show off to his friends. As Tou leaves, Owari collapses to the floor, relieved at fending off the sinister “debt collector.” Later, Koko returns home, and Owari tells Koko that she’ll protect both him and the business, a passion for justice in her confident smile.

Our Take:

Chalk up another point for Dagashi Kashi, this was a quality episode that made me chuckle the whole way through. Owari’s arrival to the show gives us lots of new material to enjoy, and seeing Saya freak out over her is both cute and funny. The interactions between Owari and the main cast feel natural, have a great flow, and make for some very funny sequences; punctuated with a little candy trivia, of course. Give it a watch if you’ve got ten minutes.