English Dub Review: Dagashi Kashi “Big Katsu, Peperoncino, and…”

Hotaru is back and ready to make you crave Japanese snacks all over again!

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Its season 2 of the best and only anime about snack food, and with it comes another batch Hotaru’s shenanigans complete with plenty of Japanese snack food trivia to wash it all down. We begin with Kokonotsu and Saya walking down the street in the chilly winter when Says asks Kokonotsu why the Dagashi store is in such bad shape. He looks at the store with a thousand yard stare and remarks that everything changed three months ago.

Following the opening credits, the story begins (presumably) three months ago, with Kokonotsu’s dad, You, running off and leaving Kokonotsu in charge. He accidentally summons Hotaru by uttering the magic word “Katsu”, when pondering what he should have for dinner. After Hotaru nearly dies on his doorstep from running there so quickly, she proceeds to give Kokonotsu one of her grade-A, patented fast food lectures we’ve come to know and love in this series. They eat “Big Katsu” with rice, and Hotaru regales Kokonotsu with the tale of a snack food company that set out to make squid snack foods using fish! Astounding! By the end of the fascinating tale, Kokonotsu has totally lost his mind. He retaliates at Hotaru with his own angry rant about how ridiculous it is to eat Dagashi on rice, but Hotaru turns the tables again when she reveals this was all just a test of Kokonotsu’s abilities. She prances out the front door, singing the praises of his dad’s blog all the way.

In our second story of the episode, Saya really wants some pasta! But not just any pasta! She wants to go to a fancy pasta restaurant, the kind of which simply doesn’t exist out in the boonies. And guess what, folks, “Pasta” is the magic word to summon the snack food queen this time. She presents Saya with an instant noodle pasta cup, and while she initially enjoys it, Saya quickly realizes that it tastes the same as salt and pepper yakisoba noodles! A twist of the highest order! Hotaru explains with a twinkle in her eye that the noodles are basically regular cup noodles using only half of the seasoning packet. She then surprises everyone by using the other half to make an after-dinner soup! By the end of it, no one is really impressed with this silly pasta substitute, but Saya says she enjoyed it, ending the episode on a happy note.

Our Take:

Dagashi Kashi has undergone a lot of changes from its first to the second season. Most notably, you’ll see that the episodes have shrunk from 22 minutes to 12, making this more of a small-time sketch show than a slice of life comedy anime, and that really shows. The focus on Hotaru’s snack food stories instead of interactions between the characters is amusing, but deeply unfulfilling when compared to the comedy of the first season that made the show such a joy to watch. I can’t say I’m impressed with this, but what we got did make me chuckle a bit, so perhaps there’s room to grow in this season.