Dagashi Kashi

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
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A 2014 Shounen manga, Dagashi Kashi is written and drawn by Kotoyama.

Kokonotsu Shikada lives on a small city on the coast of Japan. He has the dream of becoming a mangaka, but his father wants him to run his family's candy shop. They're having yet another discussion about it when a rich girl arrives at their candy shop: Hotaru Shidare, daughter of the owner of a big candy company who wants Kokonotsu's father to work for her father's company. Kokonotsu's father You says he will not do it unless his son do what he wants, and Hotaru then proceeds to try desperately to try to make Kokonotsu want to do it

Serialized by on Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday.

Tropes used in Dagashi Kashi include:
  • Animal Superhero: Moleman, an anthropomorphic mole with a drill on his head. It is just a toy in-universe.
  • Beach Episode: Chapter 182 is set on the beach. A lot of fanservice ensues, beginning with Hotaru ripping off her normal clothes to reveal her swimsuit underneath.
  • Biker Babe: The cover of Chapter 14 invokes this, with Hotaru dressed in very skimpy clothes while posing on a bike.
  • Erotic Eating: Hotaru does that a lot, eating candies the most strange and suspicious of ways.
  • Fanservice Extra: Pretty curvaceous girls in bikinis are seen at chapter 1.
  • Five Man Band: Hotaru imagines five flavors of mochi as a kind of five-man band.
  • Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Saya gives one to Kokonotsu at chapter 184 when he feels depressed after Hotaru announces she is leaving.
  • Heat Wave: Chapter 9 seems to be set during one of those. Hotaru makes things even worse in the Shikada Candy Shop by turning off the air conditioner so she can eat butamen while it's hot as possible.
  • Innocent Fanservice Girl: Hotaru is completely unaware of how many things she does look erotic and doesn't mind exposing her body in front of post-puberty males.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Chapter 186. Kokonotsu's manga is published on a shounen magazine where several series were hiatuses and there were extra pages free for someone to publish on them. This reflects on Shounen Sunday's status at the debut of Dagashi Kashi and on the fact it's an "extra" manga, whose chapters only have 9 or 10 pages instead of the usual 17.
  • Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Hotaru has several traits like shaking Kokonotsu's life and being pretty hyperactive but averts by one simple way: she is trying to prevent him of achieving his dream of becoming mangaka and wants him to run his father's candy shop instead so she can make his father works for her father's company.
  • Most Writers Are Writers: Kokonotsu wants to become mangaka.
  • Not Helping Your Case: Chapter 16. Kokonotsu already saw the kind of powder Hotaru was consuming, but she keeps talking about it like she is consuming some illegal drug and badly trying to hide it.
  • Not What It Looks Like: Chapter 16 starts with Hotaru apparently consuming cocaine. Things just escalate from there culminating with Kokonotsu's father leaving the shop like a drug addict going for a rehabilitation clinic.
  • Pool Scene: Chapter 10 is set on the city's public pool. To Tou's dissapointment, no girls in swimsuits are there, making him almost give up on swimming.
  • No Sense of Personal Space: Hotaru is completely ignorant of the concept. Lampshaded by Saya on chapter 90, though she also says she doesn't mind it.
  • Serious Business: Chapter 12 reveals Hotaru trained for 2 years to learn a menko technique. Menko is a game where you make cards flip over other cards. Kokonotsu also takes the game very seriously and is at awe of Saya managing to flip over three cards with just one motion.
  • Status Quo Is God: Lampshaded by Hotaru but defied by Kokonotsu in 185. She says everything in Kokonotsu's hometown will go back to normal once she leaves, but he says what she did can't be undone, and things will not go back to normal.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Chapter 16. Hotaru negates that the powder from a sweet she was consuming it's illegal in a very agitated away. Kokonotsu lampshades how her hysteria is making her look suspicious, but she keeps using expressions related to the consumption of illegal drugs, like "withdrawal symptoms" and "choking the first time you use it".
  • The Peeping Tom: Tou Endou tries to peek at Hotaru naked at the bath on chapter 90. Kokonotsu tries to stop him since it's a criminal offense.
  • This Is a Drill: The fictional hero Moleman has a drill on his head.