Wait, what!?

So after all the Koko buildup, after being forced to sit through an entire season of watching the two of them dancing around their sham of a relationship and getting nowhere, we get a Minatsu centric ending? This coming from the same Feel that did the original Da Capo, brimming with wonderfully constructed siscon drama? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!

Episode Rating: 5/10 || Series Rating: 5.5/10

After Minatsu was expelled from school Yoshiyuki never managed to get a hold of Sakura, as he arrives to school the next day he finds that the students are boycotting classes. When they had learned of Minatsu’s expulsion they went to the teachers to oppose the decision, led by Maya of all people. The protest proved fruitless so the students decided to boycott classes in response. When Minatsu finds everyone else and confirms that the boycott is being done for her she’s touched by their sentiments but knows that this will only lead to trouble for the students. Yoshiyuki understands what she means and tells her that if she can spread that message among the students they’ll act accordingly.

With Nanaka and Suginami’s help Minatsu hijacks the PA system, first telling everyone how happy she is that everyone would come together for her but knows that the decision can’t be overruled, rather than being discouraged, this actually makes the student body erupt, cheering Minatsu’s name. After calming the cheering and getting them to listen, she explains that she doesn’t want for anyone to get in trouble because of her, that’s all she wishes for now. The students then calmly bow and ask the teacher’s to reconsider, or at least give Minatsu some more time, they finally cave.

Minatsu gets to enjoy her life as a student for a bit longer, but after school Koko and Nanaka speak in the music room, Koko saying that she wants to do something more for Minatsu, but is afraid of what Yoshiyuki will think. Nanaka reminds her about her decisions and thinks that she should be honest with both Yoshiyuki and Minatsu.

After school Yoshiyuki returns home to find Sakura has returned from an emergency business trip. He tells her that he wants to do something more for Minatsu but since she doesn’t want everyone to dote over her, he wants to respect those feelings at the same time. The next day is Minatsu’s last, she meets with Yoshiyuki on the roof and thanks him once again for everything they’ve been through together. As she reminisces about the times they’ve spent together and the friends she’s made because of him she wonders if she was able to bring humans and robots closer together. Finally, taking out her plans for world domination, she tears the notebook up and lets the wind carry the pieces off, feeling that it isn’t necessary anymore.

As they come down from the roof Yoshiyuki gets a call from Koko telling him to bring Minatsu with him to the gym where they find the entire student body gathered for a special graduation ceremony for Minatsu. Anzu and Akane tell Yoshiyuki that it was Koko who planned it all, Sakura even presents Minatsu with an honorary graduation diploma. Yoshiyuki then gets a message from Koko telling him to come backstage where she hands Yoshiyuki his guitar and the band puts on a concert. As Minatsu watches from backstage she can’t help but be moved to tears, thanking everyone for all they’ve done for her.

Thoughts and Final Impressions

Thank God it’s finally over. I repeatedly stated throughout the series that Feel made a huge mistake by picking Koko and Minatsu to center their focus on, and believe me when I say, it’s the honest truth, I have no personal vendetta against the characters, they would have been quite likable on the sides. But in the spotlight, they fell much too short of the personality required to build an interesting plot around, and it’s a crying shame too, DCII really did have a lot of potential.

I really want to know what was running through the heads of the writers, especially for the last few episodes. Up until then there was at least the unifying theme of the struggling KokoXYoshiyuki relationship, no matter how painful it was to watch, but then they decided to shift the attention onto Minatsu and it all fell apart, feeling completely random. We didn’t even get any closure in terms of Koko and Yoshiyuki, sure they broke up, but we never really saw Yoshiyuki react to it, even in the last episode he was worrying more about Minatsu than Koko.

Despite all the crap that I’ve given DCII over these past months, I’m going to have to do something counterintuitive, I’m going to recommend it to everyone. For on reason and one reason only, because at this rate there has to be a sequel, and it will focus on either the Asakura sisters or Nanaka, I’m thinking the latter seeing as she was there to support Koko at the end, whereas the Asakura sisters didn’t really get much in terms of development throughout the series. If this second season actually does make it to air, think of how awesome it will be. Minatsu and Koko are pretty much completely out of the way, so there’ll be plenty of time to fully develop the other characters, the thought of a properly done Nanaka route makes me drool with anticipation.

So against my better judgment, if you’re a Da Capo fan and want to prepare yourself for the next season, buckle down and get through this load of fail so you’re prepped for DCII SS. Or perhaps if you’re not concerned too much with the finer details, you can skip it and just hope that the next season doesn’t hinge on things developed this season.

Anyways, that’s all for now, I can’t bring myself to say anything else about the series without having it turn into a vitriolic rant about how much wasted potential DCII had. Bottom line, if you’re a Da Capo fan or if you plan on watching the sequel, give it a shot. Otherwise, stay far far away from this, it’s a disgrace to the harem genre and a stain on the Da Capo franchise far worse than DCSS (and if you’ve watched DCSS you’ll understand the true weight of that statement).

EDIT Update! Da Capo II Second Season confirmed, it will begin airing April 2008. Haha, oh wow, that was sooner than I expected.

A tip for Feel’s scriptwriters to keep in mind next time, NEEDS MOAR NANAKA!

~ Shirukii ~

Stupid useless sakura tree

Interesting, my hopes for an abandoned and ronery Yoshiyuki may actually come true. I’m not going to get my hopes up though, the disappointment would be crushing. But even so, DCII is far beyond saving, with a single episode left, there’s no way to salvage things from their current state. Again, apologies for having to cut my usual essay length entries down, finals rage on.

Episode Rating: 6/10

Once again, Koko skips class, this time to visit the eternal blooming sakura tree. Yoshiyuki shows some genuine concern over his “girlfriend” being absent for days in a row, but you wouldn’t really know it, seeing how fast he’s distracted. After school, Yoshiyuki finds that Minatsu’s shoes have been stolen, despite the patient little android not really showing much concern, Yoshiyuki goes on a bloodhound hunt to retrieve them, eventually spotting them in the incinerator. When he brings the shoes back, Yoshiyuki tells Minatsu that she should be more angry about something like this, Minatsu says that she’s used to it and that it’s enough seeing Yoshiyuki care so much. Yoshiyuki then notices Maya dropping into their conversation and catches her before she runs off, asking her how she can harbor so much resentment against Minatsu. Maya, on the verge of tears, explains that she knows Minatsu isn’t personally responsible for her father’s death and that not all robots deserve to be hated, but the fact remains that her kind ruined her family and so she can’t bring herself to accept them.

Walking away, Maya notices her brother waiting for her off school grounds, enthusiastically he runs across the street to greet her, right into the path of an oncoming speeding van. Minatsu dives in front of the van, shielding Maya’s brother from the impact, the little guy is in tears, but is otherwise unhurt. Soon afterwards, Minatsu crashes and is rushed to Mizukoshi-sensei by Yoshiyuki and Yume. She’s given a clean bill of health, but with this incident, Mizukoshi-sensei knows that they won’t be able to hide the truth any longer.

The next day at school, Minatsu is given a standing ovation as she enters the class, everyone quick to apologize for their attitude towards her in the past. Even the robot hating Maya thanks her for saving her little brother, happy to have made up with Maya, Minatsu invites her to eat lunch with them. After lunch, Maya and Minatsu have a talk on the rooftop, Maya asking why Minatsu saved her brother despite everything she’s said and done to her. Minatsu tells her that she used to be like Maya, hateful towards humans and that it was thanks to Yoshiyuki and the group that she came to terms with her fleshy creators and that all she wants is for humans and robots to live together without conflict.

However, things never work out so conveniently, Minatsu, Yume and Yoshiyuki are called to the principals office where Mizukoshi-sensei tells them that the school board has decided to expel Minatsu. Yoshiyuki can’t accept that decision and despite Mizukoshi-sensei saying it’s no use, he goes to find Sakura to see what she can do to overturn the decision.

However, it’s Koko that he runs into first. Yoshiyuki asks what she’s doing wandering around, she tells him that she’s been thinking a lot about various things and apologizes for making him worry. Seeing as Yoshiyuki is skipping class, Koko reasons something must have come up again. She says that she likes that side of Yoshiyuki, the side of him that is kind to everyone regardless of their circumstances, but she can’t lie to herself, it’s causing her pain. Not wanting things to continue as they are and possibly get worse, Koko suggests that they break up and go back to the way things were before, back to being just childhood friends.

Thoughts

Another boring, primarily Minatsu centric episode, what can I say, I really resent Feel for choosing the dullest cast members to build a story around. The development of this episode was pretty standard stuff, a nemesis ends up being your savior, reconciliation between the two parties, friendship and all that good stuff, then the last minute shattering of happiness. I’m thinking that Sakura will pull some h4x and get Minatsu reinstated for a happily ever after ending, not that I have much vested interest in the outcome of the Minatsu storyline anyways.

As for the KokoXYoshiyuki relationship, I don’t really know what to say, I don’t want them to crash and burn, nor do I want to see it succeed. Despite blushing profusely around each other, the two show no signs of being in a relationship at all, Koko would be a wise girl to call it quits here, and I would just write it off as another osananajimi getting the shaft, yay! But despite being a solid and logical outcome, for some reason I don’t see it happening. A large draw factor to harem shows is that the viewer (male target) can immerse himself into the world of the protagonist, relating himself to his character. So to end with the character abandoned by his girlfriend, regardless of how half assed the relationship, probably isn’t a good idea.

The one way I can see this breakup being real? Da Capo II Second Season. Yeeeep.

But bear with me for a sec, that actually might not turn out that horrible. With Minatsu and Koko’s stories out of the way, that would give us a solid 12-13, perhaps even 24-26 episodes centered around the other characters, taking the android and osananajimi out of the cast leaves you with nothing but awesome. The older doting onee-sama, Otome, the tsundere imouto, Yume, and the OH GOD NANAKA IS HOT. Think about it, there’s absolutely no way they could screw that up!

So yes, DCII sucks, but if it’s all an elaborate scheme so that Feel can do another season concentrating fully on the winnage characters and still appease the like…three Koko fans out there, it’s brilliant! Ultimately that means that the wait for a decent Da Capo incarnation since the original stretches on, but it might just be worth it!

But considering that my track record of having predictions come true is pretty abysmal, I’m not getting my hopes up ;_;

~ Shirukii ~

Minatsu is the cancer that is killing 4chan Da Capo II

So I’m pretty sure this seals our fate. With two episodes left and not the slightest hint that a last minute relationship will form between Yuuichi and another female lead, the fight is over, Koko wins. Sure things may be looking grim for them now, but think about it, all pervious Da Capo series have had a canon couple at the end, that is, they didn’t have open ends. Following that trend and the fact that any other relationship that would be formed at this point would be made of WTF and plothole, Koko end is and has always been the most likely outcome. I would be pleasantly surprised if Feel decided to give Yoshiyuki the middle finger by making Koko dump his ass and have him wallow in lonely depression, but I just don’t see it.

Episode Rating: 5.5/10

So…some bad news. Due to it being exams period for me at the moment, I didn’t have time to throw together a full length summary this time around because I was studying (if playing Gears of War all day counts as studying).

So I hope this truncated summary will suffice for this week.

The Minatsu bullying continues with only Yume and Yoshiyuki’s gang standing up for her. Yoshiyuki, being the brilliant man he is, decides to alienate himself from the everybody else, saying that it’s his fault for reactivating Minatsu, so he’ll deal with her, alone, and asks for some time off the band to do so. This doesn’t go over well with Koko, who offers to help, but while Yoshiyuki appreciates her offer, he says he doesn’t want to get her involved. And to make things even worse for Koko, Sakura decides that it would be a good idea for Minatsu to live with them for a while.

The situation between Yoshiyuki and Koko continues to degrade, Yoshiyuki getting called away every time they manage to talk alone. And in the end Koko starts to skip band practice, lying to Yoshiyuki about it being because of him, even going as far as to avoid him during school.

As for the Minatsu situation, the PTA has launched a protest against it which Otome takes measures to oppose. While out shopping, Minatsu and Yoshiyuki run into the source of the problem, Maya. Yoshiyuki tells her that she knows the reason for her hate of robots and tries to sympathize with her but Maya tells him he has no idea what it’s like to lose a family member. Afterwards, Minatsu comes to the realization that for all her hate for humans and what they’ve done to robots, the opposite can be true, robots can sometimes cause pain to humans and she can understand how Maya feels because she was once bitter like her.

The next day, Koko skips school. Nanaka decides to check up on her in the afternoon, the two talking about the events of late and Nanaka suggesting she take it at her own pace. Then, Yoshiyuki shows up at Koko’s house as well. Nanaka goes to answer the door but Koko stops her. She wants to help Yoshiyuki and be by his side, but lately she’s been lying to both Yoshiyuki and herself about her feelings, she knows that this isn’t her true self. Koko says that it’s a little painful to be with Yoshiyuki and worries what will happen if things continue on like this, crying in Nanaka’s arms, she begins to doubt her relationship with him.

Thoughts

Argh, at this point, DCII has virtually no redeeming points. The main dramatic focus uses Minatsu as a driving force, which I hate because she’s supposed to be a minor character, a catalyst for plot development, not the center of the show. Blah blah blah, Maya hates robots, yet it’s ironic in that the object of her hate is the one who perhaps understands her the best, we get it. That could have been explained in one episode, maybe one and a half, why they felt the need to drag it out for half the series is beyond me. And it’s not as if Minatsu is an iconic moeblob character, if she threw out an “Ijimekko ;_;?” or was the focus of fanservice, I could at least sit back and enjoy the visuals, bringing the fail down a few notches, but nope, nothing.

As for the KokoXYoshiyuki pair, they’re annoying as hell too. Yoshiyuki turning down Koko’s offer to help deal with Minatsu was especially bad, turning her down was essentially a nice way of Yoshiyuki saying “STFU and get back in the kitchen”. It’s ridiculous, for the amount of time they try and build Yoshiyuki up as a “nice guy”, he’s really dense and ends up unknowingly causing a lot of pain. As for Koko, what happened?! Last episode she was ready to finally step up and tell Yoshiyuki to get his shit together, but suddenly went back to her old doormat self, taking Yoshiyuki’s crap silently and avoiding the problems at hand. Granted, the same story goes true for a lot of other harems out there, when you stack it onto the fact that the drama that comes out of it is weak and contrived, it amplifies the fail tenfold.

So pretty much the only reason I’m continuing with DCII is because of my loyalty to the series, oh, and so that I can tell all you readers out there how bad it is so you don’t have to watch it yourselves. Or at least give you guys an idea of what to expect so you don’t end up watching the episode with a permanent look of “WTF IS THIS?!” on your face the whole way through.

I guess I’ll just have to wait another couple years until another Da Capo sequel comes out and pray that they don’t screw it up again.

~ Shirukii ~

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 ~

Da Capo II side cast, rainbows are straighter

So following normal harem conventions, this episode should have taken place about three or four episodes back, but nonetheless I still have hope that DCII may redeem itself in its dying moments. If harem cliches are anything to go by, ones that defy them being few and far between, the promise that Yoshiyuki and Koko made at the end of this episode is sure to end up broken. With a mere four episodes left and not much time to rebuild another relationship, this either yet more trouble for the series’ iconic couple, or better yet, their complete shattering and the most rushed couple forming since Canvas 2’s Hiroki/Elis WTF end. I’m hoping for the latter (Yume ftw!).

Episode Rating: 6.5/10

With the whole Minatsu ordeal behind them, the school field trip is upon the DCII cast. Otome and Yume bid their nii-san farewell, Otome playing overprotective sister, doting over Yoshiyuki to no end while Yume takes on the role of a spoiled child, listing off a bunch of souvenirs she wants. Before leaving, Sakura makes a surprise visit, giving Yoshiyuki the girliest pendant I’ve ever seen in my life and telling him to keep it on him at all times.

After the boat ride to Nara island where Wataru dreams of a love filled school trip, the class transfers to a train where Akane gives Koko some help in getting some alone time with Yoshiyuki. But Yoshiyuki is pretty tired, having been kept up all night by Otome’s history lesson on Nara which went in one ear and out the other, he thinks that Koko probably knows the area just as well and counts on her to be his guide. Koko agrees and says it’ll be a good chance to make some memories. Wataru and Suginami are listening in and tease them for acting more like a couple on their honeymoon rather than a school trip.

Upon arriving, the gang has a lot of fun visiting random attractions like a gigantic Buddha statue and a feeding wild doe, but Koko’s dreams of spending couple time with Yoshiyuki are fading with every moment they spend as a group. To make things worse, Yoshiyuki, rather than spending what little alone time they do have preciously, ends up talking about Minatsu of all people. And as if that isn’t bad enough, Wataru and Suginami start to horse around with Yoshiyuki, leaving Koko sitting alone, looking rather bored.

That evening, while taking a bath, Anzu and Akane notice Koko is looking a little down. It doesn’t take them much time to figure out that she’s disappointed she hasn’t been able to spend any time alone with Yoshiyuki. They’re quick to tease her about having grand dreams of a romantic date ending with a romantic kiss, but Koko says that’s not it, just that she wonders if this is really what it’s like to be dating someone, she thought it would be a little more special. Seeing their friend really concerned about this, Anzu and Akane promise to help get Wataru and Suginami away so they can spend some time together.

The boys are finishing up their bath as well and commence their plans to visit the girls’ room, Yoshiyuki passes but ends up being “convinced” by the rest of the guys. Meanwhile, the girls have similar plans, but are stopped dead in their tracks by the class rep Maya. But the boys have no such voice of reason and end up barging in on the girls anyways, carrying Yoshiyuki rolled up in a futon, dropping him right in front of Koko, whose underwear happens to conveniently fall out of her bag right at that moment, causing her to instinctively slap Yoshiyuki.

Wataru suggests leaving the rabu rabu couple alone, but the party is interrupted by a servant robot bringing a cell phone which a girl left in the bathhouse back for her. This irks Maya into a rant, saying that she hates robots and thinking we’d be better off without them. Obviously biased by Minatsu, Yoshiyuki gets upset with her comment and the two get into a little fight.

Apparently Maya isn’t one to let go of grudges very easily, as their little argument carries through to the next day, Maya defiantly looking away when Yoshiyuki spots her with her friends the next morning.

This pretty much ruins the rest of the day, as Yoshiyuki spends all his time thinking about Maya and her hate of robots, even when he’s alone with Koko. Things don’t get any better for them when Koko brings a cute pair of matching deer charms she picks out at the souvenir shop, only to be completely ignored by Yoshiyuki who is whining about Yume and her souvenir requests. Afterwards, Anzu and Akane try to cheer Koko up, telling her to give it her all for the last day.

When they get back to the hotel, Koko asks to speak to Yoshiyuki alone and asks him if he wants to go to a shrine with her tomorrow, just the two of them. The shrine is supposedly famous for the heart shaped charms they have there, if a couple writes their name on them it’s said they’ll be together forever. Though a bit surprised at the suggestion at first, Yoshiyuki agrees to go with her, even pinky-swearing on it.

Of course, with Akane, Anzu, Wataru and Suginami having eavesdropped on their conversation, Yoshiyuki gets teased to no end about his date.

However, trouble seems to be brewing. As everyone goes to take a bath, Yoshiyuki makes a call home and gets some troubling news from Yume…

Thoughts

For once, Koko is showing some smarts. Unlike her previous over trusting self we’ve seen in the past, I’m surprised that she’s actually beginning to show doubts in this episode, questioning whether this is really what a relationship is like. And about time too.

PROTIP: If you’ve been ‘dating’ in excess of a month and still haven’t done anything besides hug and hold hands, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG!

This is far from the high tension drama I expected from DCII, but in comparison to the yawn inducing events of the rest of the series, I’m just glad to see the slightest bit of drama finally unfolding. We’re not exactly on track to see a tear filled Koko pouring her heart out, but hey, I’ll take what I can get.

And for once I’m not just running on blind hope here. The phone call at the end of this episode makes for some interesting possibilities for next episode. The absolute ideal scenario would be that Yume is calling Yoshiyuki back home for her own selfish desires, causing Yoshiyuki to run back home, ignoring the promise he made with Koko for his little sister. Random drama ensues and the two break up, leaving Yume (or Nanaka) free to swoop in and claim Yoshiyuki for themself.

But there’s absolutely no pretense for that, so what’s more likely is that something went wrong, probably with Minatsu. Yoshiyuki still ditches the promise with Koko to go back home, but it’s for a legitimate reason and Koko will probably forgive him once she hears the story. This is your typical low-level “misunderstanding” type drama, but it is drama nonetheless and is 10x better than seeing Yoshiyuki and Koko fumble their way through writing their names on the heart charm and blushing profusely as they hold hands watching a sunset, or something equally cheesy along those lines.

Either scenario, I’m pretty sure that Koko and Yoshiyuki’s promise isn’t going to be kept. The Da Capo series is a pretty standard harem and it’s pretty much a given that if an important promise is made, especially if accompanied by a yubikiri, it will go unfulfilled or at least be delayed by a fair bit. If they do end up going through with the promise and don’t have them kiss at the end, or otherwise affirm their relationship, I’m going to fly to Japan, buy the DCII game and shove the disc down the lead scriptwriter’s throat.

And speaking of the temple with the promise of everlasting love, is this a common theme in Japan? Are these types of shrines scattered everywhere around the island? Because a lot of anime have legends of similar temples, whether it be buying a love pendant, walking under a bunch of tori gates, blindfolding oneself and walking between “love stones”, there are so many variations of traditions that supposedly grant eternal love. I know the specific one mentioned in this episode actually exists, but are there really that many of them in Japan, or are they really not all that common, rather a fictional anime plot device. I’m too lazy to research this on my own, haha.

Well, as usual, the fastforwarded preview speech at the end of the episode is beyond my level (or perhaps patience) to understand, so we’ll have to wait until next week for any ideas as to what will come from Yume’s late night phone call.

I’m never going to be able to look at boats in anime ever again without thinking back to School Days

~ 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 ~

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 ~

My hopes that DCII will live up to the dramatics of the original continue to wane as we reach the halfway point without any indication that the plot is progressing towards a dramatic climax. The relationships remain shallow and underdeveloped while the episodes are more filler material than anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of you have dropped DCII by now. Personally, my misplaced hope and loyalty to the series is all that keeps me going, let’s hope there’s still some time to turn this around.

Episode Rating: 6/10

One day during breakfast, Yume tells Yoshiyuki that she’s invited Minatsu over for dinner again. Yume voices her concerns about Minatsu and how she hasn’t been getting along with the rest of the class very well, since Mizukoshi-sensei entrusted Minatsu to Yoshiyuki, Yume says that he should take responsibility to help her.

At school in between classes, Yoshiyuki is wondering what he should do about Minatsu, and just as he’s about to go do something about it, he’s surprised by Minatsu suddenly visiting his class. Apparently she’s become good friends with Anzu and the two discuss what seems to be plans that Minatsu has for global domination. But rather than that, Yoshiyuki wonders how they got to be such good friends, a secret which Anzu isn’t keen on revealing.

So after school, instead of going to band practice with Koko (you know, his girlfriend, the one he finally started making progress with last episode) he ditches her to stalk Minatsu. He follows her to a park where he sees her playing around with a dog. But when Yoshiyuki approaches her, saying this is the first time he’s seen her so cheerful and inviting her over for dinner, Minatsu gets angry and tells Yoshiyuki to mind his own business. The two get in a fight and the plans for dinner end up being canceled.

Naturally, this doesn’t go over well with Yume, who has already bought the ingredients for dinner and can’t believe Yoshiyuki screwed it up. She demands that he patch things up with Minatsu by tomorrow.

While this would normally be impossible, Yoshiyuki quite literally stumbles on the solution. While he walks to school worrying about how to make things up with Minatsu, she happens to be walking in the opposite direction, mindlessly reading over her plans to take over the world (NARF! lol) and the two bump into each other. Yoshiyuki picks up Minatsu’s global domination plans and it a quick scan before Minatsu snatches it away from him. Minatsu’s begs him not to tell anyone about it, so Yoshiyuki does what any upstanding member of society would in the situation, he blackmails her.

Yoshiyuki makes Minatsu accompany him for a pseudo date that evening, meaning that once again he ditches Koko and the band, leaving her to cover for Yoshiyuki. Nanaka in particular seems worried since she sees Yoshiyuki leaving the school with Minatsu, but can’t bring herself to say anything to Koko, who is loyally defending her boyfriend.

To start, Yoshiyuki brings Minatsu to a cafe, where she ends up more interested about his cellphone and its accompanying 1-seg technology (live TV streaming to portable devices). Seeing where her true passions lie, Yoshiyuki spends the rest of the day taking Minatsu to electronics stores showing her various technological advances mankind has made while she was asleep.

But when the two go to an arcade and Minatsu tries out a zombie virtual reality game, it proves to be too much for her to handle, as she ends up overheating and collapsing.

When she wakes up, Minatsu finds herself resting on Yoshiyuki’s lap, she tries to get up, only to find she hasn’t fully recovered yet. Minatsu asks him why he’s doing all this, what his purpose in spending time with her is. Yoshiyuki replies that there’s no particular reason, that he just wanted to get to know her better. She then asks him what she is to him, Yoshiyuki says that she’s a friend of course, saying that she’s no different than any human friend he has, as she expresses an equal amount of emotion.

Minatsu then takes him to a robot shop with a maid robot on display and tells him that he would never consider it a friend, yet it isn’t too different an existence from herself. Minatsu goes on to explain that she finds human treatment of robots despicable and hates how even her own existence is nothing but a predetermined algorithm of human manufacturing. As she starts to walk off, Yoshiyuki stops her and apologizes on behalf of humans for their treatment of robots. He knows that a single person’s apology means nothing, but still feels that Minatsu waking up to this world is not a waste and that it would be great if she learned more about the world and the people living in it. Minatsu seems content with the apology and she ends up coming over for dinner, just as planned.

And what a dinner it turns out to be, chock full of banana goodness, and Sakura even shows up to join them. Between Yume saying that Minatsu is an important friend to her and Sakura worrying about her at school, Minatsu comes to realize that maybe they’re not so bad after all and thinks that it might be alright for them to be friends.

Thoughts

Soooo…about Koko…

I mean, what the hell. An entire episode was spent finally pushing the development of the Koko/Yoshiyuki relationship to a point slightly past elementary hand holding and profuse blushing, only for Yoshiyuki to completely bail on the momentum and focus on Minatsu? It’s not like they’re doing this for drama prepping, if so they wouldn’t have used Minatsu, Yoshiyuki obviously isn’t going to end up with her, she’s an android. If this episode were reformed to center around Yume, that would make sense as it could be a nice buffer into a real rivalry, but instead we get a filler episode developing Minatsu, who by all rights should be a tertiary character.

But I suppose there’s no telling what DCII will do, it’s already surprised me by pouring the most time and development on arguably the two most minor characters. Koko, while still a main heroine, from what we’ve seen so far, has by far the most uninteresting route, and I would be REALLY surprised if Minatsu even has a dedicated route in the game.

And so my question is, why? Where are we going with all this? Are we going to ride out the stumbling relationship of KokoXYoshiyuki until the end, with the odd filler episode, like we have been doing so far? Because at this point I don’t even see how this can be turned into a believable character centric melodrama. Sure Yume is showing signs of interest in Yoshiyuki, but no more than she did at the beginning, I don’t see her pulling a Nemu and confessing to Yoshiyuki any time soon. Nor do I see Nanaka stepping up to the stage to betray her friend and steal Yoshiyuki away, even if she was interested, which I don’t think she is, more of a friendship vibe than anything.

The only way I see DCII making a complete 180 is by putting the good ol’ sakura tree to use. If it were to push the reset button and send us back to square one, then anything would be fair game and we could see all out rivalries. But besides being used in the first episode as the scene of Koko’s confession, there’s been no hint that the eternal sakura tree will play a part in this story at all.

*sigh* I guess I’ll stop the ranting here, the more I write about it, the more I come to realize that it’s going to take a miracle from the anime gods to turn this subpar harem into the drama filled DC successor that I so longed for.

But hey! Who knows, said miracle may be on its way and my worries may be for nothing, so for now I shall cling desperately onto that faint possibility and await next week’s episode.

Needs moar Nanaka

~ Shirukii ~

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 ~

Watching this after having my ass handed to me by a midterm reminds me why I love anime so much.

Hmmm…four episodes in and Koko is -STILL- with Yoshiyuki, does not compute. I still maintain that we’re heading for a siscon end, but each passing episode that this relationship stays afloat is sowing the seeds of doubt into my mind. Though, could you imagine the awesomeness of another Canvas2-esque WTF! ending. DO WANT.

Yoshiyuki wakes up from another one of his dreams, this one has Koko taking him to the equipment shed to make some “memories”, only to find that he’s running late. He catches up to Koko, who’s waiting for him so they can walk to school together, she asks why he’s so late, only to have Yoshiyuki dodge the embarrassing dream. As they walk to school, Koko wonders if they’ll have any time to spend together, today being the sports festival, Yoshiyuki promises that he’ll do his best to make some time for her.

At the opening ceremony, Wataru is less concerned with Sakura’s opening speech as he is with being surrounded by bloomers, turning Yoshiyuki’s attention to Koko’s. However, they’re quickly busted by Otome, who yells at her ototo for whispering during her speech.

As the classes start to cheer, Yoshiyuki and friends notice Nanaka going all out rallying her class, noting how she can be cool as well as cute. Nanaka notices Yoshiyuki looking and calls out to him, Yoshiyuki responding meekly, but calling her by her first name, as has become habit. This, of course, gets him many death stares from the guys in Nanaka’s class, as well as some teasing from Anzu.

The first event of the day is the four-legged race (I guess three-legged races have become too standard?) with Koko, Yoshiyuki and Anzu. After some pre-race teasing from Anzu, the starting pistol sounds and they’re off! Or…so was the plan, but the three end up falling flat on their faces right from the start. Anzu takes the opportunity and pushes Yoshiyuki onto Koko, anime physics kicks in and he lands right on her breasts, Anzu takes it a step further by smothering Yoshiyuki into her oppai for a good while after that.

Afterwards, Yoshiyuki tries to apologize to Koko but ends up getting dragged away by Wataru to watch Yume and Minatsu in the karimono, borrowing race. When the two get to the table, Minatsu picks paper after paper saying bananas, throwing each one away in frustration. After Yume grabs her paper she rushes straight to Yoshiyuki and tears him away from Koko yet again. Turns out she needs his gym shorts, but in her rush, she takes one layer too extra, leaving Yoshiyuki half naked in the middle of the track.

With some alone time, Yoshiyuki and Koko sit down to have lunch together, but are interrupted yet again when the whole gang shows up to eat together. While everyone tries to take a stab at the bento Koko made for Yoshiyuki (only Nanaka succeeding), Anzu and Akane suggest Koko try feeding Yoshiyuki in the classic rabu rabu “Ahhhhh~” fashion. The crowd goes wild when they actually oblige.

Koko and Yoshiyuki continue to get interrupted even after lunch when Suginami pries him away to show him something neat. He hands him a remote that is hooked up to the net obstacle that Nanaka, Yume and Akane are currently running, when Yoshiyuki presses it, the net flings them in the air, landing them in some very…interesting positions, to say the least. And half the guys at the track die from rapid blood loss XD

Yoshiyuki gets back to find Koko has gone to help out with the 100m dash, Yoshiyuki’s next event, her task is handing out the first place flag. With Koko waiting at the end, his determination to win is high, but when the starting pistol sounds, he finds out Suginami has rigged another one of his contraptions up to “help” him. Attached to the bottom of his starting block are rockets, initially propelling Yoshiyuki forward, but soon taking him to the sky, and shortly after, a rough landing.

As Koko walks him to the nurse’s office, Yoshiyuki curses Suginami, which Koko finds odd because he usually doesn’t get worked up over things like that. Yoshiyuki says that it’s because she was waiting for him at the end of the race, Koko blushes and thanks Yoshiyuki with a hug. However, their time together is cut short yet again when she’s called over the PA, having to hand Yoshiyuki over to Yume to take care of the rest.

In the nurse’s office Yume tries to dig some info up on what’s going on between him and Koko, suggesting that she may have been interrupting. Yoshiyuki denies it, despite being technically true, and when she presses further, he says their relationship has nothing to do with her, causing Yume to go into a fit of jealousy and blast him with a long spray of rubbing alcohol.

As the sports festival winds to a close, Koko asks Yoshiyuki to follow her to the storage shed. There, she leads him by the hand around the back and nervously asks if he will help her make some memories. Yoshiyuki’s hormones rage and he thinks he’s about to get some, when Koko pulls out a camera and it turns out she just wants a picture. She sets the timer and stands beside him, but the two are interrupted yet again by Wataru, Anzu and Akane. Wataru wants in on the pictures, but not before Akane orders him to take one of the lovey dovey couple by themselves first.

Thoughts

Ahhh, why won’t it end. I can’t believe it’s four episodes in and the KokoXYoshiyuki relationship is still hanging on, admittedly by a thin thread, but still hanging on. Again, I don’t dislike Koko or anything, but I’m finding her story really really boring.

Although, character wise, I can’t find any fault in Koko at all, she is, as Nanaka suggested, the perfect bride candidate. But again, this makes her really boring to watch. I’d much rather see Yoshiyuki with Yume, who despite being a bit on the bitchy side, would probably be all kinds of awesome melting in Yoshiyuki’s hands, much how many thought Nemu was a bitch, but I personally loved her interaction with Juunichi. Hell, I wouldn’t even mind a Nanaka path, she’s so laid back and casual with everyone, I’d love to see the side of her that comes out when she’s dating.

Da Capo has always had some intense character drama, for example: In the first season you had Nemu and Juunichi struggling to come to terms with their love for each other, knowing that it was there yet not wanting to act on it in fear it would ruin their relationship and bring societal scorn. The misunderstandings and awkwardness that resulted and the glorious moment when they broke through expectations and came together was an amazing sight to behold.

But in DCII, all we’re getting is some lame elementary school romance where Yoshiyuki and Koko still haven’t gotten over the profuse blushing and awkwardness yet, it’s disappointing. At least if there was some more direct competition we’d get to see some catfighting going on, but from the looks of it, Nanaka is sitting on the sidelines so as not to betray her friend and Otome sees Yoshiyuki as nothing but her ototo-kun.

The only one who seems like she might put a fight, and the one who I still pick as the end winner, is Yume. She is showing interest in the KokoXYoshiyuki relationship, trying to see how serious Yoshiyuki is about it, all while showing periodic signs of jealousy. Yume ftw! Anything to stir up the so far sub-par drama that DCII is turning out to be.

But that having been said, it’s doing quite well as a light hearted school comedy, nothing to hold a candle to School Rumble, but I find it pretty funny nevertheless. Between Nanaka and her happy go lucky personality, Anzu/Akane’s teasing and Minatsu’s ongoing struggle against bananas, I still find myself being entertained episode to episode, just not in the way I had expected to be.

Oh well, I can only hope that the romance drama will kick into gear soon enough, not that I have the slightest clue as to what was said during the caffeine induced preview rant.

Seeing Sakura again reminds me of her awesomeness, eternal loli is eternaaaaaal

~ Shirukii ~