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This is a tricky one... Large amounts of negative reviews here almost kept me from watching, but I went ahead with it anyways. Spoilers included, b/c honestly knowing how it ends is the only thing to keep you watching.

The negative reviews aren't wrong, there are epic gaping flaws with this show; biggest in my opinion being pacing. It either needed to be a 24 episode run or cut out a lot of fat from what's there.

It ends the way you want it to, hero gets with best girl and all that. Problem is that the entire final arc of hero realizing ... he's with the wrong girl and trying to win back best girl GETS NO SCREEN TIME.

A full 1/3 or so of the entire narrative arc is compressed into the FINAL EPISODE. It's an abysmal, embarrassing trainwreck. It's like they were planning on 24 episodes but learned halfway through production there would only be 12.

Anyways best girl carries the show and is the only reason to watch.
Rival girl makes you angry, but that's what she's supposed to do. Protagonist isn't terrible but ends up seeming like a bad person at the end, but I think that's mainly because of the massive amount of narrative missing. If you imagine he spent much more time and effort trying to win back best girl, learning lessons about life and her background, the ending would feel justified.

It's a pity, this could have been a romance classic. Still recommend for love triangle fans.

Yes, it really is that good, and yes, the ending really is that depressing...

But that's why you need to watch it, and then head over to https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=White_Album_2 to learn how to buy the visual novel and install the English patch, because the anime only covers a third of the full story.

Coda (final third) hasn't been translated yet, but Closing Chapter (middle third) was recently completed, and adds immensely to the WA2 experience. Chiaki alone makes it worthwhile... but there's lots of good stuff to hold you over until Coda is finished. Don't spoil it by reading a summary. Just be patient.