White Album 2
White Album 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. 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 and was released on December 22, 2011. 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 plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction. An anime television series adaptation aired in Japan between October and December 2013.
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.The player's only interaction with the game during the "introductory chapter" and "mini after story" 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.
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. Introductory Chapter begins during the second half of October. Closing Chapter begins three years after the events of Introductory Chapter.Characters
;Haruki Kitahara;Setsuna Ogiso
;Kazusa Touma
;Io Mizusawa
;Takeya Iizuka
Story
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.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, 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.Adaptations
Drama CD
A drama CD entitled Matsuri no Mae: Futari no 24 Jikan 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. It adapted White Album 2: Introductory Chapter. 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", the ending theme "Twinkle Snow", and the insert song "After All ~Tsuzuru Omoi~". 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.
A really strong point on White Album 2 is music, since the plot is strongly connected to music. The soundtrack of White Album 2 is composed by many pieces and songs, composed by different composers, as Naoya Shimokawa, and sung by Madoka Yonezawa, Rena Uehara and Tsuda Akari. In addition, some CD's have been released since White Album 2: Introductory Chapter and Closing Chapter were released.
In 2017, a CD called "White Album 2: Soundtrack ~Kazusa~" was released, being composed by some songs of the visual novel sung by Kazusa Touma, one of the heroines of the game.
The opening theme to Closing Chapter, "Shiawase na Kioku", was also sung by Rena Uehara.
The anime series uses "Todokanai Koi '13" as the opening theme and "Closing '13" and "Sayonara no Koto" as ending themes, all three performed by Rena Uehara.