Da Capo II 08
November 19th, 2007 by Shirukii
Obligatory Otome, just because she doesn’t get enough love
Well, I guess I wasn’t really expecting anything to come from last week’s Nanaka buildup, but I was still rather disappointed with this episode. I fail to see why so much time is being devoted to Minatsu, who I always thought would play quite a minor role in the grand scheme of things. If she turns out to be central to the plot, then fine, this is all fine, but with the series in general devoid of a coherent plot in the first place, this all seems like filler to me, filler which would do much better concentrating on say…Yume.
Another reason I’m particularly annoyed at this episode is the whole billboard deal, I know that associating real life physics to anime is often a useless endeavor, but that scene was just ridiculous, more on that later…
Episode Rating: 5.5/10
Having become pretty good friends with Anzu and Yoshiyuki, Minatsu is now showing up at their class to have lunch with them along with Wataru, Akane and Koko. After some random banter including how Koko will never catch up in bust size with Akane if she keeps eating so little, the topic of the upcoming school trip becomes the focus of the conversation. Yoshiyuki is glad that Minatsu is becoming acquainted enough to come eat lunch with them everyday, but wonders what she’ll do when they leave for their school trip, being new to modern society, Minatsu has no idea what this school trip is. After he explains it, everyone starts to get really excited about it.
However, their fun is interrupted by the ever logical Suginami who points out they haven’t even begun planning what to do during the trip, so with that, a Sunday gathering is arranged to plan the trip out and shop for necessary supplies.
When Sunday rolls around, there are a couple of tag alongs to the meeting. Yume follows Yoshiyuki, using the excuse that Minatsu is going to be there as well, collecting data for when she goes on her trip next year, and Nanaka shows up alongside Koko. They spend the day buying necessities for the trip like bags, travel guides and hygiene items (one extra isle for the girls, guarded by Yume, naturally). Afterwards, Yume and Minatsu split from the group to do some shopping of their own…
…but not soon after they part, the gang hears a loud crash from the direction they went, followed by people screaming something about a billboard collapsing onto two young girls. Yoshiyuki arrives on scene to find Yume fine, apparently having been pushed out of the way by Minatsu, but Minatsu herself seems to have gotten hit by the falling structure. With the help of a bunch of guys in the crowd, Yoshiyuki and Wataru lift the billboard to find Minatsu underneath. Surprisingly, she jumps up, perfectly fine, but soon overheats and passes out. To make things worse, someone called an ambulance, so before Yoshiyuki and Suginami manage to bring Minatsu to the lab, she’s hauled off by paramedics to the hospital, Yume acting as an escort.
Everyone arrives to the hospital shortly after to find that Minatsu is in perfect condition, despite having been hit by a billboard most likely weighing several tonnes, which strikes them as odd, to say the least. Just then, Mizukoshi-sensei arrives on scene, knowingly, far too late to cover up any suspicion. After a long talk with the hospital’s doctors, she gets permission to take Minatsu back to the lab, leaving Yoshiyuki to explain the situation to everyone else.
Yoshiyuki brings everyone back to his house where he tries to explain, with great difficulty, exactly what’s going on. He eventually decides to just tell them the truth, that Minatsu is not human, but rather a robot. As he tries to explain why he kept it secret from everyone, Minatsu shows up, accompanied by Sakura and takes over. She explains that sentient robots like herself, who are able to feel and express emotion were once the subject of a huge debate and eventually all the prototypes were put on indefinite suspension. Yoshiyuki and Suginami accidentally stumbled upon her and woke her from her sleep and so, as requested by Mizukoshi-sensei, were doing their best not to let her identity leak. Minatsu apologizes to everyone for the trouble she’s caused.
Worried about how everyone took the news, Yoshiyuki asks them to keep Minatsu’s identity a secret and continue treating her as they always have, as a normal friend. Suddenly, Wataru flips out on Yoshiyuki, telling him that he didn’t need to say anything, that everyone was planning on doing so even if he hadn’t suggested it, everyone else agreeing with his words. Yoshiyuki is relieved and the stressful atmosphere is finally lifted.
The next day, Minatsu shows up for lunch as usual, but this time not hesitant to call everyone in the group her friends. However, the class iinchou, Maya, is becoming more and more suspicious of her…
Thoughts
Oh god the fail. To anyone with an irrational fear of large structures up to and including billboards suddenly freeing themselves from their supports and raining metal death from the skies, rest assured that this is highly unlikely. First of all, the billboard pictured was mounted vertically, meaning it had comparatively little component force applied in the horizontal direction which it tipped and any force that did exert in that direction would be offset by the support cables.
As for the supports themselves, the screws holding them down were largely misrepresented, the bolts that secure large structures are usually several times larger than the ones shown. These supports are tested over and over and over to ensure failure rates are practically non-existent within their operational life (probability of failure most likely modeled by a Weibull distribution). These materials are often coated to protect against corrosion, further assuring their reliability. Furthermore, not only are these supports designed to withstand their static forces, they’re made such that they can withstand the force generated by things such as high force winds. And all multiplied by a factor of safety of anywhere between 1.5-3x just in case all probability is defied and several things go wrong all at once.
TL;DR: That was an insult to civil engineering, billboards do not lift themselves off their supports and fall onto unsuspecting civilians below. >=( I’m not even going to start on what type of material Minatsu must be made of to have withstood the impact of such a heavy object dropped from that height.
However, they did show this nifty scene with a sakura petal floating by just before the accident happened. Are we supposed to take it that the eternal blooming sakura tree was the cause? While I prefer that explanation over faulty design, if it’s true, then the sakura tree sure has become more violent over the years. I thought attempting to choke Nemu to death with petals was bad, but now it’s pushing metal debris on the order of several tonnes onto unsuspecting bystanders below? Harsh.
But I digress, onto plot. Well…what little plot we do have to discuss.
Again, I’m not sure why there’s so much focus on Minatsu, this is like the third episode completely dedicated to her, screentime rivaling even Koko, who got totally ignored this episode. I sure hope they’re going somewhere with all this instead of it just being useless filler. Imagine how awesome it would be to have some sort of android uprising against the humans which Minatsu has to stop, having come to terms with their creators by making friends with Yoshiyuki and the gang. But if a Hollywood film with a $120 million budget and brilliant source material couldn’t do it, I somehow doubt DCII will be able to either, much less integrate it into a romance plot with 5 episodes remaining.
Speaking of the romance element, which I had assumed to be the focal point of DCII, what’s happening? After pushing their relationship past an elementary *blush blush doki doki* stage, Koko and Yoshiyuki have gotten nowhere. Instead Yoshiyuki is running around helping various other girls with their problems while Koko sits around with Anzu and Akane, shrugs her shoulders and says she trusts him not to cheat on her. Nanaka should have struck while she had the chance ;_;
I was slightly encouraged by the Yume screentime in this episode. But we’re nowhere near her stepping up to the stage to steal Yoshiyuki for herself, but she clearly has an interest in her nii-san, and this late into the series, clinging on to the faint hope that she’ll stir up some drama is all I can do.
But I guess we’ll have to wait another week to find out where exactly we’re going with all this. DCII has 5 episodes left to turn itself around and capitalize on the massive potential that they had going into the series, let’s hope they can still pull it off.
This screenie begs the question, why would they want to walk into that isle in the first place…?
~ Shirukii ~
18 Responses to “Da Capo II 08”
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I was blown away by this sentence, even if I don’t watch this show and know jack about civil engineering. Just wanted to say that.
Also, is this “5 episodes and nothing significant is happening” really the staple of all D.C. shows, or is this just the sucky exception to the rule?
If you’ve played the game
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And of course remember that in anime, common sense and realism are often thrown out the window. If the billboard’s engineering charactersitics were such a big deal, what more about Minatsu herself (i.e. a sentient robot with emotional capability and runs on bananas)?
Damn falling boards. Defying physical laws.
It reminds of the incredibly stupid redone scene for Kaibutsu Oujo anime in which they change the main character’s “death” (from the manga) to having a annoying “falling structure scene”.
I should probably catch up with this show.
@ Owen S: I’m not sure if you’re poking fun of my over analysis of the physics or complimenting it lol, but I’ll take it as the latter.
As for Da Capo in general, the first two were full of drama, DCII is definitely the exception to the rule. However, I’ll still only recommend the original Da Capo, as DCSS was a bit of a let down, but in a different way than DCII is proving to be.
@ Sailor Enlil: Hmmmmm…I’ll pass on the spoiler haha.
Minatsu I can sort of understand and attribute to human advancement in technology. While I doubt we’ll be stupid enough to make them subsist on bananas, I believe that humans will create sentient robots eventually. Perhaps not achieving the level of AI shown in sci fi movies, but realistic enough that they would at least pass the Turing test.
The billboard falling, on the other hand, defies the simplest laws of physics and solid body motion.
@ Avisch: > I should probably catch up with this show.
Eh, I’d put it low on my to watch list if I were you, I’m only keeping up with it to this extent because I’m blogging it.
How is Kaibutsu Oujo anyhow? I hear some say funny, others say lame.
I just want to thank you for blogging this anime so I don’t have to watch it!
Crossing fingers, maybe something good can come out of the last 5 episodes. There are 100 minutes left, well more than enough for Yoshiyuki to screw with the whole cast and minatsu to go on a loli-shoujo-killing rampage! :-D
I’m keeping an eye on this one… just in case.
Shirukii:
“How is Kaibutsu Oujo anyhow? I hear some say funny, others say lame.”
Manga? Incredibly cool (though this depends on what you like). MOTW style. With cool elements. Some gore.
Anime? 10% funny 90% LAME. I had some faith in MADHOUSE for this. But they ruined what could have been a enjoyable anime. The anime is bleak with nothing to focus on. The anime is pretty much a watered down version of They changed the main element of how resurrection occurs (”fire of life”…Nuff said.). The characters are lacking character (very apparent around the main characters actually).
As much as I despised DC and DCSS, I hoped for something different out of this one. Nanaka captivated me, the characters are not as freaking annoying but I was hoping for something interesting, anything at this point!
Maybe there will be more episodes in the future? But then what the hell had this all been for? Five more…I hope for SOMETHING.
Damn, a 5.5 out of 10, which mean this episode suck ass, right Shirukii? My thought exactly !! Why are they devoting episode for Minatsu again? OK, I’m going to put this series on hold until the whole series come out. On the mean time, I just gonna read your summary/thought for the next 4 episodes from now on.
Oh, good job about analyzing the billboard’s structure. An engineer will definitely understand other engineer’s pain.
LOL, last week 6 episodes left and this week 5 episodes left and everything is still the same. Since episode 5 I wished that this series won’t turn into once-for-all ending like Tokimeki Memorial ~Only Love~ did but I think only the last 4 episodes will tell.
P.S. One question, is there any connection between Full Metal Panic, Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu and Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid?
Uh the first Full Metal Panic is connected to Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid I believe, and Fumoffu is mainly just there for laughs. I suggest you watch Fumoffu since it’s absolutely hilarious ^^
@ Teeif: I suffer so you don’t have to ;_; lol
There might be a chance of DCII turning itself around, but time is running out so they have to do something fast.
@ Avisch: Hmm, looks like I’ll pass then. I might pick up the manga down the road when I have some time to kill.
@ Kari: You didn’t like the original ones? No love for Nemu D=?
And exactly as you said, if they do turn things around in these last five episodes, then they’ll have to make it all tie in to what’s already happened. I find that hard to believe =\
@ kenshin514: Yep, it was that bad. And lol, I knew I could find confidence in a fellow engineer XD
@ Siva: Tokimemo was weird, it had its moments but wasn’t that great overall.
As for FMP, watch the original first, then Fumoffu, then the Second Raid. Fumoffu is the events in between FMP and FMP: TSR that ended up as an awesome slice of life type series.
@ Bleached: …yeeep, that pretty much sums it up.
I was sure I was adamant about my unending despise-ment of Nemu. Kotori Fan, my friend. Instant love for Nanaka. That’s why I hoped for something different out of this one but…
@Shirukii: lol ya, Tokimemo was weird since its first episode but somehow i find it is so peaceful to watch it. At least we got the ep 7 sub today.
thx for your comment and Bleached too. I am going to marathon it today and after this series I may have to marathon Aria series next and prepare for its coming third season :D
Turing test is really an old hat in AI world for sure. No AI will be considered sentient only by passing a Turing test. Now we are talking about human equivalence intelligence, predicting it would happen in 2040, with the rise of nanoprocessor. Most advanced AI will be used for mathematical analysis, and this will lead to the creation of post-human intelligence (at least in scientific field, where calculations are more important than feeling).
Things like Miharu and Minatsu are better called Artificial Moetology than Artificial Intelligence since the goal of creating them is more on the Moe than on the intelligence.
They are my favourite this far.
@ Kari: Ah, I vaguely remember having this discussion before, heh. My memory is terrible =(
@ Siva: Huh? Tokimemo has been fully subbed, it took an extra season, but they should all be out by now.
@ orichalc: Indeed the Turing test is a dated measure of a computer program’s ability to trick humans, the most basic of basics. Technology is evolving exponentially, who knows when we’ll see AI at that level. It could happen in 50 years, 100 years, or maybe we’ll have a revolutionary breakthrough and sentient androids will walk among us in a mere 10 or so years.
That being said, I like where you’re going with this artificial moetology :3
@Shirukii: Nah, i am talking about marathon FMP and Aria series. I have been finished Tokimemo quiet while ago. I believe the third season of Aria will be on the next season.
If we can see that level of AI I dont know what kind of game or how cool the game would it be in the next 10-30 years. (`o`)
@Shirukii : the most promising one is when we have something we called mind children capable of making programs or cluster of programs to be more accurate, that is when technology will really improve exponentially.
@Siva : well, since such AI will be able to learn and decide, I am not sure e (personal pronounce for AI) will let you to save and load your game when you are in the brink of defeat. But games will be really cool by that time, you won’t know which characters are human and which one are AIs, and NPCs will not repeat the same lines at all times.
I am sure that Minatsu don’t have to feel that she is merely a predetermined program. Something such advanced as Minatsu is really a work of art from the genius of human beings. Assuming that Minatsu and Miharu work like a single program that can be predetermined is comparable to assuming that human is as simple as single celled organism.
The mechanism in Minatsu and Miharu can be explained as complex clusters of programs making negative and positive feedback, which is far beyond a predetemined program.
Ganbatte, Minatsu.
@orichalc: If you happened to knew what Square Enix had said before about the game-play in FFXIII then you wont surprise what kind of AI you will see in FFXIII.