With the “the season of Da Capo if not over yet” thing, I’d guess we’d get White Season, which would be also seasonally appropriate (PC we would have get before IF, I’d say, and in any case WS is earlier than PC, and After Seasons doesn’t make much sense without PC).
I finally played it, and for some reason felt the urge to write a long and pointless review! So, uh, here it is.
[color=#FF0000]WARNING: This review spoils DC, DC IF and DC2 (duh). Not suitable for fans of Nemu, Yume and Otome (because I’m ripping on them pretty hard).[/color]
[color=#0000FF]DISCLAIMER: I haven’t seen a single episode of DC anime, and I’ve only played the three titles mentioned above, so I’m judging characters and routes based on this alone.[/color]
[spoiler=]All main and supporting characters are listed in descending order from best to worst. This is purely a personal opinion, and I’m not looking to get into a silly debate about which heroine is better.
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Nanaka
I’ll be frank, the fact that Kotori was my favorite (or rather, the best of a poor bunch) in the original DC played a big role in picking Nanaka as my favorite in DC2. Unsurprisingly, Nanaka is not much different from Kotori. She’s also a school idol, also has the ability to read minds, and is also chased by guys who want her to take part in the beauty pageant. In fact, the beauty pageant scene is a carbon copy of the scene from the original game.
But it has to be said that Nanaka’s character is a slight improvement over Kotori. She’s more lively and outgoing, and more importantly, the fact that she could only read a person’s mind by touching them was a nice twist to the old story, because in the original DC the whole mind-reading thing seemed a bit out of place. Kinda like “Oh, and by the way, I could read people’s thoughts, but now I can’t and I’m sad”. Big whoop. At least in DC2 Nanaka’s power is subtly woven into the story and actually explains her touchy-feely behavior. And lastly, Nanaka appealed to me because she was, well, the most normal and mentally stable of the lot. Too bad that the route itself was way too bland even by DC standards, and drew too much from Kotori’s route in the first game. -
Anzu
Anzu and Akane comedy routine is a definite highlight of DC2. Pairing the expressionless Anzu, who tells ecchi jokes with a straight face, with Akane, who serves as a perfect sidekick and really gets into it, was a stroke of genius. On her own, Anzu was still engaging and funny enough to keep me entertained, but it was not quite on the same level. Unlike Nanaka’s power, Anzu’s memorizing ability becomes apparent quite early, and it was too easy to figure out how the story will unfold from then on. While the story of a girl losing her memory is nothing new, it was nonetheless a nice tearjerker. -
Minatsu
A loli tsundere robot - three fetishes in one! Minatsu is a decent quirky character, and the character art was probably my favorite of all. However, being a cynical asshole that I am, I didn’t enjoy her route as much as I could, cause I kept thinking that Japan will more likely give their own Japanese robots equal rights than stop the discrimination against, for example, ethnic Koreans. It is plausible that Minatsu’s story was in fact alluding to the problem of Japanese nationalism, but it wouldn’t at all surprise me if the thought of such allegory never crossed the writers’ minds. Yeah, I know, way too much thinking on my part, but still. -
Koko
I had two problems with Koko - she’s a one-trick pony and her character art is pretty poor. When I was talking about Anzu and Akane, I intentionally omitted the third member of the comedy act, Koko, because while ecchi jokes were a bit repetitive, they still kept me amused. Koko’s unchanging reaction to those jokes, however, did not. Her shyness is the only thing that is going for her. If you’re moeing over shy girls like there’s no tomorrow, you’ll have a blast. Otherwise, not so much. Her magic power, by the way, is “I’ll have to leave the island soon”. Boo hoo. I have to admit that the finale of Koko’s route was nice and heartwarming, but I will NEVAR forgive the writers for making me (uh, I mean the protagonist) dump Nanaka twice just to get Koko’s ending. But then again, Nanaka with short hair is fine too.
And now it comes down to Asakura sisters. I truly hate them, I really do. But do not judge me just yet, read my rant first:
I didn’t really mind Nemu in the original DC. Then again, she still was one of my least favorite characters, cause I’ve never been a fan of sister and childhood friend types. What really pushed me over the edge was DC IF. I bought a game about Kotori because I liked Kotori and wanted more. What I got, however, was a story of coping with the loss of precious little Nemu. DC IF to me was much more about Nemu than about Kotori, and the prologue alone was enough to make me want to strangle the brat personally and never EVER even recall her name again. When in the second part of DC IF Jun’ichi was agonizing over his love for Kotori and his promise to Nemu, I switched to wanting to strangle him. It was an appallingly deceptive title, I can’t imagine why the writers assumed that pushing Nemu onto someone who bought the game dedicated to Kotori was a good idea. In the end, I haven’t been able to enjoy the “Kotori parts” that much. My experience was ruined.
And so I’ve come to hate Nemu and all her blasted family. And since Yume and Otome are basically Nemu’s personality split in two (Yume got the scary part of Nemu, Otome got the caring part), I couldn’t bring myself to like them and their routes.
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Yume
Out of the two, Yume was less horrible because of her temper and due to the fact that her hairdo was a little bit less ridiculous. The tearjerker finale was touching and almost redeemed the character for me, but… not really. -
Otome
The dreaded doting big sister, or Nemu without a shred of personality (Yume took it all). I barely dragged myself through the story. Enough said.[/spoiler]
If you think that I’m done, you’ve got another thing coming. I haven’t talked about the supporting characters yet! Part Two of the review coming soon. I’ve got to figure out how to keep my impressions of new and improved Suginami under 10000 words :lol:
EDIT: Somehow the spoiler tags don’t work like I wanted them to, I thought the “spoiler=” tag would make the spoilerific part open without highlighting. Oh well.