Can a relationship between a regular college student and an idol singer survive? That is the question that White Album tries to answer. Touya Fujii is a normal college student with normal worries—namely balancing his classes and his job he works to pay for school. He is also concerned about the amount of time he has to spend with Yuki Morikawa, or rather, the lack of it.
Being an up and coming idol singer, Yuki has concerns of her own. Even though she's not yet as popular as experienced veteran Rina Ogata, Yuki is turning heads and landing interviews on television. This should be a good thing, but not everyone is happy about the attention she receives from the media and from Rina. The idol industry is surprisingly cutthroat, and rival singers have their eyes on Yuki.
While it may seem exciting to watch your girlfriend on television, how does Touya really feel about all this? Between the challenges associated with Yuki's career and other people that Touya meets at his university, their relationship may not last…
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Comentários
KaminaKai
*An underrated series with plenty of potential for its second season.* “The beginning has ended.” - White Album 1986 A year where internet does not exist. A year where cassette tapes still dominates in the media industry. A year where cell phone, the size of a brick, has just emerged in the market. A year where the story of White Album takes place. White Album often presents viewers with these muddy views of reality. There is often no clear distinction from right or wrong, good or evil. There is, however, often grief and suffering caused by various circumstances and misunderstandings. More often than not, people simply turn their head and walk awayfrom the show because people just do not get it. White Album is the type of show that likes to tell the story as indirectly as possible to the viewers. Little things that may seem trivial at first can come back to haunt the viewers, so make sure to pay 110% attention!
While White Album is technically a harem anime, viewers will be disappointed if they are looking for immature ecchi scenes, for instance boobie grabbing. White Album is not ecchi and/or sexually oriented, period. However, there is one well made French kissing scene in a car. The story revolves around our protagonist whose life got turned upside down when his girlfriend became a famous national idol. He was forced to distance himself from her by the music company and that is when his nightmare begins. Girls from various age groups, some he knew from the past, others he met along the way all started to barge into his life. Some wanted him to forget his girlfriend by allowing themselves as replacement. Others want to make sure the protagonist remain faithful and loyal to his girlfriend, thus they began to have plans of their own. All the while the protagonist is trying to fight temptation, worrying about his father, completing his university degree, and keeping himself sane amidst these chaos.
For a studio that is not particularly well known for high quality animation, Seven Arcs did a wonderful job in producing this series. In addition to the regular animation, often times the viewers will see characters in their caricatures (distorted or exaggerated), other times a scene may be presented with pastel-like animation. Simply put, the production crew of White Album did their job skillfully and flawlessly.
The producers also have a knack in bringing out the characters’ subtle emotions: they don’t have to say anything about their feelings, their facial expressions speak for themselves, and this series has been really good at throwing these feelings all over the place. Perhaps the most outstanding feature of the show is viewers get to “read” the inner thoughts of the protagonist, rather than the traditional way of making the character goes into a long and boring monologue. These inner thoughts often reflect the ambiguity the protagonist has with his feelings and situation.
With award winning seiyu performing the OP and various insert songs in between, White Album has at least one exceptional selling point it can brag about. After all, the story does heavily center on songs, thus it is only appropriate to get the most talented seiyu to do the job. Otaku should instantly recognize names such as Nana Mizuki or Aya Hirano, both have singing capabilities rivaling the top notch professionals. But perhaps due to over emphasizing on the songs, the BGM turned out to be rather lackluster (budget problem?).
I had to do a quick re-watch of the series before mustering enough courage to write this review. In part due to its unclear way of portraying its characters and where they are heading. Please be mindful that season two, covering episode 14 to 26 will be airing in fall 2009, so don’t expect any form of closure to the story just yet. In fact, the ending was rather calm and did not do much to make viewers lust for season two until the final few scenes where things just seem to happen all at once around the protagonist. In a sense, this suit White Album just fine as most realistic/slice of life drama would have approached it in a similar fashion.
iamjoe
Cheaters never win. They just end up banging a lot of chicks. White Album is a true life story about what it means to be a guy in the real world. In fact, a lot of people will say that this anime is fake and that there is no way that, how many were there, three, no, SIX girls would want to jump the bones of Joe Average, but you know what?? It's real, kids! In fact, it helps a lot when said loser in question is a big tool. Girls like that stuff. What success that the main character of this anime is abig douchebag.
So the story is about a guy (I don't remember his name, whatever, that wasn't important) who has a pretty girlfriend and just because he doesn't get to see her everyday, he decides to make use of all the other girls who are crushing on him. Instead of rubbing one out every night or just breaking up with the vapid, ignorant foolish girlfriend (who is a singer), he decides to scam on her body guard, on her co-worker, on their mutual school friends, and on a girl he is tutoring.
This is probably the most realistic drama/romance storyline I've ever seen because you know what, kiddies? People love to cheat. What's even better about this story is that everyone knows that Touya (right, that's his name!) has no backbone and they KNOW he has a girlfriend, and yet they all lure him into sticky situations. Damn, poor Yuki! People who she trusted go on to stab her so hard in the back. It is so fabulous to see these girls watch Yuki in the face and feel vague amounts of guilt about it. Hardcore. And Touya, the lucky bastard, knows she is that much of a insecure loser to stick with him even if he does decide to cheat on her or not.
Art is pretty good, though they kept sticking in these stupid watercolour bullshit in the middle of thing. It was pretty distracting and I don't know why they even bothered to do it. And the music was all right EXCEPT when anyone sang. Good God, no wonder Yuki and what's-her-face are mediocre celebrities--their music sucks.
What brought this whole anime down was TOUYA. Oh unfabulous heavens, was he such a pitiful snivelling LOSER. I swear, he cried more than the girls did!! Instead of just growing some balls and dumping his girlfriend who he doesn't even see and just settling on one of the girls he sees all the time and clearly wants, he keeps on dating Yuki and doing awful crap to her. Hell, he took time out of his day to go give a present to a chick who secretly hates his girlfriend and doesn't take the SAME TIME to see his actual girlfriend? Can you be more of a wang, Touya??
Yuki is a moron. Leave it at that. Any other girl would know that when you catch your man giving other girls presents, when he doesn't pick up his phone, when you're calling him in the middle of night and he's not answering (most likely because he's sucking the face of one of your "friends"), then he probably isn't that into you. But no. Idiot.
Then all the other girls are whores. No kidding. They disregard Yuki, they ignore the fact that weak willed Touya has a limp dick and would hump them like a dog in heat, and they come up with all sorts of schemes to break the two of them up. But what makes them interesting characters is that they pretend so well to be innocent. In fact, they disguise their cunning bitchery by second-guessing what they're doing, but the fact is they still end up ruining people's lives because each one is a selfish succubus that wants Touya. Why, who knows, because he cries like a bitch over everything.
White Album has an amazingly real story about shitty people messing up each others' lives. Man, what a wonderful thing to witness.
RedSuisei
I really feel I need to make a review of this anime. This is purely based on the first season, since I haven't watched the second season yet. I've watched and read a lot of harem anime/manga, some are good, but most are just shallow, comedy-filled, mindless ecchi fanservices anime that I can't stand watching and decided to drop. But this one is clearly different, I'd say that this is the best harem story I've ever watched/read to date. Whilte Album's story is very good, it's more deep than most harem anime. This story is very realistic for a harem anime (then again, harem itselfisn't very likely to happen in real life, but still much more realistic than most others). It's much more deep and portrays how complicated a human can be. The story is played very well, the events that happened can really affect the audience emotionally. Mostly made you grief, rage, or angry, but that's the point of this series. This was not meant to be those happy-go-lucky anime in the first place. Though this is mostly the reason why this series got less than 7 (by the time of writing), most people just hate this series because they do not understand it.
Art is pretty nice, I loved the character designs. Backgrounds are well drawn. And there are times when the art changes to beautifully drawn pastel color animation. Character's thoughts are written in texts on the screen so people can see what is actually going on inside the said person's thoughts.
Sound is also another plus. Nice VA, there are no annoying voice in this series. Songs are also good, most of the songs has lyrics that actually connects with the story itself. I find that these songs are also affecting me emotionally while listening (reading the karaokes' actually). I wasn't really a fan of Nana Mizuki or Hirano Aya but overall I really liked the songs here.
Characters are where many people find this show to be terrible. I disagree, characters are the strong point of this series. Most characters are flawed, either they do things irrationally or some other flaws. Which is what makes many people hate this. Though I say, that makes them more "human". We see characters who do things that we wholly disagree. People bash on the characters. But really, are you sure you won't do the same when presented with the same situations? White Album is a series that really shows how complicated, weak, foolish, and irrational human beings and human relationships can be. Humans are not perfect beings who always manages to do the right thing 99% of the time. When being pressured, burdened, presented with many problems, most human will do foolish things even if they know themselves that it is wrong. And this aspect is really portrayed very well here.
I really enjoyed the series, even if at times I feel angry or mad at some characters, I can't never bring myself to hate them, since I know that I myself might do the same when given the same situation.
I've said that I dropped many harem anime, the main reason is because most of those are filled with stupid, mindless fanservices that really bores me to death. Fortunately, that kind of thing doesn't exist here. There is a few hot kissing scenes, but they are not mindless or played only for comedic effect, they actually contribute to the story and character developments.
Overall, this is really underrated series. An deep, complicated, relatively realistic romance harem story that really brings out the human flaws in characters to the best. Though for some people, this is not their cup of tea, which is why it's rated low.
Flaws are inevitable in human, that's precisely why we have the backspace key on our keyboard.
Rankblotch
White Album was just one of the more awesome shows this past season (Winter 2009), just because of what they've done with their take on the whole "harem" anime genre. Now I haven't played the game or anything on which I can base a claim on it being a good adaptation, but from an uninformed view on it, they handled the whole story in a pretty good way. Elements from harem anime are still present, but they added a whole lot of realism to the whole thing as well in their situations and how they lived and reacted through it. The whole season was just chockfull of raw emotion from the first episode onwards, and seriously answers most of those "what if" questions about situations one would usually imagine about. I guess a good way to summarize the whole thing is "It's so messed up, it's awesome!", but that wouldn't really seem right I guess. That said, the last sequences and then words left at the end of the final episode really emphasized on that whole idea though.
The story's not over yet, as the second half of the show gets aired on October this year (2009). I'm looking forward to it already, as I'm hopelessly reeled in with this mess they're in right now. Hopefully things get better later on, but I'm liking the story as it is right now.
I highly recommend this anime to anyone else who likes a more realistic/slice of life approach on the harem romance genre.
Some intangibles:
Art:
- The artwork was very nice for the most part of the series, as it usually changes from time to time according to the situation, switching from pastel drawing animation to sometimes childlike caricatures of the characters, then switching back to the normal animation style.
You do notice sometimes that in the normal animation scenes, the characters' appearances tend to vary from their other appearances on some episodes, but this can be attributed I guess to how constantly shifting their artwork is.
Sound:
- All the musical pieces sung in the series by Nana Mizuki and Aya Hirano were masterfully presented and performed, from the opening song ("Shinai" by Nana Mizuki) to the various insert songs they had throughout the series.
The background music they used for most of the show were very apt for whatever situation was being presented, and the ending song ("Maiochiru Yuki no Youni" by Suara) kept the whole feel of the show going even though it already ended.
Characters:
- Surprisingly, even for a 13-episode series, most of the characters, including most of the minor ones, were very well rounded and had very defined roles. This is even more surprising considering how the story isn't done yet, so they still more room to make these characters grow even more.
Enjoyment:
- Unlike most harem romance anime, White Album is very sparse and reserved on the humor front, as mostly the story is focused on conflicts with handling different types of relationships with people, especially when there is romance involved, and also on the typical weakness or strength of what one's will can be.
Because of this, there are considered by some as some "dead" scenes in the show where there are mostly serious conversations going on. This in turn, may make this show not that enjoyable for anyone looking for a lighthearted romance show.
Zelot
When we think of the word harem, we think of a oblivious male character along with slapstick humor and filled with perverted scenes that don't really fit in with the story.. White Album takes the harem genre and applies it to a very serious tone. This is a more realistic version of how a harem situation would be. Story: 6 Touya Fuiji is a college student whose girlfriend has started her path on becoming an idol. The series follows his interactions with his friends as well as the people who work in the same agency as his girlfriend. Keep in mind that communicationwas strictly at home, as cell phones are not in use and using a home phone was the only way to contact people outside of meeting them in real life. The ending is a great follow through into the second season of this anime.
Though this anime is realistic in a way, the lack of suspense and dramatic scenes created a very slow paced story. People will argue that the pacing is slow because it is not an action anime... but the anime could use more dramatic parts to make things more exciting. A lot of this story felt like back story or a big flashback to give information on something that will be coming up.
Art: 8
A very simple art style, it fit really well with the timeline that the students are in. The animation as well was nice. I loved the scenes where they switch to a pastel version. This transition is very smooth and the pastel drawings were just beautiful.
With this anime attempting to be realistic, the character designs are very simple and don't really stand out much. I will agree that these character designs help send this message of realism. The idol dresses were pretty as well.
Sound: 8
The sound was a great part of this series. With an amazing OP, Shin Ai, this song has a very nice beat as well as an amazing first verse. This song helps give a feeling of nostalgia as it is reminiscent of songs from the early 2000s (Doesn't this song remind you a bit of Shaman King's second OP, Northern Lights by Megumi Hayashibara?) This nostalgic feeling comes from the use of actual instruments and NO use electronic beats or sounds. The ED, Maiochiru Yuki no Youni, a super calm and quite piano song that follows with a drum beat. This song is similar to the OP as it creates a sense of nostalgia. The insert song was nice, not very idol-like, even though they used it as an idol song. It was very good and catchy, a great addition to any iTunes.
The background music was fine, enjoyed the violin one a lot. The only problem was the song that sounded like it fit with a depressed circus. Whenever that songs was used, it never really fit the scene and just felt out of place.
Character: 8
As I have said before, this anime seems very realistic, and from the art and story, what completes it are the characters. The characters all felt like they were making decisions that a normal person would make under the same circumstances. These decisions and realism felt from these characters gave them depth and did not need a back story to separate them and make them memorable.
The only problem I had regarding characters was character development. I am aware that there is a season two and the characters may develop there, but I only saw one character develop and that was Misaki. Even though Yuki from the very beginning wanted to change, I didn't see any development on her character as well the main character.
Enjoyment: 8
With such a serious harem, I was scared of how long it would take for me to get adjusted to his. In turn though, it was very easy to watch and adjust. One of the best things about this series is the college setting, a setting quite rare in anime, since most anime series are high school setting or a fantasy world setting. I just wished they had more dramatic scenes, as the pacing was getting very slow and annoying.
One thing I enjoyed a lot was the ability to see Touya's thought process and thinking. When I mean by see, they actually put on screen what Touya is thinking in his brain. I enjoyed to see him quite even though his brain was screaming out loud! This also helped this anime gain it's feel of realism, as there are always times where you do something even though your brain tells you not to.
Overall: 8
A GREAT harem anime with a good set up into a season two.
dante_90
What is this story's all about? The story is all about the life of the two main characters whom separated from each other on the cause of the one of them has become the idol. What is the conflict of the story? The protagonist was difficult to contact his girlfriend whom has became the idol. Many circumstances among the other characters who has became his ideal person or what he called "goddess" or "every day(the person who has been worth for him)" person. What is the point of the story? The protagonist has been told that he's a hindrance for his girlfriend's future, that she has been more popular. Oneof the characters had to plan that the protagonist to be pulled off not to contact the heroine. So much circumstances that lead them to sadness and pain.
My Review:
So I say that, White Album has a relation to our real world on what is all about when the person you know has become popular. The story begins on childhood and discussing their dreams of what to be. There others that happens like this then ended happily, but this is different of what I thought or you thought that it might this happen really to us. Leaving us unknown to others when they obtain power to do everything, but not everyone is cold-hearted. They were unknown truth that doesn't imagine to us that the person we entrusted had doing far; like cheating, making affairs. And there's much circumstances that make people misunderstood and making excuses. The episodes were like it written on the diary, making qoutes on what is in our minds that we want to write in daily life. But it's a good anime, that has a good lesson for us who has or who hasn't related on this life before. For it has contain dramatic scenes and real-life like story. And it's worth that it's shown in anime.
Tanta
I had to let my thoughts sit for a few days before I could write a review on this anime called "White Album". This is season 1 of what I would like to describe as a very strong and very realistic anime. I have not seen one like this since Maison Ikkoku. (Refer to that review to get more of my mind frame for this anime or if u need more of a reference.) I will not go into detail of this anime but I will go into the mindset of why I think this anime is so damned good. The story takesplace in 1986. Ironic enough, Maison Ikkoku also took place in the 80's. In additon, both protagonists are looking for part-time jobs and are both going to college. There are similarities but also big differences.
In "White Album", the protagonist, Fujii Touya already has a girlfriend and she wants to be an idol. He supports her and in the first episode it shows how MUCH he does love her and care for her and how much he wants to spend time with her. They have little texts while they talk (as if so you would know what they are thinking) which gave me a great reminder of Kare Kano (His and her circumstances) which was added in incredibly well.
The last thing I will mention is Ogata, Rina. She reminded me of Sheryl Nome from Macross Fronter and had the same strength and comfort as her and at the same time was as "interesting" as the 'galactic nymph'.
I gave this anime a 9 because the story kept me into it and once I got done with the first episode I wanted to know how they went along with their daily lives. I usually try to anticipate what is going to happen in most anime that I watch, and thankfully, I was unable to.
I give this anime an overall 9.
MeowPower
*Review based on only the first season* STORY Drama is something that can be beautiful and heart breaking, if done right. White Album is one anime that had the potential to be both of these things, but unfortunately it doesn't live up to that potential. (In my opinion, of course) Well, I have to admit. The idea of the show is pretty good. I mean the premise showed a lot of potential to show the effects and results in a relationship where work might get in the way. Though, that's where the good things end. First problem that plagued the show from thefirst episode, is that there's too many sub plots. This would be somewhat fine, if the sub plots are tied to the main plot. While some of them are, a there's ones that are not needed. This results in scenes that are poorly transitioned into, that don't feel connected. Though, that's the least of White Album's problems. In my opinion, the drama wasn't written well. To make me feel and care for the drama on screen, White Album has to make me care for its characters. Frankly, I didn't care about most of them. This make certain emotional high points to make my eyes roll, and check how many minutes I'm in the episode. Combine with the snail pace, makes the whole story of White Album a drag.
CHARACTERS
As said before, I didn't care for most of the characters. When I said most, I mean the whole cast, except for one. Well, staring our show, is Touya Fuji. I found him to be a big reason to why this show fails. Touya is a nice guy. Which results in stupid girls falling in love with him, but that's the thing. Touya is too nice, and most people would know what he does. Anyway, while I understand why he does these things. I felt like his problems could have been resolved pretty quickly, but the show just drags it on and on. Which makes the show drag on and on. Besides Touya, we have his whores. Most of the girls are unlikable in a way or another, just boring, and I couldn't care less about them. Except for one character. Rina Ogata is the only character that I can call well written. She has her flaws as a person, and reasons for what she does. She's the type of character that has ulterior motives for what she's doing, that you really have to dig deep for. Which is a thing I like, though she gets sidelined for most of the show. In favor of other character sub plots. So her little bits of character development is what make the show tolerable, but doesn't save White Album's by a long shot.
ANIMATION
Animated by Seven Arcs, the animation is really stiff, all over the place, and just looks flat and grey most of the time. Seven Arcs haven't done anything too visually stunning, besides the latest Nanoha movies. Though, I don't remember them being this bad. The actually animation (how little there is), runs at a very low frame rate. Which makes certain scenes a dread to look at. They also use a lot of still frames, which aren't even pretty! The only note worthy thing, are the almost painted like animation. Which was used to either save money, or for creative reasons. (I'm betting on the former) While the animation for these small scenes weren't good, they were nicer to look at than the ugly regular art. Speaking of the art, the character designs are shallow, and while the girls are suppose to look "pretty". I just didn't see them as "pretty", and they don't look good to me. So, yeah, the art and animation is just bad and not pretty at all.
SOUND
The soundtrack consists of a lot of violin pieces, and a lot of dramatic songs to support the scenes, they were used in. Though, while I was watching the show, I can't say I remembered the score. (Most likely because I was too busy thinking "when is the episode going to end?) Anyway, all that's left are the insert pop songs. Which by the way, are barely in the show. I liked the songs, and enjoyed listening to them. Sound of Destiny by Nana Mizuki, was a super catchy song, and I liked this version of the song the best. Though, I'm liked White Album sung by a White Album 2 character much better. So, yeah, the songs are good, but it doesn't show up in the show as much as I would liked it to be. Which means, sound won't be getting a better grade.
OVERALL
White Album was a real drag to watch. It's bogged down by a poor story, unlikable characters, and bad animation. It's a real shame too, since White Album had a lot of potential. In the end it fails at what it wanted to do, and it just becomes barely tolerable. With White Album only having one good character to help me drag through the anime, it was still a dreadful experience for me.
AgentBishop
So an anime with 6.58 score, there is no reason for me to write a review, it's like writing review for "Tokyo Ghoul Re Season 2", everyone knows it's garbage and writing a new bad review makes absolutely no f*cking sense so i'm gonna move on...wait let's check out other reviews let's see if there is an angry dude who roasted the shit out of this one. and that was where the problem starts, there is no bad review! every single person talks about how underrated this "Masterpiece" is. Before i roast this Brown Album, let me say this, i'm not the hugest fanof romance genre but there are romance anime where i did actually enjoy so it's not like i hate this one because it's not some action or psychological show, and i absolutely hate cheating stories if it ends with forgiveness and crap, and there is a lot of cheating in this one so if you search for NTR and stuff like that, you will enjoy this trash, so now that my bias is out let's talk about this anime and why it is one of the most Atrocious pieces of art i've ever seen.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Story:
story start with MC working in a bar and he is calling her gf every now and then, you later realize that these two are having a long distance relationship and there are these bizarre not answering each other's phone (which happens a lot) thing in this anime,
from that alone! you realize they are having troubles with this long distance relationship now this sounds like a promising story, how would a bartender and an idol will work things out? this is gonna be awesome except it will not
The characters and their dynamics makes no sense, Yuki and MC don't love each other, the MC is a sack of shit who randomly cheats and Yuki acts around MC as if he is a stranger, there is no intimacy between them so you couldn't care about their problems, you see nothing up until later episode that yeah they had sex one time, but their character is so empty that it wouldn't matter they used to love each other, i'm serious the MC is the typical male anime character, he has ZERO depth, he is just a sleazebag who randomly cheats and it the middle of cheating crys and yells "yuki... i love yuki, gome" and continues cheating and every female character loves him secretly, and ofc there is a loli in this anime that has literally nothing to do with the plot but #PedosMoneysLivesMatter.
whenever there is a long distance relationship anime or movie there is always that dude or girl who is being an obstacle for MC and the girl, to not meet each other, in here we have a milf who is obsessed with Yuki, as obsessed that she licks her boyfriend's tears! and sleeps with him.
Yuki seems to be a highly ignorant woman as well, it seems like she has no idea what is going on, and she doesn't show any emotion, she is just happy throughout the anime and every now and then she picks the phone to call her boyfriend, hasitates for a 2 sec and stops! and moves on to being happy in the next moment
her friend doesn't make any sense either, after she finds out yuki has a bf, she insist to meet him and tries to seduce him, she succeeds in a second btw
and lastly we have that evil looking manager who wants to make Yuki shine or some such nonsense
it's one of those anime that has no content, everything is stupid and you will leave with your iq dropped lower, there is no conclusion at the end either, this is just a guilt pleasure and some people are mistaking it for masterpiece
Edit: i kinda forgot about a certain main character lol, there is this girl who was born to love the MC and she is a tomboy with bicycle, she is technically a combination of a retard and a yandere, and as you guessed she serves nothing to the plot, ok now i'm done with this garbage
gosp07
Acctually I wanted to write a review because I found this anime amazing but after seeing it's overall score it was somewhat disapointing... Before I start writting about story or about another think I'd like to say this isn't an anime which would make you happy.I think it's the same reason why people's score this low.An anime can't be decided about if it's make you feel relieve or happy.An anime made for emotion not just the good ones even feeling for bad ones.So what about if it's make you feel bad?isn't this anime make you feel bad in a great and amazing way... Story: The story is aboutthe relationships of Fujii Touya and the Morikawa Yuki and her surroundings.I can't say this is much of a love story but I can say it would be carved into your heart's deepest part with a pain(which I seek in a anime if I watch a love story I'd like to feel a little sorrowful(a little maso don't you think ^^;))).
Art:
I'm the type who doesn't want to talk about something which has a diffrent opinion on every people.It's the same in the art part in my opinion I loved the art but I won't say anything u would love cuz everyone has own tastes.
Sound:
This part is a little dissapointing but I could say they play the right song in right place it isn't something like Clannad A.S.(where the people want to kill who made the songs :D)
Character:
I can't say I didn't impressed about how the character's personallity was designed but I can say It is a little bit difficult to met alike persons in the reality(not all of characters just 1 or 2)
Enjoyment:
If u would mean if a drama anime's enjoyment it was much more than enjoyment but if u look it emotionally this anime is a DRAMA anime so I'm begging to people who is not like drama anime to NOT watch it.because when they watch it they won't like it then anime's reputation would be even worser.
Overall:
It's a great drama anime and even if I didn't cried that much it carved in my deep thoughts
PoeticJustice
Imagine being so close to someone you could feel the heat of their breath yet, at the same so distant. Relationships have a way deteriorating like a rose over time. The beginning is sweet and fragrant, yet the decay is gradual as the petals fall one by one. Now the rose is limped over; the aroma is gone, and there is only death where life used to take root. This is the essence of the white album. White album is an anime adaptation of a visual novel released in the late 90s. It was relatively unknown then, and its anime adaptation a decade later still didn’tmanage to shine the light of popularity on the shadow of its obscurity. Its premise is an interesting one; a college student named Touya Fuji is in a relationship with an aspiring idol, Yuki Morikawa. Yuki’s dedication to her career has begun to put stress on their relationship, creating a rift between them. Touya struggles with his feelings of loneliness and attempts to navigate through the temptations before him. White Album has the elements of what could’ve been a successful anime: good score, melancholic tone, and some big name voice actors. However, due to some poor story navigation, lack of characterization for supporting characters and a lack of romantic flare, White Album fails to become a successful romance drama.
The show starts off introducing us to the main couple, Touya and Yuki. They have been high school sweethearts for some time and have continued their relationship early into college. But, to Touya’s misfortune, Yuki has wanted to become an idol all her life and decides to take initiative to look for a talent agency. She is quickly swooped up and begins her training to become an idol. All the while, Touya is left behind. The beginning was pretty standard fare and did a relatively nice job setting the stage for the drama. But the show has a tendency to circumvent any scene by focusing on mundane subplots revolving the other female members of the cast. They all have a thing for Touya in one way or another. These subplots detract from the core of what the show is, dealing with distance in a relationship. The problems of these heroines are usually petty and insignificant. The show gives you no reason why you should care about them.
I don’t mind multiple female love interests in a romance drama; that typically makes an adventure more exciting. However, one of the biggest problems of White Album is, the show lacks passion. None of the characters have any emotional depth to them, aside from former Idol, Rina Ogata. They are so dull, so boring, so banal, that I could feel the life draining out of me. They didn’t serve a purpose in the overall narrative aside from helping to establish that Touya is the most milquetoast person imaginable. He will do anything anyone asks him to, to his detriment. He doesn’t believe in saying no, and this causes problems for him and other members of the cast.
Another issue I have is that lack of focus on Yuki’s side of the story. It would’ve been interesting seeing how arduous it is, becoming an idol. We could have also got a deeper look into Yuki’s feelings and thoughts, but the show seldom focuses on her directly. Other characters will talk about Yuki, but we rarely get to hear it from the horse’s mouth.
Let me dive into Touya’s character for a second. He is probably one of the blandest protagonists out there. He lacks any defining characteristics other than ‘he is nice.’ The show has moments where you can see his real feelings written on the screen. This is a very nice effect and adds some emotional depth to his relatively shallow character. What the show truly needs, is moments of introspection where Touya is allowed to think in-depth about his relationship and his actions. It becomes irksome seeing some airheaded guy repeat the same destructive behaviors ad infinitum without some self-awareness. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t mind a protagonist who has self-destructive behaviors, but there has to be some progression. Touya also has issues with his dad that I felt should’ve been explored more as it would’ve added an interesting layer to the show. But we learn nothing about Touya and his dad’s relationship, leaving a gaping hole only to be filled with boredom.
There are some moments where the brilliance of White Album shines through. There are subtle moments of emotional confessions that are masterfully understated. What I mean is, feelings are being indirectly conveyed through accidental slips of the tongue. I relished those moments. Alas, they are too far in between the utterly dreadful side arcs with the other girls. If you are going to have multiple love interests, only have at least one or two in addition to the main girl. Having too many love interests causes all relationships to suffer because there won't be enough time to develop all of them in a substantial way.
White Album is a show I wish I would’ve liked. Sadly, it is another missed opportunity. Aside from the glum and oppressive atmosphere, it lacks heart and a soul. It lacks the high drama that makes romantic dramas great. Hopefully, the second half of the series will address some of these issues so the show can, at least, be salvaged. But until then, this love song stays silent.
setvenx
This is an anime just about anyone can relate to for we as people often face times where the situation rejects your desires and you realize that even though you wish for your happiness, you would be rejected from it and at times you could fall into a confused or desperate state of mind trying to grasp on to someone or something for comfort. Regardless of what genre you are into, if you begin to watch more then just the first or second episode, you will be reeled into an anime in which the theme is common everyday whereas the setting is however a bitmore rare. What may seem like a harem at first glance is nothing at all as you explore and discover the past and relationship of each and every character.
This story is about the trials of a couple deeply involved where the heroine(Morikawa Yuki) is a rising star and the hero(Fujii Touya) is a college student rejected by his father. As they both are faced with dealing with the change of their relationship they both try and keep contact with each other as she slowly rises to stardom. The story is especially intriguing due to the fact that the story reeled me in from the start with its sombre atmosphere and environment of Touya's life while being separated from Yuki. The story also keeps you interested throughout without the inserts of pointless fillers thus leaves you hooked after every episode.
The musical score of the opening is absolutely amazing for I personally am a fan for orchestrated music. But regardless the opening and inserts as well as the ending adds emphasis on what the general mood of the story is. With that being said the music sets and maintains a proper mood for each situation in the story which is an absolute must for a drama/romance (cant have the music ruin the mood of the story right?).
The characters are each very unique and its hard to classify any of the characters as a certain stereotype which brings me to like this anime further. The additional fact that this isnt a harem even though there are a lot of female characters "attracted to Touya" makes me like this anime even further and this is because these characters are vital and the relationships between Touya and some of the characters changes other characters who may not be directly related to Touya in any way.
Thus with that being said, whatever that may happen in the story, it was breath taking (if i could exaggerate a little here) and was definitely a complete joy to watch, HOWEVER one thing i did wish for when I finished would have to be a better ending to top off an amazing anime, but one minor flaw wont change the overall success of White Album.
Seppiroth32
WHITE ALBUM (2009) SEASON 1 REVIEW : Direction : The directing is great, the people knew exactly when to blend boredom with music and drama, the love drama is nicely done the characters know how to properly hold a conversation between each other and provide maximum boredom for you plebs who don't get the visual aesthetic over dialogue. Presentation & Storytelling : Life has never been portrayed as dry as this. When you start to watch a show, you want to escape reality, not be thrown back in it damn it! Why are the better shows so boring? Because they are a representative of human consciousness, something thisshow presents very well. The watercolor blend between actual animation to change the sense of feeling and atmosphere before/mid episode or the actual characters feeling like ACTUAL non-otaku perfect characters, whether it'd be Rina's smooth talking twoards her brother and MC, or Haruka's tomboyish attitude and cry for help because the sense of loneliness hits her hard. After all, she's just a girl that doesn't get any attention.
- EVEN EMOTIONS/CHARACTERISTICS REPRESENT SOMETHING MEANINGFUL THAN -
Ever wondered what if being too kind be presented in a harem make more than just baits? Just were you ever curious how boring reality is? Well.. _This is for you_.
Most anime portray 'realism" simple and straight forward happiness, families cheering each other or Depressed over the fact someone close to them died, in the most cartoony and unbearable way. When in actuality, reality is much MUCH harsher then what most think. Kindness here is presented as, suffering because it is just that. It is not suppose to be funny, entertaining or happy. Hence the dry presentation in thematics and characters compared to most works, using style and silence over dialogue and narrative. Everything is methodical, thus being slow.
There are no inner monologues, just text to present feelings. Characters suffer from identifing themselves as anything else but "Goddesses" of the day for the MC, because they'd help him in some way or form. However, there are certain characters which take advantage, I'll explain later. The story telling, as mentioned before is extremely dry. In a sense of characters make the progression, while it is adapted from a Visual Novel, the obvious taking ALL character routes is there, turn off for some. But in retrospec it's handled properly, fitting in all character reactions and outcomes to the fullest. They have their fair share of problems, but overall show progression and not cut out with time resets, it's not perfect. But it's solidly done.
Characters & Thematics : The thematics aren't special, but they're hidden. Through obscure reactions.
example : Yuki singing the song "White Album" while the text portrays words of sadness and emptiness, she shows her true emotion. And as an added bonus snow falls down on the stage, giving more sadness and emptiness to the scenary. Or when the MC gets fired he runs in despair crying, throwing his angst on a black and white rough sketchy background with 0 to no animation. The watercolor opening/endings present also some spoilers for the series, but they present at the same time alot of character understanding. And their character reaction, emotion.
And now for the characters, they're pretty simple. But have a weird mindset they're never straight with each others, they lie deliberatly to hide themselves from the audience. The characters may suffer at times from an identity crisis. You'll just be like GET MARRIED ALREADY JEEZ! When, it's not that simple. The characters are in a state of depression and resent themselves and others, so they need something to "bring" them together. And that is, those who completely understand each other something that may seem typical. But it's hard to execute, because no one have eyes for each other until they realise their mistakes.
Our harem Protagonist may seem like a typical VN character, but unlike most of them. He is the polar oppisate, in otherwords he doesn't understand at first but gradually gets what the characters mean, what he has to. What he can't do, as I stated above, not everyone is kind hearted. There are some characters that want to take advantage of him, they do so. He gets confused, but in the end, he can't do anything about it because of his kind personality, the rest of the cast question his sanity and reactions hence he get gets angrier and angrier, even after being told the truth by his boss before getting himself fired, he realizes how bad he messed up. He slowly grows throughout the first season and gets developed.
Yuki, the cheerful moeblob tries her best to be with her boyfriend Touya, (The MC) but sadly is forced to become a cold and forget about him so she can succeed, but her innerself wants to be with him. So they are constantly mislead in a game of cards, you never know for what they're aiming.
Misaki and Akira, they have oppisate way of percieving and doing things. In other words they are the main couple but their personalities are the other way, Akira isn't cheerful as Touya, while Misaki is cheerful as Touya and does not do anything outside of being the character to mentally connect Akira and Touya's friendship from turning into nothing.
Yayoi, oh my this character is the equivalent of oberstein, you can't get her motives until the very end, she shows no emotion in her words and actions, and tries to be something more than your typical female, she succeeds. But is on a level of annoying. In the good way of course.
Eiji and Rina, Brother and Sister, they have a playful and arrogant way of doing their things, but they are for the most part. A duet, they are the balance between Yuki's inner sadness and Touya's depression from not knowing how to handle stuff. They affiliate themselves with the MC's even if they're not directly connected. They strive for being themselves, don't try to go beyond that. So far, they are the most playful out of the cast.
Sound & Animation/Art : The sound track in WA is beautiful, the piano pieces properly synced with the setting provide maximum level chill and sadness when the time is right, something alot of shows nowadays seem to lack. They're used properly, and play little, but when the time is right.
Animation is pretty slide show-ish there is little to no animation when characters do something and the scene in EP 13 oh my, the budget completely died there.
Most of the time it's standstill and basic movements such as talking or sewing nothing substancial and hard to understand.
Art design is okay, the designs are basic but do the job, the backgrounds are nice to look at and its over all well polished.
Production Values : Very solid. No issues there, hard on the eye sometimes with lacking animation or influence. Overall good, dry, and hard to swallow but its great.
Zelnaga
*Zels short personal Review* 1986; the year this show was set in, and coincidentally also the year I was born in. These are my type of show, senien romances; no ecchi, no fanservice, drama packed and a slow maturing storyline. The story is about our main protagonist Toya who dates an upcoming idol star, as he has to deal with the obstacles, he has to face while dating a rising pop star; throw in a bunch of girls for distraction and that's our plot. But unlike most harems, this isn't for kids. As mentioned above, this is no panty flashing show. The storyline was prettyinteresting. I felt the relationship with our main protagonist believable. Aya Hirano was a great in voicing Yuki, and throughout the show it was interesting to see how Toya had to deal with his relationship with Yuki, as well as the other girls. Despite Toya doing things he shouldn't (wont spoil it). I never hated and felt disgusted for the guy. Sometimes I might have felt frustrated, but his feelings were pretty understandable and in a way, I could relate too, though from my point of view there wasn't a clear distinction between right and wrong in what he did.
So what did I learn about the year I was born? Well, I appreciate a mobile phone, even more now. The amount of missed calls in this show is slightly frustrating, but understandable. Mobile phones in that year were bricks, and cost quite a lot. Even answering machines were expensive! Though despite the show being set in the mid 80s, it looked anything but. The show looked great, apart from a few scenes where it's obvious they cut corners. The music was great, and overall it was a pretty enjoyable show. I liked all the characters and really don't have a preference, despite all the female characters involved. One thing I do hate about this show though, is the damn Hiatus. Not sure why they they're airing the next half in autumn when they could have show all 26 episodes. No matter, it's something to look forward to. Overall a very good show.
Agent_Redacted
Oh yes..Now this is what you call "Sea Of Salt And Toxic". I know I used this in my Tokyo Magnitude but this show is so drama-tic. Lol. White Album is an anime that overuses drama. So much that its probably the main reason why this show's rating is so low. However, I don't really mind drama and sometimes I do enjoy a sea of toxic substances. Thus I gave this show a 9. I could say that this is the worsened version of White Album 2 ( not talking about the second season. ) or perhaps White Album 2 but with more waifus andmore drama. And that's about it.
I don't really know what to write on this review. I just want to write this review because this anime is so flooded with drama. That is all.
I recommend this to everyone who likes extreme drama. That is all. End of review.
Jenangelx3
Before you go on to read this review, make not that I have not watched the 2nd season and these were my initial impressions. I gave this anime a shot since all of the reviews rated it fairly well. I heard it'd be a harem anime with realistic events and drama, but truly, I wasn't prepared for what I actually experienced. Let me be frank, I like harem anime: reverse or not, they're all fairly fun and I understand the flaws in harem anime. While this does not have the ridiculous situations of your usual harem anime, I don't exactly agree that all of these eventsand relationships are possible. There are a lot of girls with no real reason as to why they like the main character aside from his own relationship with Yuki. How often does that happen? I get forbidden fruit is full of temptation, but really, this is too instantaneous.
Considering Touya's personality, I would put him on par with School Day's Makoto or Claymore's Raki. What exactly does that mean? I think he's an annoying, sniveling coward who has no morals and grates on my last nerves, though I suppose the other reviewers deny that. Maybe I'm one of the few who took offense, but I do have to say, it takes a great writer to create a plot in which one can be so angered by a character. Touya is not without his good traits, though since he does help out a lot of the girls, but he's so damned shady all of the time, I wonder why none of them get suspicious.
I didn't really much care for Yuki. She is the central idea in Touya's mind, but really, I feel like she takes a backseat to pretty much everyone else. She's usually in scenes showing her calling fruitlessly for Touya while he lives his life. While I do think she's sweet, she is your generic helpless heroine who cries a lot and really doesn't seem to have anything outside of her idol life and Touya to talk about.
There are various other females as well who actually do have their own pasts with Touya, but they are explained in the most shallow sense. I felt like there was too much plot dumping in some instances, where the writers were being too coy and when it came time for them to add a large part to the plot, they just kind of revealed it without tact, yet still, there wasn't too much explained about other aspects to the plot that I would have preferred answered, though I suppose the 2nd season will hopefully solve those mysteries for me.
For an anime about music, there isn't really any good music to boast about. I kind of like the opening, but it doesn't stand out as far as anime openings go. There's a few instances of singing in the anime like other idol anime, but nothing that really catches your attention.
I find that I did have a lot of complaints about the anime, but in truth, I kind of enjoyed watching it. It didn't really seem to get me excited like other dramas might or even make me cry, but the anime did a good job getting my emotions fired up, which is good I suppose. I hope to see more character development in the 2nd season as well as some more depth to the characters. This anime has a lot going for it and I suppose I just need to give it more time to fully blossom because I can see it becoming a great drama, although I would prefer a better protagonist.
Lukas10
Going to use Bullet Points to show to good and bad from this series. Synopsis: Our main character (Touya) is in a relationship with an up and coming pop singer Yuki Morikawa, For me the story is showing how tough it can be for a relationship if both are busy, Yuki is always busy being in the "Media" as she is now trying to become a famous singer, and Touya is going to college + doing 2 part time jobs. Story: Setting of 1986 is fantastic, every little detail is spot on, and this MAKES the series for me, In our times (2012+) we can Phone each other direct,back then they couldn't do that, Only phone their respective homes/houses, you can talk to them over the internet, another thing you cannot do in 1986.
This creates a problem that today could be less so, How do you build a relationship and maintain it if both people are very busy?
Characters:
As this was a "Harem" game adaption, we get treated to MANY characters, One by the end of the S1 & 2 you will get attached to the characters, Each one have their own unique traits.
Sound:
Classical music and overall the soundtrack for this series is Sublime, Is rather fitting of the whole style of this Anime.
Voices are perfect too, Even down to the sub characters, Suit the style of character they are on the whole, and did enjoy Aya Hirano's Yuki's performance amongst many.
Overall/Enjoyment:
I LOVED the setting/style/characters and even the story, But was not a massive fan of the main character, lost my caring factor for him during this season, Which may of affected parts in this series, But in a nutshell, its one of the most unique Romance/Harem i've seen, its classy too and hard to describe, but when you go into a new anime series, this has a Awe about it, I really enjoyed this season/series, and would say if you like any of the recommended them watch this you WON'T regret it, you will watch them back to back, that's the sign of a good series.
dathanime
At first it was very, very confusing. I seriously thought I missed some episodes in between, but no. Thing starts off, things happens and the characters are very hard to grasp. It's like when you walk in the middle of a story. Then things stats to get better, I actually enjoyed a few episodes and then things get aweful. I mean, it was a pain to watch the characters go down in a pathetic spiral of 'death'. No one dies, but you'll wish they did instead. This anime brings down all the aweful things that can go wrong in your life on a character that can obviouslynot take any of this and just "goes with the flow", not even fighting it.
Painful to watch and confusing most of the time. Some say it's a masterpiece because it makes you cringe, but countless other anime does that and are better than this.
LM-Minalinsky
This is not your typical harem. There is no kawaii girls, ecchi moments, none. There is, however, a ton of drama that will either make you want to cry or punch the MC in the gut really, really hard. In the center of it all we have Touya, a college student juggling work and relationships. He has been dating this girl named Yuki, who by the way is the best girlfriend you could possibly ask for. Then, Yuki becomes an idol and gets famous, and it all goes downhill from there. I hate Touya so much. He's weak, cowardly, unloyal, and makes some terrible decisionsthat will leave you screaming "baka!" However, this is where I think White Album excels at: showing how people are flawed. You may look fine from the outside, but inside you're just a messed up clusterfuck, and I think this was clearly shown through Touya, Yuki, and all the other characters. Everything was just so.. realistic. White Album is a refreshing break from all the other fun and dandy animes out there full of sweets and rainbows and positivity. It shows you the dark side of human nature that we need to be reminded of.
Storywise White Album is pretty difficult to follow. The creators of the show tell the story in some pretty subtle ways, and occasionally left me very confused as to what is going on. Once you piece everything together, though, it becomes very depressing. Being an anime about idols, the music was great: solemn in places, eerie in others, but never cheerful, reflecting the general tone fo the anime.
TL;DR if you're ready for something deep and depressing, this just might be the anime for you.
(First review. Hope that wasn't too painful to read.)
