In my view, White Album 2 is very inconsistent. Some of the CC routes have questionable writing (such as Haruki's actions in Mari's route) and I don't really care about parts of the execution of one of the last routes' endings as it goes overboard with the point it is trying to make, beating the reader over the head with it. In addition, I have problems with another one of the last routes, but this time because of the themes it tries to communicate. I also think a couple of the routes were boring in terms of execution. And yet I still loved almost all of them.
Despite all of the issues in parts of the story, even at its lowest points, WA2 perseveres with pure emotion. There was no major chunk of the story where I didn't feel something, where I didn't feel like all the characters in the story had their layers and layers of complexity, where every action they took let me see another side of them.
That's the thing about White Album 2 — the characters behave like real human beings in this, more than in the vast majority of media, and it's astonishing. People's views of each other are not necessarily on the mark, in fact, they almost never are. Even if you are close to a person, your view of them is filtered through your own perceptions and biases. It is difficult to understand exactly what a person has been through.
Characters don't act logically in White Album 2, because love, and by extension, the human condition, are not logical. Being in love is emotional. Humans are complicated. The characters are often downright infuriating or pathetic at times, just like we all are from time to time. In many other works this kind of writing would be considered BS, because it is extremely difficult to pull off, but Maruto Fumiaki succeeds at doing this. I've never truly been in love, but WA2 is an example of what I expect it to be like.
The main trio of Haruki, Setsuna and Kazusa are characters that you just keep trying to figure out more and more as the novel goes on, with Setsuna perhaps being the most interesting character in the story, but even the side-heroines in the Closing Chapter and supporting cast such as Takeya have a lot to offer to the overall picture, from how the side heroines represent various aspects of the trio and their dynamic, to how characters such as Takeya view them and influence them.
Side note, but one thing I appreciate about this is that every member of the main cast in this is an adult, while looking and acting like one. It also lacks the more disgusting tropes you often see appear in eroge. Didn't feel icky reading this at all, even though an all-ages version exists only on consoles.
Boiling all my feelings on this down to a short review is truly impossible. What I recommend is to go read it and see for yourself, and experience one of the greatest fictional narratives of your life.
Despite all of the issues in parts of the story, even at its lowest points, WA2 perseveres with pure emotion. There was no major chunk of the story where I didn't feel something, where I didn't feel like all the characters in the story had their layers and layers of complexity, where every action they took let me see another side of them.
That's the thing about White Album 2 — the characters behave like real human beings in this, more than in the vast majority of media, and it's astonishing. People's views of each other are not necessarily on the mark, in fact, they almost never are. Even if you are close to a person, your view of them is filtered through your own perceptions and biases. It is difficult to understand exactly what a person has been through.
Characters don't act logically in White Album 2, because love, and by extension, the human condition, are not logical. Being in love is emotional. Humans are complicated. The characters are often downright infuriating or pathetic at times, just like we all are from time to time. In many other works this kind of writing would be considered BS, because it is extremely difficult to pull off, but Maruto Fumiaki succeeds at doing this. I've never truly been in love, but WA2 is an example of what I expect it to be like.
The main trio of Haruki, Setsuna and Kazusa are characters that you just keep trying to figure out more and more as the novel goes on, with Setsuna perhaps being the most interesting character in the story, but even the side-heroines in the Closing Chapter and supporting cast such as Takeya have a lot to offer to the overall picture, from how the side heroines represent various aspects of the trio and their dynamic, to how characters such as Takeya view them and influence them.
Side note, but one thing I appreciate about this is that every member of the main cast in this is an adult, while looking and acting like one. It also lacks the more disgusting tropes you often see appear in eroge. Didn't feel icky reading this at all, even though an all-ages version exists only on consoles.
Boiling all my feelings on this down to a short review is truly impossible. What I recommend is to go read it and see for yourself, and experience one of the greatest fictional narratives of your life.