What an awesome, yet painfully frustrating, episode. On one hand we got a full episode dedicated to Nanaka, who has sorely been lacking screentime. However, you’re kinda forced to watch with the reminder that it’s likely that no relationship between her and Yoshiyuki will be realized as she’s mutual friends with both of them. Then there was the final scene where we come literally a sentence away from the eruption of the drama that we’ve all been waiting for, only to have it fizzle right before our eyes. I now sympathize with Kotori fanboys, screw Koko, I want a Nanaka end ;_;

Episode Rating: 8/10

Yoshiyuki, Wataru and Koko are hanging out on a balcony when they see Nanaka on the basketball field below, being confessed to once again. As always, she declines, despite repeated reassurance from the guy that he’s serious about her. Wataru notices that the guy confessing is a member of the soccer team and apparently has a lot of fans…

Being high school, it doesn’t take long for the news to spread like wildfire. But it soon takes an ugly turn as the jealous girls start to talk behind Nanaka’s back for rejecting the soccer star, saying that she probably thinks she’s above them. Yoshiyuki wants to scold them for talking about Nanaka like that, but is stopped by Wataru and Koko, assuring him that Nanaka isn’t bothered by it.

But that day at lunch, the verbal assault becomes more direct as a gang of girls corner Nanaka and start bullying her, Katsura-style. Yoshiyuki can’t take it anymore and steps in, the girls tell him that it has nothing to do with him, but Yoshiyuki says Nanaka is his friend so he’s just as involved. Luckily, Kousaka and Otome show up and break things up before they get out of hand.

Afterwards, Nanaka thanks Yoshiyuki for standing up for her. The mood between them gets really friendly as Nanaka thanks him for believing in her so blindly, but it seems their not entirely alone, someone is spying on them from the bushes, taking misleading pictures of their closeness.

The pictures make it to Koko’s shoelocker the next day. She shows them to Akane and Anzu, more disappointed at the fact that someone would waste their time doing such things rather than being suspicious of Yoshiyuki and Nanaka. Anzu and Akane are impressed that she has so much trust in her boyfriend…

…but aren’t about to let Yoshiyuki off the hook that easily, the two approach him to question him, but are interrupted halfway through by Nanaka who grabs Yoshiyuki’s arm and goes to drag him off to the bread stall for lunch. When Nanaka realizes that something’s up, Yoshiyuki takes her out to the courtyard and explains what happened, Nanaka apologizes for causing problems for him and Koko, but Yoshiyuki says that she’s doing no such thing and that he’s sure Koko isn’t bothered by it either so she should just act as she always does. Reassured, Nanaka returns to her happy self and gives Yoshiyuki a hug, making him think despite all that, they should probably tone down the physical embracing a bit =P

That afternoon, Yoshiyuki and Nanaka both arrive to band practice well before Koko and Wataru show up so they decide to do a run through with just the two of them. Afterwards, Yoshiyuki praises her singing, but Nanaka accuses him of just saying that to be polite. She makes him look her dead in the eyes at point blank and admit that he likes her…singing. Oh Nanaka, what a tease.

When Koko and Wataru show up and they all start practicing together, things don’t go so well. Nanaka starts to think about Yoshiyuki and misses a lot of her vocal cues, when everyone asks her what’s wrong she casts a nervous glance at Yoshiyuki, making them all think that he’s the one who made a mistake, despite Nanaka saying it was her fault.

After practice and after Nanaka has straightened herself out, she tells Koko and Yoshiyuki that she’s going to stay behind for some solo training before heading home. They tell her not to overdo it as it looks like there’s a bad thunderstorm on the way.

Nanaka heads back to the music room and asks the teacher to help her with her vocals, but since there’s a storm on the way, everyone’s leaving early, so no luck there. With no options left, Nanaka heads to the roof to practice on her own, only to have the storm rush in on her, slamming the roof door shut, locking her outside.

Back at home, Yoshiyuki gets ready to buckle down and do a report that’s due, only to realize that he left the notebook he needs to do it at school. Despite it being stormy outside, he decides to head to school to pick it up anyways, luckily he has a spare key from Sakura to get in. On his way to the class, he hears a cell phone ringing, having left his phone at home, the ringing turns out to be from Nanaka’s phone, which is still in her class along with the rest of her stuff.

On the other line is a concerned sounding Koko who tells Yoshiyuki that Nanaka hasn’t come back home from practice yet. But before she can give him any more details, Nanaka’s cell battery dies out. Realizing that she must still be in the school, Yoshiyuki runs around trying to find her when he remembers her saying that she was going to be practicing her singing, which means she can only be in one place…

Meanwhile, on the roof, Nanaka is starting to get really cold and calls out Yoshiyuki’s name in a hopeless bid for help. So imagine her surprise when none other than Yoshiyuki himself comes knocking on the roof door to check if Nanaka is there. He ends up managing to break down the roof door and brings Nanaka inside, lending her his jacket for some much needed warmth.

Nanaka explains how she managed to get herself stuck on the roof and apologizes again for messing up during practice because she couldn’t concentrate. Yoshiyuki assures her that she doesn’t have to stress herself out that much over it. Nanaka apologizes again but says she’s happy that Yoshiyuki came to rescue her, telling him how she was just thinking how great it would be if he came to save her and how surprised she was when he actually did.

As Yoshiyuki says they should probably get going before Nanaka catches a cold, she starts talking about how kind Yoshiyuki is and that she understands full well that him and Koko are in love…suddenly she hugs Yoshiyuki and starts what seems like a spur of the moment confession, only to stop halfway and come to the realization that his concern is purely that of a friend, nothing more.

After stopping her confession midway through, Nanaka once again tells Yoshiyuki that he’s kind, in fact, too kind and to everyone, but sometimes being too kind can cause hurt. She tells him to remember this well and to cherish Koko. The two head outside and find Koko running around looking for them, worried sick, Nanaka gives Yoshiyuki a shove towards her before joining them to head home.

Thoughts

Da Capo II needs a Nanaka end so badly. With half the series gone and Yume not showing much interest or signs of action beyond relentlessly bitching at Yoshiyuki about pretty much anything he does, I’m really not seeing a Yume end on the horizon. And with Nanaka basically giving up and acknowledging that Yoshiyuki will only ever see her as a friend, then throwing her support to Koko, are we really doomed to a Koko end after all? While it’s the most likely outcome, it’s the hardest to accept, forget the path of least resistance, I want some drama! Oh eternal sakura tree, hear my plea!

But I guess I should be content that we got a Nanaka centric episode. I’ve been begging for more Nanaka since the beginning and it was well worth it. Nanaka is one of the better harem characters I’ve seen, she’s energetic, playful and most importantly not scared to death to touch Yoshiyuki, something that can’t be said for Koko, and she’s his girlfriend. With such a great personality, cute mannerisms and by far the best character design, how could it be that she’s the underdog!

And here’s where my overdue sympathy for Kotori fans come in. Nanaka is losing for one simple reason, her last name is Shirakawa. Anime adaptations of Da Capo have been very cruel to this family, and DCII is no exception. In the original Da Capo I acknowledged Kotori as a pretty awesome character, but still found myself liking Nemu more, something which many disagreed on. But in this case, it’s clear that Nanaka is superior! And so Kotori fans, or Shirakawa fans in general, I finally get it, let us bitch and BAAAAAW about it together.

Again, in order to shield myself from the few Koko fans out there, I don’t hate her, she’s a great character in her own right, playing the bass and whatnot, but she’s boring. Hell, even when she got the pictures of Yoshiyuki and Nanaka together, she just sat there and took it, saying that she trusts them both enough not to make a big deal out of it. That’s all fine and good, but this is supposed to be a harem/romance drama anime, if nothing is going to come out of it, why bother even putting it in? All it did was reinforce my feeling that Koko is boring, trusting your boyfriend is great, but there’s nothing wrong with getting jealous, don’t be a doormat!

But on that note, I wonder who it was that took the pictures anyways. There’s nothing to suggest that someone from the main cast is opposed to the Yoshiyuki/Koko pair, so I guess it was just one of those bullies trying to smear Nanaka’s name some more?

Anyways, I suppose I’ll stop the ranting here.

As per usual, the caffeine driven episode preview gave me nothing to work with in terms of predicting what’s going to happen from here. My wishful thinking wants to believe that Nanaka will succumb to her desires and start actively pursuing Yoshiyuki, but when you think about it in terms of that meaning that she’d be betraying her best friend, it doesn’t seem all that likely. But I’m not about to admit defeat and accept a Koko ending just yet, there’s still the off chance that the Asakura incest gene will kick in and Yume will be all over Yoshiyuki soon, or that the sakura tree will stop being lazy and finally hit the reset switch.

Man, I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be rallying support for a Shirakawa and the sakura tree, what has Da Capo come to D=

Nanaka demands moar screentime!

~ Shirukii ~