You bitches haven't won yet
White Album may make you work harder than any other soapy drama anime series, but I think the payoff is worth it. For those of you who love to hate, there’s also some truly weak male characters in Touya and Akira. The best part is that all the portions that piss you off are actually designed to piss you off. If you have a decent attention span and never really understood why cell phones were that great, White Album has a lot to offer you.
Story
The story is fairly simple, as we follow the development of Yuki’s career and relationship through Touya’s eyes. It’s great to see how friends and lovers can’t always be happy for us when we succeed, and the story brings up just enough twists to help the viewer learn about the characters. The story is really just a framework to see how the characters would react, and so even silly twists like the concert battle don’t raise any eyebrows.
Characters
There characters are easily the best part of White Album and most of them elicit strong emotions from the viewer. I also like how they have all been set up against each other. I thought I had Rina pegged at first, but she’s been skillfully hovering around the too-helpful/friendly edge for so long that I have to give her props. I also like how she kept working hard in the face of haxxor-Yuki’s singing and Yuki’s totally n00b dance routine. It’s like Sheryl without the Vajracteria working hard to overcome the tensai Ranka. I loved how Rina was able to have a range of emotions and yet still remain true to Yuki through the first season.
The side characters are excellent as well. Even the ones you know won’t “win” like puppy-Haruka and her pupil Mana bring the unintentional comedy in spades. What would White Album be without Haruka clawing and whimpering at Touya’s door or God dropping a pile of metal rods on stupid Misaki? My favorite girl, Yayoi, managed to avoid being marginalized by being a completely disciplined skank and replenishing her electrolytes with Touya’s tears. I knew I could count on you, Yayoi. Even the little bitches of the Sakura-dan are delightfully evil. There was just so damn much to mock that I think White Album is a series best enjoyed with an audience or a community.
Finally, there’s the males. The brilliance of having another crappy male lead in White Album is that we get to see his thoughts (or lack thereof). The little justifications and nonsensical reasoning that flows through the the empty space between Touya’s ears add so much to making Touya an interesting and maddening character. I wish we could see more of Akira’s thoughts too, just so I could figure out why he is such a dumbass. If you don’t love to hate the guys in White Album, then you just don’t know how to hate (or love, I guess).
Tilt
As expected of a series about singers, the music is quite good in White Album; unfortunately you don’t get to hear more than snippets of many of the songs. The OP and ED were ok, but not my favorites. I enjoyed the voice work, although I wouldn’t say it’s revolutionary or anything. Finally, the production values are reasonable for most of the season but often dip spectacularly, especially near the end of the series. I can only hope season 2 has enough money to avoid the travesty of episode 13′s block-figures.
Verdict
White Album is a really polarizing series, but if you like drama series I think you will really enjoy it. And if you aren’t going to enjoy White Album, you will probably know right away. I like how the writing is actually fairly tight for an eroge-adaptation, and the Browning theme was surprisingly well integrated. As long as you are willing to put in the work to notice little clues and details that the writers throw out, White Album flows pretty reasonably and becomes more realistic. I thought White Album was kinda boring when I first started watching it, but if you can get behind the characters the story becomes a treat. I’m really pumped for season two this fall, because I like watching Touya cry.
Kabitzin’s Rating: 4/5
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This post was written by...
Kabitzin – who has written 1938 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I can get behind this.
CRY TOUYA CRYYYY
Also, Akira doesn’t have thought text because you don’t need them to get it. I didn’t anyways.
I really hope there are more skank-battles next season. Rina (and my puppy-wuppy Haruka :3) have been goody-too-shoes for far too long!
Hey! She brought da cheese, and I nom-nom-ed on it. Thats all that matters! =3
Girl? Shes a WHOLE lotta WOMEN!!! *snaps fingers* *bobs head* MMMM HMMM!!!! ^__~ <3 but seriously, she elevated this series by a TON! We definitely need to give her a round of applause! Shes got the figure, the pout wit da uppa-stank-lip! Its all a man can ask for! Also, I like how shes really direct:
I’d rate the series around 8-9 out of 10 =3 Can’t wait to see how the Blu-Ray version of ep 13 is gonna turn out ;P
Yeah, pretty much. I was finding this a bit boring at first too, but with so much else to watch I burned through the last five episodes in one go, and found it to be a better way of watching it. Either it got better in its second half, or I was getting more into the story because I wasn’t experiencing it piecemeal.
You hit the nail on the head in pointing out how the TOUYA HAET was intentional – not every male lead has to be heroic, so as much as he pissed me off it was refreshing in that sense. The first show of the season to be subbed always draws a lot of flak anyway, whether it’s good, bad or somewhere in between (I’m looking at the unread K-On posts on my feedreader here). Good to see it wasn’t just me who saw a bit of Sheryl in Rina…
I was disappointed with the dip in art quality towards the end, because that was one of the things the show did well. It was a naturalistically-drawn piece that really captured the feel of the time. As 80s pop goes, the songs weren’t too bad either!
Definitely. I was really glad that you decided to blog this one; your captions and commentary were consistently hilarious and added a lot to my enjoyment of the weekly dorama (plus it was nice to know that I wasn’t alone in my love for trashy soap operas). I’m looking forward to the fall season which will undoubtedly feature buckets of Touya’s girly tears and more of the delectable Yayoi-sama. And more characters being struck down by God for stupidity, of course.
I’m of two minds about this show. On one hand, the show has very weird pacing, and I really don’t like a lot of the characters. On the other hand, I just can’t stop watching this show. Maybe it’s because the setup and atmosphere is so good (the first scene in the first episode where Touya wakes up shows the Nikkei at double the value today). Maybe it’s because I am hungering for an anime romance which isn’t based on high school. Maybe it’s as you said the fact that we get to see Touya’s inner thoughts.
Either way I’m glad you blogged this show, I do enjoy your views on romance shows the most Kabitzin. Personally I’m hoping that Rina continues to be this awesome best friend girl (like Miki from Suzuka) in instead of being a love failed love interest (although still awesome) Ami.
Glad you’re having a WA party here
I think that this is about as much a “love it or leave it” show as I’ve seen in quite a while. And I definitely DO want to know how this is gonna turn out.
I wrote my own review of it which lists a lot of unresolved plotlines. In the end, I still think it’s worth watching for its good parts. It’s a good thing I have a PS3 and have a rudimentary understanding of Japanese, because I think I’ll play through the VN just for Rina’s route, and I can’t stand how she looks like a loli in the original.