The high rollers come out as the stakes are raised, gambling with penny candies.
What They Say:
Episode 5: “Bottle Ramune, Baby-Star Ramen, and…/Yatta Men, Watch Out for the Sour Grape, and…”
Hotaru visits Shikada Dagashi after business hours to conduct a covert exchange with Kokonotsu’s father Yo. Later, she lets Kokonotsu and To in on her secret moneymaking technique.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After last week’s somewhat lackluster episode, this was much better. I think it’s mainly because they kept the lecturing to a minimum and made sure to keep the playfulness there. That was part of what made this show quite entertaining for me at the start, the completely playful nature of the characters and even the “conflict” that drives what passes for a plot.
This week’s lectures deal with the addictive nature of bottle ramune (which seems to be a pure sugar fix—not illegal, but not the best thing for your general health…though the dentists may well like all the extra business you’ll be bringing their way) and the various ways you can gamble with dagashi, from being a “winner” from randomly getting a winning piece of packaging to being a “loser” by choosing the wrong candy in the dagashi version of Russian Roulette: “Watch Out for the Sour Grape.”
The gags were fairly quick and easy to swallow and about the only somewhat new trick they pulled out this week was to heighten the sense of moe one might have in reaction to Hotaru, whose lack of gambling prowess is notable, noted, and pitied by Kokonotsu. Perhaps the most obvious and least interesting joke was centered on Yo Shikada’s online video reviews of snacks. His videos got very few views until Kokonotsu breaks in on one of them and the ensuing father-son argument (over the important information about Baby-Star Ramen) nets them a lot more eyeballs. I guess people arguing over candies and snacks is more interesting that watching some eat snacks and say they’re good (some of us would find both boring).
A return to form for an amusing, but still very light and fluffy, show.
In Summary:
Hotaru meets Yo late into the night in order to score some of her “drug” of choice from the local dealer. Kokonotsu walks into the exchange and learns what has been happening to all of the Bottle Ramune (ramune-flavored sugar packed in a wafer shaped like a bottle), a snack the store used to carry but which has been absent for a while. Turns out Yo has been scarfing them all down himself and selling some on the side to favored clients like Hotaru. From “drugs” we move on to gambling as we see some of the ways one can “gamble” on snacks: the instant winner packaging of some snacks and the Russian Roulette of Watch Out for the Sour Grape. A little less lecturing and a better amount of silliness made this episode quite enjoyable.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 12GB RAM, Mac OS 10.10 Yosemite
