White Album 2 Mini After Story Download EXCLUSIVE
Holli Perico
What more could you possibly ask for? You could have been the victim of cruel injustice, degraded to less than human, made to suffer without meaning or dignity, but this is the peak of love and beauty. I think what happens to them is a very beautiful thing. They make white flowers bloom and heaven lingers in the notes of their sadness. Yes, this is not a tragedy, as tragedies are sad, and WA2 is a story of overflowing joy.
1.e: I do think that the way these characters are constructed reveal a deep understanding of why people love one another. I believe that Setsuna is the more romantic choice though. Kazusa is more high class* and refers to a more sterile way of life. Haruki\u2019s relationship with Kazusa is more distanced, and it\u2019s kind of like a servant/master relationship. Either way, it\u2019s mastery in simplicity. As another example, Haruki has a child with Setsuna as shown in the mini after story of her route, but with Kazusa that\u2019s not a possibility. That\u2019s why I think you can\u2019t really enjoy the story unless you find yourself agonizing over who Haruki should end up with. His relationships with both of them are selfless and selfish in many different ways that there is no objective choice \u2014 that it becomes art. It becomes pure preference, a matter of seeing yourself in it. This is what people tend to miss when they argue about which heroine is better, because your reasoning for why your favorite heroine is objectively better, also applies to the other heroine in another way. It\u2019s not like Oregairu where neither of the main heroines are likable and the obvious choice is the white-haired guy.
2: A story where one side is good and the other bad is like one line of white laundry and another line of black laundry: boring. It\u2019s like a laundry list of facts, with the author telling you what to think. But a story where everyone\u2019s good and there\u2019s no easy resolution to the difficulty, speaks to something more profound and fundamental about human existence and feelings. A story in which everyone did their absolute best, loved one another, and yet they all suffered is tremendously captivating. WHITE ALBUM 2 is a story where three people find themselves brought closer together by the beauty of their pain. It appeals to a certain sense of romanticism. What good is all this suffering if it could have been avoided so easily? What meaning is there in it? Wouldn\u2019t it make you an idiot to suffer in that case? It's a waste of emotions. In WA2, everyone is equally at sin. Kazusa is a little bit less sinful in this predicament though, which I think makes up for her being kind of a flat character, compared to Haruki and Setsuna (see item 1.a). Haruki and Setsuna are active players whereas she is more passive.
Setsuna CC is my favorite part of the visual novel, because not only does it bring an end to 3 years of stagnation, but it also shows how something that seems very inconsolable can change with enough time and effort. It's the part where, after three long years of winter in their hearts, spring finally ushers in fresh life and new hope. Something that once seemed impossible changes before their very eyes. It\u2019s not only the end of pain, but it\u2019s also the beginning of something new. They finally come together to lift the white blanket thrown silently over their sad thoughts, and it is what Kazusa wished for them when she left.
I\u2019m still split on whether it was the wrong decision to spare Kazusa's mom from her cancer. Her death would have sullied the story's pure white hue, but otherwise, Kazusa\u2019s vegetative state would be pointless. And if you introduced it, you would have a great drama in your hands. Imagine Kazusa\u2019s mom dying in Setsuna True, yet Haruki still choosing Setsuna. It would be just as powerful as Kazusa True. I think Maruto didn\u2019t feel like he could pull it off, so he stayed away from it. This may be the greatest flaw of WA2. It could have been better, but it\u2019d also go against Setsuna True, Setsuna\u2019s happy dream. It\u2019d be almost like she wished for Kazusa\u2019s mom to die. I really don\u2019t know. But my ultimate verdict is that Maruto probably thought he couldn\u2019t pull off such a story.
KNE + EE is a death that occurs after two consequential betrayals. Haruki and Kazusa decide to kill themselves and the world. Their melodies are at their softest and sweetest, falling faster than ever. It is the story of a solitary countermelody finding its melody, going mad with her, and in the process becoming so entangled and in accord that they form a chaotic but beautiful orchestra in solitude. It\u2019s a suicide on their part, but it hurts Setsuna most. More deeply than they wound themselves, they wound Setsuna. They plunge the same knife they used five years ago into her heart, and this time they do not withdraw it quickly, but linger and twist it, as if to make sure of something. And this time she has done nothing to deserve it. And this time she's entirely sinless. Her sins have been paid for by those miserable 3 years. Yet, despite the two crushing betrayals from her most loved ones, Setsuna\u2019s love for Haruki is the only thing that survives all of the misery in the end. Her love for Haruki is so strong and so pure that it survives even the end of the world. Even after they end the world and everything in it, Setsuna\u2019s love for Haruki doesn\u2019t die. Even the heavens weep crystal tears of sorrow, but her love comes back to life after 5 days, and it keeps on breathing. This is more powerful than how Kazusa didn\u2019t lose Haruki in her heart for 5 years imo. (see item 1)
KNE + EE resets the whole thing by first accelerating and then taking the realism to the extreme \u2014 it's the ending that removes the curse of WHITE ALBUM from existence once and for all. All of it is rewritten, and the problem is never going to appear again. From now on no one will have to suffer like they did. That\u2019s right. It has happened once. It has happened twice. Countless times, it happened. But now it will never happen again. This route destroys a future WHITE ALBUM 3 that could have been. It rewrites reality and the nature of existence. It leaves nothing sacred. It is a very good story, but its brilliance is more as a story rather than as a love story, because it destroys everything in its pursuit of happiness, including love. It erases everything that had ever happened, everything that could ever happen, and then they start anew. After pushing it to the limit, after they try their hardest to destroy everything, only Setsuna\u2019s love survives. But it is not enough, because for it to be a good love story her love should be matched with equal intensity.
Haruki True is a very good love story, but it undermines Setsuna CC in execution, yet it doesn\u2019t stand on its own, so I wouldn\u2019t call it a good story in the general sense. Also Haruki still loves Setsuna deep inside after Kazusa True. There is basically no ending where Kazusa actually wins, whereas through Mari route in CC there is an open possibility shown for Setsuna to find love again. At first, I thought Coda was Kazusa\u2019s part of the game, just as CC was Setsuna\u2019s part, but now I think it is Setsuna\u2019s part. The entire thing is meant to be a stage for Setsuna.
My favorite part of the story was Closing Chapter. For the longest time, I thought that a true fan would have Coda over CC, but I'm not so sure now. Haruki starts off in CC in a state of misery, working himself to the bone, trying to look away from his sins. And in every side route, he quickly finds love again with somebody else. He breaks free from the chains that are his sins, and things change. He\u2019s like a prisoner who is thought to be dead after an accident, but who has actually escaped. He has learned from his mistakes, and he is now free to shape his story in any way he wants. Closing Chapter contains a very high concentration of hope. And then, as if that wasn\u2019t enough, we see that all of those side routes were just mere build-up, and we get to the relentless monster that is the Setsuna route. Haruki and Setsuna try to mend their shattered relationship, trying to overcome their betrayal and hurt, trying to rebuild what they once had. As a whole, Closing Chapter shows that even when things seem hopeless, even when everything falls apart, even when we make mistakes that we can\u2019t take back, there\u2019s still a chance for love, there\u2019s still a chance for a happy ending. This applies to even how Tomo replaces Kazusa as Setsuna\u2019s best friend. And CC generally subverts IC, but in Setsuna CC that completely shifts, and all of the side girls inspire him in getting back together with Setsuna. They all come together to drive the situation in the exact opposite direction from their own routes. They come together without even knowing each other. It is really, incredibly powerful. For these reasons, I\u2019d say that Kazusa carries Closing Chapter.
Also I am retracting my statements. The decision to spare Youko Touma was probably the correct decision. It was for the best that the story stayed white. Her death wouldn\u2019t have matched the story in many ways, and it would certainly be for the worse. Maruto could probably pull off such a story in his WHITE ALBUM mode. It\u2019s amazing how he woke up one day and decided to write this story when the rest of his work doesn\u2019t even compare. He knew he was composing his magnum opus. That said, WA2 gets held back by itself. I was very scared that Kazusa was going to come back with a little Haruki in Coda. Holy disaster. Or what if she had gotten an abortion? Or the fear during CC when Setsuna disappeared after going to a mixer. But while it gets held back by itself, it is for good reason, which makes me think he may have another masterpiece left in him.
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