is a Japanese adult visual novel developed by Palette, and it was released in Japan on October 30, 2009, for Microsoft Windows PCs. Mashiroiro Symphony is Palette's ninth title. The gameplay in Mashiroiro Symphony follows a linear plot line, which offers pre-determined scenarios and differs upon the player's decisions, and its storyline focuses on the appeal of the four female main characters. Futago Minazuki has illustrated three manga adaptations serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Comp Ace magazine. Four drama CD adaptations titled Mashiroiro Symphony Original Drama CD Series were released by Lantis in 2010. A 12-episode anime adaptation produced by Manglobe aired in Japan between October and December 2011.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Mashiroiro Symphony requires little interaction from the player, as most of the duration of the game is only spent on reading the text that appears on the lower portion of the screen, representing either dialogue between characters, or the inner thoughts of the protagonist. Every so often, the player will come to a "decision point", where they are given the chance to choose from multiple options. The time between these points varies and can occur anywhere from a minute to much longer. Text progression pauses at these points and depending on the choices that the player makes, the plot will progress in a specific direction. There are four main plot lines in the original release that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. This is increased to six plot lines in the PlayStation Portable version with the extended scenario for two female characters. To view all of the plot lines, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and make different decisions to progress the plot in an alternate direction. The PC-only Sana Edition contains only a single heroine's plot which is taken from the PlayStation Portable version's extended scenario and expanded further with new scenes and CGs.
Plot The story of Mashiroiro Symphony primarily takes place in the fictional town of , which consists of two distinct districts dubbed the , which primarily contains traditional housings resided by upper class families, and the , which is generally inhabited by working class families. The town also houses two private academic institutions undergoing a merger: the , a notorious upper-class girls' academy nicknamed , and the , a coeducation school which Shingo, the protagonist whose role the player assumes, attends. As part of the merger, students from both schools are selected to participate in a test class at the Yuihime Girls' Academy campus, an act which is initially opposed by the female student body.
Characters
Main characters
(Drama CD/anime) Shingo is the main protagonist and is a second-year student of Kagamidai Academy. He is very hardworking and kind. He was selected as a test student, and transferred to Yuihime Girls' Academy to participate in 2-T, the second-year test class. He was elected the class representative. He quickly makes friends with several girls at Yuihime Girls' Academy, though Airi does not want to get along with him or any of the other boys. He was sickly and asthmatic in his childhood, but he is in good health now. His parents are busy with their work and are seldom at home.
(PC), Ryōko Ono (Drama CD/PSP/anime) Airi is a second-year student of Yuihime Girls' Academy and the principal's daughter. She always gets the best grades among all second-year students. At first, she was against the plan for merging of the schools, and rejected male students from Kagamidai Academy, but she began getting along with them several weeks later. She was elected the class representative along with Shingo. She was born and brought up in an upper class family in the Old District, but she has lived by herself in a low-priced apartment in the New District since she started attending Yuihime Girls' Academy. She lives in a simple life and often goes shopping to a local supermarket in the New District named Kume Mart to buy reasonable-priced food and daily necessities.
(PC), Mai Gotō (Drama CD/PSP/anime) Sakuno is Shingo's younger stepsister and first-year student of Kagamidai Academy; her father married Shingo's mother about ten years ago. She has a quiet personality and is good at cooking, but has a poor sense of direction and often gets lost. She was selected as a test student with her brother, and transferred to Yuihime Girls' Academy to participate in 1-T, the first-year test class. She happened to meet Airi at night on September 30, the day before the transferring on October 1. She became close friends with Airi at that time. She often goes shopping to Kume Mart, too. She is youngest but tallest among the main female characters.
(PC), Oma Ichimura (Drama CD/PSP/anime) Angelina, nicknamed , is a second-year student of Yuihime Girls' Academy. Unlike other female students, she does not wear school uniform, but always wears a maid costume. She is a and hopes to meet her future master someday. She is in Shingo's class and tries to help the students from Kagamidai Academy assimilate. Her father is Japanese and her mother is British, but she speaks only Japanese because she was born and brought up in Japan. She has a cheerful personality and is very good at housekeeping tasks such as cooking and cleaning, but is weak at general educational subjects such as English and mathematics. Her favorite food is tokoroten. She later becomes Shingo's maid, and refers to him as (in her storyline of the game and, temporarily, in the fifth episode of the anime).
(PC), Noriko Rikimaru (Drama CD/PSP/anime) Miu is a third-year student of Yuihime Girls' Academy. She lives in a house nearby the school with her mother and two cats. She is the founder and president of the , a school club whose purpose is to care for injured wild animals and then return them to the wild. She works part-time at a maid café named Dolce to earn money for club activities; as the Nuko Club is not an official club, the club's budget is not supplied by the school. She is very kind to Shingo and becomes fond of him. She is eldest but shortest among the main characters.
(PC), Mayumi Yoshida (Drama CD/PSP/anime) Sana is a second-year student of Yuihime Girls' Academy and Airi's childhood friend. Although a supporting character in the PC game version, she is a main character in the PSP game version, as the result of taking first place in a favorite character poll of the game. She likes Miu very much and is in the Nuko Club because of her. Although she does not like boys, she makes an effort to makes the male students from Kagamidai Academy feel welcome, but she later reverts to her true self. She dislikes Shingo especially and often calls him . This is exacerbated when she notes the growing closeness between Shingo and Miu. In the anime and Miu's route in the game, Sana develops feelings for Shingo herself, but is heartbroken when Shingo and Miu start dating since she realizes that if she had been nicer to him, he might have chosen her. In her own route, Sana finally realized about her own feelings for Shingo and she was jealous of Miu because Shingo being kind to her (even though she already knew that Shingo was kind to everyone). Sana had a toy ring as a memento from her late mother.
(PSP/anime) Yutsuki is a new female character included in the PSP game version. She is a second-year student of Yuihime Girls' Academy, but is not in Shingo's class. She is in the drama club. She is good at cooking but not good at cleaning. She lives in a shrine with her parents and grandmother. In the anime, she appears in the last episode.
Others
(PC), Tatsuhisa Suzuki (Drama CD/PSP/anime) Hayata is a second-year male student of Kagamidai Academy and Shingo's good friend. He is Kagamidai Academy's student council president. He also transferred to Yuihime Girls' Academy to participate in 2-T. He acts as the vice-president at Yuihime Girls' Academy's student council. He has a fiancée.
(PC), Harumi Sakurai (Drama CD/PSP/anime) Ranka is Airi's mother and the principal of Yuihime Girls' Academy. She is very popular among her students. She got a divorce from her husband more than ten years ago.
(PC), Kei Mizusawa (Drama CD/PSP/anime) Machi is a female teacher who teaches Japanese at Yuihime Girls' Academy. She is the homeroom teacher of Shingo's class, 2-T; Airi, Angelina, Sana and Hayata are also in the same class. She is shy and is not good at talking with young men, but she actually likes boys' love. She is a 29-year-old single woman and wants to get married as soon as possible. She becomes the adviser for the Nuko Club (in Miu's storyline of the game and the seventh episode of the anime).
(PC), Michiru Yuimoto (Drama CD/PSP/anime) Yuiko is Miu's mother. She often gets mistaken for Miu's older sister due to her young appearance. She is a graduate of Yuihime Girls' Academy, and Ranka's friend. She has two cats named Domon and Karin inside the house. Her husband lives in a distant town on business.
(Drama CD) Eleanor is Angelina's mother from Britain, who lives in Britain with her husband. She is a graduate of Yuihime Girls' Academy, too. She appears in the third drama CD volume.
(PSP) Setsu is Yutsuki's grandmother. She is a new character included in the PSP game version.
(PSP) Rio is Sana's younger brother, who is too young to attend school. He is a new character included in the PSP game version and Sana Edition. He is the reason why Sana dislikes boys (Rio also hates girls because of his sister). Rio also usually calls Sana by the nickname that Sana often uses when she calls Shingo. It later revealed that Rio actually cared about his older sister (Sana also cared about her younger brother).
(PC), Harumi Sakurai (Drama CD/PSP/anime) Pannya is a strange, female cat-like creature that lives on the campus of Yuihime Girls' Academy. She is close to Miu. Her name "Pannya" comes from "panda" and "nyanko" ("kitty" in Japanese).
Development
Mashiroiro Symphony is the ninth title developed by the visual novel developer Palette, after their previous titles such as Moshimo Ashita ga Hare Naraba and Sakura Strasse. Mashiroiro Symphony scenario was written by three people: Hozumi K, who wrote Airi and Angelina's storylines; Hare Kitagawa, who has previously worked on Minori's Haru no Ashioto, provided Sakuno's storyline; and Orgel, who provided Miu and Sana's storyline. Character design and art direction for the game was split among three people: Tsubasu Izumi, who worked on Feng's Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka, provided character designs for female characters; Tamahiyo provided designs for two male characters, Shingo Uryū and Hayata Mukunashi; and Nagomi Tozakura provided super deformed illustrations. Mashiroiro Symphony music was solely composed by Burton, who provided music for Sakura Strasse. Tsubasu Izumi and Burton also work on Palette's thirteenth title Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura Doki, which was released on June 27, 2014.
Mashiroiro Symphony was first released for Microsoft Windows PCs on October 30, 2009. An all-ages edition developed by HuneX and published by Comfort playable on the PlayStation Portable (PSP), titled Mashiroiro Symphony: *mutsu no Hana, was released on June 30, 2011.
Adaptations
Manga