White Album 2

White Album 2 (ホワイトアルバム2, Howaito Arubamu 2) is a duology 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. The gameplay of White Album 2 follows a linear plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction. A television series anime adaptation aired in Japan between October and December 2013.

Gameplay

A scene in White Album 2 depicting the protagonist talking to Setsuna Ogiso. The text can be visible at the bottom and some controls and menus can be seen on the bottom right hand corner.

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. The player's only interaction with the game is to click a button to advance the game by rolling the next line of text onto 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.

Plot

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.^[4] Introductory Chapter begins during the second half of October.^[5] Closing Chapter begins three years after the events of Introductory Chapter.^[2]

Main Characters

Haruki Kitahara (北原 春希, Kitahara Haruki)

Voiced by: Takahiro Mizushima

The 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. ^[6] Haruki plays second guitar.^[6][7]

Kazusa Touma (冬馬 かずさ, Tōma Kazusa)

Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame

Touma is one of the two heroines of Introductory Chapter. Kazusa is a third year student at Hōjō High and is in the same class as Haruki. She often dozes off in, is late for, or skips class. She is a very talented pianist, and comes from a wealthy family. She is sometimes cruel to Haruki, but in the end, she admits she's been in love with him since the beginning, also. ^[8]

Setsuna Ogiso (小木曽 雪菜, Ogiso Setsuna)

Voiced by: Madoka Yonezawa

Setsuna is the other heroine of Introductory Chapter. Setsuna is a third year student at Hōjō High. She has been Miss Hōjō 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. ^[9] Setsuna likes singing "White Album", a song from the original White Album visual novel.^[4]

Io Mizusawa (水沢 依緒, Mizusawa Io)

Voiced by: Ikumi Nakagami

Io is a classmate of Setsuna's and used to be the captain of the basketball team.^[10] Io was in the same class as Haruki during first year^[10][11] although the two of have known each other since junior high.^[11]

Takeya Iizuka (飯塚 武也, Iizuka Takeya)

Voiced by: Takuma Terashima

Takeya is a close friend of Haruki and is the president of the light music club.^[5][10] Takeya plays the guitar^[12] and is surprisingly popular with girls.^[5]

Story

The story of Introductory Chapter begins around the second half of October^[5] with Haruki Kitahara and Takeya Iizuka troubled over the fact that all the band members they gathered for the school festival have left.^[13] 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.^[5] They perform Yuki Morikawa's "White Album",^[14] Rina Ogata's "Sound of Destiny", and an original song named "Todokanai Koi".^[15][16] When the day draws to an end, Setsuna finds Haruki and then confesses to him and the two of them start going out together.^[17]

Some time later, Setsuna decides to host a birthday party at her place.^[18] While en route to Setsuna's place, Haruki remembers how much Setsuna wanted Kazusa to attend^[19] 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 but instead finds Yōko Touma, Kazusa's mother, there. Yōko tells Haruki that Kazusa will be living with her next month^[20] 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.^[21] The two get into an argument^[22][23] and Kazusa runs away but not before the two confesses their love for one another. Kazusa shows up to school one last time to tell Setsuna that she will be leaving for Vienna^[24] 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,^[25] 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. On the next day, Setsuna convinces Haruki to go to the airport together to see Kazusa off.^[26]

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^[27] and the PlayStation 3 port of Tears to Tiara. The scenario for White Album 2 is written by Fumiaki Maruto and Kikakuya.^[28] The pair has worked together before on other visual novels such as Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku o.^[29] 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.^[30] Nakamura admits that because White Album 2 is a sequel that he does feel some pressure about the work.^[30] 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.^[30]

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.^[27] 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.^[27] 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.^[27]

Release history

A preorder campaign for Introductory Chapter began on September 25, 2009.^[31] Preorders that were received within an unspecified time period received a super deformed model figure of Setsuna Ogiso.^[27][31] Both the limited and regular editions of Introductory Chapter was originally planned to be released on February 26, 2010 but it was delayed,^[32] Introductory Chapter officially went gold on March 12, 2010^[28] and was then released two weeks later on March 26, 2010.^[32] The limited edition of the game includes a hardcover novel with it.^[27][31] 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.^[31] The novel that comes with Introductory Chapter is told from a different perspective.^[1] 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.^[3]

Adaptations

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.^[33] The script was written by Fumiaki Maruto and the illustrations were done by Takeshi Nakamura.^[33] A short novel was also included in the drama CD.^[33] The premise of the drama CD was about the day before the school festival.^[33] 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.^[34] Masaomi Ando directed the series at studio Satelight.^[35] 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.^[34][35] 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.^[36]

Episode list

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.^[33] The ending theme is performed by Akari Tsuda.^[33] Shinya Ishikawa composed both "Todokanai Koi" and "After All: Tsuduru Omoi" while Junya Matsuoka composed "Twinkle Snow".^[37] Matsuoka handled the arrangement of "Todokanai Koi" and Michio Kinugasa arranged "Twinkle Snow" and "After All: Tsuduru Omoi".^[37] A CD single containing all three songs was released on May 26, 2010.^[33] The single peaked at 65th place in Oricon's rankings for one week.^[38]

The opening theme to Closing Chapter, "Shiawase na Kioku" (幸せな記憶), was also sung by Rena Uehara.^[39]

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.^[40] It was the second most widely sold PC game in March 2010 on Getchu.com.^[41]

References

External links

• Official website of Introductory Chapter (Japanese)
• Official website of Closing Chapter (Japanese)
• Anime's official website (Japanese)
• White Album 2 (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia