White Album 2

Gameplay

The gameplay in White Album 2 requires minimal interaction from the player as the player spends the majority of their time on reading the text that is displayed at the bottom of the screen. Unlike other visual novels, there is only one ending in Introductory Chapter and there are no choices for the player to select. In that regard, Introductory Chapter could be regarded as more like a movie than a video game. The player's only interaction during the "introductory chapter" and "mini after story" with the game is to click a button to advance the game by rolling the next line of text onto the screen, while both "closing chapter" and "coda" requires comprehensive multiple choice questions to handle the trend of the plot development.

Settings

White Album 2 takes place in the same setting as its predecessor with approximately ten years having been elapsed since the events of the first White Album. Introductory Chapter begins during the second half of October. Closing Chapter begins three years after the events of Introductory Chapter.

Main Characters

Haruki Kitahara (北原 春希, Kitahara Haruki)

Voiced by: Takahiro MizushimaThe protagonist of White Album 2. He is a third year student at Hōjō High and a member of the light music club and has excellent grades. He dates Setsuna at one point, but in the end, he confesses to Kazusa Touma, and says she is the one he truly loves. Haruki plays second guitar. A student with excellent grades, who's meddlesome and preachy. But for some reason, he's in the light music club. Lately he's been concentrating on practicing the guitar for the school festival, but he's not talented enough to go on stage. Haruki is surprisingly free with his emotions when involved in his love life. He is normally an energetic class president, but despite his intelligence and top grades, he is quite clueless when it comes to dealing with his love life. He likes to take charge and is extremely diligent in his work ethic and studying.

Setsuna Ogiso (小木曽 雪菜, Ogiso Setsuna)

Voiced by: Madoka YonezawaSetsuna Ogiso is the main heroine. She is the triggering of the plot and the only character with an important role in all the routes, even more than Haruki himself. Setsuna is a third year student at Houjou High and has been Miss Houjou two years in a row and enjoys singing karaoke. She confesses to Haruki and becomes a couple with him, secretly knowing Kazusa and his feelings towards each other. In the end, she accepts that he has always loved Kazusa, but still comforts Haruki when he cries over Kazusa leaving. Setsuna is a very complex character as she can be seen as the main villain of the story depending on your point of view. She is beautiful and friendly when approached, yet places a wall between herself and others so she has no close friends. She refrains from making friends due to her troubled past during her years in middle school. However, she is this way precisely because she was consecutively voted as the prettiest girl in the school, and her classmates all expect her to be a fashionable, wealthy young lady. She shows great understanding after she knows that Haruki betrayed her, and she blames it all on herself. She decides to take whole responsibility and acts strong in front of Haruki and putting up fronts in general.  

Kazusa Touma (冬馬 かずさ, Tōma Kazusa)

Voiced by: Hitomi NabatameKazusa Touma is the secondary heroine and the most prominent love rival. In the anime she is ascended as the main heroine. She is a third year student at Houjou and is in the same class as Haruki. She often dozes off in, is late for, and skips class. She is a very talented pianist, and comes from a wealthy family. She is sometimes cruel to Haruki, but in the end, they both confess their feelings for each other. Kazusa is the daughter of a famous pianist, and a musical genius who dropped out of Houjou's music division. She is particularly annoyed with Haruki, who has been persistently pestering her for the past half year. However, once Haruki befriends her, she is an valuable ally for the cultural festival. When it comes to music, her passion and confidence is unrivaled. Although she isn't the main heroine, Kazusa True Ending is considered the canon ending for the series, something uncommon for an eroge visual novel, when the main heroine is always the benefited.

Io Mizusawa (水沢 依緒, Mizusawa Io)

Voiced by: Ikumi NakagamiIo is a classmate of Setsuna's and used to be the captain of the basketball team. Io was in the same class as Haruki during first year although the two of have known each other since junior high.

Takeya Iizuka (飯塚 武也, Iizuka Takeya)

Voiced by: Takuma TerashimaTakeya is a close friend of Haruki and is the president of the light music club. Takeya plays the guitar and is surprisingly popular with girls.

Introductory Chapter

The story of Introductory Chapter begins around the second half of October with Haruki Kitahara and Takeya Iizuka troubled over the fact that all the band members they gathered for the school festival have left. After a bit of hard work, Setsuna Ogiso and Kazusa Touma are recruited into the club. With Haruki, the three of them play together at the school festival. They perform Yuki Morikawa's "White Album", Rina Ogata's "Sound of Destiny", and an original song named "Todokanai Koi". When the day draws to an end, Setsuna finds Haruki and then confesses to him and the two of them start going out together.

Some time later, Setsuna decides to host a birthday party at her place. While en route to Setsuna's place, Haruki remembers how much Setsuna wanted Kazusa to attend and becomes concerned about whether Kazusa ever got the notice so he decides to go to Kazusa's place directly to see if she is around. What Haruki didn't know is that Setsuna hadn't invited Kazusa but instead was preparing the birthday party just for him while saying "just the 2 of us". Haruki finds Yōko Touma, Kazusa's mother, who tells Haruki that Kazusa will be living with her next month and that she will not make the party because her plane arrives an hour after it has started. Haruki goes to pick Touma at the airport and tries to convince Touma to go to the party. The two get into an argument and Kazusa runs away but not before the two confess their love for one another and Kazusa tells Haruki having him at hand yet never be able to have him had been a nightmare for her. Meanwhile, Setsuna is left alone on her birthday as she hadn't invited anyone but Haruki. Kazusa shows up to school one last time to tell Setsuna that she will be leaving for Vienna and then never returns to school again.

Kazusa does not show up to their school's graduation ceremony but when Haruki is told by Setsuna that Kazusa was at school at one point because she found a letter from Kazusa, Haruki runs all across the city looking for her. He goes home fruitless but receives a call from Kazusa and finds her standing near his house and the two of them reconcile and intercouse. On the next day, Setsuna convinces Haruki to go to the airport together to see Kazusa off even though it was such a cruel departure for him. Before she leaves Japan Kazusa and Haruki kiss.

Closing Chapter

This is the main part of White Album 2, talking about Haruki and Setsuna's university life. There are 4 routes available in this part (Koharu, Mari, Izumi and Setsuna); However, as the main heroine, Setsuna's route is connected to the Coda part. The story starts 3 years after Introductory Chapter. Even though Setsuna has been trying her best to become Haruki's girlfriend during all this time Haruki keeps avoiding her to the point that normally he doesn't even answer Setsuna's calls. Setsuna had chosen to study economics (even though she wanted to study english or literature) because she wanted to spend more time with Haruki. However, 1 year after Introductory Chapter Haruki takes another step in ignoring Setsuna by changing departments for that only purpose. That behaviour makes Setsuna enter into a depression and as Takeya (Haruki's best friend) says also makes her "cry like there's no tomorrow". If her daily efforts to reconcile are finally accepted by Haruki Setsuna achieves happiness as Haruki's girlfriend. Setsuna becomes able to sing again and together with Haruki perform a one-song concert at their university that is loved by everyone. Setsuna admits she's never been so happy in her entire life and it even becomes somewhat problematic for Haruki as she sometimes sings when they're kissing each other. However, if he chooses one of the side-heroines (Mari, Chiaki or Koharu) Setsuna sinks deeper into a depression.

Coda

The story started one year after Haruki's bachelor graduation. Haruki now works as a staff in a magazine agency. Haruki and Setsuna planned a Christmas trip to Strasbourg, France. However, Haruki accidentally found Kazusa needs help when he was on the street in the Christmas Eve. This made Haruki late to go to Church with Setsuna. The next day, Haruki realized that the person he was told to interview is Kazusa. After the interview, Kazusa decided to give her first domestic piano concert in Japan. Setsuna still hadn't get informed anything about this until (either) she see the magazine article written by Haruki (or Haruki told Setsuna prior to this, depending on choices made by the player). Since then, Setsuna decided not to contact Haruki anymore until she figure out a way to handle their relationship.

Yōko realized that she had leukemia (diagnosed by Dr. Takayanagi) and may have to live domestically for her rest of life. However, Yōko has her awareness of one thing: her daughter, Kazusa, is still not independent enough to handle her self-living due to her debilitated mood led from her expectations of Haruki. Yōko then decided to do something to let Kazusa either give up or actually date with Haruki. Yōko started cooperating with the magazine agency where Haruki works. This leads to Haruki's several arranged interview with Kazusa, including the interview arranged in Strasbourg. Yōko later asked Kazusa to move to the same apartment where Haruki lives and to be Haruki's new neighborhood. Note: 1) These are all out of Setsuna's awareness; 2) Haruki and Kazusa were kept secret from Yōko's medical condition at this moment.

Prior to Kazusa's incoming first domestic piano concert, the game process during this moment leaves several events and choices to the player (from Haruki's perspective), interfering the trend of incoming plots. Kazusa initially only wants Haruki to attend her concert. However, Haruki chose not to face the music (face the truth that it will be his last meeting with Kazusa) but to meet Setsuna (on her business trip to Ōsaka) instead.

Note: Based on the choices done prior to this point, Haruki will either propose to Setsuna or admit the truth about his recent interview with Kazusa. The first will lead to Kazusa's route, while the latter will lead to Setsuna's. However, even though the route has been settled at this point, there are two endings in each route and were still led from choices made prior to this point. Negative endings will be triggered if your route is of someone but has less responsibility rate (calculated by choices made priro to this point) on her.

Kazusa went crazy since she realized Haruki's absence, and she does not know Yōko's whereabouts. Actually, Yōko lost her consciousness and was sent to the hospital where Dr. Takayanagi works. Haruki found Kazusa which was absent-minded at her childhood residence for days. Haruki was hit several times immediately as soon as Kazusa realized that the visitor is Haruki. Later Kazusa calmed down a little and asked Haruki for a relationship of fake lovers (including having her on-site right now).

If Haruki accepted Kazusa's request, plus Haruki's prior proposal to Setsuna in Ōsaka, this will trigger Kazusa's negative ending: They run-away and living together for a period of time until Kazusa's second domestic concert. Kazusa finally realized that she has to face reality and stay away from Haruki (as Haruki is too hesitant on getting his proposal withdrawn from Setsuna, that leads to Kazusa's concern for Haruki's future. She realizes that with her Haruki will be most miserable and finally decides to give him to Setsuna as "only she can heal you, I cannot"). Note that the entire scenario of this route to this ending is explicit in the PC version of this game. After Kazusa's second domestic concert, Kazusa went back to Vienne. Haruki later decided to split up with Setsuna. However, Setsuna managed to be a part of his life and one year later they have already reconciled and Haruki is back to saying he loves Setsuna.

If Haruki rejected, a following multiple choice question appears to let Haruki explain the reason, leading to other endings (will be explained below) depending on everything you have chosen prior to this point.

If Haruki's reason is his love to Setsuna, plus his maximum responsibility rate to Kazusa till this point (certainly proposed to Setsuna in Ōsaka), this will go to Setsuna's negative ending (which is really short): Kazusa went crazy and immediately went back to Europe (cetainly no 2nd domestic concert). Haruki later married Setsuna even though Kazusa is still Haruki's "most fond of". This ending indicates that Haruki has lack of necessary courage to face his own heart.

If Haruki's reason is his love to Setsuna, plus his maximum responsibility rate to Setsuna till this point (certainly not proposed to Setsuna in Ōsaka), this will go to Setsuna's positive ending (will be addressed below).

Only if Haruki has his maximum responsibility rate to Kazusa till this point (certainly proposed to Setsuna in Ōsaka), Haruki could have a choice of reason: "unable to lie to Kazusa". This leads to Kazusa's positive ending (will be addressed below).

Kazusa chilled herself out and later started preparing her 2nd domestic piano concert. Haruki later met Yōko at the hospital and was informed about Yōko's medical situation. Haruki then work as Yōko's vice secretary for a while, plus his previously arranged work of continuing interviewing Kazusa (with certain help on managing her daily lives). Apparently, Kazusa and Haruki went back to normal friends. However, one night while they were having supper:

In Setsuna True route, Kazusa asked Haruki about what was going on with her mom Yōko. She assumed that Haruki didn't tell her the truth, and she later went to see Yōko during the midnight. Haruki run out searching for Kazusa's whereabouts when he woke up and realized Kazusa's absence.

In Kazusa True route, Haruki received Takeya's phone call. Takeya invited Haruki to their party celebrating Haruki's proposal to Setsuna. Note that Kazusa know nothing about such proposal until she heard such from the speaker phone. Kazusa suddenly went desperate and tried to run out of the apartment. Haruki tried his best to calm her down (to hinder Kazusa from knowing Yōko's medical situation, as what Yōko requested). Later, Haruki went sleep for a short while. Kazusa then went to see Yōko during the midnight.

Haruki woke up and realized Kazusa's absence. He then run out searching for Kazusa's whereabouts. Haruki later found Yōko (as informed by Yōko's prime secretary Kudō) in the hospital and was informed that Yōko lost her conscious in front of Kazusa, leading to Kazusa's awareness of Yōko's leukemia.

Haruki later made his judgement call:

In Setsuna True route, Setsuna takes the role of main character and Haruki step aside of the conflict by asking Setsuna to look after Kazusa. This makes Setsuna help Kazusa on facing her future livings. After a lot of drama between the heroines, they finally became friends again and start cooperating on their EP album with Haruki. Kazusa admits she loves Haruki deeply and that she will never be able to fall in love with someone else. Even so she gives Haruki her blessing as he has decided to be with Setsuna. Later Haruki proposes to Setsuna and eases her mind by telling her he will always be friends with Kazusa (nothing more). Even though Setsuna has a short outburst towards Haruki she also says he is "the person I love the most". After telling him how cruel he had been and how much she had been suffering all the time because of him she accepts, leading to their final marriage. Kazusa later decides to stay in Japan to take care of her mom Yōko.

In Kazusa True route, Haruki decided to detour his life towards Kazusa. Haruki and Kazusa struggled with their sense of guilt. She once intended to run back to Europe as she feels Haruki would be miserable if he stayed with her, but she later went back from the airport. After the request of terminating his proposal with Setsuna on the Valentine's Day, he decided to tell the truth (which would make him cut his ties with them) to both the Ogiso family and his friends who support Setsuna. Ogiso Akina realized that her daughter Setsuna was failing to handle her daily matters. Ogiso Susumu (Setsuna's dad) thought that he had to talk with Haruki. Akina asked Tomo (one of Setsuna's friends) to get out for a dinner to avoid seeing Susumu and Haruki's meeting. Haruki concealed the truth of what had happened with Kazusa and Yōko and just said that his change of mind was the only reason of the proposal withdrawal. Ogiso Takahiro eavesdropped on this meeting, leading to his rage against Haruki. Haruki got beaten fiercely by Takahiro when he was about to leave. Setsuna realized what was going on and ran back to home but failed to find Haruki on site. She grabbed the medic box, ran out, and finally found Haruki on the street. She healed Haruki's wounds even though Haruki refused that. Later, Setsuna asked whether she could still be friends with him and Kazusa and Haruki asserted its impossibility. Haruki later went back to his apartment. Next day, Haruki went to the farewell party held by his colleagues (as they know that Haruki is about to resign his job and going to Vienne); meanwhile, Kazusa concealed her meeting with Setsuna from Haruki. Kazusa almost mutilate her hands (as what she think "recompense") but got immediately prevented by Setsuna. This made Setsuna see how serious Kazusa was to be with Haruki. Setsuna later walked alone on the street in a totally desperated mood and got hit by a car; however, she just kept walking away and wandering on the street. Next day, Haruki couldn't go to Kazusa's 2nd domestic piano concert due to a sudden interrogative call from Mizusawa Io (one of Setsuna's friends) claiming Setsuna's missing. Haruki later successfully contacted Setsuna on the phone and found Setsuna at where they had initially recovered their relationship during their university life. It was the bridge she held so dear in her heart as he had promised Setsuna he would forget about Kazusa and start a new life as a couple with her. Setsuna accepted her fate and blessed Haruki's future life. After Haruki's leave, Setsuna lost her consciousness and fell onto the snowy ground but got rescued by his family (note that Setsuna already phoned her family about her whereabouts). Three months later, Haruki terminated his contract with his landlord and went back to Vienne with Kazusa. Kazusa said farewell to Yōko at Narita airport. Kazusa had confessed her true feelings to Haruki, saying he made her "the happiest girl in the world". She says that it had caused Setsuna to become "the most miserable girl in the world", but even if it causes misfortune to everyone she will still relish in it from the bottom of her heart. The last two phrases of her confession told Haruki that having him return to her side had made her the happiest she's ever been in her entire life and she deeply thanks him for that. 2 years afterwards Haruki finds in his email a video message where a depressed Setsuna is singing while playing Haruki's guitar (in closing chapter it was shown she needs Haruki to sing). She had spent that time learning how to play his guitar but unlike her usual love song for Haruki "unreachable love" this time she sings a love song devoid of hope which focuses on the past (she says "I still love you" and that she will never forget the first time they kissed and how gentle he always was with her). It should be noted that this ending is not available until the current game configuration has any record of finished Kazusa Negative Ending (i.e. you have to finish Kazusa's negative ending prior to Kazusa's positive ending). The story continues in "Mini After Story".

Mini After Story

This is a fan disc with two mini stories which serves as sequels for the two true routes.

Haruki and Kazusa already lived together in Europe for 3 years and came back to Japan to have Christmas Eve with Yōko. They went and saw lots of place memorable to them. They realized Yōko tried her best to ask Ogiso family and Setsuna's friends for forgiveness during these years. Kazusa finally realized the essence of her relationship with her mom Yōko. Haruki and Kazusa later finished their wedding ceremony at where they initially met each other (the piano classroom of the high school where they were), plus celebrations from their common high school and university friends.

Development

The director, artist, and character designer for White Album 2 is Takeshi Nakamura who had previously worked on Leaf's other games such as December When There Is No Angel and the PlayStation 3 port of Tears to Tiara. The scenario for White Album 2 is written by Fumiaki Maruto and Kikakuya. The pair has worked together before on other visual novels such as Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku o. The producer for White Album 2 is Naoya Shimokawa.

According to Shimokawa, Maruto was the one who came up with the original design and concept for White Album 2. After hearing the details from Maruto, Shimokawa felt that Maruto may be able to create a game that surpassed the original and decided to run with the idea. When Nakamura was told that he would be the artist for the game, he went to speak with Hisashi Kawata, the artist for the original White Album, Kawata stated that he wanted to see the painful winter images that Nakamura would create. Nakamura admits that because White Album 2 is a sequel that he does feel some pressure about the work. Despite being busy with Kimi ga Yobu, Megido no Oka de and the PlayStation 3's Tears to Tiara, Nakamura went ahead and created the character designs for the game even though no one had asked him for them.

When asked about the release date of the second part of the game, Shimokawa stated that it would be nice to release it some time during the winter season to align with the feelings that the title "White Album" evokes. Shimokawa believes that the scenario should be all complete by then and that it would come down to whether the art is completed in time or not. Unlike December When There is No Angel where there were two artists, Nakamura is alone this time and has to work on both the heroines and the supporting characters, making it a rather big effort.

Release history

A preorder campaign for Introductory Chapter began on September 25, 2009. Preorders that were received within an unspecified time period received a chibi model figure of Setsuna Ogiso. Both the limited and regular editions of Introductory Chapter was originally planned to be released on February 26, 2010 but it was delayed, Introductory Chapter officially went gold on March 12, 2010 and was then released two weeks later on March 26, 2010. The limited edition of the game includes a hardcover novel with it. The novel is named Yuki ga Toke, Soshite Yuki ga Furu Made (雪が解け、そして雪が降るまで), and was written by Maruto and illustrated by Nakamura. The novel that comes with Introductory Chapter is told from a different perspective. The novel that comes with Closing Chapter is a story set between the events of Introductory Chapter and the second game. Closing Chapter was released on December 22, 2011.

Drama CD

A drama CD entitled Matsuri no Mae: Futari no 24 Jikan (祭りの前～ふたりの24時間～) was released on August 13, 2010 during Comiket 78. The script was written by Fumiaki Maruto and the illustrations were done by Takeshi Nakamura. A short novel was also included in the drama CD. The premise of the drama CD was about the day before the school festival. Haruki Kitahara, Setsuna Ogiso, and Kazusa Touma are voiced by Takahiro Mizushima, Madoka Yonezawa, and Hitomi Nabatame respectively.

Anime

A 13-episode television series anime adaptation of White Album 2 was announced in the May 2013 issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Newtype magazine. Masaomi Ando directed the series at studio Satelight. Fumiaki Maruto, the scenario writer for the original games, supervised and wrote the series' scripts and composer Naoya Shimokawa served as the music producer for the anime. The series aired in Japan between October 5 and December 28, 2013, on Tokyo MX and on MBS, TVA, BS11 and AT-X later. Crunchyroll streamed the series with English subtitles.

Music

Introductory Chapter has three theme songs, the opening theme "Todokanai Koi" (届かない恋), the ending theme "Twinkle Snow", and the insert song "After All ~Tsuzuru Omoi~" (After All ~綴る想い~). Both the opening theme and insert song is sung by Rena Uehara. The ending theme is performed by Akari Tsuda. Shinya Ishikawa composed both "Todokanai Koi" and "After All: Tsuduru Omoi" while Junya Matsuoka composed "Twinkle Snow". Matsuoka handled the arrangement of "Todokanai Koi" and Michio Kinugasa arranged "Twinkle Snow" and "After All: Tsuduru Omoi". A CD single containing all three songs was released on May 26, 2010. The single peaked at 65th place in Oricon's rankings for one week.

The opening theme to Closing Chapter, "Shiawase na Kioku" (幸せな記憶), was also sung by Rena Uehara.

The anime series uses "Todokanai Koi '13" (届かない恋 '13) as the opening theme and "Closing '13" and "Sayonara no Koto" (さよならのこと) as ending themes, all three performed by Rena Uehara.

Reception

Introductory Chapter tied for second place in bishōjo game preorders in Japan between the months of December 2009 and January 2010. It was the second most widely sold PC game in March 2010 on Getchu.com.