Da Capo II

[suguru]

Did Junichi and Nemu have a son as well? I'm assuming they must have had a boy too, for Otome and Yume to still have the Asakura family name...unless there was a situation like Sailor Enlil described below.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by suguru

Did Junichi and Nemu have a son as well? I'm assuming they must have had a boy too, for Otome and Yume to still have the Asakura family name...unless there was a situation like Sailor Enlil described below.

As far as I can remember, they never talk about Otome and Yume's father. They only mention their mother, Yuki, and I'm pretty sure they establish that she's Junichi's daughter, and not daughter-in-law. They never talk about Junichi and Nemu having a son, IIRC. I'll have to listen for that again when I work on Otome's plot summary. All in all, though, just as with the original D.C., parents matter a lot less than grandparents.

[KBTKaiser]

And now, the new generation

Sakurai Yoshiyuki: The dear protagonist of Da Capo 2, taken into the Asakura household when he was young and raised alongside Otome and Yume. Moves into the Yoshino household after finishing middle school. Supposedly holds the same powers as Asakura Junichi, that of Dreamwatching and Candymaking.

Asakura Otome: The older sister of the two granddaughters of Asakura Junichi and Asakura Nemu. Takes after her grandmother in that she's part of the Student Council. Normally serious about things, but has a very soft side for Yoshiyuki and often spoils her "otouto-kun". However, this does not exempt Yoshiyuki from Otome's burning crusade against the profane.

Asakura Yume: The younger sister of the two granddaughters of Asakura Junichi and Asakura Nemu. Sadly takes after her grandmother in terms of cooking in addition to taking after her grandfather's personality in some ways. (Katarui~) Her relationship with Yoshiyuki is often that of a of a lazy brother, strict sister situation in some cases.

Tsukishima Koko: The childhood friend of Yoshiyuki and part of the Setsugekka(Snow, Moon, Flower) lady trio as the moon one. Often shy and dislikes flights. Trivia: Apparently sports one of the top 3 bust sizes for the DC2 girls.

Shirakawa Nanaka: School Idol of Kazami Gakuen and best friend of Tsukishima Koko. Has a mean streak of being mischievous. Last seen on the run from her unofficial fan club.

Yukimura Anzu: Another member of the Setsugekka lady trio(Snow). Is known for her rather razor-sharp tongue and incredible memorization skills. Is often seen butting heads with authority figures, especially the class rep Maya.

Amakase Minatsu: A recent transfer to Kazami Gakuen, being the same grade as Yume. Who is she and why does she hate bananas, despite it being an absolute necessity for her?

Coming next post: the Support cast...

[KBTKaiser]

Here we go, the support cast.

Suginami: The ever illusive planner is back once more...but who is he really? One of Yoshiyuki's closest friends and leader of the Student Council's eternal enemy, the unofficial news/intelligence club. Though... sadly, records show that his skills do not match his predecessor 2 generations ago...

Itabashi Wataru: Another close friend of Yoshiyuki. Together with Suginami, they are the San-baka(three idiots). If Suginami's the devious one, then Wataru's the plain ecchi idiot while Yoshiyuki plays the voice of reason. Good Friends with Yoshiyuki, Koko, and Nanaka, which form a band quartet.

Hanasaki Akane: The last member of the Setsugekka trio(Flower), Akane is the voice that reasons sometimes(to koko's relief), but also pushes Anzu's ideas forward(to koko's grief). She, along with Suginami, often see the things that Yoshiyuki misses in relationships and emotions. Sidenote: Akane sports the biggest bust in all of DC2.

Sawai Maya: The class rep of Yoshiyuki's class. Considers the San-baka an utter curse on top of having to deal with Anzu's button pushing. For some reason, she hates robots?

Kohinata Shin and Kohinata Yuzu: This father daughter duo is close friends of Nanaka after Nanaka met Yuzu in the hospital. Yuzu is ill with a very terminal disease that could kill her if she doesn't take an operation.

Kousaka Mayuki: Otome's classmate and right-hand member in student council. She views Suginami as a true rival of wits in the struggle between Student Council and the Unofficial news/intelligence club.

...aaaaand that completes the basic layout so far...I think?

[relentlessflame]

Yup, I think that's pretty much everyone KBTKaiser -- good work on the summaries!. The only two minor characters I can think to add would be...

μ (Myu): A brand/line of customizable maid robots. Model number HM-A08.

Harimao: Sakura's dog (though a very odd-looking one ), and the title's resident mascot character.


And incidentally, about the earlier question re: whether Junichi had a son, and whether Yuki is their daughter, the Japanese Wikipedia article suggests that Yuki isn't blood-related and that it'd be Junichi & Nemu's son that's Otome and Yume's father. But the father works overseas, so that's why he never shows up. All in all, there are still a lot of unanswered questions about that "in-between" generation.

[KBTKaiser]

Especially considering this...

Spoiler for Regarding Yuki:

She's a magician! And Otome inherits Yuki's charge of keeping an eye on the Sakura Tree.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by KBTKaiser

Especially considering this...

Spoiler for Regarding Yuki:

She's a magician! And Otome inherits Yuki's charge of keeping an eye on the Sakura Tree.

Yup, exactly.

Spoiler:

I almost wrote that in the original post, because that was mentioned there too, but then I realized that it was too much of a spoiler so I just skipped it. But you're definitely thinking the same thing as I am -- lots of unanswered questions. Who knows -- if we want to play make-believe in the D.C. universe, we could imagine that maybe Yuki was Aisia's daughter? I guess they wanted to keep the magic lineage in the family to guard the sakura tree, but Junichi's magic was too weak to pass down? Maybe the marriage was arranged? Who knows... I wonder if the people at Circus actually have it figured out even? There are other open issues too, like Nanaka's lineage, for example (we know there's a connection to Kotori, but what?). For the sake of this game/anime, it's safe to say that it doesn't matter, but it'd be sort of nice to have all the family trees figured out.

[relentlessflame]

By the way, a few more pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together... from Moonphase:

Director: Tomoki Kobayashi (sola, Utawarerumono)
Series Composition: Masaharu Amiya (Ai Yori Aoshi, Sister Princess RePure, also helped on Inukami, original D.C. anime)
Character Design: Noriko Shimazawa (Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru, Final Approach)

Not much to go on, but seems like a pretty decent team to me.

[DanielSong39]

Will Nanase Hikaru reprise her role as composer?

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by DanielSong39

Will Nanase Hikaru reprise her role as composer?

I can't imagine why she wouldn't, but it's among the many things to have not yet been announced.

[suguru]

I'm not sure if this update was made on the basis of something on Moon Phase or somewhere else, but now D.C. II is listed as 13 episodes, starting on 10/17:
http://www.andrewlb.com/fansub/pukiwiki.php?Fall%202007

I hope the part about 13 eps isn't true though, this seems like the kind of story that could really benefit from a full two cours run like the original Da Capo had.

[DanielSong39]

13 episodes? Hopefully this means there won't be any girl-of-the-week episodes, and the main plot will emerge very quickly...

This probably also means that the Nanaka/Koko subplot will be squeezed - unless it makes up the lion's share of the first half.

The jury is still out, but unless the writers are at feel are willing to cut out large portions of the game, the show will undoubtedly suffer.

[KBTKaiser]

Honestly, DC II's too packed to be done well in 13 eps, IMO. You've got like, 4 endgame scenarios on top of the final scenario. >>;

[rg4619]

The producers don't have to try and cover an entire series within those 13 episodes (if they feel like bet-hedging. After all, Circus mentioned that they wanted the adaptation to run as long as possible, so they could just cover a small amount of material in the hope that the show will become popular enough for continuation). Da Capo is a very popular franchise, so the chances of a second D.C. II season might be pretty good.

[Aoie_Emesai]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Director:
Character Design: Noriko Shimazawa (Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru, Final Approach)

That character design is good enough for me ^_^. Both of those two are super cute anyway

[relentlessflame]

About the 13-episode thing, I guess we'll see. It was posted in an update on Moon Phase, which is where the other Wiki got it from. I consider it a bit suspect, since the PS2 port is still scheduled for early 2008, and they usually try to time these things so that the game releases while the anime is still airing. I also agree with all the other comments here -- the franchise is very popular, so it's not like it won't sell; there was that interview with tororo where he said he hoped for a long run; the story has more than enough material to fill 13 episodes, etc. etc. To only get green-lit for 13-episodes after two successful 26-episode runs in the franchise is really unusual. But then again, they have been keeping everything shrouded in mystery, so maybe there's a logic to it after all.

What would be interesting (but won't happen), would be for them to have a few different seasons focused on the main story arcs in the game, and each season to be a quasi-reset. For example, the first season could focus on the sakura tree story (Otome/Yume), the second on the band story (Nanaka/Koko), etc. It won't happen because you'd generally want continuity in anime (so that people know what to expect going into the subsequent seasons), but it would be interesting and more like the game. It would also open things up for additional seasons as they add characters to the P.S./P.C. games, and so on.

Anyway, as usual, time will tell.

[DanielSong39]

My guess is that the show will get 26 episodes, and a few side-story OVA's to address the new characters. I hope the rumors of a 13-episode series are false, as full run is needed in my opinion to cover the two major arcs (band story and the sakura tree story).

As for the reset idea... I think you might see it in School Days/Summer Days, if the latter show gets the green light. Not quite as likely in the D.C. franchise.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by DanielSong39

I hope the rumors of a 13-episode series are false, as full run is needed in my opinion to cover the two major arcs (band story and the sakura tree story).

Well, to be more clear...

Spoiler for game structure:

I wouldn't say that the band story is really a major arc in the game, at least certainly not on the level of the sakura tree story. I also don't really see how could blend the two very easily -- the band story is entirely romance-driven, but I can't see Yoshiyuki ending up with either Nanaka or Koko in the main/primary adaptation. If you have to adapt the story only once, I think you'd pretty much have to focus on Otome and the epilogue (certainly if you only have 13 episodes). However, what they did with the manga is what makes it interesting -- the "if story". You could make the band story a major arc if you could set the sakura tree story aside and play "what if". I too can't really see them doing that in the anime, but it's the only way I can see them really animating the "band arc" without liberally re-writing it. If Yoshiyuki doesn't fall in love with either Koko or Nanaka, there really is no band arc, IMO (at least not in the way we see in the game).

[DanielSong39]

Spoiler for band arc:

I think they can take major elements from the band arc without a major rewrite; basically, you can resolve this by having Yoshiyuki rejecting Nanaka and having Koko move away. And the reason for him rejecting Nanaka can be related to the second arc... which is too much of a spoiler to even put it under a spoiler tag...

Considering the band story is arguably second "major" story in the game, I can see it getting plenty of airtime even in a 13-episode adaptation. It certainly beats the "girl of the week" approach.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by DanielSong39

Spoiler for band arc:

I think they can take major elements from the band arc without a major rewrite; basically, you can resolve this by having Yoshiyuki rejecting Nanaka and having Koko move away. And the reason for him rejecting Nanaka can be related to the second arc... which is too much of a spoiler to even put it under a spoiler tag...

Considering the band story is arguably second "major" story in the game, I can see it getting plenty of airtime even in a 13-episode adaptation. It certainly beats the "girl of the week" approach.

Spoiler for game references:

Well, yeah, they could probably rework the band arc to incorporate a lot of the same elements, but not be about a love triangle. Probably the easiest way to do this would be to mix Nanaka's haircut with Yuzu's story, culminating in the final concert. But the band arc in the game is actually more about the love triangle; I can't see them keeping that aspect and then going back on one of the other paths. So, rewriting it without the triangle might work, but it'd be quite different from the game. Probably neccesary, though.

Regardless, there's probably enough "big group" story in D.C. II that they could probably avoid "girl of the week" if they wanted to. I imagine they'd use the puppet show, the ski trip, and the shrine visit. If they try to squeeze the band arc in there too... well, yeah, I just can't see it happening in 13 episodes. We'll see...