I missed the cherry blossoms, I missed Suginami’s antics, I missed Anzu’s merciless teasing, and of course, the pretty pictures. I say this now because I just played the Spring ultamate battle (a mini fandisc prequel of sorts to D.C.II), and everything just feels…right.

On the other hand, I just started Sekien no Inganock, and it’s pretty amazing. The music is haunting, the art is like nothing I have ever seen before, the voice acting is absolutely fantastic (the voice of the clown is perfectly errie, and when Gii meets that prostitute, every bit of her voice was just amazing. Her shock, her happiness, and that nervous weariness of everything…). Of course, the story is intriguing too, I am VERY curious at what is really going on in that story.

Also, Ati’s voice reminds me of Shiki, which is perfectly fine with me (the 7th movie of Kara no Kyoukai was pretty good, through the metaphorical rape and the kiss was beyond creepy, more on that later).

The closest that these two stories will come to in terms of atmosphere? Maybe?

Today, it’s all the way back to that crazy Christmas of 1991, when between The Return Of The Magic Roundabout and that awful Up Pompeii! revival special, a certain floppy-fringed indie band tried to get a way with a bit of no money for sleighbell-enhanced old rope…

I was forced to watch Da Capo 2 and Da Capo 2 2: The Search for Curly’s Gold two years when they aired. I couldn’t keep a straight face during them because of how insanely cliched they were. They crossed the line over into camp. OTOUTO-KUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!. For reference, here is my post from my old blog about the first episode of Da Capo 2:

OMG A LITTLE SISTER CHARACTER MAKING A FACE MOEEEEEEEE

OMG A CHILDHOOD FRIEND CHARACTER BEING NERVOUS BECAUSE SHE WANTS TO CONFESS MOEEEEEEEE

OMG THE CHILDHOOD FRIEND CHARACTER THINKING THAT SHE'S BEING IGNORED BECAUSE SHE IS THE CHILDHOOD FRIEND CHARACTER AND HE DOESN'T THINK THAT WAY ABOUT HER EVEN THOUGH SHE THINKS THAT WAY ABOUT HIM MOEEEEEEEE

OMG THE CHILDHOOD FRIEND CHARACTER IS STILL BEING NERVOUS BECAUSE SHE STILL HASN'T CONFESSED YET MOEEEEEEEE

OMG THE CHILDHOOD FRIEND CHARACTER IS FEELING INSECURE BECAUSE THE POPULAR OLDER SISTER CHARACTER FUSSES OVER THE SAME BOY AND HE OBVIOUSLY LIKES HER MORE BECAUSE SHE SO MUCH MORE PRETTY AND POPULAR AND BETTER IN EVERY WAY THAT SHE CAN THINK OF MOEEEEEEEE

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG THE CHILDHOOD FRIEND CHARACTER CONFESSING TO A BOY UNDER A SAKURA TREE MOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKJDFLKHALKJ;;;;;;;;;::dies::

Oh, and I also laughed at her confession because she she simply said, “I’VE ALWAYS LIKED YOU!”, to which he replied, “All right, Koko.” All right what? All right I’ll go out with you? All right we’re boyfriend and girlfriend now? All right so let’s do it? It doesn’t help either when I’ve got the fact that this game is an eroge floating around in the back of my head, which makes me lean further towards the “All right so let’s do it” side than the “All right I’ll go out with you” side.

I should probably give Da Capo some more leeway than I gave Da Capo 2 since it’s one of the earlier bishoujo game adaptation anime, but I just couldn’t. The first problem is that it can always be hard to watch an early entrant into some kind of genre because so many of its cliches and convention have been both recycled and parodied endlessly by that point. I do have two issues as to why this isn’t necessarily an unfair way of thinking. The first is simple: just because something is one of the first to do something doesn’t mean it necessarily did that well. That leads to the second: Da Capo recycles some of these elements so many times it already drains the life out of them.

I started to take screencaps of this to remind myself of how many times these were happening, but eventually just gave up. Here are some examples: 3 of the first 4 episodes opened with “Wake up, Nii-san! You’ll be late! Oh, Nii-san!”; the same block of episodes featured about as many “Nii-san no…BAKA!”s; one episode featured no less than three “Nii-san no ecchi!”s in as many minutes; and of course, when Jun’ichi and Nemu are about to do it, obviously she gives one of those “…but it’s okay if it’s with you, Nii-san.”

The other huge problem with Da Capo is that it has a ludicrous amount of filler. It has so much filler its filler has filler. The show format consists of first of about 15 or 16 episodes of filler. Then, two of which are recap episodes. Yes, that’s right: recapping filler multiple times. Then, there are 10 episodes to cover the plot. There’s another wrinkle in here: from around episode 8 or so until episode 21, the last 6 minutes of each episode consist of some filler omake. These are completely incongruous. We’ll be following one character’s storyline. They’ll be basically the only (female) character in the episode. The business is often times serious. Then, it just switches over to one of the other characters, who we may not have really seen anything regarding for a few episodes, who will then do something like walk down a beach for 1/3 of the episode.

I understand that these otaku database-type shows are less about things like “plot” or “characters” and more about supplying a set of characteristics of female characters. The problem, however is that the show still tries to have a serious plot, but has almost no time to do it. Da Capo 2 had two 13 episode seasons, and was basically condensed to the point that it probably should have been. Da Capo, on the other hand consists of a pair of 26 episode seasons (note: I only watched the first season, and won’t be watching the second since it was not burned) and still has to try squeeze in the plot in something like 6 episodes. This results in trying to stuff an entire character’s story into sometimes less than a single episode.

The whole filler thing was possibly the most awkward because of the setting’s magical realism. There’s a sakura tree that can grant wishes and the characters have various magical powers, like being able magically create candy. This stuff doesn’t come up in the filler, however. It doesn’t really appear until the plot starts, which was really jarring. That’s the kind of thing that is pretty fundamental to the setting. I’m almost certain Nemu coughed before episode 24, but no petals came out until then. Why wasn’t Kotori hearing any of the thoughts of the judges during the beauty pageant?

But who cares about all that. Do you want to “accidentally” walk in on your kawaii desu imouto-kyara while she is peeing? You’ve come to the right place!

Also,

Would I watch it even if I weren’t forced? You can laugh at it for a few episodes, but after that point it just gets tedious.

She arrived today and she has completely captured my heart. I know nothing about the character or show (Da Capo II… although I plan on watching it soon) and to be honest, 75% of the reason I ordered this nendo is because I am a nekomimi addict and there was no way I was going to miss out on her. The remaining 25% was the fact that her faces are simply so cute!!

Don’t you just want to give her a big hug? >w<

The box is really cute too. I love the combination of blue/pink.

Fresh out of the box~

Miku was really happy to have another nendo in the house!

Sharing is fun~

Swapping outfits is even more fun!

Having more nendo parts definitely opens up a lot more possibilities for ways to use them. Conveniently, Yume’s eye color is even quite close to Miku’s, so while the faces aren’t a perfect match, I will probably still take advantage of that from time to time. Yume also comes with a ton of hand parts and her little school bag, which will also get a lot of use in the future!

*Patpat*

The only thing that I don’t 100% adore on this figure is that there are little round dents in the top of the kitty ears. I assume this must be a result of how they produced the ear pieces.

It’s a little disappointing but not enough to keep me from displaying her as a nekomimi. She’s sooooo cuteee!!!

Guh, its been a little while, huh?

I’ve been pretty shockingly busy as of late, working on menageries of projects. And, uh, most of my spare time of late has been consumed, one way or another, leaving this blog a bit in the lurch, I guess. For this I apologise.

On the other hand, I’m back with another Visual Novel Diary. This time, I finally got around to playing Da Capo, which is translated by Mangagamer (professionally this time, rather than a fan translation…though I have to wonder, since both Da Capo and Shuffle were getting Fan Translations that suddenly dissappeared and then re-appeared in the catalogue of these people. Methinks the translators were bought out, in these cases. Not that I can especially blame them, since fansubbing is a thankless job most of the time.)

Anyway, Da Capo is franchise than shot Circus into the limelight as creator of visual novels. Since its rather popular release, its had a huge host of cash-in’s, sequels, extra chapters, and gaidens; not to mention having anime’s made of its various parts.

Unfortunately, the anime was a bit of bust. Merely because Nemu was picked as the girl of choice, when basically EVERY other choice is superior, at least in the eyes of most people I’ve spoken with. They then performed extra travesties by literally torturing Kotori fans in Da Capo Second Season (this made me stop following any subsequent series of the anime).

That said, apparently the Japanese fans love Nemu. They’re all sis-cons, perhaps? I really don’t usually see the appeal of the subservient sister like character, but nearly all visual novels have one lurking around somewhere.

As you may have possibly guessed, I immediately went straight for Kotori.

Wah, she’s surprisingly forward, eh?

Cuteness. It is only cuteness.

The game itself is actually pretty good in terms of originality for dating sims. Rather than presenting the usual obligatory two choice box, Da Capo offers its branches in a different way. For starters, every evening, you have to set your Alarm Clock to one of three times (6:30, 7:00 or 7:50) which gives you different things on your way to school. After that, during lunchtime, you select where you want to eat from a map (with choices like Roof, Courtyard, Classroom, Cafeteria, etc.). Then, after school (and on sundays), you can use a different map to visit somewhere on the island (with selections like the Cherry Blossom Park, the Town, and the School etc.)

Of course, certain girls tend to frequent certain locations more often, so its not a complete bust trying to get their flags (though you might miss an event or two). Kotori, for example, appreciates you being on time and is most often seen in the Courtyard and variably behind the giant Sakura tree and the commercial district. Whereas, grabbing, say, Moe-sempai requires you to continually be late in the mornings and hang around school an awful lot.

Eventually, of course, if all flags are triggered, you stop getting mao choices and actually enter a girls route and the rest of the story follows your romance with the selected lady, where more typical choices tend to happen instead. Anyway, have some more Kotori’s:

Of course, considering a certain plot point, it is important not to lie or think too many ecchi things about Kotori chan. Be a nice guy, yeah?

Also, it seems that yellow pyjamas are popular in this game. Not that I’m complaining.

Yes, the new uniform is fabulous, dear.

Feed me Kotori! Even her pouting is cute.

Anyways, after making Kotori mai waifu, I proceeded to eventually do Moe-sempai’s route as well. Which leads to some amusing lines like this:

Ehahaha! Sure thing!

Yikes, thats…shocking… I mean, I know I saved you and all…but…wowzers…

Anyhow, it was light and enjoyable. Far better than the anime (though for biased reasons). I’ll probably get around to eventually clearing Sakura as well, but for now, thats all I’ve done due to being busy. See ya again soon, eh?

Despues de pasar un buen rato en la tarde buscando ambas novelas visuales (y algo mas ~) de Da Capo, me refiero a Da Capo y Da Capo II…

Me encontre con resultados favorables en comparación con mi primer intento por buscar esta novela visual hace cosa de 3-4 meses.

En aquella ocasión solo encontre esta pagina y para colmo, el enlace de la novela Visual de Da Capo se habia retirado a causa de que habia sido licenciada por Manga-Gamers.

http://vndb.org/

Hoy, me encontre con varios sitios interesantes no solo referentes a Da Capo sino mas bien a todo lo concerniente a las novelas visuales. Y a los que ya les estoy dando seguimineto porque son sitios interesantes.

http://visual-novels.net/vn/

http://translationlibrary.blicky.net/ff/ff_vnlibrary.htm

Asi como tambien, algunos articulos redactados por personas que ya tuvieron la oportunidad de jugar Da Capo, aqui uno de ellos…

Da Capo:  http://yakumo.over-blog.com/article-28644491-6.html

Referente a Da Capo II, aun no hay ningun parche al ingles y eso lo tengo mas que claro Y.Y

Sin embargo, hay una chica que a pesar de NO saber japonés jugo la novela visual y aqui sus impresiones de casi todas las rutas (cada chica es una ruta), pero antes cito lo que dijo…

Cita: Lacking Japanese will mean lack of story details. I expect that there will be a LOT of errors in the way I understood some events. Mainly, because I can’t read Japanese text, all thoughts and dialogue of Yoshiyuki himself is unknown to me. I use the voice dialogue to somehow “guess” what the event or conversation is about. To the Japanese game players who may have found this page, please do help me in case I have mistaken in understanding some parts of the story. Please do post a comment or contact me.

http://bluemist.animeblogger.net/dc2/

Encontre la novela visual de Da Capo en ingles donde menos esperaba encontrarla pues supuestamente ya la habia buscado muchas veces alli (en MCAnime), un buen amigo me la paso ^^

Y tambien vi el Da Capo Plus Communication, aunque parche y juego con links inservibles debido a licencia.

En pocas palabras, el balance fue bueno, encontre lo que buscaba y estoy feliz ^^.

Les dejo el opening  de la novela visual de Da Capo y Da Capo II.

Y por ultimo… coff..coff…

Ya entiendo porque Otome de Da Capo II quedo segunda en un top 10 de los personajes mas eroticos.

Uff!! ~

¿Y que me dicen de Kotori?

Ufff!!x2 ~

Nop, no hay mejor resolucion. jojojo

Y es que despues de 4 años, Da Capo vuelve a las andadas tanto con nuevo anime como con novela visual *__*

Estoy mas que feliz, ¡estoy que brinco de alegria por esta gran noticia!

La noticia se dio durante un evento alusivo al decimo aniversario de CIRCUS (creadores de Da Capo)

http://www.notcliche.com/lbw/new-d-c-da-capo-anime-and-novel-in-the-works

CIRCUS no deja en paz a Da Capo, eso me gusta.

Aun no se revela nada mas, lo unico que se dijo fue: “estamos trabajando”.

Pero ahora se viene incognitas mas grandes….

¿Acaso el arbol de Sakura nunca muere? ¿Quienes serán ahora los protagonistas?

¿Seguira habiendo una relación con Da Capo y Da Capo II? ¿Da Capo III asegura un Da Capo III S.S.?

¿Quien será el director, se repetira al de Da Capo II? (Hideki Okamoto) ¿O sera acaso Nagisa Miyazaki -Da Capo- o Masanori Nayoshi -Da Capo S.S.)

• En lo personal prefiero a Nagisa Miyazaki.

¿Cual sera el estudio? ( Zexcs -Da Capo-, Feel -Da Capo II- u otro)

• Tsk… me gustaria que fuera una combinación de ambos, hay cosas que uno tiene y el otro no y asi. O de plano un estudio nuevo.

¿Serán yozuca* y CooRie los encargados del Op. y Ed. nuevamente?

• Me parece que si, es decir; si la formula funciona para que cambiarle.

Sea como sea, el nuevo anime es una realidad. Esperemos no decepcione y sean 26 capitulos

At the 10th Anniversary Live Event which was held on November 11,  Circus has announced a load of new releases related on the D.C. ~Da Capo~ series.

Circus confirmed that they will be getting a third visual novel, another VN entitled “D.C. Zero“, a new manga series and a brand new anime series (D.C. ~Da Capo~ III).

No further details yet on the making.

[Source]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-11-01/new-d.c-da-capo-anime-reportedly-announced

Hopefully Da Capo III (DC. III) won’t be as fail as DC.II and DC.II.SS.

NOOOO WHYYYYY

Ugh. If I have to see budgets being put toward harem shows, couldn’t they at least be something other than mind-numbingly dull? I can has another Kanon? Or H2O~footprints in the sand~? A trainwreck is fine, too!

EDIT: Actually, the post title is a bit misleading – at least the devil would be interesting. I wish they let me write harem shows; they’d be really, realllly fucking awesome if I did. Although they might all just star some poorly-disguised version of myself having the entire school (because these always take place in high schools!) going “KYAHHHH~~!!” over me. And I’d just sashay into every room in a totally debonair manner, and sparkles would suddenly appear.

Hmm. Maybe my goal in life should be to grow up to be a bishounen.

penibil din tren se aud voci mute

scopul intrinsec variat spre munte

carbon în fibre blană ascuțită

vine apa scursă din ochii uscați

ratele inegale tremuri agale

în trecut veninul ascetic mort

plouă în mașina timpului prezent

fariseu pagini biblice negate

…

împinsă de dorință

înfinge cuțitul în umilință

O Cello-Dance revela a simbiose entre o instrumento violoncelo e o bailarino, transformando ambas as vibrações num só corpo. O espetáculo apresenta bailarinos brasileiros oriundos do jazz, do tango, do tango, do ballet clássico e do ballet moderno. Companhias e bailarinos: Raça Cia. de Dança – Tango sob dois Olhares; Cia. Brasileira de Danças Clássicas – Concerto para Cello, premiado em Joinville (2009) como melhor coréografo, com este trabalho; In-Pulso Cia. de Dança – Todas as Águas do Mundo; In-Pulso Cia. de Dança – Da Capo; Focus Cia. de Dança – Strong Strings; Bettina Dalcanale-Theatro Municipal RJ – O Canto do Cisne Negro.

serviço

o quê: Cello-Dance
quando: 17 e 18 de setembro, às 21h
onde: Sesc Santana
endereço: avenida Luiz Dumont Villares, 579 – Santana
telefone: (11) 2971-8700
entrada: gratuita – retirar ingressos com uma hora de antecedência
classificação: 12 anos
informação: www.sescsp.org.br

Hahaha, you know I never get tired with telling you guys the next new D.C. project…I think I understand how circus feels now, without their new spin offs, it’s just really hard for me to work up the energy from my dead limbs to write a new post…

Dan Wagstaff interviewed Da Capo art director Alex Camlin for his very clever blog about books and publishing,  Casual Optimist.  Da Capo has some great covers, so I’m not surprised that they’ve caught Dan’s eye.

Shop: D.C.II S.S. OTOME ASAKURA CM’s Corp ver. PVC Figure

ETA: October.

PVC Figure
16.5cm Tall
Ready Painted
Ready to Display

Shop: D.C.II S.S. ANZU YUKIMURA CM’s Corp ver. PVC Figure

ETA: October.

PVC Figure
15.5cm Tall
Ready Painted
Ready to Display

Da capo II ~fall in love~

Is set to be released. This is never going to end.

When a good game is released, it will get ports and expansions, and modifications, and fandiscs, etc, etc. But is it better to wait for an expanded version before playing a game?

Should I play H2O now, instead of waiting for a translation of Complete Story Edition?

Should I play Chaos head now, instead of waiting for a translation of Noah?

Should I play Shuffle! now, instead of waiting for Essence+?

Should I play Da capo now, instead of waiting for plus communication?

What do you think? Please help me decide before I finish

Moshimo Ashita Ga Harenaraba?

D.C.If. ~Da Capo If~

Plot Summary:

This OVA is a spinoff from the original Da Capo series, featuring Shirawaka Kotori as the main heroine.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Harem, Magical, Mystery, Romance

Age Rating: Everyone

No. of Episodes: 2 OVAs

Story

First, I was delighted that finally we have a spinoff based on the Kotori, my favourite heroine of Da Capo. However, upon I finishing the 2 episoded OVA. I found that the nature of of Da Capo’s story ruined this story. (slightly…)

I hate melancholic events especially those unreasonably, boring and dragging melancholy events. The Da Capo series poses this kind of content. Even 2 episoded OVA also being affected. Because of cleaning a room, like this also can caused umbalanced emotion…

I’ll have it rated: 27/40

Animation

Studio: ZEXCS

Year: 2008

Type: OVA

The animation quality for sure is lower. It seems as it was produced few years back then. The quality is still ok and acceptable…

I won’t comment much regarding this.. Maybe the animation production company want to produce something with similar quality as Da Capo.

I’ll have it rated: 17/30

Audio

Opening Theme(s):

1. “Dai 2 Button no Chikai” by Yozuca*

Ending Theme(s):

1. “sonzai” by CooRie

Insert Theme(s):

1. *Need Update

It has some insert songs, however, I have no idea what those songs are. The theme songs and backgound music used are very good.

I’ll have it rated: 12/20

Personal Rating

Spent some time finished the OVA. would definitely enjoy the show if they don’t make it such melancholic.

7/10

OVERALL POINTS

27 + 17 + 12 + 7 = 63points

63points, GOOD anime [12/08/2009]

More Anime Reviews and Rating – Click HERE

How I Rate Anime – Click HERE