In the visual novel scene, one of the more hyped-up moege (or slice-of-life heavy romance visual novels) to get a translation was Mashiroiro Symphony. It was once considered a classic, even getting a visual novel remaster a decade later with HD resolution and updates to its most popular heroine, Sana.

If you're too scared to try out a dating sim or a heavy romance visual novel that takes at least 20 to 30 hours to read in full, I think this anime adaptation is a decent way to check if the setting, story, and characters fit your tastes.

While not the most common setting, the premise of a male protagonist suddenly having to interact with heroines from a previously all-girls school is sort of a recurring trope. The first half of the series actually does a relatively realistic job of portraying how two schools—one co-ed and one previously an all-girls school filled with rich students—would handle merging. Many girls, used to their isolated life, might be scared of guys or resistant to change. This sets up the initial conflict with Airi Sena, the daughter of the principal of the former all-girls school.

Watching Airi slowly warm up to the main cast—especially those from the co-ed school—was a nice development. She also had some solid character growth in her interactions with Shingo, the protagonist, who is easily one of the most saintly, nice guys I've seen in a harem series.

Now, based on the first half of the anime, you’d think Airi would eventually be the main romance target. But… since this is a visual novel adaptation, things take a turn. Instead, Shingo ends up romantically involved with the mature upperclassman Miu.

In the original visual novel, there are four romance routes, meaning you can choose who to pursue (which is why I generally think visual novels are better than anime if you care about “best girls”). However, there’s a catch: Sana, a character closely associated with Miu, ended up being the most popular heroine. I’m guessing that’s why the anime adapted Miu’s route instead of Airi’s—popularity power. While Miu was decently popular, Sana blew up in popularity because of her character arc within Miu’s route.

I’ll try my hardest not to spoil too much, but let’s just say Sana’s arc ends up very similar to Airi’s in the first half. It’s kind of funny how Mashiroiro Symphony always has to have a tsundere in conflict with guys merging into an all-girls school. Once Airi finally warms up, boom, now Sana has to shift from being a seemingly chill girl to showing her true colors—being distrustful of guys and, more specifically, simping hard for her best friend, Miu.

Sadly, this twist really brought down the anime for me. I was perfectly fine with Miu being the romance pick since she’s likable, but the story ended up focusing way more on developing Sana’s tsundere arc—almost like it was trying to overshadow Miu’s much more interesting conflict with her pet, Pannyan.

Once Sana’s true personality is revealed, I found her way more unlikable than Airi ever was. Her “I hate guys” jokes got old fast, and honestly, it wasn’t worth sitting through her incredibly annoying, man-hating tantrums. Like I said earlier, Shingo is basically a saint for dealing with all this when he’s already been super helpful to all the girls and the school merger.

If the anime was going to let Sana take over so much, they should have just adapted Airi’s route instead. Shingo had the best chemistry and development with Airi, especially since the first half was all about her natural character growth. Instead, they went with Miu’s route just to appeal to a fanbase that loves tsunderes who call guys “scum” before having a change of heart.

It’s a shame I couldn’t even talk much about the quirky side heroines, Ange the maid and Sakuno, who I really liked—especially Ange, who was by far the funniest and weirdest girl in the cast. But unfortunately, the anime barely gave them anything to do, awkwardly shoving in like 5–10% of their romance plots just for fanservice while mostly focusing on Airi, Miu, and Sana.

That said, when Sana isn’t ruining the mood, Mashiroiro Symphony does have a nice, wholesome (if slow-paced) vibe. It’s just a shame the anime is so inconsistent in quality and that they adapted the romance route with by far the most annoying character as a major focus.