English Dub Review: Dagashi Kashi “Baseball Board Game Gum, Pop Pop Boat, and…”

It’s the obligatory bathhouse episode!

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Its typhoon season and that means its time for rainy day shenanigans at Shikada Dagashi. Saya and Kokonotsu are chilling out at the shop, worried about Hotaru and Tou who were supposed to come over earlier, and would now have to brave the storm to get to the shop. To pass the time, Kokonotsu shows Saya the most recent addition to the shop’s inventory, a mini baseball gumball machine! The toy dispenses gumballs of different colors, and ones of certain colors can be redeemed for store vouchers. So its basically gambling, but for kids! Being the paragon of morality that she is, Saya scolds Kokonotsu for having the predatory gumball machine, but Kokonotsu insists that its fine. They turn around and see none other than Hotaru, mindlessly enjoying her newfound gambling addiction. To make matters worse, she didn’t win a single store voucher!

Kokonotsu lewd senses quickly alert him to Hotaru’s blouse being soaked through, and after making a blushing fool out of himself offers Hotaru some towels to dry off. The gang soon decides it would be safer for Hotaru and Says to stay the night at the store instead of braving the storm to go home, and You sticks his head out to concur. Of course, being the absolute madman that he is, he decides to brave the weather himself to go and check on the rice paddies, cackling all the way.

Just then, Tou steps out from the back of the store. Apparently, he had been there the whole time and was just taking a bath to warm up from being out in the storm. He’s down with the idea of the sleepover, and nudges Saya towards the idea as well; it’s a great chance for her to spend time with Kokonotsu, after all. With all them in agreement, Hotaru declares that its bath time and tells Saya that they can “sharesies” the tub.

Things are initially peaceful, but outside the bath, Tou is set on peeping on the girls in the bath, and Kokonotsu desperately tries to hold him back. Tou is relentless, but Kokonotsu confesses that he too wants to see Hotaru’s lewd nude form, but he’s holding out for the day he can do it without being labeled a pervert. The two come to an understanding as men, but just as they do, Saya catches them and shoos them away.

Back in the bath, Hotaru shows Saya a cool toy boat she has, a “Pop Pop Boat” to be precise. Its cute and steam-powered, and Saya remarks that Hotaru has a strange way of communicating with people. Later, Kokonotsu takes a bath for himself and finds the pop boat in the bathroom. Seeing the straw Hotaru used to put water in the boat, his perverted mind contemplates making out the straw, transitively kissing Hotaru. Its no dice for Kokonotsu though, as Hotaru peeks her head in and freaks him out, ending the lewd episode on a lewd note.

Our Take:

I was a little worried after last week’s season premiere that Dagashi Kashi might’ve lost its jazz, but its managed to pull off a pretty good episode this week. Its cute, funny, and not overly perverted for an episode of this type, and does a good job within its shorter time frame of maintaining the kind of comedy I’ve come to expect from this show.