To start to understand what makes White Album 2 tick one first has to look at the tsundere character archetype. Many anime fans can easily recognize a tsundere type character by their harsh outer demeanor that hides a caring and kindhearted nature underneath. Kazusa Touma is a textbook example of a tsundere. She was very curt with protagonist Haruki and constantly feigned disinterest in his affairs. Yet Kazusa was always looking out for Haruki and gave him a helping hand be that indirectly by urging him to evaluate his remaining time better or directly by helping him with his guitar practices. It's very easy to be lulled into the assumption that Kazusa also followed the other established trait for a tsundere, and that was the inability to be honest with themselves about their feelings for others. This seemed to be apparent when Kazusa gave Setsuna her blessing after her confession to Haruki in the first half of the show. Classic tsunderes, like Taiga from Toradora or Louise from Zero no Tsukaima, refused the feelings they felt towards their respective protagonists throughout the entirety of their series. It would be logical to conclude that Kazusa would follow a similar pattern. The viewer was made painfully aware that this was not the case in the closing act, however, and it's that previous misconception on the viewer's part that makes the gut punch hurt all the more.
Kazusa's breakdown in episode 10 hurt. Her line, "I get my heart ripped out in front of me everyday... And that's somehow my fault?!" was especially poignant. It showed that Kazusa was, and had been for a long time, fully aware of her feelings for Kazuki. The flashback sequence that followed showed just how deeply Kazusa cared for him, giving the viewer a glimpse of how she came to cherish the time she spent together with Haruki. Every scene and every minute of that flashback was like a slow, heavy blow to nail home the fact that her feelings were far from superficial. What Kazusa also treasured, though, was her friendship with Setsuna. So when Setsuna came to Kazusa to tell her she confessed to Haruki, Kazusa felt that she could bury her feelings if it meant the three of them could remain friends. But she was wrong. Catastrophically wrong.
Kazusa's mistake stemmed from the flawed assumption that Haruki held no feelings towards her. Unfortunately, Haruki also held the same assumption for Kazusa. He held her high on a pedestal and thought that someone who shined so brightly in his eyes could never think of him in such a way. Instead of simply burying his feelings like Kazusa, though, he tricked himself into thinking what he felt was great admiration towards his role model as a coping mechanism. If anything, Haruki was the one to fulfill the tsundere trait of not being honest with himself. Once again we're shown just how much Haruki enjoyed his time together with Kazusa from being given guitar lessons by her to his practice sessions with the "elite music student" (even though he didn't know it was Kazusa at the time). Yet because Haruki never admitted to himself that he liked Kazusa, he was vulnerable to when Setsuna came and confessed to him.
The night after the school festival performance, Haruki was still riding the high of emotions that had burst forth throughout the day. He reminisced about the work he and the girls put in to get to this high point in his life. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it was probably the single happiest time of his life. What happens when someone acts on those once-in-a-lifetime feelings he was experiencing? The suppressed feelings of the past came surging forth and mixed with the euphoric happiness he currently felt to come to a conclusion. Yes, I must like this girl in front of me. It's the only explanation for the emotions swirling inside of me. Setsuna knew that that would be the case. She knew that Haruki and Kazusa liked each other. She knew that Haruki would still say yes if she confessed in that moment. And most importantly, she knew she would be betraying her best friend by doing so. Setsuna prioritized her own emotions over those of her friend's. In that moment, being the closest to Haruki trumped everything else.
You can tell that Setsuna's actions were eating her up inside the moment she sought Kazusa's approval on that rooftop. She so desperately wanted to keep the three of them together because their friendship was such a precious treasure to her. Episode 8 made that crystal clear how close the three of them were with each other. From the happy-go-lucky snowball fight in a tight situation, to Setsuna's corny but sweet promise for the three of them to stay together, to the bath scene that showed the three were so comfortable with each other they could even enter a hot spring together without it being awkward. If it was ever unclear just how close these three were and how much they cherished their time together, episode 8 left no room for doubt. I would even go as far to say episode 8 is one of the best episodes of anime I've seen in general. Every single scene brought a warmth to my heart that I never wanted to end, which made it so much more painful when it did end so brutally.
The point I'm trying to drive home is that Haruki, Kazusa, and Setsuna are all flawed human beings. Terribly, terribly, flawed and that makes it so difficult to blame any single individual. Haruki is flawed for not recognizing his own feelings. Kazusa is flawed for not acting on her emotions when she had the chance. Setsuna is flawed for being manipulative and selfish. Yet despite these flaws you want them all to win, you want them all to find happiness. But no one wins, no one is happy. Haruki and Kazusa wanted to be together, simple as that, but even such a simple desire became impossible in face of the maelstrom that had been created and it's that truth that stings most of all. As Haruki and Setsuna stood outside on that frigid winter day watching Kazusa's plane fly away I felt my heart start to freeze over just like theirs. I wanted to blame someone, anyone, for the situation they found themselves in but I couldn't. They were all at fault yet blameless at the same time and it's this contradiction which permeates the entirety of the series that makes White Album 2 such a masterpiece.
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