Da Capo 3 - Summaries and General Impressions

Howdy mates, this is SealedTime once again with a review and summary of the recently released visual novel, Da Capo 3, set at 15+, which is safe for all ages. Once again, do note that this post will contain spoilers and any similarities in comments is strictly coincidental in nature.

With that, let's begin our adventures at Hatsunejima once again...

The setting of this is of course, everyone's favourite place Hatsunejima. The story is split into two parts, firstly, the prologue, which happens in present time and Weather Vane, a seperate segment of the story held in London during the year 1950. Continuing on from it's predecessors, years have passed since the events of DC2, following the wiltering of the ever-lasting Sakura, Hatsunejima has lost one of it's most unique tourists attractions. We are then introduced to the Newspaper Club, a club created by Rikka Morizono, the club president of sorts. The setting is of course, the same ol' school that Yoshiyuki and Junichi goes to. The protaganist, you , is Kiyotaka Yoshino, a normal kid round the block who is extremely loved by all the girls as usual. He has the special ability to see dreams , just like Yoshiyuki.

Let's go on to introduce the girls:

Ricca Morizono: She's the club president of the newspaper club and a beauty, as Kiyotaka calls it. She met Kiyotaka one day through her dreams, and believed that they were destined to be lovers from another time, claiming that in another world, they were lovers, (she refers to them as memories, while the rest love to tease her and call it her "setting") Resembles Yoshino Sakura.

Sharuru Yoshino: Kiyotaka's cousin from another country. Big oppaiz and Commander Pringle's favourite lady. Asides from being a distant relative from Kiyotaka, having come from a different country, she has a pretty funny deposition as she finds it normal to bathe with Kiyotaka and stuff, prompting the others to look at Kiyotaka with a rather "hurting" gaze, as the others call it. She affectionately calls Kiyotaka "Taka-kun" and is called Ruru-nee by him. She sleeps in the same room as Kiyotaka, and has a tendency to crawl in to sleep with Kiyotaka, skinship skinship. Resembles Aisia in DC2.

Himeno: The compulsory "nii-san" character in the game. While not directly related to Kiyotaka in this part of the VN, she refers to him as his brother and they have been long time friends and neighbours. A tsun, who in actual fact cares a lot for Kiyotaka and wants his affection. Is easily dere. Resembles Asakura Yume and Nemu.

Sara: The cute, small kouhai in school, Sara is usually seen hanging around with the newspaper club gang. Very cute and adorable, hates ecchi stuff, and loves to call you an unclean horrible hentai if you dare to mention such stuff to her. She is surprisingly very sporty both in the prologue and in Weather Vane, and holds affections for Kiyotaka. 

Aoi : The cute and energetic, yet frail girl in the club. While she mantains a rather happy appearance usually, she is seemingly quite prone to getting sick. As a result, creating a situation in which Kiyotaka takes care of her more often than not. Is surprisingly daring at times, even asking Kiyotaka to help her change and wearing a hadaka apron. :3

Together they form the newspaper club!  Now moving on to the story, so basically, the newspaper club realise that they want to find something interesting to do, and they decide to research on the former never-wiltering Sakura tree of the island. When they visit the place, and put their hands together around the tree, a switch is triggered and the trees springs back to life after years of inactivity (from the events of DC2). At the same time, they all recieve a similar message dating back to 1950, where they were told to meet at the promised place. After days of trying to uncover the mystery behind the message, in the process enlisting the help of never-aging Suginami and Minatsu from DC2, the gang find themselves once again back in the same place, where they are met with a mysterious girl, Yoshino Sakura. They realise that also, they have been having the same dream of something, somewhere, in a different time and space from here. Sakura mentions that it might be their first meeting with her, but she has known them for years now, and they made a promise to meet her once again. After which, Kiyotaka and Ricca feel an uncanny sense of familiarity with her, and Sakura goes on, asking them would they like to hear a story from a long time ago, about a promise to meet here, and like a da capo, the story winds back to 1950 London, and the Weather Vane part of DC3 begins

Weather Vane is set in 1950 London, where students enroll in this school to learn magic. Here, Kiyotaka Katsuragi and his sister Himeno Katsuragi are set off to the Academy to learn magic, Kiyotaka's objective being to research on something for his father's sake (it wasn't revealed what it was from the two routes I have conquered thus far). The characters now, while the same as the future counterparts, now sport different names, having an English like name now, for example, Rikka Morizono is now Ricca Greenwood. Basically, in Weather Vane, in olden England, this academy of magic is guided by the Queen, and students study there to hone their magic skills. Among them exists the Student Council, who are elected members meant to lead the student population and they do odd jobs for the Queen. There are only three members of the Seitokai when you enroll, one Ricca, two Sharuru, three Tomoe, another girl exclusive to the Weather Vane arc. 

Basically Ricca is regarded as a master like Sharuru and Tomoe, meaning their your teachers. After a series of events involving Kiyotaka helping out in missions and stuff, he eventually becomes popular and is elected as a Seitokai member as well. This is also where the story branches out to the different routes of the game. I have only finished Sharuru and Ricca thus far, so I shall do my review based on this two routes alone.

RICCA~

The Solitary Katrea , Ricca is one of the only Category 5 mages around in London, there only exists 7 or so of them in the world if my memory serves me right. While you slowly get to know her and stuff, you find out that Ricca is very much like a normal girl asides from being your teacher. She drags you along to Resort island, have fun with you, and in the process, you will fall in love with one another. Christmas is also the time where the confession happens, as always in DC.

Let's now take a step back and look at Ricca's past for a while. She is known as a genius researcher, and one month prior to the event, Ricca, while walking on the street chances upon a girl, short haired, and who has lost her memories, only holding on to a single Sakura branch. Sounds familiar? This scene is exactly the Da Capo Scene Extra in DC2, where Sakura appears after she sacrifices herself for Yoshiyuki

Kiyotaka takes Sakura under his jurisdication as her protector and they live together. Meanwhile, the branch is now handed over to Ricca. It is revealed that Ricca is researching on a way to make things never ending, and it starts with the Sakura tree, which she has been experimenting upon, to make a flower that never wilts. Upon discovery of the branch Sakura is holding onto, she is shocked to find out that the flower is never wiltering and holds a large amount of mana in it, classifying it as a magical item.

While being lovey dovey with Ricca, you notice that she is somehow very fixated on the idea of making the Sakura bloom forever, however, when you question her on why she wants to do it, she mentions that she is doing it for a friend, and refuses to tell you more. Upon knowing her more, Ricca also confesses to the fact that, like Sakura, she is not the age she appears to be, having non-ageing capacities within herself, and she is around 150 years old. As Kiyotaka gets closer to her, he dreams of a past where he sees Rikka with a girl running around happily and that memory is somehow tainted with sadness. During a mission in London, Ricca chances upon a girl, who she identifies as Ciel, an old friend. She explains her past to you subsequently. Ciel was her childhood friend who went on a journey with her. However, unlike the never ageing Ricca, Ciel found love and married a man, giving birth in the process, and when mages give birth, they slowly lose their mana and powers. After which, during one of the travels, she is caught and trialed as a witch, and is forced to be somewhat executed by the village she was in.

While on her dying breath, Ciel mentions to Rikka to not hate the people who did this to her, and to find the beauty in life and stuff (If I remember correctly). The supposedly dead Ciel appearing in front of Rikka during a mission to catch a criminal shocks Rikka beyond words as she was not supposed to exist anymore, but she somehow appeared once again. Rikka is thus cast into doubt and confusion, and as Kiyotaka comforts her, he founds out more and more about her past. A second and subsequent meeting with Ciel prompts Rikka to fall into the darkside, as the mist around London has been causing hallucinations with people. As such, this mist created and amplified the loneliness and empitiness within Rikka's heart to see her friend again once more, she is close to breaking down but remembers her promise to never cry again after Ciel's death, prompting her to keep her emotions constantly in whole. Kiyotaka, realising that this cannot go on any further, takes Rikka's wand, who was former Ciel's , and casts a spell, a spell that transfer Rikka's conscious into a dream, a dream where she remeets her former friend, Ciel.

In the dream, Ciel says her final words to Rikka, who has been trying so hard on her own for the past 100 years as the Solitary Catrea, and she expresses the need for Rikka to let her emotions go, and not feel guilty for not making it in time to possibly save Ciel. she encourages her not to hate, and to continue on lviing life for her sake as well, at this point in which Rikka cries as her former friend says her final words to her before the magic is up and she resumes to normal time, albeit having fond memories with her friends and having the strenght to live on from now on.

In the ending credits, it is mentioned that Rikka is continuing her research on the Forever blooming flowers, and is invited to visit Kiyotaka's homeland in Hatsunejima with him one day, and he reveals that , formerly, before being a Katsuragi, his surname was actually... Yoshino.

Sharuru's Route

Similar to DC2's Asakura Otome, Sharuru is a onee-chan type character, being the Student Council president and Master(Teacher) to Class B. She also has this lovable furball of a moving doll called Eto around her. Through your work with Sharuru and the student council, you slowly get closer and closer to her, doing jobs together and as time passes by, Sharuru sees the cute side of you and wants to be with you, with you feeling the same. Sharuru is also revealed to be a descendant of Santa Claus , and like Santa, she is tasked with the magic of happiness, giving presents to kids and even you.

As the two of you get closer to one another, both of you are awkwardly dere with one another, both not having enough courage to admit that you guys are in love. Slowly but steadily, with the push of Rikka and Tomoe, Kiyotaka works up the courage to confess to the lady he loved so dearly and she accepts, beginning an adventure of dere dere ness.

After a short while, Kiyotaka begins to see dreams, dreams of a younger Sharuru with a younger boy at a time, Eto. Eto, this boy, is a sickly boy who never once got out of hospital while Sharuru, his elder sister was always there to help him, tell him stories of the outside world and help him. Through the subsequent dreams, you learn of Sharuru's story in the past, through your intrusion into her dreams (she is aware of it since Kiyotaka mentioned he could see her dreams). Eto, at a point of time, had only one year to live, and Sharuru in disbelief, continues to work hard to stay beside him so as to make sure he never gives up hope. One day on Christmas, fufilling Santa's role, Sharuru grants Eto a wish, but after which, he passes away. 

Sharuru, feeling that her magic of happiness caused her brother to die, created a block within herself , as she was unable to use magic as she felt the burden and guilt of causing her brother's death, often breaking into a cold sweat when she does so, also becoming visibly weak. After a while, Kiyotaka decides that he has to help Sharuru move on, with Rikka's help, he is able to pinpoint her mental block and help her remove it. He slowly realises that Eto, her brother, has his soul sealed inside the stuffed toy pet that Sharuru has with her, the pet which has followed her since Eto passed away.

Meeting Eto in a dream, Eto entrusts Kiyotaka with a task, to bring his sister into the dreamland he is in, so as to speak to her one final time as the miracle binding his spirit to the stuff toy cannot hold on any longer now. In a final meeting with Eto and Sharuru, Eto reveals that Sharuru was not at fault for causing his death, rather it was his own. During Christmas when he was asked to wish for something, he wished to die, so as to save his sister from her burden, and to release her from the shackles of him. Eto also mentions that he has not much time left, and he wants his sister, knowing the truth now, to continue being the Santa magician he loved, the one who made magic for the sake of the happiness of others, in the final moments, he request Sharuru to use her magic once more to send him off to Heaven. Sharuru, awakening from the dream, hugs Eto, the doll, uses her magic quietly and he goes off before saying, "Sayonara, Onee-chan"

In the final parts of the route, Sharuru is seen moving on from the incident and is now able to use magic again, with her and Kiyotaka discussing about plans of the future and she uses her magic to create a mini family of dolls, living happily together while she smiles to him.

That concludes my DC3 post as a whole. Since I played Ricca route a while back, there might be some disparities in the things I said, so if you perhaps notice any mistakes you need to clarify, do get back to me. I am so far, in the midst of Himeno's route and will be updating the blog again when I'm done with hers, Sara, Aoi and the DC route. 

This is SealedTime, signing off, hope you had an enjoyable read ^^