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White Album 2

type	TV series
director	Seiya Numata (Chief) Masaomi Andō
producer	Yūsuke Morii
writer	Fumiaki Maruto
music	Shuntarō Kobayashi
studio	Satelight
network	Tokyo MX, MBS, TVA, BS11, AT-X
first	October 6, 2013
last	December 29, 2013
episodes	13
episode list	#Anime

White Album 2 (ホワイトアルバム2) is a trilogy of Japanese adult visual novels developed by the visual novel company Leaf for the Microsoft Windows PC, and is the sequel to Leaf's earlier visual novel, White Album.[1] The first part of the series, named White Album 2: Introductory Chapter, was released on March 26, 2010.

The second part in the series is named White Album 2: Closing Chapter[2] and was released on December 22, 2011.[3] An all-ages PlayStation 3 version combining both chapters published by Aquaplus was released in 2012 and ported for PlayStation Vita in 2013.

A White Album 2 - Mini-After Story epilogue was released for Windows in 2014. White Album 2: Extended Edition, combining both chapters and the epilogue was released in 2018, also for Windows. The gameplay of White Album 2 follows a linear plotline which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction. An anime television series adaptation aired in Japan between October and December 2013.

Plot

White Album 2 takes place in the same initial setting as its predecessor, Hōjō High School, with approximately ten years having elapsed since the events of the first White Album.[4]

Introductory Chapter begins during the second half of October.[5] The story follows third-year Haruki Kitahara, an amateur guitar player who becomes friends with two beautiful girls in his grade: the cheerful aspiring singer and school idol Setsuna Ogiso, and the taciturn pianist Kazusa Touma. Haruki is part of the school's band club, but he and fellow club member Takeya Iizuka become over the fact that all the band members they gathered for the school festival have left.[6] Haruki eventually manages to recruit both girls to also join the band. The trio quickly become best friends, only for both girls to fall desperately in love with Haruki, who shares the sentiments. The band has their first and only performance at the school cultural festival, where They perform Yuki Morikawa's "White Album",[7] Rina Ogata's "Sound of Destiny", and an original song named "Todokanai Koi".[8][9] When the day draws to an end, Setsuna finds Haruki and confesses to him, and the two of them start going out together.[10] Although Kazusa claims to be supportive of the relationship, she slowly begins to drift apart from the other two. Noticing this, Haruki acts on his feelings for Kazusa, leading to Haruki standing up Setsuna on her birthday, and later to him sleeping with Kazusa. Shortly afterwards, Kazusa moves to Europe and Haruki breaks up with Setsuna, the three going their separate ways. Introductory Chapter is linear and thus has no alternate scenarios.

Closing Chapter begins three years after the events of Introductory Chapter.[2] Haruki, now a university student, tries to move on with his life only for Setsuna to re-emerge, and their latent feelings flare up again. Haruki has three possible love interests in addition to Setsuna: Chiaki Izumi, a student in Haruki's class; Mari Kazaoka, Haruki's boss; and Koharu Sugiura, a new third-year at Hōjō.

Coda takes place two years after Setsuna's Closing Chapter route, where she and Haruki are engaged but live in separate cities for work. Kazusa soon returns to Japan, and she and Haruki rekindle their friendship with the lingering desire for more. There are three possible endings: "Setsuna True", where Haruki re-affirms his love for Setsuna, marrying her and having a child together; "Kazusa True", where Haruki and Kazusa rekindle their affair but choose to be more honest, eventually getting married at Hōjō; and "Kazusa Normal", a bad ending where Haruki and Kazusa's affair ends with Haruki ruining his relationships with both women permanently.

"After Story", a collection of bonus chapters, completes the story as an epilogue. The story has been also expanded with CD Drama and novels.

Characters

Haruki Kitahara (北原春希)
The protagonist of White Album 2, he is a third year student at Hōjō High School and a member of the light music club and has excellent grades. Haruki plays second guitar and is a student with excellent grades, but is meddlesome and preachy. Lately he's been concentrating on practicing the guitar for the school festival, but he's not talented enough to go on stage.

Setsuna Ogiso (小木曽雪菜)
Setsuna Ogiso is the first 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 Hōjō High School and has been Miss Hōjō two years in a row and enjoys singing karaoke. 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, but 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.

Kazusa Touma (冬馬かずさ)
Kazusa Touma is the second main heroine. She is a third year student at Hōjō 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. Kazusa is the daughter of a famous pianist, and a musical genius who dropped out of Hōjō's music division. She puts on a hostile and dismissive front towards everyone. Once Haruki befriends her, she is a valuable ally for the cultural festival. When it comes to music, her passion and confidence is unrivaled.[11]

Io Mizusawa (水沢依緒)
Io is a classmate of Setsuna's and used to be the captain of the basketball team.[12] Io was in the same class as Haruki during first year[12][13] although the two of have known each other since junior high.[13]

Takeya Iizuka (飯塚武也)
Takeya is a close friend of Haruki and is the president of the light music club.[5][12] Takeya plays the guitar[14] and is surprisingly popular with girls.[5]

Development

The director, artist, and character designer for White Album 2 is Takeshi Nakamura[2] who had previously worked on Leaf's other games such as December When There Is No Angel[15] and the PlayStation 3 port of Tears to Tiara. The scenario for White Album 2 is written by Fumiaki Maruto and Kikakuya.[16] The pair has worked together before on other visual novels such as Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku o.[17] The producer for White Album 2 is Naoya Shimokawa.[4]

According to Shimokawa, Maruto was the one who came up with the original design and concept for White Album 2.[4] 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.[4] 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.[18]

Nakamura admits that because White Album 2 is a sequel that he does feel some pressure about the work.[18] 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.[18]

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.[15] 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.[15] 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.[15]

Release history

A preorder campaign for Introductory Chapter began in September 2009.[19] Preorders that were received within an unspecified time period received a chibi model figure of Setsuna Ogiso.[15][19] Both the limited and regular editions of Introductory Chapter were originally planned to be released on February 26, 2010, but was delayed to March 26.[20][16] The limited edition of the game includes a hardcover novel with it.[15][19]

White Album 2

Gameplay

Plot

Characters

Development

Release history

Adaptations

Drama CD

Print

Anime

Music

Reception

External links

References