Summary:

It’s been two months since the sakura tree withered, and spring is once again here. It’s the time of year when a new class of students enroll at the high school, and since she’s student council president, Otome has to give a speech at the entrance ceremony. What she won’t reveal to anyone is that inside the same notebook that she prepared her speech in, Otome has written Yoshiyuki’s name over and over, on page after page. Yume meanwhile spends her time visiting the same places she visited on her date with Yoshiyuki even though she knows that he won’t come back. As she passes by Sakura’s house on the way home, Yume sees Otome in Yoshiyuki’s room and watches as her sister starts to cry while holding the Eto doll. It reminds Yume that at least the two of them have to remember Yoshiyuki, and she feels that she can’t forget because she still loves him. Meanwhile, Sakura’s consciousness awakens temporarily with the sakura tree because it’s spring. She thinks that this is the proper world because Yoshiyuki doesn’t exist, yet all across Hatsunejima, she observes traces of memories of Yoshiyuki inside his friends, and she sees both Yume and Otome sad because they still remember him.

Sakura watches as Otome goes to the sakura tree one foggy morning and learns that Otome has been visiting every day since Yoshiyuki disappeared. Otome wants the tree to grant her wish, but she knows that it can’t and feels that it’s not a magic tree. She thinks of Yoshiyuki as an ordinary guy and herself as an ordinary girl who wants to be with the one she loves, and she tells the tree that she refuses to forget Yoshiyuki. Seeing all this causes Sakura to make an impassioned plea to the sakura tree to grant everyone’s wishes, and she believes in general that strong enough desires will make wishes come true. Her words get through to the tree, and for a brief moment, its branches are in full bloom. It is in this moment that everyone remembers Yoshiyuki again, and he appears to Yume in her dream. Yume wakes up from the dream before she can reach Yoshiyuki, but she quickly realizes that seeing him in a dream means that it will come true, so she dashes out of the house. Otome is meanwhile crying by herself out in the park when Yoshiyuki suddenly appears, and the two along with Yume are reunited. In the aftermath, life returns to normal, and the sakura tree completely disappears.

 
 
 

Wait a minute, I thought one of the big themes of DCSS (with Aishia and all) was to prove that magic couldn’t bring happiness. And yet, here we clearly see that magic brings back Yoshiyuki, which in turn brings happiness. That’s not to say that I think there was any other way to do it without magic, unless they kept Yoshiyuki from returning, but it would have made more sense if they were consistent. Regardless though, Yoshiyuki returning means a happy ending for everyone except for maybe Sakura. I single her out because while she might be happy to see Yoshiyuki reunited with everyone, she personally isn’t around to enjoy it as his mother (I would have considered that the happiest of endings).

Overall, the ending was, as I suspected it would be, rather anticlimactic. It’s hard to top the level of emotion from previous episodes (relatively speaking of course to only the DCII series, not to other drama heavy series), and since it was clear that Yoshiyuki was going to be coming back, it was just a matter of seeing how. It could have been an interesting twist if they had kept him dead and/or just concluded the series after last week’s episode, but at the same time, that probably would have been very unsatisfying to watch. Having Yoshiyuki choose between Yume and Otome might have also spiced things up a bit, but I still do think they did a pretty good job with what they did show, especially with Yoshiyuki’s actual reappearance in front of Otome – that was probably the best and most emotional scene of the episode.

Final Thoughts: This animated adaptation of Da Capo II was on the whole rather ho-hum, so to speak. At the time, I wasn’t very happy with how the first season covered Koko and Minatsu, but I can say now that it wasn’t completely wasted because it introduced us to the characters and set some of the story-lines up that were explored in the second season. The problem is that I have a hard time saying that it was worth watching all of. And while the second season was a lot better than the first one in almost every way, I still don’t feel like they broke any new ground or had anything particularly compelling. That makes is the kind of show that’s very hard to recommend, unlike for example true tears or even ef, and I’m not sure I’d watch a Da Capo III series, if there ever is one.

25 Comments

  1. I agree that this show isn’t as good as it could be. Having a mediocre lead male didn’t help either. I didn’t find the humor of this show to be funny nor the character development interesting. The story could had been told better i guess. Maybe if we didn’t had that first season of DCII, i would give this season a higher rating. The one thing i hate most about this show was how the personality of the lead male is equal to that of a robot. It is hard to root for him when you don’t feel any energy from him. and WHERE IS NEMU? how comes we only see junichii? wtf? So basically, sakura died, junichii died and nemu is awol for some reason? And we didn’t even get a clear ending. i wish they have one girl as the winner so i don’t feel like this show was a waste of time. I could had just watched the last episode and still feel like i gotten everything i could get from this show. If they ever make another sequel, try to put more personality into the lead male. It could make or break a harem show. When people were forgetting him in the last couple of episodes, i really didn’t care much even though I am suppose to feel some emotions of sadness for him. Kanokon is still my fav show of this spring season, even though da capo was my fav show going into the season. Kurenai is a close second, would had been first if the ending was a happy one. Am i the only one who realize that the little girl is back to where she escaped from? wtf, she still need to be rescues. anyway, this is weak way to end the da capo series. I really didn’t feel anything from the second season at all. I hope they make a sequel for this show along with kurenai and make it right. I can’t stand good series or show ending on a bad note. also, i wish they make a canvas 3. now, that show you can identify with the lead characters and want to cheer them on. My last ranting is that this show really make you think that good graphics and a good story don’t make a good show, you need to have personality in the characters to make the fans want to cheer on their fav characters. At first, i rooted for yume, but after a while, i was like… maybe she deserved better than that robot-like onisan of her…. so i was actually rooting against her getting with Yoshiyuki at the end.

    xdotx
  2. Yeah……. Reminds me of an H2O ending. Its the same. I just wonder who will be the legal wife and the mistress? I think Otome would be the legal wife and Yume will be the mistress.

    >>>>> Haha, im will wait for DA CAPO III… hehe

    kencute321
  3. “Wait a minute, I thought one of the big themes of DCSS was to prove that magic couldn’t bring happiness.”
    – Omni

    No, it’s that magic can’t grant selfishness — it can’t grant happiness for yourself. That’s the lesson that Aisia learned in D.C.S.S. (she claimed that she was trying to bring happiness to others, but the truth was that she was in love with Junichi herself). That’s why Otome’s own wish to bring Yoshiyuki back for herself wasn’t granted by the sakura tree, but Sakura’s sacrifice of her own life (to the real tree, not the fake one) for the happiness of others was granted. So it’s not that “magic can’t bring happiness”, it’s that bringing happiness to others happens through sacrificial love. That’s the lesson that Sakura’s grandmother was trying to convey through the tree.

    relentlessflame
  4. I thought the 3rd and 2nd to last episodes were actually alright…it’s just that the final episode had no closure what-so-ever… They could’ve at least showed a reunion scene of Yoshiyuki with his friends.

    dmo
  5. “so they restore the tree despite what it would do to people”
    – Oldboy

    No, the fake tree is dead, and the real tree isn’t restored, because of the answer to the next comment…

    “SOMEONE CHOP DOWN THAT TREE FOR GOOD MEASURE BETTER YET BURN IT DOWN”
    – asian182

    You will be pleased to note that the closing scene shows the tree disappearing.

    Not that I assume people care about the details, since they obviously didn’t notice when they did or didn’t actually watch the episode…

    relentlessflame
  6. “No, it’s that magic can’t grant selfishness — it can’t grant happiness for yourself. That’s the lesson that Aisia learned in D.C.S.S. (she claimed that she was trying to bring happiness to others, but the truth was that she was in love with Junichi herself). That’s why Otome’s own wish to bring Yoshiyuki back for herself wasn’t granted by the sakura tree, but Sakura’s sacrifice of her own life (to the real tree, not the fake one) for the happiness of others was granted. So it’s not that “magic can’t bring happiness”, it’s that bringing happiness to others happens through sacrificial love. That’s the lesson that Sakura’s grandmother was trying to convey through the tree.”

    -relentlessflame

    whoa, thats deep man… I could never have think of that, just thought the tree would do one last wish and disappear just for the hell of it.

    With that being said, Anyone wanna give us the ending for the game for otome/yume? This ending was not satisfying at all.

    shaolinx
  7. Da Capo II is quite entertaining, though I don’t like the insensitivity of male protagonist. Koko being the girlfriend of Yoshiyuki is damn nonsense, or I mean it’s useless in whole story of the series. The series make her like one of the main heroine but it’s not. Some concept of the story is quite similar to the concept of the anime AIR TV, SOLA, KANON, CLANNAD, and TO HEART. I think Da Capo I is still the best

    danvic
  8. At first, I was pretty disappointed at the anti-climatic nature of the ending. Not that I had any suggestions since Yoshiyuki couldn’t really choose either and still leave us feeling satisfied. Not after those heartfelt and noisy confessions. After watching the last couple of episodes again, I appreciated the story a bit more. Only regret is the real lack of emotion shown by Yoshiyuki. He’s like a robot. I mean, move forward or do something. He just stands there during the confessions. Overall, I’m a fan of DaCapo and hope for another installment.

    Irie
  9. ah, second season for me is better than the first one.
    “Having Yoshiyuki choose between Yume and Otome might have also spiced things up a bit”
    that would be impossible because its clear that sakurai loves otome far more than yume, so sakurai only sees yume as his younger sister, and thats about it.

    theres a new manga called Da Capo II: Imaginary Future, which means that theres a huge possibility that theres going to be a third season for Da Capo II

    Pasky
  10. Wait a minute, I thought one of the big themes of DCSS (with Aishia and all) was to prove that magic couldn’t bring happiness. And yet, here we clearly see that magic brings back Yoshiyuki, which in turn brings happiness.

    Well, 2 on DCSS, the big theme was that magic cant bring pure happiness, it cant stay that way one point or the other someone will get sad and move on.

    But on DC2 second season, it was different, yes magic did made them happy, but theres no bad effects on the last miracle, if you watch the final episode again, when sakurai got back, there was a scene where the big tree disappeared, that sakurai was the last wish that went true to make everyone happy.

    Doobie
  11. Wait a minute, I thought one of the big themes of DCSS (with Aishia and all) was to prove that magic couldn’t bring happiness. And yet, here we clearly see that magic brings back Yoshiyuki, which in turn brings happiness.

    Well, 2 on DCSS, the big theme was that magic cant bring pure happiness, it cant stay that way one point or the other someone will get sad and move on.

    But on DC2 second season, it was different, yes magic did made them happy, but theres no bad effects on the last miracle, if you watch the final episode again, when sakurai got back, there was a scene where the big tree disappeared, that sakurai was the last wish that went true to make everyone happy.

    Pasky
  12. I have a question. If the magical tree that Da Capo revolves around is gone…wouldn’t that in turn bring the end of the series? Nothing of the original tree is left after all, so there’s no way anyone can bring it back.

    Miso and Soup

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