White Album 2

Love is like snow. It is beautiful, but it can also be so cold.

This is a fitting method to describe White Album 2. It is not your typical romance anime, where everything is mostly smooth sailing and ends happily-ever-after. Instead it portrays romance as it truly is through the vast variety of emotions it takes you through. From the joyous moments as they push towards their dream performance, the bittersweet moments after the confession, the tragic moments as the three start drifting apart, and finally the heartbreaking moment in the end where everything tumbles down. This is truly what romance is, not merely one aspect ... or another, but rather so many things coming together to create something indescribable, and can only be experienced.

And it is no coincidence that White Album 2 was able to have such an emotional impact. Many aspects of the show were excellent, which allowed for such an excellent result. The story may not be anything too out of the ordinary, but it keeps you hooked from beginning to end. The plot is well established, with pretty much no plot holes and perfect pacing. I am a sucker for good character writing, and White Album 2 has well exceeded my expectations in this regard. The character buildups, developments, and dynamics for the three main characters are really impeccable. It is precisely because of this that we can grow so attached to the characters and their experiences. Last but certainly not least, the music is probably some of the best out there. Not only are the songs goated in itself (Todokanai Koi my beloved), but the use of the music to enhance the impact of important scenes is masterful. Ultimately, I can confidently say there is no aspect of White Album 2 that I'm really critical of.

The themes presented in this anime are also very well developed. Feelings are a complicated thing, and often times they are contradictory. This can be seen in various moments throughout the anime, whether it be Haruki's indecisiveness, Kazusa constantly hiding her true self and desires, or Setsuna's love for Haruki and her desire for the three to remain together. Indeed, this is only to be expected for any human. This is part of the reason why White Album 2 is able to get the seemingly cliche love triangle to actually work out. The themes and characters are developed well enough that viewing the love triangle isn't actually frustrating. It isn't merely two girls competing for one guy, but also three friends trying to stay together. There isn't really one person you can blame for everything falling apart, every character has their own flaws, burdens, and insecurities (there are some who specifically hate Setsuna for her selfishness, but that only reveals their own naivete and hypocrisy). One can perhaps see that this unfortunate fate was sealed the moment the three first performed White Album together.

It truly is a shame that White Album 2 isn't discussed more. There is no doubt that this is one of, if not the best romance anime ever. For those of you who have watched the anime but not the vn, I suggest you give it a try. Not only will you get to experience this unforgettable story again, but there is also further content after the introductory chapter (what the anime covered). In the end, there is no review I could ever write that would capture all my thoughts and feelings of White Album 2, which simply shows how much of a masterpiece this is.

“White Album 2” is what happens when You take the name of something that actually had an interesting premise, slap a “2” at the end and make it a generic love triangle.

Most people have an opinion that “White Album 2” is much better than “White Album” and I tend to agree… for the first 5 episodes. After that it becomes a generic, boring and painfully predictable piece of a class B romance.

The story revolves around a musically skilled but socially inept daughter of a famous pianist, a school sweetheart that all the bays drool over and a pragmatic but dull af boy. Their ... ambition to perform in a school festival, to become friends forever and the drama revolving around a love triangle. Pretty common stuff to be honest.

As for the main cast…
Haruki Kitahara - an intelligent, preachy, annoying at times but caring young man aka our resident moron. After all, what's a romance anime without one? To be honest, for the first 5 episodes I liked him as the protagonist. He was determined to achieve his goal, the fact that he actually had one set him above most of the protagonists, unfortunately after that it’s all downhill for him. He becomes a bland, goalless, passive character with a slight hint of a backbone late in the last episode.

Kazusa Touma - A very skilled musically young woman. She sits next to Kitahara in class and sleeps most of the time while at school. She does have an attitude problem when it comes to most people and teachers. Her social skills are beyond horrendous, she’s unable to verbalise her own thoughts and feelings up until the last two episodes. Despite that, she's more than happy to take on the role of Kitahara’s music teacher. To be honest she’s the worst of all three main characters. She has a semi-sad backstory involving her famous mother but all in all she’s just a spoiled brat and changes very little across the show. The only thing that does change is that she actually grows a pair and confesses her feelings… in a dumb, roundabout way but I guess it still counts.

Setsuna Ogiso - last of the three stooges. Setsuna is a pretty, vocally talented school sweetheart. She befriends Kitahara and Touma rather quickly and is the catalyst of change that starts with Touma and her ability to verbalise emotions. To be honest she’s the least annoying of the main cast. She’s straightforward and in her own twisted way, cares about her friends. She’s the most aware of the social dynamic between the main cast and does have some reservations about intruding but that doesn’t last long. The reason why I think she’s the best of tha main cast is that she’s not reserved like Touma and isn’t as dense as Kitahara. She even volunteers to play the villain (and fails) just so Kitahara can feel better about himself (which he doesn’t deserve, at this point he’s pretty much scum).

The plot is divided into two distinct arcs. The Festival arc and whatever the hell the shit after is. Don’t get me wrong in a vacuum the second part of the show would be serviceable but contrasted to the first park it crashes and burns quite a bit. In the second part everyone loses their drive and motivation and focuses on keeping their friendship intact. Something that at this point is impossible and only Touma seems to realise that and even tries to step aside to let Kitahara and Ogiso have their space. It’s really badly written. EVERYTHING that happens in the second part could be avoided if Kitahara took some time before jumping into something he didn’t actually wanted.

That’s why I have problems giving a proper numerical value to the show. The first part is properly written, nicely directed, has some good music and is all in all enjoyable. The second part (starting from episode 6) is a goddamn shit show. It’s like a whole different cast of people made that part. The writing is lazy, using only the most cliched tropes out there and relies almost entirely on plot armor and deus ex machinas for its development.

I guess You can still watch this but after the first half get a drink to soften the blow.

After watching a lot of animes I decided to write my first ever review. I looked up this anime, and since it is a romance with above 7.5 rating, i thought this was going to be somewhat good. I finished the anime, with a bit of suffering because I don't like to drop these short animes, but i really can't understand the rating. This started as a normal romance, and was actually watchable until after the school festival. The decisions of the characters were strange sometimes and the MC and setsuna just became unbearable. There were parts where I just had to pause because I ... was laughing at how ridiculous they were. The only character that tries to save this anime is Touma because she actually has some nice interactions with the mc that don't look forced (ofc we are not talking about the last episodes where everyone decides to be stupid). I rate this a 3/10 because I think the last like 5 episodes were a really hard watch and the characters ate just really bad written. I hope i save someone's time with this review