is a Japanese

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

developed by

Circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...

that was released in limited and regular editions on April 27, 2012 as a DVD for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and is rated for ages 15 and up. It is the third main installment of the ''Da Capo'' visual novel franchise, after ''

Da Capo Da capo (, also , ) is an Italian musical term that means "from the beginning" (literally, "from the head"). It is often abbreviated as D.C. The term is a directive to repeat the previous part of music, often used to save space, and thus is an ...

'' and ''

Da Capo II is a Japanese adult visual novel developed by Circus which was first released on May 26, 2006 for Windows computers. It is a part of the ongoing ''Da Capo'' series of games by Circus, and is the direct sequel to Circus' previous title '' ...

''. The story takes place 20 years after the events from ''Da Capo II''. The

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pla ...

in ''Da Capo III'' follows a branching plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, and focuses on the five female main characters. A 13-episode

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

adaptation aired between January and March 2013.

Gameplay

''Da Capo III'' is a

romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

in which the player assumes the role of Kiyotaka Yoshino. Much of its

is spent on reading the story's

narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...

and

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is c ...

. ''Da Capo III'' follows a branching plot line with multiple endings, and depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction. There are five main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. After the completion of the first four heroine routes, an additional scenario called Zero is made available, which revolves around Aoi Hinomoto, another heroine of the game. After Zero is finished, another route is made available. Throughout gameplay, the player is given multiple options to choose from, and text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made. To view all plot lines in their entirety, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and choose different choices to further the plot to an alternate direction.

Plot

''Da Capo III'' occurs about 20 years after ''Da Capo II'' on Hatsune island, once famous for its everlasting cherry trees. Ricca Morizono, president of Kazami Academy's official newspaper club, is determined to prove the existence of magic along with Kiyotaka Yoshino, the only male member of the club. There are four other girls in the club: Himeno Katsuragi, Kiyotaka's childhood friend; Charles Yoshino, Kiyotaka's cousin; Sara Rukawa, a transfer student; and Aoi Hinomoto, a frail but energetic part-timer. One day, Ricca suggests they should visit the rumored magical cherry tree to test its power by making a wish together. It suddenly blooms once again to their surprise, and all receive an unknown text message from the distant past. The official newspaper club challenges the unofficial newspaper club to see who can write a better article based on magic. However, the girls start to be distracted by Kiyotaka. Kiyotaka begins to suspect a particular girl who resembles the fabled principal Sakura Yoshino.

Development and release

''Da Capo III'' is the 52nd title developed by the visual novel developer Circus. The game's production was headed by Tororo, president of Circus. The scenario was written by two people: Kōta Takeuchi and Chihare Ameno, who is also the game's director. Character design and art direction for the game was split between two artists: Natsuki Tanihara and Yuki Takano. Music in the game is performed by four artists:

CooRie CooRie is a self-produced Japanese music unit by singer-songwriter Rino that performs songs for anime and games. CooRie used to be a two-person unit when it debuted in 2003, with Rino doing the lyrics and vocals and doing the music compositions ...

Yozuca Yozuca* (b. March 21 in Kumamoto Prefecture, Kumamoto), stylised in all lowercase, is a Japanese female singer. She performs songs mainly for games and anime and is known especially for her vocal contributions to the ''Da Capo (visual novel), Da Cap ...

, Aimi Terakawa and

Suzuko Mimori is a Japanese actress and singer. She is represented by HiBiKi Cast. She voiced Umi Sonoda in ''Love Live!'', Hikari Kagura in ''Revue Starlight'' and Asumi Fuurin / Cure Earth in ''Healin' Good Pretty Cure''. Her nickname is Mimorin. Biography ...

. ''Da Capo III'' was first announced on November 1, 2009 at Circus' 10th Anniversary Premium Concert and Announcement event as one of the ten ''Da Capo''-related announcements made at the event, and was formally unveiled in the August 2011 issue of ''

Dengeki G's Magazine is a Japanese magazine published by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks) and sold monthly on the thirtieth that primarily contains information on bishōjo games, but also includes an entire section on anime based on bishōjo games, and seria ...

''. ''Da Capo III'' was released on April 27, 2012 in limited and regular editions, playable as a DVD for

and is rated for ages 15 and up. The limited edition came bundled with an original illustration booklet, the game's original soundtrack album, and a promotional card from the ''

Weiß Schwarz is a Japanese collectible card game created by Bushiroad. The game is separated into Weiß-side and Schwarz-side. "Weiß" and "Schwarz" are German language for white and black, respectively. Gameplay The game focuses on two main aspects: c ...

collectible card game A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategy game, strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards, introduced with ''Magic: The Gathering'' in ...

. ''Da Capo III'' was ported to the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

Kadokawa Games Kadokawa may refer to: * Kadokawa Corporation, the holding company of the Kadokawa Group **Kadokawa Content Gate and Kadokawa Mobile, both former names for BookWalker **Kadokawa Future Publishing, a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation and the publ ...

under the title ''Da Capo III Plus'' released on February 28, 2013. An updated version of the original game with additional story and visuals titled ''Da Capo III R'' was released on May 24, 2013 for Windows and is rated for ages 15 and up. An

adult An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...

version of ''Da Capo III R'' titled ''Da Capo III R: X-rated'' was released on May 31, 2013. A sequel titled ''Da Capo III: Platinum Partner'' was released on April 25, 2014. Another sequel titled ''Da Capo III: With you'' was released on September 30, 2016, and another sequel titled ''Da Capo III: Dream Days'' was released on September 29, 2017.

MangaGamer MangaGamer is a video game publisher specializing in the English localization and distribution of Japanese eroge and visual novels. It is run by Japanese-based company Japan Animation Contents. History MangaGamer was originally envisioned as a c ...

released a demo of an English version of ''Da Capo III'' for

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

and Windows on December 23, 2016, and the full version was released on January 20, 2017 in both all-ages and adult versions. The all-ages version was also released on

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

Adaptations

Internet radio show

Internet radio Online radio (also web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio, IP radio, Internet radio) is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted ...

show to promote ''Da Capo III'' titled had a pre-broadcast on January 5, 2012, and began regular broadcasting on February 2, 2012. The show is streamed online every Thursday, and is produced by the Japanese Internet radio station Hibiki. The show is hosted by the voice actresses of the five heroines in ''Da Capo III'': Erika Kaihō as Aoi Hinomoto, Mikoi Sasaki as Himeno Katsuragi,

Emi Nitta is a Japanese voice actress and singer from Nagano Prefecture affiliated with the talent agency Difference. She became a voice actress after passing an audition organized by talent agency S-inc. She officially transferred to Difference on 1 Sept ...

as Ricca Morizono,

Ui Miyazaki is a Japanese Voice acting in Japan, voice actress and singer. She is an actress, known for Charger Girl Ju-den Chan (2009), Hime-sama Goyojin (2006) and Magician's Academy! (2008). Biography Filmography Anime *''Ar tonelico'' as Aurica Ne ...

as Charles Yoshino, and Chiyo Ōsaki as Sara Rukawa.

Manga

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

adaptation illustrated by Yuka Kayura began serialization in the May 2012 issue of

Kadokawa Shoten , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines su ...

's ''

Comptiq is a Japanese computer game magazine, first published in 1983, by Kadokawa Shoten. The name "Comptiq" came from combining the words "computer" and "boutique". Originally a PC magazine, its focus shifted from computers to computer games. As of S ...

'' magazine. A second manga illustrated by Nonoka Hinata began serialization in the September 2012 issue of

ASCII Media Works ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because of ...

' ''

''.

Anime

A 13-episode

adaptation, produced by the anime production committee Kazami Gakuen Kōshiki Dōga-bu (a pseudonym for

Actas is a Japanese animation studio founded in 1998. It is currently a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Filmworks, which in turn is a subsidiary to Bandai Namco Holdings. History Actas was founded on July 6, 1998, by Hiroshi Katō and Jūtarō Ōba, who pr ...

) and directed by

Kenichi Ishikura is a Japanese director and storyboard artist best known for his works with Shaft and the anime adaptation of ''Sakura Trick''. Career Ishikura began his career in the industry in 2000 as a production assistant for ''Invincible King Tri-Zenon' ...

, aired between January 5 and March 30, 2013.

Music

The ''Da Capo III'' visual novel has nine pieces of

theme music Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

: four opening themes, two ending themes, and three insert songs. The four opening themes are: by

, by No Life Negotiator, "Shiny Steps!!" by Suzuko Mimori, and "True Magic..." by Yurica/Hana-tan. The two ending themes are: by Hiromi Satō, and "All is Love for you" by

. The insert songs are: Kyoro The World, by CooRie, and by Yozuca. The opening theme for the anime is by

, Mikoi Sasaki, Chiyo Ousaki, and Erika Kaiho. The main ending theme is by

. Other ending themes include by

for episodes 1 and 10, and "Reflection" by Emi Nitta for episode 6.

Reception

''Da Capo III'' ranked at No. 6 in terms of national PC game pre-orders in Japan in March 2012. In 2012, ''Da Capo III'' went on to rank three times in terms of national sales of PC games in Japan. The rankings were at No. 3 and No. 8 in April for the regular and limited editions, respectively, and No. 11 in May.

Notes

References

External links

Official website

Anime official website
* * {{Kenichi Ishikura 2012 manga 2012 video games 2013 anime television series debuts Anime television series based on video games ASCII Media Works manga Bishōjo games D.C.: Da Capo Dengeki G's Magazine Fantasy anime and manga Fantasy video games Harem anime and manga Harem video games Japan-exclusive video games Linux games MacOS games Kadokawa Shoten manga Mainichi Broadcasting System original programming Manga based on video games PlayStation Portable games Romance video games Romantic comedy anime and manga Seinen manga Tokyo MX original programming Video games developed in Japan Video games set in Japan Video games set in London Visual novels Windows games