Da Capo II: Koko Tsukishima

As your typical “childhood friend” character, Koko Tsukishima is a soft-spoken and shy girl. She oftentimes can’t say what she wants, and as a side-effect, she can’t express her love for main guy Yoshiyuki. But this love is SO obvious to everyone else except the two involved. Ah, love is blind.

Devoid of any magical effect of the unwithering sakura, Koko’s story is a simple story of love and friendship. Surprisingly, her scenario has no major flashback or backstory of any sort, which is the usual setup for “childhood friend” characters. And so we just assume that Yoshiyuki and Koko are longtime friends, period.

Koko’s scenario intertwines with Nanaka’s, in such a way that there are very similar events in both. There is also a major decision point, where Nanaka would confess to Yoshiyuki. You (the player) decide either to accept or reject Nanaka. Accepting Nanaka will give you the continuation of [Nanaka’s scenario->da-capo-2-nanaka-shirakawa], while rejecting her will give you Koko’s scenario. This single decision point will give you a very different story should you choose either one. So please do take some time to go through Koko’s story.

Disclaimer: Lacking Japanese will mean lack of story details. I expect that there will be a LOT of errors in the way I understood some events, because I rely only on the spoken dialogue. To the Japanese-literate game players who may have found this page, please do help me in case I have mistaken in understanding some parts of the story. Please do post a comment or contact me.

Da Capo II
Timeline:
Merry Christmas (December 16 – December 24) – events at the Christmas Party
The Winter Holidays (December 29 – January 2) – events during the New Year
Powdery Snow and Cherry Petal Fall (January 11 – onwards) – events during a new school term

Relevant Characters:
Yoshiyuki – Main guy.
Otome – Elder sister. Seems to harbor Nemu’s responsible side. She’s part of the student council.
Yume – Younger sister. Seems to harbor both Dark Nemu and Junichi’s boredom.
Suginami – Is he the same guy? Also part of the student council.
Wataru – Yoshiyuki’s friend. Yoshiyuki, Suginami and Wataru form an infamous weird trio at school.
Koko – Yoshiyuki’s childhood friend. Has a secret crush on him.
Nanaka – Koko’s best friend.
Akane – Koko’s friend. Has a very mild voice, and a big… heart.
Anzu – Koko’s friend. Loli know-it-all type. Koko, Akane and Anzu form a trio.
Yuzu – Nanaka’s friend. Hospitalized child.

— MERRY CHRISTMAS —

Osananajimi

Koko Tsukishima is Yoshiyuki’s childhood friend. As such, she is constantly being teased into Yoshiyuki by her friends Anzu and Akane. While her feelings for Yoshiyuki is indeed ‘love’, she can’t confess to him, being afraid of losing their friendship. And as usual, our main guy Yoshiyuki is completely oblivious and clueless about it despite Anzu and Akane’s efforts to pair them up. Dumb Yoshiyuki.

For the upcoming Christmas Party, their class will hold a puppet show. And who would have guessed, the main characters will be Yoshiyuki and Koko! The story itself seems to have a bit of a love story in it, so this sends Koko embarrassed all the way. There are times when they practice through their dialogue together alone.

Nanaka

Nanaka is Koko’s best friend. Nanaka got to know Yoshiyuki because Koko says lots of things about him. By the way, Koko, aside from having the main female role, also handles BGM work for the play. Nanaka helps Koko in making those, because she is also musically inclined. During the stint, she even teases Koko and Yoshiyuki as a pair. As usual, this embarrassed Koko.

Wataru

Wataru (one of Yoshiyuki’s best friends) also acts in the puppet show as an eccentric character in love with Koko’s character… but got turned down. What a nice parallel. You see, Wataru is actually falling in love with Koko. One day he actually tells this to Yoshiyuki himself. Yoshiyuki doesn’t seem to mind at all though.

The Band

Koko, Nanaka, and Wataru actually play together as a band. Koko does bass, Nanaka sings, and Wataru is on drums. They practice and play together in the music room during free times. They don’t actually do gigs or anything, they just like to play music. One day, Yoshiyuki goes to the music room and watches their performance. Nanaka (probably reading his mind) suddenly said that she has found a guitarist! Yoshiyuki actually plays guitar, or rather… he is quite awesome at it! The four of them performed a song, and had enjoyed the experience. And so with Yoshiyuki in their roster, the band was officially formed! Of course, they’re still just doing this out of their love for music.

Feelings

Interesting situations here. Yoshiyuki once saw Koko and Wataru together in the Sakura Park. This reinforced his pairing of Koko X Wataru, although Koko continuously denies it. Wataru denies it too, although he likes the idea (because he does like Koko). I already mentioned about Nanaka trying to pair Yoshiyuki X Koko right? Now hear this, Koko tries to pair Yoshiyuki X Nanaka! Do we see some pattern here?

Aside from Wataru (who is totally for Koko), the rest of our band denies their own feelings, and tries to hide it by teasing the person he/she likes into another person:
Yoshiyuki – Koko X Wataru
Koko – Yoshiyuki X Nanaka
Nanaka – Yoshiyuki X Koko
This won’t last long though, as their true feelings get revealed.

Koko’s Determination

We don’t see it too much, but Koko is determined to make the puppet show a success by doing her best in the main role. She also tries to motivate fellow main character Yoshiyuki into it, although the guy is obviously laid back and bored (but he would do the job well anyway). Koko actually has her own night sessions practicing her lines, and as a result she always sleeps late.

One day, it was snowing. Nanaka, Koko and Yoshiyuki were out to go for practice. Nanaka suggests that since it is still early, they should take a walk and enjoy the snow somewhere. I think Nanaka is trying to find a certain food shop or something, but then it took them a LONG time, and they never found it. Nanaka apologizes for that uninteresting morning.

We find out later that Koko is actually getting sick. Yoshiyuki takes her to the clinic, where she was advised to go home. The class was in a ruckus, since they would not be able to practice effectively without Koko, and it’s only a few days left before the performance. Later, Nanaka talked to Yoshiyuki, and knowing about Koko’s condition, blames herself for what happened (because they walked into the cold snow earlier). Yoshiyuki and Nanaka agreed to visit Koko in their home. Koko was delighted, and told Nanaka that it wasn’t her fault (it was also because she sleeps late).

Christmas Party

The puppet show presentation will be at the second day of the party, so during the first day, the class prepared for the final practices. Koko was there, although still a bit sick. She often coughs reading her lines. She is slowly losing confidence, but Yoshiyuki tries to calm her down. At one point, Sakura even offered Koko and Yoshiyuki to eat nabe (hot pot) with her, it would make Koko feel better I think. Their practice was more or less a success, and they should be well-prepared for the real thing.

So came the day of the puppet show presentation. It was a rousing success! After the play, the whole class went to a nearby restaurant to hold a celebration. It was happy and all, until Koko, still sick, fainted. She’ll be alright somehow, but then Yoshiyuki offered to take her home by carrying her in his back. A bit of a sweet moment in there.

— THE WINTER HOLIDAYS —

Practice Sessions

One day, Koko made a startling announcement: She enlisted their band to perform for a radio program! At first, they have their respective doubts (because they were only doing this for fun initially), but then eventually they agreed to do it! Since then, they have been practicing almost every day, even though the performance is still more than a month away.

Relationships

We see a glimpse of the complex relationship trouble of the band. Yoshiyuki once again sees Wataru and Koko together in the park, and again the two deny any romantic relationship. At another time, Yoshiyuki happens to overhear Wataru and Nanaka talking. Nanaka seems to know about Wataru liking Koko. Their conversation also hints that Nanaka likes Yoshiyuki! Moreover, Nanaka seems bent on confessing to him soon.

Confused yet? Let’s recap… since this is Koko’s scenario, Yoshiyuki loves Koko, and the feeling is mutual. But then Nanaka loves Yoshiyuki… and Wataru loves Koko. This is a love quadrangle! Now, when do you expect the domino effect to happen?

New Year Eve’s Courage Test

While at their usual practice, the band wonders what good stuff they would do for New Year’s Eve, since they are going to the temple for “hatsumoude” (first temple visit for the year). Suginami suddenly appeared before the band, and proposes some great idea he has for the New Year’s Eve. How about doing a “kimodameshi” (test of courage) after going to the temple?

And so indeed they did. After going to the temple festivities, Wataru planned out a kimodameshi event at school, focusing on the “Seven Mysteries of Kazami Gakuen”. These mysteries are actually urban legend-type scary stories of various places in the school. The contest involves finding some coins scattered throughout those places. Yoshiyuki, Nanaka, Koko, Otome, and Yume join in the event. Wataru tells those scary stories first before they go inside the school at night, and so they are kinda worked up and scared in finding those coins.

Yoshiyuki is paired up with Koko and Otome, and both girls are horrible scaredy cats. They scream all the time! When Otome is away to go to the CR, Koko tells Yoshiyuki about what she wished for back at the temple visit. She wished for a “stronger heart”. She often can’t say what she wants, and is unable to express her feelings. Koko tries to confess to Yoshiyuki at that moment, but got cut off by a screaming Otome.

New Year

Nanaka, wearing a traditional dress, appears in Yoshiyuki’s house to greet him a happy new year. Surprisingly, Koko arrives as well. Some unspoken tension looms between the two. In any case, Yoshiyuki, Nanaka and Koko enjoy the new year together, going again to the temple festivities. That night, both of them decided to sleep over at the house! Not very unusual, since the Asakura residence is huge, plus Otome and Yume are around. But then it is unusual that Koko and Nanaka sleep over ‘together’ at the Asakura residence. It is by now rather obvious that they both like Yoshiyuki, although they couldn’t ask each other about it directly. And as usual, our main guy is TOTALLY CLUELESS about all this! That night, Koko enters Yoshiyuki’s room to have a chat, but when she tried to confess again, she can’t gather her courage again, and just left the room.

Nanaka’s Confession

Seems like Nanaka has done a lot of thinking, and finally decided to do it despite knowing the circumstances. Nanaka told Yoshiyuki to meet up at the sakura park. Yoshiyuki went there, and saw Nanaka by the big sakura tree. Nanaka wasted no time, and confessed her feelings to Yoshiyuki. Yoshiyuki rejected Nanaka. Nanaka cried and left.

— POWDERY SNOW AND CHERRY PETAL FALL —

The New Nanaka

There’s this thing about rejected girls. Girls cut their hair when they get dumped by someone they love. Guess what… Nanaka did it! As she said herself, “Image Change!” Surprising everyone at school, the legendary school idol has cut her hair! Nobody knows why, but Yoshiyuki obviously does. Nanaka meets him in secret at the roof. She reiterates that she is still in love with him. So it doesn’t exactly mean that she has gotten over Yoshiyuki, and so she says that she’ll never give up.

One day, Nanaka asks why she got dumped. Yoshiyuki admits that he has someone he loves, but can’t confess because it’s complex situation. Although she doesn’t know who that girl may be, Nanaka offers him help. Nanaka says that Yoshiyuki should go to her whenever he has love problems. That’s the least she could do for the person she loves.

Together

Yoshiyuki and Koko will be together a lot, because they both volunteered to be managing officials for their upcoming Graduation Party. They regularly talk about it at select days after class. Aside from that, there’s still the band practices for the radio performance. They also go out and have some sort of dates together. Many times, Koko tried to confess but wasn’t able to.

But hear this, for the very first time, Yoshiyuki tried to confess to Koko! This is slowly turning into a classic love story setup where the feeling is mutual and yet the two just can’t find the courage to confess. Yoshiyuki diverts his confession and asks if Koko has someone she loves. They both got embarrassed about the topic.

For the next few days, both Koko and Yoshiyuki would be kinda lovesick. Their friends notice that they stare into blank space, and is not attentive enough on whatever they do.

Rivals

Wataru talks to Yoshiyuki. Yoshiyuki confided, he is in love with Koko. Wait, Wataru loves Koko too right? Wataru (such a nice friend he is) just smiles and says that they are now rivals for Koko. Wataru hasn’t confessed to Koko yet actually. And so they are now on equal terms. Wataru also wondered because he thought Yoshiyuki and Nanaka are dating, but then Yoshiyuki admitted the thing about Nanaka. Wataru finds out about Nanaka’s rejection and image change, and was quite astounded.

Wondering why the angst didn’t come the same way as in Nanaka’s scenario? So far in Koko’s scenario, Wataru still doesn’t know who Koko loves, and Yoshiyuki X Nanaka didn’t happen. There is no domino effect in this one, at least, not yet.

Nanaka’s Accident

Nanaka is really concerned about Yoshiyuki’s lovesickness. Yoshiyuki agreed to talk to her about it. Because of this, they agreed to meet somewhere inconspicuous at lunch time. But then the unthinkable happened. Nanaka got into a car accident. Yoshiyuki and Koko rushed over to the hospital. Nanaka was actually fine, although she hurt her hand, and should be confined for a few weeks. This means that their band practices are off. They decided to quit in the performance. Nanaka apologizes to them, but then it was no one’s fault (except the car driver). Yoshiyuki felt he was to blame for what happened to her (because they were supposed to meet, and because of it she got into this), and so he decided to come visit her almost everyday. Nanaka seems happy, but then Koko starts to become jealous.

Flickering Feelings

Koko is starting to be troubled by Yoshiyuki going to the hospital to meet Nanaka almost everyday. On the other hand, Yoshiyuki is starting to be troubled by Koko being with Wataru almost everyday. One time at school, Yoshiyuki overhears the two, apparently talking about love. Koko is almost at tears, while Wataru says that they should ‘do their best’.

Yoshiyuki confirmed his worst fear. One day, Yoshiyuki found Wataru and Koko again together as if on a date. This time, he follows them around secretly. At the end of the day, at the sakura park, he sees them… embracing. I guess it’s final. The rivalry is off, and Wataru has won Koko.

Broken-hearted, he now turns to the hospital, where Nanaka is waiting. Nanaka once again confirms that she still loves Yoshiyuki, and that will never change. Yoshiyuki accepts her… rather half-heartedly I think (out of desperation perhaps?).

Domino Effect

With Yoshiyuki knowing of Wataru and Koko’s relationship, he is keeping his distance from Koko lately. He calls off their talks about the Graduation Party, and just visits Nanaka at the hospital. One fateful day, news came in from Akane that the legendary sakura tree has just withered! With it, Yoshiyuki seems to have fainted. He was a bit fine after that, though he feels something must have changed in him.

Koko seems concerned about Yoshiyuki that day, and offered to call off their meeting about the party herself. Despite that, Yoshiyuki said that he will still visit Nanaka in the hospital. Koko, quite jealous, asked about why Yoshiyuki seems to worry about Nanaka so much. Surprisingly, Yoshiyuki said to Koko that him and Nanaka are now dating. Shock of the moment. Koko nodded, said her faint congratulation to the couple, and fled off… crying.

Separation

The next day, Wataru immediately confronted Yoshiyuki. They went to the roof. Wataru asked if the thing about Yoshiyuki and Nanaka were true. Yoshiyuki nodded. This sent Wataru very angry, and started fighting and punching him down! Wataru wants to know if his feelings about Koko were a lie. Yoshiyuki said it wasn’t, and told that he accepted Nanaka only because he now knows that Koko and Wataru were a couple now. This sent Wataru in shock, because Yoshiyuki has completely misunderstood why he was with Koko often.

Wataru and Koko weren’t really a couple. Wataru was actually turned down by Koko, and what’s more, he found out that Koko loves Yoshiyuki. Despite all this, he offered himself to help Koko about her love problems with Yoshiyuki (the same way Nanaka offered to help Yoshiyuki). That’s the least he could do for the person he loves. And now he is pissed off because Yoshiyuki is turning to Nanaka. Koko is so depressed about Yoshiyuki visiting Nanaka everyday.

Not only that, there’s also an emerging problem. Koko will actually move out of town very soon. This, coupled with her love problems, is sending Koko astray. She doesn’t know what to do anymore. Wataru now begs Yoshiyuki not to make Koko suffer anymore, and once and for all straighten up everything.

Bittersweet

Yoshiyuki went to the hospital to finally set things straight with Nanaka. This is actually a very delicate moment for her. Remember, the sakura tree has recently withered, and with it, it was implied that Nanaka has just lost her powers to read people’s minds. And yet here is Yoshiyuki, who is going to break up with her. Nanaka cries and asks “why now?” when everything around her is breaking apart. Nevertheless, Yoshiyuki tells Nanaka everything, including how much he loves Koko.

Nanaka, finally accepting the truth of Yoshiyuki’s feelings (she more or less expected this to happen because she reads minds), jokes that she has already been rejected twice by the same person. Nanaka now tells him to go to Koko. She surely is waiting for him. With Nanaka almost going to cry, Yoshiyuki left the room.

“I want to be with Yoshiyuki!”

Yoshiyuki rushes, trying to find Koko. He found her in the sakura tree. Yoshiyuki now told her everything, about the misunderstandings, and about his true feelings. Koko says that she feels the same way, and apologizes for all the times that she never had the courage to show it. She also apologizes that she didn’t tell that she is leaving town soon. Despite that though, Yoshiyuki still wants to be with Koko, and Koko wants to be with Yoshiyuki. Love conquers all.

Epilogue

We see Yoshiyuki and Koko enjoying the stars, they are anticipating a fireworks event. Apparently, Koko will still leave town, but assures Yoshiyuki that she will be back. Nanaka and Wataru (not a couple) also appear along with them, as they enjoy the amazing fireworks display.

THE END

What a bittersweet ending, especially for Nanaka and Wataru here. In Nanaka’s scenario ending, Koko and Wataru’s relationship can grow more or less. Here however, Nanaka and Wataru now had to get over it and move on. Plus, Yoshiyuki and Koko’s eventual separation is left unresolved, which is good in my book, although that plotline seems too surprising and therefore undramatic.

This story is leaning more on love than the friendship of the four persons involved, which is primarily what I liked about the scenario. Koko’s story is a bit more coherent, mostly because of the lack of subplots and flashbacks. We would just enjoy the ride without thinking much about anything that happened in the past. Unfortunately, this may not bode well with gamers (it being too simple and uninteresting), and I think they will consider Koko’s scenario the weakest of them all in Da Capo II. Nevertheless, this is still a good story, and Koko is very likeable. Well, that’s about it I guess.

This is a [Summer of Bishoujo 2->summer-of-bishoujo] feature