Huh…this episode felt like it would have been more suited for something like Myself; Yourself. Whatever happened to my expectations for another high tension romance drama along the lines of the original Da Capo?! So far the conformity to typical harem conventions and the snails pace plot development is making Da Capo II a disappointment in a different way than DCSS, which just forced said drama. It’s not necessary to overload on melodrama just for the sake of drama, but this is just getting boring.

Episode Rating: 6.5/10

After going to the music store to buy some replacement strings for her bass guitar, Koko passes by a movie theater and notes it’s been a while since she last went to see one. Her longing to watch the romance movie that just came out is made even stronger when she sees a bunch of lovey dovey couples coming out of the movie, arms locked.

The next day at school Akane and Anzu wonder how Koko’s relationship with Yoshiyuki is going. They’re appalled to hear that they haven’t even been on a proper date, Koko saying that they’ve been too busy with band practice to find the time to go out together.

After school at practice, Koko is thinking about what Akane and Anzu said, making the band wonder why she’s so spaced out today, Nanaka especially seems to notice that something is up.

Later that day, Anzu and Akane are plotting something to help Koko out and push along her relationship with Yoshiyuki. Nanaka happens to overhear them and offers her assistance.

The next day, Koko and Yoshiyuki are presented with tickets to the romance movie that Koko was eying. The story is that Nanaka is too busy to attend practice this weekend so they have some free time anyways. The two are happy they finally get to go on a real date, but end up blushing messes from just calling the outing a date. Nervous about the movie, the two end up spending the whole night thinking about it and getting ready. And even the morning of, Yoshiyuki is showing the telltale signs of having a date, resulting in an interrogation from Yume and a cold shrug off when Yoshiyuki keeps her in the dark again.

The date starts with the typical compliment from the guy about how cute the girl looks and an embarrassed ‘thank you’, and they’re off. When they hit the dating area, Koko notices all the couples walking arm and arm, and clearly wants to do the same with Yoshiyuki, but he doesn’t notice it and she’s too shy to take it upon herself to grab him.

During the actual movie, the only exciting thing that happens is Yoshiyuki grabbing Koko’s hand. However, even that turns out to be an accident, he was just going for the popcorn. When Koko looks over she sees him on the verge of tears at the movie and nearly facepalms (Oops, that would be me, not Koko).

After the movie, we cut to Nanaka, who happens to be shopping in the area, she runs into Akane and Anzu and then the three of them find Wataru spying on Koko and Yoshiyuki, so they decide to join in. Their ninja skills could use a little work though, as they’re quickly exposed to the couple. Yoshiyuki pretends to be disappointed in them for spying, but then takes the opportunity to grab Koko and run away. When they stop running, Yoshiyuki notices he’s holding on to Koko’s hand and quickly pulls away, embarrassed. But nevertheless, with their stalkers gone, he says that their date can finally start, they spend most of the day visiting random shops around town together.

Stopping to get some ice cream, Koko buys a single cone and the two of them share it, leading to the ever common “indirect kiss” scene. But they’re interrupted by a nearby child who starts crying because he got separated from his mom. Koko manages to calm him down until he’s found, impressing Yoshiyuki, reminding him how good she is with kids. He tells her that she’ll make a good mother one day, causing them to both blush. orz

As their date winds down, Koko knows she’s running out of chances to hold hands with Yoshiyuki, but despite her best efforts, she can’t bring herself to do it. But then Yoshiyuki FINALLY realizes what she’s been up to and grabs her hand, rather embarrassedly. But not soon after, a nearby dog starts barking at them and Yoshiyuki pulls Koko towards him as she grabs his arm out of fear. After the owner calms the dog down, Yoshiyuki goes to move away, but Koko, having finally gotten him arm in arm, tugs him back and asks him to let her stay like this, as it’s her dream come true.

At school the next day, Akane and Anzu apologize for the whole spying thing and ask Koko how the date went. Koko tells them that her dream came true, which they mistake as the two finally having their dramatic first kiss, but are rather disappointed to hear that all they did was walk hand in hand.

Thoughts

Accurate portrayal of my face after watching this episode

Warning, spoilers on the original Da Capo and DCSS may follow in this rant…

Wow, and I thought Myself; Yourself was the definition of generic harem, this episode had more typical shoujo/harem conventions than I could count. While it’s tolerable in other series that I categorize under generic harem, I thought Da Capo was above it. The DC series has always been great at creating great drama by less conventional means, ie. the stigma of siscon, Sakura’s rivalry and her deep longing for Juunichi that cause Nemu to become a sakura petal dispenser, hell even Aisia’s “I’ll just keep resetting things until Juunichi ends up with me” plot was better than this.

I find it weird that DCII isn’t exploiting the one plot element that always made for some great tension in Da Capo series, the wish granting sakura tree. We know it’s back and working, seeing as Yoshiyuki has inherited Juunichi’s ability to see other people’s dreams and Sakura still looks like a 12 year old, so why aren’t they using it? While it was the cause of much frustration, I loved how it made the destined couple really fight against the odds to be together. In the original DC, not only did Juunichi and Nemu have to come to terms with their relationship and the whole incest thing, they had to overcome Sakura’s subconscious want to be with him almost killing Nemu. Why bring back the tree of doom only to have it do nothing but sit there and look pretty? Bah.

I’m still hoping that this isn’t it, that soon everything will figuratively hit the fan and we’ll have a classic faceoff for Yoshiyuki’s love. Nanaka vs Koko, Nanaka vs Yume, Yume vs Koko, I don’t care, I just want a rivalry, I’m sick of seeing Koko and Yoshiyuki dance around each other like two elementary school kids, making no, or incrementally small, development in their relationship.

There’s still a faint glimmer of hope that it might happen too, Yume still shows a lot of jealousy towards the Yoshiyuki/Koko relationshipm even more so since Yoshiyuki himself refuses to admit it and tell her what’s really going on between them. Many people will call her bitchy, just as many did to Nemu in DC, and even though I agree she’s taken the trademark ‘dark’ Asakura characterization to a new level, I just want to see some conflict, I don’t care who it comes from. I still like Yume, despite having to admit she’s getting a little too moody. She looks surprisingly cute in the tracksuit + messy hair + nerd glasses ensemble (I love nerdy girls, Kotomi <3)

Anyways, that does it for my ranting this week. I can only hope that all this is just a build up and we’re soon blindsided by the whole thing coming crashing down. Again, I stress, I do not hate Koko, I just can’t stand DC being degraded to such a commonplace harem. Come on sakura tree, do your thing!

And we end with some Nanaka, just because

~ Shirukii ~