Moé Moé Rabu

So in the end, Minatsu didn’t end up staying at the school just like I was predicting, but it was more surprising to see Minatsu agreeing with the decision to have her kicked out. But in the end, Minatsu has always thought about others rather than herself, and I think that’s also thanks to Yoshiyuki. It’s probably his nature of being kind and helpful to others probably rubbed off onto Minatsu as he spent more time with her, thus Minatsu didn’t want everyone to suffer any consequences because of her. However I was right about the entire student body supporting her.

Impressions

I’m somewhat a little disappointed in how we didn’t get much development on the Yoshiyuki and Koko front of things as it appears that Yoshiyuki doesn’t seem all that bothered by it. Koko did think about it when talking to Nanaka, but even then she doesn’t seem to feel any regret about breaking up with him, not to mention they seem to be back as friends rather smoothly. However I do like how Koko was finally honest with her feelings and was also the one who initiated the idea of Minatsu’s graduation and showed Yoshiyuki that she was able to do something after all.

Minatsu’s graduation I thought was pretty touching and it’s a nice way to end off the series. Minatsu’s realisation of her dream of creating a bond between robots and humans was portrayed through the support she received but as well by the graduation ceremony.

Final Impressions

When I first heard about a Da Capo II anime being made, I was ecstatic and was counting down the days till it aired. However as the series progressed, I found that the series itself was gradually becoming something that I did not expect, and that was an utter disappointment. Just after the 3rd episode, I got that feeling that the series was going to take a hug dip in the direction it was going and that became evident later on.

So much focus had been placed on Minatsu’s story and it was at that point that the enjoyment of the series for me had ended. Minatsu is my least favourite character when I played the game itself, and she still is. But I can’t see why FEEL had went down the Minatsu path since this action had lost the essence that is the Da Capo series, and that is the undeniable love for siscon. Throughout the entire series, we pretty much little to nearly no development on Otome or Yume, but even with that small glimmer of Otome’s past in episode 10, it still lead to nothing. I’m also still annoyed at the fact that they brought up a key part to Otome’s path in that small instance and now it will be left to be forgotten.

Character wise, I’m surprised that there has been so little development on all the other girls, even Koko didn’t get that much of a development throughout the series. Otome and Yume pretty much got no love, and Anzu’s role this entire series was set as a side character, yet she is one of the 6 girls from the game. Being placed alongside with Akane, which does happen in the game, but still, her story I know is still more interesting than Koko’s or Minatsu’s. With Koko’s side of things, everything went from her confessing to Yoshiyuki, them going out and gradually progressing, but then just stops. With Minatsu’s story paralleling along, the drama just wasn’t there. We had too much wavering and not enough actual drama.

The enjoyment of Da Capo II ended for me at episode 7, after the Nanaka episode, which I think was freaking brilliant. But beyond that I could feel my love for the Da Capo franchise being stepped on and it became just annoying to watch the progression of Minatsu’s story. But I did somewhat find salvation amongst Koko’s story and began to actual enjoy her story but also felt pretty sorry for her with Yoshiyuki neglecting her in most of the episodes. Although I’m giving a lot of negative thoughts about this, perhaps it will all change now that there will be a second season of Da Capo II in Spring 2008. But it makes me wonder why FEEL just didn’t go with a whole 26 episodes in the first place. The original Da Capo series had done a wonderful job in conveying all the characters as well as the main story in 26 episodes. I can only speculate that FEEL must have wanted to see what people’s reaction were to the first season in order to make the second one better, or they are taking a leaflet out of Code Geass and wanted to make people hold out for the second season. Of course now that there is a second season, and with Minatsu’s graduation, that means that the 5 girls now have a chance at winning Yoshiyuki’s heart, but if the series is once again slated for 13 episodes, it’s worrysome that the same thing may happen just like in the first season. I would’ve been more happy if the series was a 52 episode series like the rumour that was floating around when the series was announced.

So in the end, the first season is definitely a memorable series, but a distasteful one at that. Much like KyoSora, it’s a memorable series, but not for any good reasons. Originally I was going to buy the DVDs without any doubt, but now I’ve decided to hold back until I see what the second season is like. Besides, I’ll just pick them up in Japan. So here’s hoping for a better and more dramatic second season, as I really need a good dose of siscon, lol.