Da Capo II SS – 06

Summary:

Though they just got back from their ski trip, Otome quickly gets to work researching the things that have been happening around town. What she finds is that though these accidents and explosions have been happening every day, no one has died. When Yoshiyuki sees her feeling down about what’s happening, he reassures her that things will get resolved since she’s a mage of justice. The two then head off to do some investigation in town, and as he’s being pulled along by Otome, Yoshiyuki notices how small her hand feels compared to when they were young. Unfortunately, they have a hard time finding clues, and right as they’re thinking of going home, they run into Mayuki who tells them about a gas leak in her neighborhood. It doesn’t turn out to be anything major, and since the two are still short on leads, Yoshiyuki decides to go ask Suginami. Suginami ends up providing him with back number volumes from the private press club that could have information to help him. In looking through those, Yoshiyuki and Otome find lots of rumors about the magical things in Hatsunejima’s past such as a sakura tree that grants wishes and never withers. This stuff all happened 50 years ago, and the two realize that Junichi might be able to help them.

When Junichi confirms all of the rumors, they think that he’s joking, so he points out how there is magic and mysterious things in the world. He also tells them that the sakura trees actually withered away 50 years ago, and he makes the two realize that sakura trees not withering in the first place is strange. Yoshiyuki and Otome thus decide to go see the sakura tree for themselves, and they encounter a girl making a wish for love there. With them trying to figure out if it really grants wishes, Suginami suggests that Yoshiyuki look for wishes that can’t be achieved through people’s own efforts. Yoshiyuki then runs into Anzu in the library, and after hearing what Yoshiyuki is doing, she tells a story about a girl who lost her ability to memorize because of a sickness. She lost her family due to this, and so the girl wished to the sakura tree for a memory that was better than anyone else’s. This wish was granted, and the girl had a great memory from the next day on. Yoshiyuki quickly realizes that Anzu is talking about herself, but Anzu just treats it as just an interesting story. Afterwards, Yoshiyuki decides to visit the sakura tree that doesn’t wither with Otome again. This time, he personally makes a wish – for Sakura to come home early today – and Otome joins him in doing so.

You know, I’d say this was a boring episode, but at this point I’ve grown pretty used to Da Capo’s story going at this speed. Plus, this was actually advancing the overall story with all the sakura tree stuff, so I really can’t complain. The episode not only focused on the investigation, it also featured a whole slew of references to the original Da Capo’s characters (Kotori, Miharu, Yoriko, etc), and it made me wonder why Junichi isn’t more involved in all this since he is a rather critical figure in all those past mysterious happenings. You’d think that he’d be interested in investigating too given how much trouble that tree has caused in the past.

This episode also finally gave a reason for all that Anzu focus earlier in the series, though it doesn’t look like Yoshiyuki learned the right lesson by the end of the episode. In order to test the sakura tree, he should be wishing for something that can’t come true through a person’s own efforts, and Sakura coming home early isn’t such a thing. Maybe that kind of wish still forthcoming, though next week looks like it might be more about the past.