In the visual novel scene one of the more hypedup moege or sliceoflife 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 youre 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 allgirls school is sort of a recurring trope. The first half of the series actually does a relatively realistic job of portraying how two schoolsone coed and one previously an allgirls school filled with rich studentswould 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 allgirls school. Watching Airi slowly warm up to the main castespecially those from the coed schoolwas 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 Ive seen in a harem series. Now based on the first half of the anime youd 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 theres a catch: Sana a character closely associated with Miu ended up being the most popular heroine. Im guessing thats why the anime adapted Mius route instead of Airispopularity power. While Miu was decently popular Sana blew up in popularity because of her character arc within Mius route. Ill try my hardest not to spoil too much but lets just say Sanas arc ends up very similar to Airis in the first half. Its kind of funny how Mashiroiro Symphony always has to have a tsundere in conflict with guys merging into an allgirls school. Once Airi finally warms up boom now Sana has to shift from being a seemingly chill girl to showing her true colorsbeing 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 shes likable but the story ended up focusing way more on developing Sanas tsundere arcalmost like it was trying to overshadow Mius much more interesting conflict with her pet Pannyan. Once Sanas 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 wasnt worth sitting through her incredibly annoying manhating tantrums. Like I said earlier Shingo is basically a saint for dealing with all this when hes 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 Airis 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 Mius route just to appeal to a fanbase that loves tsunderes who call guys scum before having a change of heart. Its a shame I couldnt even talk much about the quirky side heroines Ange the maid and Sakuno who I really likedespecially 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 510 of their romance plots just for fanservice while mostly focusing on Airi Miu and Sana. That said when Sana isnt ruining the mood Mashiroiro Symphony does have a nice wholesome if slowpaced vibe. Its 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.