For awhile now, I’ve been wanting to write an “In Defense of Da Capo” post, but I just can’t do it. Deep down, I have a lot of appreciation for the show, but, you know, that ending… it’s not so much a steaming pile of crap as it is a complete and utter disappointment.
I should make it clear: Nemu’s not the problem. She might not be my favorite character in the world, but there’s nothing particularly objectionable about her personality-wise. And if Jun’ichi wants to spend the rest of his days (legally) screwing his not-related-by-blood sister, I’m cool with it. May they screw happily ever after.
Aisia’s not the problem, either. In fact, she’s the only thing that made the second season genuinely interesting for me. Unfortunately, as far as the story is concerned, she’s nothing more than Sakura 2.0 - and that’s where the wheels come off. When jealous Sakura tried to ice Nemu in the first season of Da Capo, it was an explosion of win and melodrama. When Aisia pulled the same stunt in the second season, it was an explosion of “wait, haven’t we done this before?” It doesn’t help that she’s half-assed about it. Trying to make everyone happy? Pfft. At least admit you’re hot for some brotherly love too.
Of course, love conquers all, and after a couple episodes of Jun’ichi and Nemu forgetting something awfully important (see: Da Capo, First Season, Episode 18, “Jun’ichi bonks Nemu”), Aisia bids Hatsunejima adieu, and everyone returns to their poor, pitiful senses. Sakura hits the road, Jun’ichi settles for a lifetime of Nemu’s miso soup, Aisia teleports back to Norway (or wherever the hell she came from), and the rest of the cast runs off and joins a convent. The End.
Seriously. That’s it.
Obviously, it’s just the first season ending without the GOOD STUFF. And it’s not like the first season had GOOD STUFF to spare. I suppose the second season should be commended for putting the kibosh on any Kotori x Jun’ichi nonsense (hey, I adore Kotori, too, but it wasn’t meant to be), but, aside from introducing a bunch of characters no one cares about, what did the second season achieve that the first season couldn’t have handled with a couple of extra episodes?
I’ll always feel positive about Da Capo, but that ending is going to sour my memories for years to come. How such an otherwise enjoyable show could amount to so little in the very end absolutely baffles me.
Defend it against what? People going “lol more like da crapo: still shitty?”
Da Capo had one of the best, dramatic endings I’ve seen in anime, so for me DCSS had a really high bar to clear from the outset. When I heard a second season was coming, I was happy since I loved season one, but in the back of mind it was hard not to ask: “why?” So many series have craptacular open-ended “endings”, but the original Da Capo was anything but–in the end it’s Junichi x Nemu, and while I’m a Kotori fan I respect that they actually made a choice and gave the series a solid conclusion. So why do a second season?
DCSS’s ending wasn’t horrible, but you’re right, it really felt like re-watching the original Da Capo’s ending, only minus all the emotional impact. Not crying like a little girl at some point during the last few episodes of Da Capo is nearly impossible, but DCSS didn’t even get a sniffle from me. Not that tearjerker = quality, but Da Capo did drama really well, while in DCSS it just felt like the writers ran out of ideas so they said “let’s put Aishia through the exact same thing Sakura went through in season 1″.
But I think in the end it’s the premise of DCSS that bothered me more than the ending. Re-watching the end of season 1 recently, it’s just impossible for me to imagine that Nemu (who never so much as glanced longingly at a nurse’s uniform or even MENTIONED nursing once in 26 episodes) would just skip out to nursing school for two years and ditch her beloved onii-chan. Their love survives the fearsome magic power of the sakura tree, only to be torn apart by…nursing school? I kept thinking they’d do a flashback episode or two to show what happened and make it more credible, but nope–it’s just something you’re supposed to accept without seeing how it came to be. Plus Junichi had a big harem in the first series, but when it levels up in DCSS I’m thinking he may be a better magician than he lets on, getting every girl in town to want to jump him…
Anyway, not to ramble on forever–I liked DCSS overall just because I like the cast and I liked DCSS’s character designs better…but to me at least they didn’t come close to beating the original.
I liked the pacing of the second season better, since it took the first season’s choppy episodic setup of the first half and at least tried to put them to the overall story, even if most of the characters were pointless to the story. It is too bad that this season ultimately cycled back to the first season, and a far worse ending as well, because I enjoyed this series better than the first up until things started getting recycled.
Am I the only one that *hated* Jun’ichi’s character in this series? What a lazy turd. Was there anything he accomplished at all? He was either sitting around doing nothing or making fun of Nemu’s cooking. It’s been as long as the first series has been over since I’ve watched it, but I don’t ever remember Jun’ichi ever being such an awful character…
As much as I’m in love with Kotori, I wouldn’t settle for anything less than a Nemu x Junichi ending unless they want to undo all that is good in DC1. I agree with you that Nemu’s not the prob and Kotori x Junichi’s not meant to be either. But I personally thought Aisia combined with her poor excuse of being there destroyed DCSS. The intense emotional drama in season 1 was handled with such maturity that the issues DCSS grappled with seemed so juvenile and trivial. In DCSS we chart the growth of the emotionally immature (almost handicap actually) Aisia as she comes to terms with the true meaning of ‘happiness for everyone’. It seemed terribly lame to me that everyone was so caught up with her petty quest. Compare this to Sakura expressing her overwhelming inner feelings for Junichi and later fighting it to save Nemu and there’s no contest in the level of angst/drama between the 2 seasons.
I still strongly recommend Da Capo to friends. But I don’t talk about DCSS.
I still think that the first season should have ended with Nemu dying by way of Cherry Blossoms, and then Sakura hanging herself from the Cherry Tree in remorse.
But then again, I’m a horrible person who loathed both of them.
But hey, it would have been unexpected.
I don’t understand Jun’ichi, either. He doesn’t seem to have any particular talent or ambition, yet all these girls want to have his baby. He’s a NICE GUY, I guess… except around Nemu, oddly enough. I don’t know if that’s how he shows his love or what.
I know the whole “15 girls in love with one guy” thing is standard operating procedure when it comes to bishoujo games, but, most of the time, the protagonist has at least ONE special quality that makes him attractive to members of the opposite sex. I don’t see how NICE GUY = “up to eyeballs in you-know-what,” though.
Kotori’s better off without the lazy bum, that’s for sure.
As for Aisia, I like her for her general disposition more than anything else. The whole naive, “DO MY BEST DESHOU” thing was kind of cute… at least until she broke the world.