Anime: White Album

Notice: This review covers both seasons.

Someone insisted that White Album is a masterpiece, a deconstruction of the harem genre, and a mature look on the pop idol industry of the 80s. All I saw is yet another generic adaptation of a porn game. Just look at its freaking cover. Is this telling you it’s going to be deep and mature?

The bullshit are obvious from the first episode, where the bland self insert can’t hear what his girlfriend is saying, when she is sitting right next to him. So deep and mature, totally not what sitcoms are doing to stretch a simple issue with lazily written misunderstandings.

The story is supposed to be about the problems pop idols are facing in the 80s, and by problems I mean one idol bullying another idol by spilling drink on her dress. Because that is the only possible way we can have drama in a mature story. So much for a serious conflict by the way. They just wear different clothes, and the problem is solved. Look at me biting my nails from all the excitement. Everything in this show is first world problems that are made to seem huge with overblown drama, and irrational behaviors.

Take the director for example. He mentions early in the story how pop idols are singing like clockwork machines. That’s a lovely topic. Where is it going to lead? Nowhere, it’s all forgotten for his obsession over a painting, and does nothing else besides treating women as sex objects. Hell, he even netorares the MC’s no1 waifu. Supposed this is done to show how idols are sucking dick to stay famous but it’s not explored as a theme, it’s just there for overblown drama.

And that’s pretty much the whole series, a constant bombardment of lazy excuses to show pop idols having problems. Such as not being able to meet with their boyfriends because the bland MC is busy trying to shut up a loli that constantly screams he is a pervert for no freaking reason. The maturity is oozing from every corner.

Wait, did I say idols with boyfriends? We can’t have that, the otakus want their waifus to be pure. This is why the manager is telling him to stop seeing her. In return, he can fuck the manager. And she is even willing to pay him money for that, like he is a gigolo. Such maturity; that is exactly what happens in the real world.

Now, speaking of the protagonist, I read that the fans of this garbage call him an adult version of Shinji Ikari for some ludicrous reason, and that he is very realistic and faces real problems. Yeah man, it’s so real to be fucking a different girl no matter what you are doing. No, seriously, they guy is fucking a dozen girls without being charming or that special. In fact, there isn’t a single female who has a boyfriend in the show, or who isn’t throwing herself at the MC for helping them out a bit. Whatever realistic conflicts he faces are just an excuse to fuck around. And the most insulting part is that he insists he has a romantic interest with one specific pop idol. Where the hell is the romance when he is netoraring ten times per day? I mean, yeah, that’s what happens in porn games but this is supposed to be a romance with mature conflicts and all I see is bullshit.

There is a scandal about an idol taking pictures while having sex, as well as having someone dubbing her singing. Only thing, the scandal was all staged by the idol. You know, like actual idols do all the time to ruin their career. Do you know why she did that? To suck the MC’s dick. She ruined her future so his no1 waifu can get to the top, while the two of them will be fucking in the backstage. There is even an incest subplot in this mature story, which just like pretty much everything else doesn’t lead anywhere. It’s just typical Japanese deviance thrown in there as foreplay.

This show is like a hentai with all the sex scenes taken out. It’s boring, badly written, with dry as hell characters, and a plot that is all about netorare and presenting women as if they spread their legs to anyone who says hi. It’s awful and you should hate it. Deconstruction of harems my butt. It doesn’t even end in a satisfying bloodbath ala School Days. And how the fuck is this abomination anything remotely similar to Neon Genesis? You think I would love it because there are no schools and it’s set in the 80s? Frak you and your nothing ever happens hentai plots.

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 this show 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.

This was by far one of the HARDEST shows to watch, let alone finish.

Synopsis:
Touya is surrounded by a TON of female "Friends". He has been "dating" Yuki since High school, but face numerous hurdles to their relationship do to
1) Her rise to Pop-Idol-dom
2) His ability to string every girl he meets so he can have a one-night stand with them
3) Numerous sub-plots that are hinted, but never go anywhere - let alone closed off
Will their relationship survive? Well, the more important question is, will YOU survive seeing this?

The Bad:
* Pacing - This show likes to take its sweet time. Watching paint dry is much faster, let alone more amusing
* Protagonist is as irritating as the Male "Protagonist" of School Days - he's just a total sleaze you want to slap
* Numerous sub-plots that go nowhere
* Poor attempt at injecting a "real plot" towards the end of the second season - which is not only illogical, but totally insipid

The Good:
* The show does eventually end

Summary:
Looking for a good way to waste your time on Earth? Watch this show
Want to experience a level of pain than :brickwall: ? Watch this show.
My overall rating: :baka:

White Album: Anime soap opera at its not-so-finest.

So, another season gone by, another harem dating sim is turned into an anime for the amusement of its particularly small and shut-in community of fans who never seem to grow tired of this particular medium. White Album passed into play in the spring of 2009, having the unfortunate fate of entering play in the same hype-space as 2008/2009’s two monoliths Kannagi and Toradora and being basically doomed to toil in obscurity due to it.

White Album follows the misadventures of Tōya Fujii, your bog-standard harem lead with less spine than your average nematode and control over some kind of freakish pheromone that makes women throw themselves at his feet, and his dual troubles of having an slavishly devoted up-and-coming idol girlfriend whose career leaves her with less and less time to spend on him, and not having access to a mobile phone because the anime’s set in 1986.

Animation and Visuals: 4/10 – Featureless faces and a twenty-foot drawing distance.

White Album is a classic case of a show that burns through much of its animation budget trying to make its first episodes look passably decent and falls flat later on for it. Even as the show started I must say that I found it rather minimalist, even by the standards of its genre, and that its characters looked rather featureless and have a rather minimalist expression range. By the end, I could visibly point out flaws like entire scenes going along with the only thing moving being one character’s mouth, and being unable to see houses on the other side of the street as long as it’s night (not that there’s much impressive going on in the backdrops we’re missing; most of it is impressively empty locales).

White Album ‘experiments’ with its standard visuals by using ‘artistic’ interludes that I can describe as water-colour paintings of the cast – I say ‘artistic’ because it feels to me that it’s just an excuse to cut down the budget even more by not even having to draw background. At least the animation in those parts are halfway decent, which is more than I could say for the regular parts, like the rather unimpressive animated snowfalls. White Album is definitively sub-par in the eye-candy department.

Audio: 5/10 – …Never thought I’d see the day when idol music marks something *up*.

Like with its graphics, White Album is rather minimalistic on the voice- and music front. Apart from the occasional J-pop number, done by the seyuus that are supposed to sing the numbers, the music scene has mostly this one little violin vignette which shows up repeatedly and in all the ‘on the next’ segments, which is infuriatingly catchy while at the same time having little to any redeeming value as music. Anyway, the J-pop numbers are… Surprisingly competent, actually. I’m not a big fan of that music, but the numbers definitively stick out as the series’ ‘high point’, to the degree that ‘high point’ and ‘White Album’ can be used in the same sentence. The OP is eminently skippable and the ED instantly forgettable.

White Album’s actual voice acting is at best forgettable. About the only recognizable (and also good) voice job is Show Hayami, the voice of Aizen from Bleach, as a rather slimy record executive; a voice I must say the seiyuu gets spot-on. Other than that, I can’t really remember any of the jobs particularly well – the characters seem to go for a somewhat ‘realistic’ tone of voice, or, put better, ‘boring’, and have toned down the emotions needed in delivery for me to be impressed to a minimum. With the exception of the abovementioned manager, very few of the voice jobs manage to infuse their characters with anything I’d call life and distinction, even though none of the actual voice jobs show actual *incompetence*.

Story: 4/10 – “These Episodes Have Really Overly Long And Pretentious Names, But I Suppose They’ll Take Any Distinction They Can Take These Days”.

To summarize the plot: Boy is dating girl. Girl becomes idol singer. Girl’s fellow idol becomes attracted to Boy. Boy gets job at idol singer place. Boy gets fired. Boy stumbles around being an indecisive and stupid loser for 13 episodes while being hit on by fellow idol singer, Girl’s manager, unlucky childhood friend, fellow student, and some high school girl he’s tutoring, and driving Girl into depression. Every situation would probably be solvable if the cast had had mobile phones, but it’s 1986 so of course they don’t.

And that’s basically it. Of course, you can basically deconstruct *any* show to its components in a similarly derogatory fashion, but trust me when I say that White Album is not only best served by having this happen to it, it fully deserves it too. The entire show is basically centred on focus character Tōya Fujii and his failing relationship with his girlfriend Yuki Morikawa, and the many fascinating ways in which random events and his own personal failings manages to make him out as a dick that helps the relationship fall apart all the faster, climaxing in, well, basically, him doing what he probably should have realized five minutes into the first episode. This is all told in a very downcast, ‘realistic’ and dramatic style; one that may be slightly off from standard harem animes in that’s it’s chemically free of humor, ecchi and supernatural aspects – in short, it’s basically a one-man western soap opera animated in Japanese style.

The result of mixing and matching, combined with the irrationality of the main characters, makes White Album surprisingly hard to predict; I could actually sit down to every episode and have no bloody idea what they were going to spring on me this time, apart from the fact that they would be horribly clichéd with the benefit of hindsight. Don’t misunderstand me, though; it may be unpredictable, but it’s still pretty bad – looking at it was basically more in a “what the hell did I just watch” way than “oooh, that’s an interesting way to do it” way, and some of the coincidences that need to fall in place for certain of the events to happen like they do are nothing short of mind-bogglingly contrived. And they overplay that ‘lack of communication’ (read: Cell phones) angle a bit too much to my taste – there’s only so many ways you can play the same card, and White Album carries on way past the tolerable.

Oh yeah, and just so I’ve mentioned this: White Album is a two-parter. We’re getting the second 13-episode season at some later point, and I want you to know that the fact that the anime stops prematurely due to this hasn’t factored into my score, except perhaps for the fact that I wasn’t particularly impressed by the way they chose to stop it.

So, if I can praise White Album for *something*, it is fairly unpredictable and at least not very confusing with its *story*... At least on an objective level. Bad, oh heck yes. But I can at least understand what’s going on, even if I sometimes wish I didn’t.

Characters: 3/10 – Garbage.

Now, figuring out the character motivations, that’s something else entirely: The surprise factor from the story comes mostly from the fact that the characters in it act completely irrationally much of the time. The protagonist, Tōya, was probably intended to be portrayed as a sympathetic figure, torn between different sorts of temptations and at a delicate stage of his life… Or something. I’m not exactly the right person to comment on how men should be acting here, but mostly, Tōya comes off as something of a loser and an indecisive milksop, and exactly why all these girls seem to be attracted to him is something of a mystery (it may be something glandular). Although Tōya never *quite* reaches Makoto (as in School Days’ Makoto, that black hole of suck and my number one hate object in anime) levels in his mostly clueless ambling through the realm of drama romance (mainly because, unlike Makoto, he never progresses beyond the clueless ambling), he is still a far cry from anything I’d describe as interesting and sympathetic character… And when most of the girls are defined way too much for comfort by their interest in said character, well, you can guess what the end result is.

While some of them at least give a *hint* as to why they’d be obsessed in him, at a whole the cast remains hideously badly justified in their pursuit of mr. Milksop, which mainly ends up hobbling the entire central cast of the anime with the lodestone of the main character even though they act relatively realistic otherwise -- if somewhat incomprehensibly and generally unsympathetically. The only person to whom said lodestone works to her advantage (character-wise, not story-wise) is probably Yuki, in that I could actually garner some sort of sympathy for her because it’s obvious that she actually cares for Tōya, who in return seems to be utterly incapable of appreciating just what a nice and loving person she is… And possibly to a lesser degree it works for Yuki’s manager Yayoi, who’s obviously just emotionally manipulating him for her own purposes (though Tōya’s repeated inability to stand up to said manipulation is one of his definite low points).

The side characters (as in, the non-girls and non- Tōyas) are mostly males and all jerks, of the kind I’m way too intimately familiar with already. They seem to work purely as plot advancers for emotionally disturbing the harem in various ways, and need not detain our attentions further.

Value: 4/10 – A dime-a-dozen show for a dime-a-dozen genre.

The originality from White Album comes purely from the fact that it tries hard to be almost all-drama and possesses almost no comedy or other changes of mood, like other harem animes are wont to do, and possibly that it tries to play things a bit more ‘realistic’ than its peers with an older cast and more subdued emotional responses (an oxymoron given that it also plays the “loser main character attracts all the girls” card so straight). Other than that, it’s a pretty subpar adaptation of a dating sim, and as I already mentioned we see at least one of these every season. Look at, oh, any Key Visual work instead of this one if you want to see the genre done well.

So, do I want to recommend this? Nope. Watch it again? Hell no. Watch the next season? Well… Yes. If only because it actually amused me.

Enjoyment: 7/10 – Like watching a horrific train accident: Hard to take your eyes off and funny in all the wrong ways.

Watching White Album is a true exercise in how much stupid you can tolerate. The soap-opera plot and the mainly despicable and fumblingly clueless protagonist create a symphony of utterly unpredictable stupid, of the kind that can be surprisingly entertaining to watch, in the same way as watching “Plan Nine From Outer Space” can be entertaining (though White Album is not nearly *as* entertaining). I must confess: I was actually looking forward to each week’s episode of White Album, however bad it was, and by the end it went higher up on my interest list than the weekly Toradora episode, if only because I could not tell what the hell would happen next (which is more than what I can say about Toradora). Save that it would be stupid, and also entertaining in a “take a shot every time mobile phones could have stopped the current drama” way (don’t try that drinking game, by the way; I imagine you’ll die of liver failure).

Total: 4.5 (rounded up to 5)/10 – Watchable, if only because it’s so bad it’s entertaining.

To summarize, White Album was very much a guilty pleasure to me, and I realize not everyone will see it as such. The show has almost nothing going for it, save that its own inherent badness and unpredictability somehow struck a chord with me and kept me entertained for its thirteen episode run. That said, I’d be lying if I said that White Album is, in any shape or form, a good example of its genre, or a good anime, period. There’s nothing I could really suggest would improve it, save not having made the thing in the first place.

Still, I’ll be watching the next season. White Album manages to hit the ‘so stupid it’s entertaining’ mark, and I’ve certainly seen worse.

The OP was epic fail. Ok not really, but it's really just a slideshow. At least the timing to the song was not bad, lol.

Generally, animation was fluid and art was like a watercolour painting. It's quite soft and artsy. Personally, I like it. Facial animations were average.

Warning: There are a lot of static text displayed throughout, that shows the thoughts of the characters.. I think the director was trying to add more depth to characters without using budget for spoken dialogue. I don't like it.

Sound: I liked this part of the show the best. I'll be biased because I like Mizuki Nana. The OP was great. Especially the harps. I would say the OP totally fits the theme of the anime. The soundtrack is okay. No big deal. But the insert songs are nice (Hirano Aya!)

Character: Development is not very well done. I do not understand the motives of the characters very well, it seems like they just do things for the sake of doing things. But some of the characters are quite realistic. However, they are quite stereotypical as well. The only character I like is Ogata Rina, and even then I wouldn't say I love her.

Value: I will probably not rewatch it. It's entertaining to watch it once, but to watch it again..

Enjoyment: I really like the art style and the music. However, they could do better with character development.

That's it, maybe the second season will change my mind.