D.C. II (Da Capo II)

Information of Anime

Set 53 years later after the original D.C., Yoshiyuki Sakurai was born from Sakura Yoshino's wish on an artificial version of the magical sakura tree.  She did this to make a family.  Yoshiyuki has some magic powers as he's able to produce sweet buns from his hands.  He lives next door to Sakura with the Asakura sisters Otome & Nanaka.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Although Yoshiyuki manages to get Koko Tsukishima as his girlfriend when she confesses to him at the very first half of the show, he has his mind set on one task which was given to him.  He is responsible in taking care of a Mu (a term used as robots in this show) named Minatsu Amakase.  Because of people's past hates for Mu, Yoshiyuki is to keep Amakase's identity a secret from people.  Exposure would cause an uproar in society.  He is also responsible in having her view humans as good people.  Because of this, he gets very distanced from Koko which concerns her.  She thinks that the relationship is fading out.

Due to an incident where Amakase rescues Nanaka from a falling giant sign, her identity is slowly revealed as she manages to survive from the sign falling on her.  Yoshiyuki's friends get the truth first, but still remain as Amakase's friends.  The news would later spread to the school as a rumour & students start viewing Amakase as an outsider.  As Yoshiyuki tries to resolve this, Koko starts to be dishonest to herself by lying about how she feels.  She feels that she's being selfish as Yoshiyuki is doing his best.

As the love problem continues, the situation about Amakase continues to worsen.  However, she manages to redeem herself by saving Maya Sawai's younger brother Yuuto from an car accident.  Maya's hate from robots due to her loss of her father from it is cleared as she accepts Amakase.  Even though the students now accept Amakase, the school board has officially expelled her due to the news of the incident to prevent any public problems.  As this new problem is arising for Yoshiyuki, a new arises when Koko & him finally meet after a long period of time.  Koko decides to break their relationship & go back as friends.

In the final episode, the students from Kazumi Academy learn about Amakase's expulsion & boycott classes to get her back.  Although she appreciates everyone's feelings, Amakase makes an announcement on the school's PDA system to express her feelings & asks everyone to stop as it would jeopardize their futures. She asks to stay at school for three more days to allow her to go though a normal school life which the school board agrees on.  During the three days, Koko secretly prepares a graduation ceremony for Amakase with the approval of the student council & Sakura.  She did this to show her true feelings & to help out on the Amakase situation.  This surprises Amakase & Yoshiyuki.  The show ends with Nanaka & her band performing for Amakase.

My Personal Review

D.C. II has something I picked up automatically since I seen the past D.C. anime shows.  It's not a series that I really enjoy, but I picked it up for the heck of it.

Animation

The character designs are similar to the past D.C. anime shows.  The colours have that dull appearance & feel.  This is the same for the backgrounds.  The character designs seem to be different this time.  The eyes seem smaller & the facial features look plain now.  In fact, the whole design looks plain to me.

The animation movements are quite fluid & natural.  There are the occasional strange & out of this world actions, but that's usually when the comedy love stuff kick in.

Sound

The sound effect are ok & the volume is just right.  The sounds were more on the cute side than realistic.  The falling, the popping, & the hitting on a human body.

The seiyuus here are ok.  But they seem pretty lifeless to me for some reason.  There are some seiyuus here that were from the first D.C. series, but play different character roles now since their original roles have aged or isn't in this show.  I felt this show was really dull to watch than the first D.C. series.

The music was ok & consist of mainly ballads.  However, most of them quite soft & wasn't too easy to notice.  Sometimes I forget that there is music in the background.  Maybe I was too attached on what's going on in the show that I didn't notice some of the music. 

Story

When I saw Koko & Yoshiyuki get together very fast, I thought the show would go nowhere.  Instead, it focused on Mus which was something that I didn't expect.  Watching it, it almost gave me the impression that I was watching To Heart ~Remember my Memories~ a bit.  Except this one is a bit more emotional & political in society.  The way it's presented is good as you get all sides of the story.  A Mu hating humans, humans hating Mus, & both sides helping each other out.  Pretty good really.  But this plot doesn't seem to be like D.C. where it's based on magic.  It's like watching something else.  But the struggling girl character element is still there.

Another thing that disturbs me is Suginami.  He's still a student & it's already 53 years past.  It's like the guy never aged or something.  Plus Sakura is still young.  But she did age a bit & is a witch.

The ending is actually pretty good.  It resolved the robot situation nicely & the breakup was surprisingly smooth.  Everything seems to have fixed up nicely in such a short time frame.

Overall Conclusion

D.C. II is pretty good in its own way.  It's not the same as I know about the original D.C. as it has a different approach.  Although it has the same setting, town, elements from the first, it's like watching something else.

D.C. II gets a grade of seven.  It does have that D.C. feel & style to it, but I felt this show is completely different.  It doesn't have magic & focuses on the science technology instead.  Although the show is good to watch, it's not the same as I know about the D.C. series in regards of magic.  But the story is good & the ending took me by surprised on how well it ended.

Last updated on February 12, 2008