Dagashi Kashi is a Japanese slice-of-life/rom-com franchise written and illustrated by Kotoyama.

The manga was serialized in Weekly Shounen Sunday. Its chapters are compiled and published into 11 separate volumes. The manga series was nominated for the 41st Kodansha Manga Awards in 2017, in the “best shounen manga” category. As of 2018, the manga had over 3 million copies in circulation.

An anime adaptation of the manga was also released in 2016, with the anime series adapted by Feel.

The series follows Kokonotsu, of the Shikada family. His family has been running the Shikada Dagashi, a countryside shop which sells snacks and candies, for the past nine generations, but Kokonotsu aims to be a manga artist instead.

The story begins with Yu telling Kokonotsu, his son, that he will be handing over the Dagashi shop to him. Kokonotsu, on the other hand, declines the offer, claiming that he does not wish to inherit the family business.

After hearing Kokonotsu reject the family shop, You becomes depressed and asks him what he wants to do instead. Kokonotsu is embarrassed and thinks to himself that he cannot tell his father about his dream to become a mangaka. But before he could even say anything, his father pulls out one of Kokonotsu's manga and begins delivering constructive feedback.

We learn that Kokonotsu lives in a small town near the coast on a peninsula, which is why there aren’t many people living there. People who lived there had to find a way to spend time in some way; some learned to play musical instruments, while others excelled in their academics. Manga was that thing for Kokonotsu.

A few days later, Yu approaches Kokonotsu while he is looking at women playing on the beach. He asks Kokonotsu about his ideal girl to which he says the one wearing the black swimsuit, but gets confused as to why he said that to his father. Yu tells Kokonotsu that if he wants to be a mangaka, he’ll support him, and takes out a manga he made himself to show his support. But when Kokonotsu starts reading the Manga, it shows him inheriting the shop, which angers him.

We see Kokonotsu and Yu bickering about the store's inheritance in the next scene. A girl walks into the store during their quarrel, and Kokonotsu is mesmerised by her beauty. Yu takes advantage of the opportunity and runs away, leaving the store to Kokonatsu. It later turns out that the girl was looking for Yu.

The girl introduces herself as Hotaru Shidare. Her father owns “The Shidare Company,” a well-known sweet manufacturing company that will one day belong to Hotaru. She then challenges Kokonatsu to see that if the Dagashi shop is worthy of being her rival in the sweets business.

The Umai Bou, according to Hotaru, is the king of sweets because it allows one to taste an unusual combination of flavours all at once. She then issues a challenge to Kokonotsu: create an Umai Bou mixture that will satisfy her. Kokonotsu starts mixing random things from the top of his head to which Hotaru says that it lacks punch. He then adds another ingredient, which makes Hotaru drool a bit.

Lastly, he creates an Italian style Umai Bou by combining pizza, onion salad, and corn potage. Hotaru starts drooling and describes the combo as “delicious”.

Kokonotsu can’t help but be intrigued by the strange yet attractive female.

What does the girl want from Kokonotsu? and how will this interaction develop their relationship?