Da Capo II SS – 04

Summary:

The morning of the Christmas Party, Yoshiyuki notices Yume pacing around outside his house and wonders what she’s doing. When he goes out, she pretends that they ran into each other by coincidence and suggests that they head to school together. Along the way, she asks if he has plans for today, so he explains that he’s got to do the puppet show and is thinking about going around to see the other stuff if he has time. When Yoshiyuki eventually proposes that Yume accompany him around school, she pretends that this will affect the plans she already has, but this only succeeds in making Yoshiyuki think that she already made a promise with someone else. That in turn makes him withdraw the offer, but Yume quickly points out that she hasn’t yet rejected him. Nevertheless, she agrees to accompany him only after she gets him to say that it has to be her, and even then, she insists that she’s only doing it because she’s his sister and he’s lonely.

Later that day, after some more pre-performance preparations with his class, Yoshiyuki gets some free time, so he finds Yume, and the two have a lot of fun at the various booths and events around school. He makes it back to his class barely in time for the performance, but he discovers that a situation has come up: Koko fainted and had to be taken home. Without her in the key role of Sharul, the class is almost ready to give up on the show until Yoshiyuki suddenly remembers that Otome can take her place. Otome is reluctant to do so and is very nervous, but Yoshiyuki calms her down by pointing out that it’ll be the same as how they practiced, and he reminds her that they’re one in body and soul. The performance is thus able to proceed, and the story involves a blind boy named Eto who lived with a family that had a daughter named Sharul. Eto and Sharul got along very well together and grew up as siblings, and one day, Sharul asked Eto what he wanted for Christmas. She was disappointed that he wanted to keep it a secret because the truth was that she was part of Santa Claus’ family – something that even Eto didn’t know – and she wanted to get him something because she loved him.

During this time, Sharul got proposed to by a noble and turned him down under the pretense that she had to take care of Eto because she still hadn’t properly told Eto that she loved him. Unfortunately, Eto overheard her talking to the noble and had mistakenly blamed himself for the rejection. He had thus prayed to Santa for Sharul’s happiness and for himself not to be a burden on her. Christmas Day soon came, and Sharul took on her Santa Claus duties by using magic to give children presents while they were sleeping. When she had gotten to Eto though, he had woken up. His blindness prevented him from realizing that she was Santa Claus, and so he revealed that he wanted to disappear because he was a burden on Sharul. Eto just wanted happiness for her, but Sharul refused to do that for him as a present, and she had admitted the truth about why she rejected the proposal. She had then hugged him, and in doing so, a miracle happened that gave Eto the ability to see. He had realized that Santa Claus was Sharul, and the two had become happy together.

The puppet show ends up being a great hit, and when they’re back home, Yoshiyuki attributes the success to Otome. She eventually changes the subject to if he believes in Santa Claus, and it turns out that only Otome still does. Sakura has also returned home, and she feels a bit depressed as she watches Yoshiyuki and Yume tease Otome, but she then notices that it’s snowing outside. The snow makes her smile and wish that this kind of happiness could continue forever.

Well, the Otome replacing Koko stuff was pretty predictable after what happened last week. I thought the puppet show’s story was kind of sappy, but what’s most interesting is how it seemingly serves as heavy, heavy foreshadowing (almost to the point of being too obvious). It’s pretty clear that Eto is representative of Yoshiyuki and Sharul is representative of Otome, so the question is how much of the story parallels what’s actually going to happen. The disappearing part will most likely be a big factor, though I don’t know if it’s something that Yoshiyuki will personally wish for like Eto does or if will just happens to him. There’s also the question of how Yume figures into all this since the conclusion of the puppet show suggests that Yoshiyuki would end up with Otome. One of the other telling factors is how depressed Sakura looks at the end – what she says to close out the episode hints that she thinks that the happiness will end. Perhaps that means Yoshiyuki will disappear soon? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.