I just caught the first episode of Da Capo II and, as a long-time fan of the game and the franchise in general, I must say, “WTF!?” The whole episode is just one huge blasphemy.

But if you have never heard of the series before or if, heaven forbids, you are a Koko fan, then it’s actually a pretty decent first episode of a series that’s clearly trying its best to differentiate itself from its source material. But I am a fanboy and I find the overall lack of Nanaka to be highly disturbing.

For a quick summary of Da Capo II, I quote myself:

For the uninitiated, Da Capo II is the sequel to the popular bishoujo game Da Capo. Both the Da Capo and Da Capo Second Season anime series are actually based on the first game, leading to much confusion amongst casual fans and the non-hardcore. This time the main character is Yoshiyuki Sakurai who has not one but two sisters unrelated by blood, Otome Asakura and Yume Asakura, the granddaughters of Nemu (heroine of the first game).

So yeah, it’s a pretty generic harem series made for the sole purpose of leeching fanboy money. But it’s reasonably good due to a good mix of character types and a generally strong cast of seiyuu, which I will talk about later. But let me first tell you what I think of episode one…

Point number one, this is the single best scene in the entire episode.

Or shall I say the single best split second. Because it’s part of the opening animation and the only other appearance by Nanaka has her surrounded by a bunch of annoying fanboys (I hate fanboys). WTF!? This makes it considerably difficult for me to enjoy the rest of the episode.

Secondly, Yume, the protagonist’s stepsister, is voiced by Yui Horie! WTF!?

Basically, because D.C. II takes place 50 years after the original, a few of the heroines are related to the characters in the first game. Yume Asakura is the granddaughter of Nemu Asakura, while Nanaka Shirakawa is the granddaughter of Kotori Shirakawa.

In the anime adaptation of the original series, and especially in the Second Season, the producers decided to go with Nemu for the happily-ever-after ending instead of Kotori, the bestest best heroine in the entire Da Capo franchise (tied with her granddaughter). This decision pissed me off a great deal and bought them an express ticket onto my list of people-to-be-killed.

Although Yui Horie had no involvement in the games, she played the role of Kotori for both seasons of the original series, so it’s entirely ill-fitting for her to be taking on the role of Yume, the granddaugter of Nemu. If anything, she should be voicing Nanaka.

This brings me to my third point of discontent: Nanaka is not voiced by Hitomi Nabatame!

Hitomi did an exactly job playing Nanaka in the game. Usually well-funded anime adaptations prefer to drop obscure seiyuu used by the original 18-kin games in favour of more recognizable mainstream names, which is why Yume is not voiced by the same seiyuu as the game. But for Nanaka, this is clearly not true as Hitomi has also appeared in numerous high profile titles such as Shana, Marimite and Sukuran. Whatever the reason is, I hate this decision.

In the anime, Nanaka is voiced by Minori Chihara (Yuki Nagato). WTF!?

Sigh.

Well, these are actually all very personal reasons for my disliking of the first episode. In all fairness, the production value appears to be fairly high and the plot is not copied wholesale from the game, making it somewhat original.

Also, I think that an Otome ending is highly possible, and she is quite high up on my list (not the one of people marked for death, the other list), so I shall continue following this series.

Okay, I’m lazy to describe the episode any further (or at all), so I shall do it the Anime Bloggers Way® and spam a ton of pictures instead. Actually, I’m too lazy to do even that, so I’m going to just insert this table of thumbnails which was auto-generated using Media Player Classic. :)

Click to view the full version

I hate Koko.

For the uninitiated, Da Capo II is the sequel to the popular bishoujo game Da Capo. Both the Da Capo and Da Capo Second Season anime series are actually based on the first game, leading to much confusion amongst casual fans and the non-hardcore. This time the main character is Yoshiyuki Sakurai who has not one but two sisters unrelated by blood, Otome Asakura and Yume Asakura, the granddaughters of Nemu (heroine of the first game). Oh right, the story also happens to take place 50 years after the first game. Read my past entry for more details.

As everyone should know by now, my favourite D.C. II girl is Nanaka Shirakawa. So here’s a picture of a pillow cover featuring her!

Haha, good stuff. Still with me? Anyway, on a related note, Kadokawa and CIRCUS are working on a PS2 version of Da Capo II called “Da Capo II Plus Situation” (D.C.II P.S). Oh my god I didn’t see that one coming. At all. New story paths will be added and a Comptiq will be polling its readers to determine who gets to be one of the new heroines. It’s got to be either Akane or Iinchou…

Also I forgot to mention this, but I actually own a PS2 now! So yay for me! I’ll get my PS3 as soon as PS4 is released. :)

Deep down in my heart, I knew this was going to happen. It was only a matter of time. But I didn’t expect it to be this soon. 心の準å‚が・・・！

Anyway, COSPA has started taking preorders for a Nanaka dakimakura cover. As you may or may not know, Nanaka is the hawtest girl in Da Capo II, ever.

It costs a cool ï¿¥9,000 excluding tax (in other words, standard COSPA price) and you can preorder one from CDJapan.

It seems like as long as I am connected to the Internet, I’ll never be able to save a single cent. Grrr. (*pokes moyism*)

You can download the promo here. Continue for more screenshots.

Interesting note: there seem to be H-scenes for Kotori’s good friends, Mikkun and Tomo-chan. :O (scroll down this page if you don’t remember who they are.)

I’m considering actually paying for this. It’s ï¿¥4,800 for the limited edition, which is a lot less than a full game. Sofmap is giving away a hawt Kotori phone card for their preorder… Oh so tempting.

The game is coming out on 22 Dec, just before Christmas. ぎりぎりってところかな。 That said, I wonder how may people will be spending their Christmas on this game. :P

I was bored, so I transcribed Nanaka’s D.C. II image song by ear… You can get a low-quality encode here. A few parts were quite iffy, especially “æ„›ãã¹ãã¨æ€ã†æ‚ã‚’”.

I finished Nanaka’s path for Da Capo II today. Nanaka forever!

Although Nanaka’s power is similar to Kotori’s, her story is somewhat different. In many ways, it can even be said that she is better than Kotori. (forgive me Kotori. ;_;)

Well, I’m too lazy to write a proper review now, especially since I haven’t played through any other paths, which I will only do after a full walkthrough is released. For now, here’s a bunch of pictures of Nanaka! イエー！～

Koko: Today is the D.C. II release date!
Anzu: Of course, along with Koko’s scenes. That kind of scenes… ;)

Anyway, my Himeya order for the limited edition of D.C. II:

8 hours ago…

Your order has been updated to the following status.

New status: Ship within 24 hours

2.5 hours ago…

Your order has been updated to the following status.

New status: Shipped

Meanwhile, I am just 1 hour away from getting the entire thing off Winny. EMS is just not fast enough. :P

Koko: One more day to the release of D.C. II.
Koko: Please wait just a little bit longer.

ONE more day till Nanaka-moe overdrive. 団長、もう待てないよ！

Otome: Just two more days till D.C. II. *wub*
Otome: To prepare yourself for a whole night of gaming (*cough*), please eat lots of nutritious bitter gourds. *wub*
Yume: She’s a demon…
Wataru (and me): @_@

Yup, just TWO more days to D.C. II!

EDIT: I made this to make the wait more bearable…

Anzu: Three more days till D.C. II.
Koko: The suspense!!! It kills!!! ZOMG!!!

…Ok, I lied. More like “My heart is beating fast.”

That’s right folks. Just THREE more days to go!