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Now, I have seen a lot of anime, and have made it a goal to try and view the most soul-crushing ones. This was one of those magical shows that crushed me when I was done with it. It was one of the first bittersweet anime I had seen, and that scene at the airport was one of the more devastating finales, even more so than a great character dying in my opinion.

At first, when I was done, I was mad. I wanted to go back in time, and just say "This show was 12 episodes, I should never have watched that last one." I ... didn't rate it right away, but I couldn't sleep for thinking about it that night. It made my blood boil, I could not stop thinking about it all day and night. This made me realize, I had grown a deep attachment to the characters, in just twelve episodes. I was mad at Setsuna for making a move on Haruki after she had seen Kazusa's emotional outburst after the concert in the music room. I was frustrated with Haruki for needing to please everyone so bad, and getting himself into that situation in the first place. And I was pissed with Kazusa, that when she finally gets what she wants, she just flies away, leaving her 2 most important relationships behind.

This show touched me, and whenever I hear Powder Snow, White Album, opening, or closing, my heart breaks even more. But what made this show so great, was that they were real people.
They have realistic personalities. I just shoe Haruki into the 'Go with the flow' mentality. It's why he ends up coupled with Setsuna, in my opinion. The big 'character development' moment is Kazusa's confession. Both Haruki & Kazusa manage to overcome their specific character deficiencies in that scene.

While it sucks for Setsuna, it seemed like the most 'honest' moment of White Album 2. At that moment, both of them overcome their most crippling character defect, if you will. They both let down some pretty significant walls, and the passion that followed could be expected. Right/wrong and morality aside, I think that was the definitive scene for the whole show; the confession, and what it leads to. It all made me think, wow these could be real high schoolers.

WA2 is one of the best romance animes made in the last 20 years. That's not even hyperbole. You get the regular story through the first 9 or 10 eps, which is 7/10 or so at best. But then you hit the last 3 episodes, and everything changes. The series immediately jumps to 10/10.

The music, the sound, is incredible. Besides the sheer awesomeness of Haruhi Suzumiya's concert, this was the greatest anime concert I have had the pleasure of watching.

You don't need to watch White Album before this one, as White Album is really just the origin of the song "White Album." I had unfortunately seen the first one before and knew the story behind it. No spoilers for the first one, but it made it so much worse for me.

This is the only anime, to truly break me. For months after I had seen it, I could not get it out of my mind. I did not dare to put the soundtrack in the playlist, because I knew I would get into my feelings. I have never cried at an anime, but this was the closest.

So I beg of you, please, give this a try, and it will be one of the greatest, while traumatic and beautiful, choices of your life.

10/10

Kuzu no Honkai ("Scum's Wish") had interesting premises. As the title suggests, this series wanted to explore the mean, sick, selfish side of love. To portray an unidolized and more mature view on this subject, the author decided to focus on teenage highschool students. As a die-hard fan of both the White Album and White Album 2 series, of course, I was intrigued.

One point I want to address is how some believed that making the characters adults would have made the show more enjoyable, well believable. It made sense for them to be teenagers because the decisions they make are not mature at all. ... Having sex doesn't make you mature (one of the prevailing themes of Kuzu No Honkai), it's just an impulse and teenagers are impulsive. If the characters were adults it would be less believable because you'd expect people of that age to have already experienced heartbreak and to be able to move forward. Hanabi and Mugi's decision to use one another is sexual substitutes is utterly ridiculous and would only make sense in the mind of the immature who can't come to the grips with the fact that their ultimate desire doesn't want them back, and has to resort to an extreme to cope with the pain.

I figured Hanabi acted differently with Sanae in part because she's more comfortable with women than men. Her father abandoned her at a young age and that was instrumental in her behavior as an adolescent. I found her and Mugi to be brilliantly designed characters. I personally loved Kanai as well, even though he is the cliche knight in shining armor, he reminds me of my good friend, so a personal stake if you must.

Hanabi, Mugi, Sanae, and Noriko didn't just struggle with love; they didn't even know who they were as individuals. Their character arcs revolved around them coming to grips with their self-identity. It was uncomfortable, and in some ways disgusting to see them develop throughout the story. This disgust we felt is because we know this development for them is crucial and made the story all the more realistic. I am a firm believer that if an anime can make you feel these emotions such as disgust, and hatred, it has done its job.

There was a heavy atmosphere, actually unrequited love, and messed up youth relationships. I really like when shows are ready to go the extra mile and step out of the usual boundaries, in this case, the topic of sex (not the healthy kind). These unhealthy relationships were portrayed tremendously well and were done so well due to the setting of high school and teenagers. Teenagers do not know about love, it is at this age they truly start to learn about love. Some jump too far in, too fast in, as seen in some of our characters. Thus, they must learn and overcome these barriers.

Overall it was a 9/10 for me, but it all depends on your preference.