Anime Clothing & Jacket Mini Forum: Da Capo III

Akhirnya setelah lama menunggu Da Capo III sudah mau keluar, jadwal airing sudah mulai ada

Directed by	Ken'ichi Ishikura
Network	MBS, Tokyo MX
Original run	January 5, 2013 – scheduled

Scheduled to begin broadcasting in January 2013!

TOKYO MX: Every Saturday from 22:00 to 22:30 Saturday January 05
MBS: 3:28 to 3:58 every Saturday from midnight Saturday January 05
Aichi: 2:50 to 3:20 every Saturday from midnight Saturday January 05
BS11: Every Sunday night from 0:30 to 1:00 (Sunday) January 6
AT-X: Every other Tuesday from 23:30 to 24:00 Tuesday, January 15

Character

Mari kita simak sinopsisnya:

Story
About 2o years after the events of DCII, the everlasting sakuras are now a thing from the past. Our new protagonist Yoshino Kiyotaka is member of the official newspaper club of Kazami Academy in Hatsune Island and his partners are (pics in link):

The club president and school idol Morizono Ricca. Good at studies and sports, is very popular at school, but she’s particularly fixated in Kiyotaka, since, following her words, they were lovers in a past life (that only she can remember), where they went together to a magic school, Kazamidori (Weather Vane). It’s not a popular idea among the club members.
Half blood cousin and number one onee-san character in school Yoshino Charles (she doesn’t mind the male name). Pretty aggressive in her skinship with Kiyotaka, likes to charge energy hugging him.
Neighbor, osananajimi and imouto character Katsuragi Himeno. Yamato Nadeshiko character (in public), cooks very well. Somewhat tsundere.
Same-class kouhai (she skipped two years) Rukawa Sara. Very diligent and hard working, doesn’t like the immoral contact between the opposite genders.
Number one imouto character in school Hinomoto Aoi. Yearns for a big brother, and considers Kiyotaka the ideal one. In contrast to her frail health is very energetic and hard working, holding several part-time jobs.

And against the official newspaper club stands the unofficial newspaper club (or maybe it’s the reverse), lead by the eternal Suginami, and including self proclaimed idol and handicap (Suginami’s words) Mikoto.
And so, to deal a decisive blow to the unofficial club and Suginami, they (and by they I mean Ricca) decide to make a special number on magic. And so they go to the familiar, now dead, big sakura tree, of which so many stories are told about. But when they all decide to touch the tree and make a wish, mostly as a play, something strange happens: the tree, and all the other sakuras, suddenly blossom, out of season; and a text message reaches their cell phones: “When the sakuras blossom, in the promised place-”, dated 1951.
Now with clearly a theme for their special edition, they start investigating. Meanwhile, there’s all kind of harem antics, with the girls after the incredibly oblivious Kiyotaka (no, really. I’ve seen some dense protagonists, but he’s something else). Kiyotaka also starts seeing some strange dreams, in which it seems he is attending some overseas school with Himeno (maybe a magic school?).
And when they finally return to the big sakura tree, they meet a mysterious woman, who seems to know them well, and who starts telling a story…

I wonder who this person could be

Review
All that is actually the prologue, and with the setting changing to Kazamidori the main story starts.
Though the magic level is higher, and more present, than in the previous games, this is very much a Da Capo game, for good or bad (you decide which). Besides familiar designs for Ricca, Charles and Himeno, many of previous games’ personality traits are also present here, if somewhat shuffled. The same happens with the routes, which have several plot elements familiar to those who have played the other DC games (not like the series was particularly original in the first place).
But lack of originality doesn’t mean lack of quality. And though the prologue was not very good (several girls madly in love with an ultra donkan MC didn’t make for a very interesting setting), the Kazamidori part, and especially the routes, are above average, in DC, and absolute, terms. They may not reach the level of my personal favorites, but they’re all nice, and well presented, with no diabolus ex machina or forced drama to generate tension, the particular problems steaming fundamentally from the character in question. Again, if you liked previous DC games you will probably like this.
The cast is also good (though the seiyuu cast for the heroines didn’t click much for me); charming heroines, and very amusing side characters (Shiki gets all the mentions here).

Kiyotaka has just awakened to the sense for zettai ryouiki

Maybe an aspect in which this doesn’t reach previous games’ highs is in emotional punch. But that may be because this installment focused in the plot in a much higher level than any other DC. After beating the other four heroines, you unlock Aoi route, and then the obligatory Da Capo segment (more substantial than in previous games), and between them they answer all the mysteries of the game (of which there were several), and the greatest one of DCII (in this respect, though DCII was pretty much standalone, DCIII would be considerably helped by having played the previous; at the very least, it would lose some of the punch otherwise). The routes build up and offer plenty foreshadowing for the resolution, which wraps up and ties neatly with the beginning, and with the previous games, returning to the beginning, like a Da Capo… (okay, I’ll stop now).

Da Capo

Other aspects are also you what would expect: appropriate BGM (with many themes reused from DCI and II), several nice vocal songs, meager interface (maybe even worse than in previously). And though branching was never very complicated (then again, I still don’t know the concrete requirements for the DCIIPC secret routes), there were always some tricky scenes, and it made for an interesting (though your mileage may vary, I guess) mini game to get 100% in the scenario recollection. Well, there’s nothing like that here.
Also, as most probably already know, ero is inexistent, this being an all-ages game. Personally, I have nothing against that, and I think the existence of that option at the moment of making a game is good: if every route needs a H scene, then it can (and indeed sometimes does) happen that they end up completely breaking the flow of the story. And if you don’t have the necessity of H scenes you can also make more interesting patterns than the usual trunk+route (then again, you can also do that with ero content). And in any case it’s not hard to imply some action even in all-ages games.
Is DCIII like that? Not really. There are several places where a H scene would fit perfectly (excluding maybe one route), and there’s at least one where I’m pretty sure there was actual action. Having finished the game I can imagine some reasons that would make the absence of H content preferable, but still, DCIII could work as a 18+ game without problems.
Though maybe as compensation, DCIII does have more fanservice, which was pretty light in DCI and II.
Overall, tough I’m very partial to DC and so may be somewhat biased, I found DCIII very enjoyable. It has a good balance between characters and over-arching plot, with satisfying individual routes and an even more satisfying grand finale (you do need to play to the last ending to fully appreciate the game); and even if it does build on the previous games, newcomers should still be able to enjoy this. And those who are already familiar with the franchise, and like it, will also really like this. Certainly deserving the name Da Capo, I have found this the best installment so far.