Actually it’s a show about performing in front of tadpoles.

I watched WA1 (starring Hirano Aya as one of the LIs prior to her sexy scandal) when it came out in 2009, and it was a piece of shit. The main character possibly took some sort of inspiration from John Lennon; he formed the antithesis to most male harem leads, making it his life goal to sleep with as many females as possible, morals be damned. The show was so bad that I dropped it after he inexplicably seduced the fourth woman, and I didn’t think anything of the matter.

Then 2013 rolled around, and it was announced that WA2 would be getting an anime adaptation. No big deal, you say. Well, WA2 is actually one of the highest rated visual novels in the history of ever (on the VN version of imdb, anyway). Of course, the Japanese never made a decent video game that didn’t involve trapping animals in tiny balls, but the fact that this game managed to get an adaptation did pique my interest a teeny tiny bit. So, here we are.

PLOT

You say that, but you appear to have a severe case of late 90s art syndrome.

Aside from being a show about K-On a high-school light music club, WA2 is, like WA1, a harem show. We’re introduced to all of the main players/LIs straightaway. We have Setsuna, school idol and singer. Kazusa, sleepy quiet longblackhair girl (and presumably the prodigy piano player). And finally there is Io, the irrelevant tomboy childhood friend.

You look so goddamn smug right now, but we all know you’re gonna lose.

Straightaway the promise of lots and lots of drama is established. Does it even count as foreshadowing when they slap you over the face with it like a wet trout? I mean the writers basically came out and said “we three comrades will in the future no longer be comrades because we can’t decide who gets to take possession of Haruki’s penis”. Oh well, it’s not like I picked up this show for the promise of stimulating intellectual debate.

THOUGHTS AND FEELS

It’s almost like every show with more than 2 girls MUST have a character with a hime cut.

Given the abysmal disappointment that was White Album 1 (can it be a disappointment if there was no expectation in the first place is what I’d like to know), WA2 was surprisingly…not that bad. Sure, the art and animation looks like ti was done by some third-rate studio. However, the MC is actually not some spineless wimp/oblivious retard/sex-crazed teenager. He’s actually portrayed as a regular, confident, outgoing highschool kid. Never thought Japan would be capable of that feat.

Naisu jobbu, Nippon.

It really is too bad the art is so abysmally bad. Trainwreck dramas have always been a guilty pleasure of mine (see: Kimi ga Nozomu Eien), so I guess y’all can stay tuned to see what I think of episode 2.