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23Oct/0711

Da Capo II 04 – Kotori ~ My eternal Shirakawa

Nanaka airtime in DCII 03 and 04 affirmed a realisation I had while playing the DCII prelude last year - Nanaka would never replace Kotori in this tanuki's ranking of bishoujos. Granted, Nanaka is still smoking hot, pinked haired and all but her unrestrained playfulness/flirting and ease of slipping into the role of school idol is something I treasured Kotori for not having.

Now don't get me wrong. Girlish playfulness is a female trait I am very susceptible to and I often thank The Hands that fashioned womankind for infusing this lovely attribute into many girls I know. To be fair, Kotori had a small dosage of playfulness only that it surfaced solely for Junichi, with a timeliness that never caused Nemu distress. Nanaka's teasing of Yoshiyuki in ep 04, however, clearly unsettled Koko, something that close friends don't do and even more so when you know you're the school idol. Nanaka needs to be more sensitive to Koko's budding relationship and grant her more respect as Yoshiyuki's girlfriend when flirting with him - ie, tone it down or do it when she's not around. XD This really boils down to kindly thoughtfulness which Kotori had in great abundance for Nemu even though they are not quite the best of friends unlike Nanaka and Koko.

Next, Nanaka's ease of playing school idol. Kotori was never comfortable being school idol mainly because she understood that,

"With great beauty, comes great responsibility."

Beauty is a power that needs to be wielded with great discretion since it reaches into the tenderest depth of any being - the heart. For that, Kotori never used it indiscriminately (for example to cut bread queue) and remained incredibly humble throughout her idol stint, never misusing the influence she had. Bottom-line? Kotori was who was not only beautiful outwardly but incredibly kind inwardly, gentle and responsible to those she wielded power over. Nanaka, on the other hand, was fully aware of her beauty and used it for achieving ends, giving rise to the feeling of her being manipulative at times.

Now that I've had my Kotori-love rant, I'd just like to add that I'm very surprised that the Koko X Yoshiyuki relationship is still growing strong. In 2 eps, the anime would reach mid-series and if the animators intend for another haremette finish, they need to start injecting break-up elements soon. I can only hope Nanaka's open flirting with Yoshiyuki is one of them. Character-wise, Anzu had instantly skipped to my top 3 with her lolicious embrace of Yoshiyuki during the 4-legged race. She reminds me of a naughty Primula sans the 'onii-chan'.

Light-hair lolis FTW!

Related posts:

  1. Da Capo II 07 – The doomed love of the Shirakawas
  2. Da Capo II 03 – Yoshiyuki, the man I'll never be
  3. DCII Game Prelude – The many faces of Shirakawa Nanaka

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  1. flaskis
    October 23rd, 2007 - 05:38

    I have to agree that she isn’t like Kotori. But still, is it so wrong to be so playful? I thought she was rather sweet teasing Koko and Yoshiyuki like that, though I agree that I’m not comfortable with Nanaka’s ease of being a school idol. I didn’t like how she used her position to get some of the lunch bread for Yoshiyuki.

    “Character-wise, Anzu had instantly skipped to my top 3 with her lolicious embrace of Yoshiyuki during the 4-legged race. She reminds me of a naughty Primula sans the

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  2. Stripey
    October 23rd, 2007 - 09:03

    Heh, I think the teasing really depends on her motives which is up for speculation. She could be just teasing the 2 of them or plain flirting with Yoshiyuki at Koko’s expense. :P

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  3. reekon
    October 23rd, 2007 - 12:16

    Yep. That “cutting-the-bread-line” event also disturbed me a bit.

    Although the way she rejected confessions, seems to still imply some inherent shyness.

    One thing I mentioned in another blog was that, I noticed that in Yoshi and Koko’s pictures, there was no Nanaka.

    And based in the DCSS credits, the one girl that wasn’t in the pics (Nemu) was the one that Junichi ended up with.

    So if this rule holds, maybe Nanaka has a chance? =D

    (Although sadly, I don’t really think this “rule” holds as much truth as school idols always get the short end of the stick.) Well… :-\

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  4. maglor
    October 23rd, 2007 - 14:36

    Here are the revised odds in reverse order

    1% the field : There still is more than 66% of stories left to be told
    1% Minatsu: Too little lines. Viewers generally don’t like her
    1% Nice Boat: Koko is being set up too hard a fall. If she does fall, she might suffer serious mental trauma and need I remind you what happened with last anime series where there was successful confession at the first episode?
    1% Harem: Can happen!
    1% Anzu: Too many lines to ignore
    13% Nanaka: She is deliberately flirting with her best friend’s boyfriend
    18% Yume: People don’t like her easily agitated personality, but she seems to be only one who has problem with Yoshiyuki being with Koko. Many believe Yume to be the one who will complain and fight her way to wrench Yoshiyuki from Koko.
    18% Koko: I believe lot of people lost money as they thought she would have been dumped now. She is now tied with Yume for the 2nd place. Too bad that her worst threats are all she expects least trouble from, the sisters of Yoshiyuki, and her best friend. This is a island so there should be much seaward traffic.
    46% Otome: You can pull something off with 60% of the stories left untold. D.C. II’s core story, the one which reveals all the secrets and leading to the most extensively written, thus discussed conclusion is Otome ending. It should trouble her that her chance has fallen below 50%.

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  5. holyman282
    October 23rd, 2007 - 16:41

    I kind of feel those odds are a bit biased towards Otome.. Considering what we have seen. Otome is the girl probably least disturbed by Yoshiyuki’s going out with Koko..

    As for the Nanaka thing, I’m glad she’s not like Kotori, if they indeed made her an exact clone of Kotori in appearance as well as personality, I would feel idignant that they try the same tactics to win me over the second time. Also no one can replace Kotori!!

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  6. Stripey
    October 23rd, 2007 - 21:39

    reekon: Heh, I doubt the ‘rule’ will hold for Nanaka. :P Actually for DCSS, I didn’t expect Kotori to win either. Had hope she put up a good fight and lost hearbreakingly yet honourably. I have the same wish here for Nanaka though time don’t seem to be on our side for such a setup if a Yume/Otome route is still intended XD

    maglor: haha yeah I noticed a steady drop in Otome’s odds in your projections. :) I’m not worried about plot being unexplored if we didn’t go Otome’s route. They could easily incorporate those parts into Yume/Otome bits in the later part of the series as they divulge the workings of the Sakura tree. Still, it’d probably made good sense to just use Otome’s end. :P After ep 4, I’m starting to futilely root for Anzu XD

    holyman828: Affirative! No one can replace Kotori indeed :P

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  7. sixten
    October 24th, 2007 - 07:26

    I can’t understand Japanese (although I know ~400 kanji) so I’m an episode behind. But I saw the band scenes in #3 and now I support Koko. Yoshiyuki on guitar and Koko on bass is like a non-virtuoso version of Eric Johnson (recognize the name?) and Kyle Brock, or Joe Satriani and Stuart Hamm. Their talents go together and provide a great opportunity for them to spend more time together. Also note that Eric Johnson and Joe Satriani are at their best when their songs have no words. That’s right, there’s no need for Nanaka. Go away, pink haired girl!

    Even apart from that, you’re right about the signs of Yoshiyuki genuinely caring about Koko. He was willing to tell her the truth about Minatsu, something which he wasn’t even willing to tell his sisters. (Koko not needing to know the truth shows that she cares about him too.) He asked permission to call Nanaka by her first name. He told Koko that he wanted to know more about her at the end. And every scene when they were over at Yoshiyuki’s house was extremely cute.

    Whoever steals Yoshiyuki away from Koko will earn my instant dislike. Especially if it’s Nanaka. He loves Koko, she loves him, why can’t it stay that way?

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  8. Stripey
    October 24th, 2007 - 07:59

    Your words put me to shame for a moment XD In fact if you have seen ep 4, you’ll see their relationship gets sweeter and Nanaka’s blatant flirting with Yoshi is probably not going to score with you :P Indeed why can’t we root for Koko X Yoshi when they have something nice going already?

    I have no excuse except that I’m compelled by siscon and all things dramatic. XD Da Capo wouldn’t be Da Capo if there weren’t some hearts broken or catty confrontations. Man, I feel so evil :P

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  9. FlameStrike
    November 7th, 2007 - 15:40

    Hm, I kind of like Nanaka over Kotori. But that’s most likely because of my burning hate for Nemu and my content for Koko.

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  10. Silver
    November 15th, 2007 - 16:47

    It’s hard to say. Some people just flirt for fun and does not always mean something. If someone’s personality is like that, it’s not like “Oh, he’s like this, or blah blah so I am going to change my personality”. So it can be complicated. Beside, Koko trusts her so although she was a bit worried at first, it changes later. Also as you can see, Nanka knows that he does not think of her as anything so she controlled her feelings and did not confess. Even at the end, she still runs up to them just like her usual playful personality.

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  11. Stripey
    November 17th, 2007 - 22:19

    Silver: Indeed, it’s complicated. :) You’ve made me really keen to catch the fabled ep 7 to see how Nanaka deals with her dilemma.

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