Da Capo II: Nanaka Shirakawa

Let’s admit… er… Nanaka will be one of the more popular Da Capo II girls, mainly because of her lineage. Nanaka Shirakawa has a striking resemblance to Da Capo Generation One’s [Kotori Shirakawa->da-capo-kotori-shirakawa]. She is also the “perfect girl”. Sweet, kind, smart, loves to sing, and is a popular school idol. Actually, them two girls are almost exactly the same, Nanaka is only a little bit more energetic. Even their powers are the same.

That said, wouldn’t it be boring to see the same Shirakawa, only slightly different? This kind of similarity is comparable to a old song that has been remade. The remake may be good, but you still like the old song better. Such a pity, because Nanaka’s story is arguably tighter and more interesting than Kotori’s.

Nanaka’s scenario would seem to intertwine steadily with Koko’s, and so I guess a run-through of Koko should be in order. Hopefully I will have time to play more Da Capo II (oh no, is that Summer Days I see in the computer table?) and show Koko’s scenario next time. For now, please spend some time and enjoy Nanaka Shirakawa’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
Before I move on, I should introduce a bit more of the story and character setup. Okay, this is roughly 50 years after the events of [Da Capo->], and for some reason, the legendary Sakura Tree has bloomed again. Yoshiyuki Sakurai is the main guy. He lives along with sisters Otome and Yume Asakura (grandchildren of former main guy Junichi). He seems to be adopted by the Asakura family. Sakura Yoshino is still here, and unbeliveably remains young all this time! She is now the principal of Kazami School, and often checks on the Asakura residence since it’s nearby.

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.
Shin – Yuzu’s father.

— MERRY CHRISTMAS —

School Idol

Probably not on the same caliber as her ancestor, but Nanaka packs quite some punch too. Being the perfect girl, she has the looks, the smarts, and the voice to melt your heart away. Suitors come from every corner, trying to win Nanaka’s heart, but to no avail as usual.

Unlike Kotori though, she doesn’t seem to turn down her suitors. Nanaka seems to have some sort of communication problem. She stutters and sometimes doesn’t know what to say. That’s probably why the same suitors come after her every so often. I’m not quite sure about this, but she doesn’t seem to show her feelings too much.

Yoshiyuki meets Nanaka in the music room. Nanaka already knows about him a bit, mostly because Koko (her best friend) talks about him so much. Yoshiyuki appals Nanaka for her singing. She says though that she’s not quite used to singing with audiences. Normally she only sings out of interest. From then on, Yoshiyuki became close to Nanaka. They often eat together (with Koko) at lunchtime, and sometimes even saves her skin from her many suitors by running away together.

The Band

Nanaka, Koko, and Wataru (one of Yoshiyuki’s best friends) actually play together as a band. Nanaka sings, Koko does bass, 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.

Christmas Party

The school is actually having a Christmas Party that is set up similar to a school festival. Yoshiyuki’s class will host a Haunted House. It is in this party that Yoshiyuki and Nanaka will find themselves closer together. At one point, when some of Nanaka’s suitors start following her, Yoshiyuki grabe her hand and runs about the entire campus!

Take note that Koko actually likes Yoshiyuki, and so with Nanaka seeming to be really close to him right now, she’s feeling kinda troubled. It started when Koko saw them together watching a band performance.

There was also some sort of beauty contest, in which Nanaka is a contestant. I honestly don’t know what question she was asked, but her answer was “Yoshiyuki”. Probably one of those “who is your ideal guy” questions. Of course, chaos ensues. That night, Nanaka meets Yoshiyuki. Yoshiyuki seems to shrug her semi-confession, and (oddly to me) they remain close friends. It’s probably not major, but I hope someone would help me understand this event.

— 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. We already know that Koko likes Yoshiyuki, but is unable to confess to him. One day, Wataru talks to Yoshiyuki… about how he’s slowly falling for Koko. At another time, Yoshiyuki happens to overhear Wataru and Nanaka talking. Nanaka seems to know about Wataru liking Koko. Their conversation also hints that both Nanaka and Koko likes Yoshiyuki! Moreover, Nanaka seems bent on confessing to him soon, despite knowing all this.

Confused yet? Let’s recap… since this is Nanaka’s scenario, Yoshiyuki loves Nanaka, and the feeling is mutual. But then Koko loves Yoshiyuki… and Wataru loves Koko. This is a love quadrangle! And with their quadrangle lies the band. 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. Nanaka, however, seems to be enjoying herself, faking a scare just to hold on to Yoshiyuki! Actually, Yume is with them, and so she kinda keeps check on her perverted nii-san.

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 there. 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!

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 accepted it… and now they’re officially a couple! YAY!

— POWDERY SNOW AND CHERRY PETAL FALL —

YAY? I don’t think so. With their new relationship, Yoshiyuki and Nanaka will face a friendship crisis. Before that though, let me introduce the requisite sidestory of Nanaka’s scenario.

Yuzu

For a while now, Nanaka has been visiting someone at the hospital. She is a little girl named Yuzu. She’s totally cute, and very energetic. So energetic in fact, that she doesn’t seem to have an illness at all. Her father, Shin, is quite busy with work, and so Nanaka has been visiting Yuzu to play with her whenever her father is not around. Nanaka introduced Yuzu to Yoshiyuki.

Yuzu loves hearing Nanaka sing, and so Nanaka sings for her sometimes. She is also excited to hear about the radio performance that her band will do.

Domino Effect

Yuzu may not be able to hear that radio performance soon, because the band is having an internal crisis amongst themselves. Upon realizing that Nanaka and Yoshiyuki are already dating, Koko started to keep distance, almost to the point of tears. Realizing it as well, Wataru is slowly getting a bit agitated and angry. The band does their practice sessions for a bit, but then they are now miscommunicating, and not performing very well.

One day, Wataru was finally fed up acting that all is well, and started shouting angrily as Yoshiyuki for a couple of days. Nanaka and Koko try to stop Wataru and Yoshiyuki from fighting. Wataru would eventually exit the music room, and announced that he is quitting the band. Koko sadly said that she also can’t do it anymore, and quit the band as well. The group has finally disbanded.

Doubt

Not only their relationship as a band, but their relationship as friends are being affected. Koko and Nanaka, best friends, now seem distant from each other. Wataru, now angsty, tries to keep Koko away from Yoshiyuki as much as possible. All this because Nanaka and Yoshiyuki became lovers. Nanaka started doubting herself, asking if she has done the right thing. She repeatedly asks Yoshiyuki if he loves her, just to confirm that what she did was right. She keeps asking this, even on their first date together. Yoshiyuki can only answer back by giving her their first kiss. Take note that Yoshiyuki still doesn’t know why Wataru was getting angry at him, nor does he know about Koko’s feelings for him.

The distance between Yoshiyuki/Nanaka and Wataru/Koko only widens every day since then, and their friends already notice it, although they can’t do anything about it because they don’t know the whole story. Two of them though, Akane and Anzu, knows about it, but refuses to tell Yoshiyuki everything.

Yuzu’s illness

Meanwhile, things are also getting rusty between Nanaka and Yuzu. One day, Shin tells Yoshiyuki and Nanaka about Yuzu’s illness. It is a serious illness that requires surgery. This surprised and saddened Nanaka, since all this time Yuzu is too energetic to be terminally sick. Yuzu, however, doesn’t want to take the surgery, despite her father’s efforts to talk her into it. Still, there is a chance of failure in the surgery that may lead to death. This is the reason why Yuzu and Shin has come to this town (they are from another place). The legend of the unwithering sakura tree in this town is known to many. It supposedly grants wishes, and the family is somewhat holding on to a wish that Yuzu gets better.

While the risk is there, the surgery is still the only way to save Yuzu, and so one day Nanaka talked to her about it. Yuzu still refuses to undergo the operation. Yuzu says that it is for her father’s sake, because if she is gone, her father will be alone and sad. Nanaka (reading Yuzu’s mind), started angrily shouting at her out of utmost concern. Nanaka says that Yuzu is scared of the operation. Nanaka is not happy that she is trying to lie about it. But then this hurt Yuzu’s feelings, and shouted back at them to go away.

Since then, Yuzu refuses to see Nanaka. Nanaka can only know about her condition through her father. Yuzu still doesn’t want to undergo the operation.

Akane

With the relationship between Yoshiyuki/Nanaka and Wataru/Koko still unchanged, Akane finally decided to tell Yoshiyuki about Koko and Wataru. On the rooftop, Akane told Yoshiyuki that Koko is in love with him. Koko has loved Yoshiyuki for a long time, but she was afraid that by confessing, she may lose her friendship towards him. She didn’t express her feelings. With Nanaka and Yoshiyuki being a couple, it is only obvious that she will be hurt. After all, Nanaka is her best friend. She doesn’t know what to do, with the friendships, and with the band. Akane says that Yoshiyuki is really clueless. All this time Akane and Anzu has been trying to pair Koko up with him.

There’s also the issue of Wataru. Wataru loves Koko, but Koko loves Yoshiyuki. Wataru can’t help but see Koko suffer and he can’t do anything about it. That is why he became so agitated.

Akane comments that “everyone is a fool” in love. And yet she says she loves everyone, and wants things to go the way they are before. And so Akane gave advice, that Yoshiyuki should leave them (Wataru and Koko) alone for a while. Only time will heal the wounds for now. She also requested that Yoshiyuki never change, and should remain true to himself.

This, folks, is the most heartwarming event in the scenario! Coming from a mere supporting character no less. Her whole-hearted, selfless concern for her friends struck me hard and made me go “awwww… so kind”. I normally don’t like “well endowed” bishoujos, but Akane has just found a fan in me.

The Dream
Yoshiyuki also seems to have the power to look into dreams the same way as Junichi does, although I wonder how he got it since they are not relatives at all. The dream is of a young Nanaka. She, for some reason, is getting bullied by her classmates, probably because she’s too cute. Nanaka really doesn’t want that, but because she can’t communicate with others very well, she can’t say what her feelings are. And so she just wishes to know what others are thinking. This way, she should not be bullied anymore.

The Truth

With Koko keeping distance, and Yuzu angry at her, Nanaka seems at a loss. Nanaka starts doubting again whether her stepping forward to love Yoshiyuki was the right thing. With all this, she feels alone again. She decided to tell Yoshiyuki about her powers. She is able to read what others are thinking. Back when she was a child, indeed she was bullied, and wasn’t able to gain friends. And so she wished, and her wish was granted by the unwithering sakura.

Since then, she was able to communicate somewhat with others. Because she know what others are thinking, she is able to answer back. And also because of this power, she knows that Yuzu is just scared of the operation. Nanaka also knows that Koko loves Yoshiyuki, and despite that, she still went on to be his girlfriend. She feels like she’s being unfair, and she is very troubled by everything happening.

“I can’t hear it anymore”

For a few days, Nanaka has been totally out of herself. At the same time, news came in from Akane that the legendary sakura tree has just withered! Yoshiyuki went to talk to Nanaka afterwards. Nanaka says that she has just lost her powers. She became even more depressed, because with this happening, she can’t apologize to Yuzu anymore. She can’t know what Yuzu is thinking, and so she can’t think of what to say anymore. She started crying, but then Yoshiyuki stood up his ground.

I think Yoshiyuki wanted to prove to Nanaka that there is no need for mind-reading powers to express a feeling. One just needs to be true to oneself. He also figures this is the right time to confront Wataru too, so they went up the rooftop where Wataru is. Yoshiyuki talked to Wataru, probably about everything that’s happening to them. Wataru became very angry, and even pushed (punched?) Yoshiyuki to the ground. Wataru screamed that he really loved Koko, but then Koko loves Yoshiyuki. That part is rather obvious. More importantly though, he said that he doesn’t really want this situation, because Yoshiyuki has always been his best friend. Wataru walked away saying that he needs to think about it for a while.

Despite the fight, Yoshiyuki seems happy. He is happy because he finally expressed his feelings, which, while obvious to everyone involved, still needs to be said. This is a basic reality and flaw of humans. We sometimes don’t understand each other, even when the truth is already known, just because we don’t communicate with each other. Moreso with men, who often hides their feelings.

With this, Nanaka felt inspired to get over her lost powers, and finally be the true Nanaka, someone who is true to herself in expressing her feelings to someone. She decided to show her feelings to Yuzu and Koko.

Healing Phase

While Yuzu still refuses to see Nanaka, her condition seems to be getting worse. Nanaka felt a bit sad, but then instead of seeing Yuzu, she just wrote a letter to her. Along with words of apology, and concern that she should take the operation, Nanaka wrote that Yuzu should listen to that radio program because it will still happen. Nanaka and Yoshiyuki wanted to revive their performance even when the other two members had disbanded. Nanaka gave the letter to Yuzu’s father Shin.

On to the other resolution, Nanaka directly talked to Koko, after a long time of separation. She showed her feelings, all of which are already obvious, but still needs to be said. Although Koko still hasn’t gotten over Yoshiyuki yet, she opened her heart again to her best friend Nanaka. Nanaka asked Koko to join them again in the band performance. With tears, Koko walked away saying that she’ll think about it. Nanaka affirms that she will wait for her always, in the music room everyday.

Since then, Yoshiyuki and Nanaka have been practicing the song for their radio performance. Because the bass and drums are gone, they had to arrange an acoustic version. They also heard news that Yuzu has read the letter, and is thinking through things. Akane and Anzu also checked up on them to watch their practice, and bid them good luck on the performance. Koko and Wataru never showed up.

Baby Faze

It was the day of the performance. Yoshiyuki and Nanaka were quite nervous. It was almost their turn, but suddenly a call came up from Nanaka’s phone. It was Shin, and he is glad to report that Yuzu agreed to take the operation, which is already in progress. Yuzu said that she will be doing her best, so they should do their best too on the performance. With tears of joy, Nanaka says that she will.

It was their turn… and on the stage… is Wataru and Koko!!! What a wonderful reunion! Yoshiyuki and Nanaka is very happy to be able to perform with their friends again. They discovered that all this time, Wataru and Koko had been listening to their practice outside the music room. They were reluctant to enter but when the performance day came, they finally showed up. Nanaka dedicates this song to all of her friends, and their performance begins…

Epilogue

It was a month later in the hospital. Yuzu’s operation seems to be a success, and she is as energetic as ever. Yoshiyuki, Nanaka, and also Wataru and Koko visits Yuzu and Shin. They made fun of Wataru’s apparent “love letter” he got in the locker… from a guy! Tons of laughs abound, but then Wataru affirmed that he will always be for Koko. Apparently Koko hasn’t accepted Wataru’s feelings yet, but hopefully the day will eventually come. As for Yoshiyuki and Nanaka, their love still remains strong.

THE END

Wasn’t that great? I enjoyed this scenario very much! While I didn’t expect the problems to be resolved oh too easily, it just shows the reality of the situations. In the end, everybody loves everybody, despite some miscommunications and misunderstandings. This scenario shows that time can heal broken hearts. In Yuzu’s story, Nanaka only became angry out of concern for Yuzu, and Yuzu was only angry because it hurt her feelings for a while. But time mended the anger, and it resulted to something better. In the story of the band, they were not at good terms because a relationship has changed within them. Over time, they realized that their friendship still matters most despite the changes, and so they would eventually learn to accept it. Pretty simple but effective.

Nanaka’s song was being played throughout the game, but I never felt any attachment to it. It wasn’t as strong as Kotori’s song, but still good nonetheless.

As I said, Nanaka’s story intertwines closely with Koko. Too close, in fact, that you even have a choice to turn down Nanaka on the confession event! The story totally branches from there on, and you will see Nanaka… well… you just have to wait and see her transformation. Hopefully I can play that and Koko’s complete scenario when free time allows. Until next time.

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