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.
