White Album 2 - Episode 7

It's the day of the festival at last, and everything is running smoothly, assuming you're happy to discount Touma's complaints about the outfit chosen for her.

This week's instalment wastes no time in getting the light music club take to the stage, allowing us to watch the increasingly enraptured crowd taking in two of the three songs that make up their set list, as well as Setsuna's MC'ing inbetween.  The electric atmosphere isn't just between performers and crowd however, as the rivalry between Ogiso and Kazusa reaches an unspoken fever pitch right in front of an unaware Hazuki.

Once the crowds have disappeared and the concert is over, thoughts quickly turn towards the future - while Setsuna is co-opted into helping her class' festival efforts having skipped out the previous day, it's left to Hazuki and Touma to talk about their futures first.  For Hazuki's part, he seems to have thoroughly enjoyed seeing the "real" Kazusa during preparations for the festival, and states his desire to remain with her.... as a friend.  Although these aren't the exact words out of his mouth, a tearful Touma interprets them as such, but there isn't room for much more conversation before Hazuki falls asleep.  If this is a faux pas, it's surely more than made up for by waking up to find Setsuna waiting for him, and she too doesn't want to be separated from Hazuki - her way of stating her intentions is far more straightforward and direct than that of her rival, however.

Now that the school festival and preparation for it are over, it finally feels like this series can actually get started - Ogiso's statement of intent at the end of the episode is a refreshing change from the usual dilly-dallying which accompany visual novel adaptations, and I'm keen to see what this series can do with its main trio in light of this after all of that (occasionally interminable) build-up that was made partly redundant by the show starting with events from this episode before flashing back to said build-up.  A blitz of reused animation and lingering shots of Setsuna's thighs might not be the most reassuring way for White Album 2 to set itself to step things up a gear, but fingers crossed all of the pieces are in place for a far more satisfying second half to the series.