This review contains spoilers
In an interview, Fumiaki Maruto described his vision for WA2 in this way (my paraphrase):
"In other romance stories, the hero can choose to run away with the heroine to the countryside to escape from their problems and live happily ever after. But in the real world, to be able to do such things, you have to inform your boss weeks in advance, write a proper resignation letter, and handover your work to your colleagues."
This core theme, of the raw & naive ideal of intense passionate love vs the inertia of societal obligation and our pesky material reality, motivates the entire VN- and this dichotomy is best seen in its heroines. Setsuna, for all her dependency issues, is the ultimate normie, who has society itself firmly in her grasp; while Kazusa is a walking artistic girlfailure who only has her passion and her intensity to abide by. Setsuna is the girl you introduce to your parents; Kazusa is the girl you run away to the countryside with.
Through this simple dichotomy, Maruto creates his grand melodramatic soap opera: he pits the urge to retreat into a passionate and sexual Shangri-La with the one you love, at the cost of everything you have built for yourself, against the daily drudgery of a love that must be built through compromise, hard work, and boring constancy. And he gives you, the reader, the complete choice of which outcome you desire, while allowing you to witness the fallout of your decisions with absolutely brutal and cruel logic.
In each of the 3 endings, a single character's will overpowers all others and their vision of the world is instantiated into reality.
Kazusa True: Haruki's vision triumphs. The only way a passionate romance can succeed against the inertia of the world is through an Ubermenschian rejection of that world. Haruki burns all bridges for the sake of Kazusa. Both achieve their love, but Kazusa ends up entirely dependent on Haruki, and is the weakest version of herself out of all 3 endings. Setsuna is left battered and bruised, but she has society to fall back on, so she is able to pick herself up.
Kazusa Normal + Extra Route: Kazusa's vision triumphs. Love's passionate intensity consumes all and leaves no survivors. Yet, Kazusa knows all too well that this intensity cannot be sustained and is perhaps more beautiful as an ephemeral memory, so she extinguishes it with her own hands. By the end of this route, she is the strongest version of herself and has gained her independence at the cost of that one fiery moment. Setsuna and Haruki stitch together a newfound relationship from love's ashes.
Setsuna Normal: Setsuna's vision triumphs. This is the ending where everyone 'wins', yet to view it as a purely optimistic ending is to miss out some of the subtle cruelties inflicted on the cast. The romantic ideal is absolutely dead and Kazusa is probably fated to be a lonely celibate for life due to her own personal issues, inability to really gel with society, & inability to compromise; she is subsumed into society's demands, though also given a level of willpower to continue living without love, so in a way is a stronger version of herself than Kazusa True. She compromises everything about herself for the sake of Peace On Earth. Setsuna's raw pragmatism wins out and she gives the equivalent of an Asian-Parent bitchslap to Kazusa to tell her to go get a job and stop wasting her life on a man. Haruki, too, has to settle for a reality with the world's hottest normiest girlfriend. Fuck romance, we have bills to pay.
As seen in the three endings, it is this understanding of reality and the compromises that comes with it that elevates WA2's core romance story. The romantic moments are some of the intensest depicted in any VN, yet counterbalanced by the ruthlessness with which Maruto depicts the Fall Back To Earth. Maruto is also peerless in capturing the psychological states of every character, no matter how selfish and destructive their actions and thoughts are. The resulting work is one of humongous empathy and realism, despite being full of the Good Angsty Stuff and Tearjerker Moments that would sate any soap opera or nakige fan.
What, then, is Maruto's final statement on love? A work this complex cannot be easily summarized, but to me it is something like this:
In the end, reality usually wins out over passion. We may find the One who moves us to dedicate ourselves to him or her for life, but such loves rarely last. We live in a network of social obligations and compromises that cannot be easily untangled. We are nowhere near strong enough to bear the burdens necessary to honour these loves.
But that does not mean these ideals, these emotions, were any less beautiful, or precious. Though in striving, we hurt others and ourselves- why should we stop?
"In other romance stories, the hero can choose to run away with the heroine to the countryside to escape from their problems and live happily ever after. But in the real world, to be able to do such things, you have to inform your boss weeks in advance, write a proper resignation letter, and handover your work to your colleagues."
This core theme, of the raw & naive ideal of intense passionate love vs the inertia of societal obligation and our pesky material reality, motivates the entire VN- and this dichotomy is best seen in its heroines. Setsuna, for all her dependency issues, is the ultimate normie, who has society itself firmly in her grasp; while Kazusa is a walking artistic girlfailure who only has her passion and her intensity to abide by. Setsuna is the girl you introduce to your parents; Kazusa is the girl you run away to the countryside with.
Through this simple dichotomy, Maruto creates his grand melodramatic soap opera: he pits the urge to retreat into a passionate and sexual Shangri-La with the one you love, at the cost of everything you have built for yourself, against the daily drudgery of a love that must be built through compromise, hard work, and boring constancy. And he gives you, the reader, the complete choice of which outcome you desire, while allowing you to witness the fallout of your decisions with absolutely brutal and cruel logic.
In each of the 3 endings, a single character's will overpowers all others and their vision of the world is instantiated into reality.
Kazusa True: Haruki's vision triumphs. The only way a passionate romance can succeed against the inertia of the world is through an Ubermenschian rejection of that world. Haruki burns all bridges for the sake of Kazusa. Both achieve their love, but Kazusa ends up entirely dependent on Haruki, and is the weakest version of herself out of all 3 endings. Setsuna is left battered and bruised, but she has society to fall back on, so she is able to pick herself up.
Kazusa Normal + Extra Route: Kazusa's vision triumphs. Love's passionate intensity consumes all and leaves no survivors. Yet, Kazusa knows all too well that this intensity cannot be sustained and is perhaps more beautiful as an ephemeral memory, so she extinguishes it with her own hands. By the end of this route, she is the strongest version of herself and has gained her independence at the cost of that one fiery moment. Setsuna and Haruki stitch together a newfound relationship from love's ashes.
Setsuna Normal: Setsuna's vision triumphs. This is the ending where everyone 'wins', yet to view it as a purely optimistic ending is to miss out some of the subtle cruelties inflicted on the cast. The romantic ideal is absolutely dead and Kazusa is probably fated to be a lonely celibate for life due to her own personal issues, inability to really gel with society, & inability to compromise; she is subsumed into society's demands, though also given a level of willpower to continue living without love, so in a way is a stronger version of herself than Kazusa True. She compromises everything about herself for the sake of Peace On Earth. Setsuna's raw pragmatism wins out and she gives the equivalent of an Asian-Parent bitchslap to Kazusa to tell her to go get a job and stop wasting her life on a man. Haruki, too, has to settle for a reality with the world's hottest normiest girlfriend. Fuck romance, we have bills to pay.
As seen in the three endings, it is this understanding of reality and the compromises that comes with it that elevates WA2's core romance story. The romantic moments are some of the intensest depicted in any VN, yet counterbalanced by the ruthlessness with which Maruto depicts the Fall Back To Earth. Maruto is also peerless in capturing the psychological states of every character, no matter how selfish and destructive their actions and thoughts are. The resulting work is one of humongous empathy and realism, despite being full of the Good Angsty Stuff and Tearjerker Moments that would sate any soap opera or nakige fan.
What, then, is Maruto's final statement on love? A work this complex cannot be easily summarized, but to me it is something like this:
In the end, reality usually wins out over passion. We may find the One who moves us to dedicate ourselves to him or her for life, but such loves rarely last. We live in a network of social obligations and compromises that cannot be easily untangled. We are nowhere near strong enough to bear the burdens necessary to honour these loves.
But that does not mean these ideals, these emotions, were any less beautiful, or precious. Though in striving, we hurt others and ourselves- why should we stop?