Looks like we’re finally done beating around the bush and ready to get down to some serious drama, which this episode was full of, or at least the initial setups. This episode was pretty much a slap in my face, addressing the two major complaints I’ve had with DCII in one fell swoop. Firstly, Koko proved herself to be more than an over trusting doormat as she *gasp* actually gets angry at Yoshiyuki for a legitimate reason. Secondly, some development on the siscon front, albeit with Otome rather than the expected Yume, but at this point I’m not going to complain. There’s still the problem of Minatsu’s story being a waste of time in my opinion as well as a severe lack of Nanaka, but all in all this was probably the best episode of DCII yet.

Episode Rating: 8.5/10

It’s not everyday that a billboard falls off a building onto innocent bystanders, so naturally news of the event and Minatsu’s impossibly fast recovery have evolved into rumors of her being a robot. But rather than the “HOLY CRAP A ROBOT? THAT’S AWESOME” reaction that one would expect, the student body seems disgusted and creeped out that there has been an android among them for so long. They begin to heckle Minatsu asking if the rumors are true, but Yume steps up to defend her and deflect the questions.

Meanwhile, Yoshiyuki and Koko continue to do some random sightseeing on the school trip, Koko particularly excited for their trip to Kasuga Shrine on the last day. But Yoshiyuki is preoccupied thinking about the phone call he got from Yume the night before informing him about the rumors concerning Minatsu that are spreading at school. Koko catches Yoshiyuki spacing out and asks him if he’s alright, not wanting to worry her, he says he’s fine and they should look forward to their free time at the shrine tomorrow.

Meanwhile, things at school are getting worse, the rumors have spread to the whole student population and some people are going as far as randomly grabbing Minatsu just to feel how close she is to a human, treating her as nothing more than an object, completely disregarding her rights. Once again, Yume stands up to defend her, and with the help of Otome, chase the troublemakers off.

In the student counsel’s office, Mayuki tells Otome that they need to address the issue with Minatsu as quickly as possible as the rumors are beginning to get out of hand. Otome understands the problems it’s causing, but knowing the truth she’s uncertain about what she should do. The two are interrupted by a student who barges in asking for help, when Otome stands up to leave, she suddenly gets light headed and collapses.

Back in Nara, Yoshiyuki gets a phone call from Yume with even more bad news, telling him about Otome’s collapse. Without a second thought, he runs off to go back home, telling only Wataru that he’s leaving and giving no explanation why.

With nothing to tell them, all Wataru can do is shrug his shoulders and tell the rest of the gang that Yoshiyuki ran home, leaving Koko looking particularly disappointed.

Back at school, Otome is resting in the nurse’s office when she has a flashback dream to a promise she and Yoshiyuki made when they were kids, a promise that if anything were to ever happen to Otome, Yoshiyuki would come to save her. And sure enough, Otome wakes to find Yoshiyuki by her side, surprised that he came back from his school trip early, but happy he kept his promise. A promise which, of course, Yoshiyuki has forgotten about, but his natural kindness led him to keep it anyways.

The problems surrounding Minatsu continue to grow, the rumors still propagating relentlessly with only Yume and Yoshiyuki & co. backing her up. Yoshiyuki asks Mizukoshi-sensei if a proper explanation wouldn’t help to resolve the problem, but she reminds Yoshiyuki that not everyone is as accepting of robots as he and his friends are. Sakura interrupts their conversation and tells Yoshiyuki that they’ll think of something eventually and to wait it out for now. She takes the pendant she gave Yoshiyuki back and welcomes him home with a smile.

Afterwards, Yoshiyuki goes home to find Otome out of bed doing housework already. She says that she’s feeling fine now and that she has to properly return to school the next day anyways. She then apologizes again for dragging Yoshiyuki away from his school trip, Yoshiyuki says it’s no problem…that is until he suddenly remembers the promise he made with Koko.

He runs to school to find everyone heading home, Akane and Anzu leave the two alone to sort things out themselves. Walking her home, Yoshiyuki apologizes profusely for having to leave, telling her about the problems with Minatsu and Otome. Koko suddenly turns around angrily and says that she understands, she understands that things happened and it couldn’t be helped that he had to leave, but he should have at least told her beforehand. Koko ends up breaking into tears and runs off home by herself.

Things aren’t much better the following day, the two sharing a nothing more than an awkward greeting at the school entrance. During a class break, Suginami brings the printed sets of photos he took from the trip and invites Koko over to look at them too, but she declines, saying she’ll take a look at them later. Anzu and Akane ask Yoshiyuki why they haven’t made up, saying that he should properly apologize. He tells them that he -DID- properly apologize, but Koko doesn’t seem ready to forgive him yet.

During lunch time, Yoshiyuki heads to the roof alone and begins to reminisce about the simpler times when he and Koko were smaller and a simple apology fixed everything. But his thoughts are interrupted by Maya who gets straight to the point and asks if the rumors about Minatsu being a robot are true. When Yoshiyuki asks what she plans to do if the rumors are true, Maya replies that she’ll do all she can to see Minatsu is not allowed to continue attending school. Taking his concern as a sign that she’s right, Maya heads to the student counsel to have Minatsu kicked out.

When Yoshiyuki tells Minatsu and Mizukoshi-sensei what Maya is planning, Mizukoshi-sensei says she can understand why Maya is acting the way she is. Apparently, Maya’s father was one of of the founders of android technology, thinking that would facilitate human lives. However, robots were not very well accepted and the blame fell on Maya’s father. Seeing his life’s work, work he thought would be for the benefit of mankind, be so ill received, Maya’s father committed suicide. (credit goes to omni for helping me understand this scene)

Thoughts

Hisashiburi da ne?

While it might be a late on the upstart, DCII finally looks like it’s ready to clamp down and begin to flesh out a real plot as opposed to crappy filler-esque episodes with no continuity. The most interesting turn around in this episode was definitely Koko showing actual signs of anger and frustration with Yoshiyuki. Although the silent treatment may be an elementary school method of going about it, at least she’s showing some character rather than being her usual doormat self.

But with such little time left, what are they planning to accomplish by throwing these two into rough waters. I can see this type of development leading to three types of development:

1. Koko finally gets fed up of Yoshiyuki’s indecisive bs and breaks up with him.
2. Another girl in his harem uses the weakness in their relationship to steal Yoshiyuki away.
3. The two act like typical stupid high school kids, artificially inflating their problems only to realize in the end that it was all trivial and they were just acting like stubborn little kids. Some half hearted rabu rabu event brings them back together and we’re back at square one.

Guess which one I’m betting on?

Koko breaking up with Yoshiyuki would serve as a great reminder that indecisiveness will axe you in the end, but DCII is a harem, and Yoshiyuki has to end up with someone, so I don’t think that’s very likely. The second option would be awesome, but no one in the cast has the guts to do it. Nanaka has already tried and failed, realizing Yoshiyuki will never see her as anything more than a friend, Yume’s jealousy of Koko has been established, but she’s too busy playing body guard for Minatsu, Otome stands the best chance given their current situation, but there’s so little build up to suggest a YoshiyukiXOtome ending that I just can’t see it happening.

As for the Minatsu storyline, I’m still really confused why it’s getting so much attention. Minatsu obviously isn’t a contender to win Yoshiyuki’s heart, so why go through so much trouble fleshing out her story when it has nothing to do with the main theme of DCII, romance drama. I wouldn’t really see a problem with it if we had time to waste or if this was a school love comedy romance along the lines of To Heart or Sukuran, but with such a limited time frame already, what’s the point?

But hey, for all I complain, I thought this was a pretty good episode, introducing some serious dramatic elements in a series that has since been devoid of a central plot. I still think it’s too little too late and they’ve bitten off a bit more than they can chew, now having the responsibility of addressing all the issues they’ve put forth. However, I’ll still hang on to the slight ray of hope that they’ll be able to pull off the greatest turn around ever. Though overall, I can’t say that DCII has lived up to my expectations, and only ONE anime has ever managed to pull off such an incredible ending that I overlooked its overall flaws, that series being Kannazuki no Miko.

So I guess it’s another week long wait to see whether DCII can pull off a miraculous turn around ending because, as per usual, the hyperspeed preview leaves me with almost zero comprehension.

This is usually where I’d put some Nanaka, but since she got absolutely no screentime this week, have some Sakura instead

~ Shirukii ~