HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

is a trilogy of Japanese
adult An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...
visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...
s developed by the visual novel company
Leaf A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...
for the
Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
PC, and is the sequel to Leaf's earlier visual novel, ''
White Album White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
''. 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 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
version combining both chapters published by
Aquaplus , formally and , is a Japanese company which specializes primarily in the publishing and distribution of visual novels, including both adult games under their brand Leaf and games for all ages under Aquaplus's own brand. Aquaplus has been involv ...
was released in 2012 and ported for
PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita, or Vita) is a handheld video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in North America, Europe, and other international territo ...
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 is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
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

; : :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. He dates and loves Setsuna, but eventually Kazusa Touma shows her true feelings for him, and Haruki reveals that he loves her too. Haruki plays second guitar. A student with excellent grades, who's 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 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. 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. ; : :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 Haruki, but is in truth in love with him before the events of the series begin. Once Haruki befriends her, she is a valuable ally for the cultural festival. When it comes to music, her passion and confidence is unrivaled. ; : :Io 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 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.


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. From that point, the plot and feelings of the characters evolve. After Introductory Chapter, the story continues with "Closing Chapter", "Coda" (which was sold along with "Closing Chapter") and, at the end, "After Story", which completes the story as an epilogue. The story has been also expanded with CD Drama and novels.


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 is a Japanese adult visual novel developed and published by Leaf. The game was released in both CD-ROM and DVD formats on September 26, 2003. Characters * is the game's protagonist. Although he is an unfriendly and relatively volatile youn ...
'' and the
PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
port of ''
Tears to Tiara is a Japanese adult tactical role-playing game developed by Leaf. It was first released for Windows on April 28, 2005 in Japan. Then it was followed by a 12-years-old-and-up version called released for the PlayStation 3 platform on July 1 ...
''. 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 is a Japanese adult visual novel produced by Giga, originally released on March 31, 2006. The game was ported to the PlayStation 2 in 2007, the PlayStation Portable in 2009, and the PlayStation Vita in 2015 came with additional content altho ...
''. 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 A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...
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 Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
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 , 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 Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...
titled was released on August 13, 2010 during
Comiket , more commonly known as or , is a semiannual ''doujinshi'' convention in Tokyo, Japan. A grassroots market focused on the sale of '' doujin'' (self-published) works, Comiket is a not-for-profit fan convention administered by the volunteer-ru ...
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 is a Japanese voice actor and singer. He is currently affiliated with Axlone. When voicing adult games, he is known as . Biography Mizushima is a former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force official. He entered the JGSDF Youth Technical School, a bo ...
,
Madoka Yonezawa is a Japanese voice actress and singer from Osaka Prefecture. Personal life On 30 August 2017, she announced her marriage and first baby. In 2020, she announced her second baby. Filmography Television animation ;2005 * ''Shuffle!'', Schoolgirl ...
, and Hitomi Nabatame respectively. After the release of the game, other drama CD have been published.


Print

A
light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a ''wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...
adaptation began releasing on March 16, 2013 under the title . The light novels were written by Masaya Tsukishima and illustrated by Takeshi Nakamura and Keiichirō Katsura. The series completed on September 12, 2014, with six volumes. A
manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
adaptation was created and illustrated by 2C=Galore. The manga began serialization on July 11, 2013 in the ''GA Bunko Magazine'' and was compiled into four volumes.


Anime

A 13-episode television series
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
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 is a Japanese animation studio. Aside from several stand-alone projects, the studio is well known for producing the '' Aquarion'' and '' Symphogear'' franchises, as well as later installments of the ''Macross'' franchise. The company's Represen ...
. 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 JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...
and on
MBS MBS may refer for: People * Mohammed bin Salman (born 1985), crown prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia * Mohan Bikram Singh (born 1935), Nepalese politician Places * MBS International Airport (IATA code: MBS), Freeland, Michigan, US * Mari ...
,
TVA The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a Federal government of the United States, federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, an ...
, BS11 and AT-X later.
Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and tel ...
streamed the series with English subtitles.


Music

''Introductory Chapter'' has three theme songs, the opening theme , the ending theme "Twinkle Snow", and the insert song . Both the opening theme and insert song is sung by
Rena Uehara is a female Japanese singer-songwriter originally from Hyogo, Japan and now residing in Osaka. She is known for performing theme songs for OVAs of ''Utawarerumono'' and ''To Heart 2''. She has also done the opening for ''White Album 2 ...
. 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 , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...
's rankings for one week. White Album 2's soundtrack has been deeply praised, along with its connection with the plot. The soundtrack is composed by different composers, such as Naoya Shimokawa, Shinya Ishikawa and Michio Kinugasa, with songs sung by Madoka Yonezawa (Setsuna Ogiso), Rena Uehara and Tsuda Akari. In addition, many CD's with different versions of the songs 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, with songs of the visual novel sung by Kazusa Touma (Hitomi Nabatame), one of the heroines of the game. The opening theme to ''Closing Chapter'', , was also sung by Rena Uehara. The anime series uses as the opening theme and "Closing '13" and as ending themes, all three performed by Rena Uehara.


Reception

''Introductory Chapter'' tied for second place in
bishōjo game A or , is "a type of Japanese video game centered on interactions with attractive girls". ''Bishōjo'' games are similar to ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' books in the way of narrative, in which the game tells a story but the player may make ...
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. According to Polygon, Famitsu gave White Album 2 (PS3 version) a 37/40, being the top scorer of the week and beating New Super Mario Bros. U.


References


External links


Official website of ''Introductory Chapter''



Anime's official website
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:White Album 2 2010 video games 2011 video games Bishōjo games Eroge GA Bunko Japan-exclusive video games Medialink Music in anime and manga PlayStation 3 games PlayStation Vita games Romance anime and manga Romance video games Satelight Video games developed in Japan Video game sequels Visual novels Windows games Aquaplus games