White Album

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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Adaptation:	White Album
Sequel:	White Album 2nd Season
Other:	White Album 2

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Characters & Voice Actors

Ogata, Rina

Main

Mizuki, Nana
Japanese

Morikawa, Yuki

Main

Hirano, Aya
Japanese

Fujii, Touya

Main

Maeno, Tomoaki
Japanese

Shinozuka, Yayoi

Supporting

Park, Romi
Japanese

Mizuki, Mana

Supporting

Tomatsu, Haruka
Japanese

Kawashima, Haruka

Supporting

Masu, Nozomi
Japanese

Matsuyama, Menou

Supporting

Shishido, Rumi
Japanese

Nagase, Frank

Supporting

Shioya, Yoku
Japanese

Nanase, Akira

Supporting

Sakaguchi, Daisuke
Japanese

Ogata, Eiji

Supporting

Hayami, Show
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Mishima, Akio

Producer

Shioya, Yoku

Sound Director, Recording

Tsuda, Naokatsu

Episode Director, Storyboard

Yase, Yuki

Episode Director, Storyboard

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Opening Theme

"Shin Ai" by Nana Mizuki

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Ending Theme

	1: "Maiochiru Yuki no Youni" by Suara
	2: "Shin Ai" by Nana Mizuki (eps 13)

Reviews

Mar 31, 2009

KaminaKai

Recommended

*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 away ... from 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.

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Apr 1, 2016

PoeticJustice

Mixed Feelings

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’t ... manage 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.

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Oct 30, 2014

MeowPower

Not Recommended

*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 the ... first 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.

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Poll: White Album Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 ) AkariChan - Jan 20, 2009	70 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Apr 17, 11:07 PM
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Morikawa, Yuki

Fujii, Touya

Shinozuka, Yayoi

Mizuki, Mana

Kawashima, Haruka

Matsuyama, Menou

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White Album

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