Impz’s first Winter impressions – White Album, another IDOL show?
If you are wondering where Impz went, he was engulfed into the sea of PSP. The sweet and wonderful Thirteensugars (my girlfriend) bought me a PSP for Christmas, and I received it two days ago. Needless to say, I literally abandoned every single thing that has been bothering me in my activities, and dropped them to play PSP for the whole day. Finally, the addiction has eased down quite a bit, and I am ready to blog anime. The next show I am dealing with is White Album.
White Album.
Wonderful.
I am going to have so much fun with this review.
Summary
Touya dreamed of Yuki, his girlfriend who was a singer. In his dream, he could not hear the noise projected from some loud rock music nearby. Eventually in the dream, Yuki left him to perform on a stage. When he woke up, he found that Yuki was talking about Ogata Rina, a senior in the same agency, on television. Touya realized he was late for university and ran off for classes. At the entrance of the university, he met up with Yuki but she was pestered to leave almost immediately by her manager.
Upon reaching his university, Touya meets his friends Nanase Akira and Sawakura Misaki. Misaki offers the book of Robert Browning, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”, for a read. They were in a conversation that veered toward the amount of time he had with Yuki. It made him realized that he had to catch up with Yuki more before they completely lost touch with each other. As he walked with Akira to his new workplace at Echoes (a pub), he pointed the obvious fact that Akira was never able to confess his feelings to Misaki.
The two meet a girl named Kawashima Haruka next, who wishes to spend some time with Touya. When Akira brings up a comment about playing tennis with him instead though, she takes off on her bike. We realized that Haruka stopped playing tennis after her brother died, and Touya reprimanded Akira for his insensitivity. On the train, Touya told Akira that Yuki moved to a new apartment, and she did not have a phone line or a phone connection. Akira noted that Yuki was really on her way to the world of the idols.
At a studio, Rina walked past a all-female band and entered Yuki’s dressing room. She realized that it was the band who deliberately spilled coffee on Yuki’s dress. Rina realized that it was her lecture on them during last week’s show that prompted them to take revenge on something related to Rina. Rina wanted to help, but Yuki said she would take care of it herself. Touya also spent some time at his workplace. A man named Ogata Eiji, a person working with Yuki, appeared. Touya tried to follow him, but Eiji left before Touya could catch up. Akira then came over to inform that work is over. Akira also explained that just before Eiji was usually with Yuki did not mean that she would be with him all the time.
Touya watches Yuki and Rina’s performance on the TV that night (they were showing the episode filmed last week). He then surprisingly getting a call from Yuki while it airs. As the two discuss what has happening with each other recently, it is revealed that Yuki solved that stained skirt problem by transforming her dress into something that had a completely different image. Rina interrupts Yuki during her phone call. When she learns that Yuki was talking to her boyfriend, she requests to meet him.
Thoughts
All right, where should I start? This is exactly the type of show that I will stubbornly watch for a few episodes and find myself enjoying it mildly. At least, it did show that there are a few interesting quirks that makes for refreshing takes on this popular melodrama genre, but I doubt that it will move far from the conventional plot. Unless White Album proves to be very different from the general details of this genre, I expect Touya to jump from girl to girl, with each different girl having some emotional problem that requires Touya to open the key to happiness. Or something.
With that, the make or break issue with this anime is the characters. If the characters are immediately appealing (like Noe of True Tears), you find yourself totally suck into the show. Most of the time, the guy in the show is just a paper-thin character that can be ignored, even though it is obviously good if he manages to avoid the common problem of being a totally indecisive retard with the girls. I almost wonder if there is a male lead in this genre that has any spine. Touya might get a good start, since he is ALREADY ATTACHED. That’s at least something to applaud for this series. This might seem like this show is going to be great. I beg to differ because this series suffers from a fundamental problem.
The problem with the series, the BIGGEST PROBLEM, is that none of the female characters contain any tangible appeal at all. In such series, you generally try to root for a certain girl, and the appeal of the girls tend to be very easily detected right at the start. For now, all the girls feel exactly the same with little differences at all. That makes it hard for me to care because they felt so generic. I mean, if one of them is less energetic, and another one is perhaps …more ditsy, it might make them a bit different. For now, they are just like clones to each other, and that is BAD FOR A SERIES who wants us to care about the girls.
The animation, by far, is rather average for a series of melodrama (aka the girls must be appealing). It might be because I am spoiled after the excellent animation of True Tears (P.A WORKS), but these girls do not look half-attractive for me. It felt somewhat lazy and boring, and there is little to be excited about.
Of course, the biggest attraction must be the seiyuu. With Yuki playing Aya Hirano and Mizuki Nana playing as Rina, the fanboys will just jump into the series bandwagon orgasming about the series even if it would suck. In the end, they will just blame the bad scripting and move on while praising Aya and Nana’s ability. I personally felt that the OP was distinctively Nana’s territory, and it is done with some style too. That is perhaps the strongest part of the anime series: the seiyuus.
So, would I recommend it? I am not sure. On one hand, if they manage to make the love triangle (come on, it’s so darn obvious already) interesting, I might go on. However, for now, the characters are just way too bland for me to bother about this at all. Recommended for those who likes romance and melodrama, everyone else might want to think first before jumping into this.
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Actually I found the characters appealing, specifically Yuki. She had the most screentime during the episode, and so I can grow a certain affinity, while I don’t see the deal with Rina yet.
Remember though that this is just one episode, and that a lot can happen so I don’t think these characters will be as generic as they are now. I would admit that the first episode is a bit on the bland side when it’s supposed to start strong in order to gather the audience’s interest.
The on-screen text (displaying some of the guy’s thoughts) is surprising though, again I had visual novel vibes from that, and it’s a nice touch. I hope they can take advantage of that idea more.
@impz
What anime does that “Generic Bitches” poster have a screenshot of?
I also agree on how uninteresting all the characters seemed. I thought this was supposed to a girl’s drama anime like Nana or maybe slice-of-life like Lucky Star. Seeing a generic male protagonist has brought the show down for me some.
Flipping through the raw right now, really like the ED.
What psp game you playing?
Neither the OP nor ED really caught my attention. The main character seems like a typical lazy slob. Also, I was under the impression that the other main girl in the love triangle was going to just be a random girl he meets at college or whatever. But it seems to be another singer, which just means he’s trying to decide between two similar people. So yeah, I agree with what you said about the girls all being pretty plain, or at least very similar. I also have to echo Hinano’s words, what the hell is up with everyone in the showbiz industry being backstabbing bitches?
Impz: It would be interesting to learn that White Album is an adaptation the eroge of the same name published by LEAF (who also did To Heart and Utawarerumono). The thing is though, the game came ALMOST AT THE SAME TIME as To Heart, so scenario-wise, it will feel VERY dated.
Mmm, the loli hasn’t showed up yet.
So I haven’t watched it I’m not a bad-ass raw watcher but from the looks of it I can’t help but to think poor of this series. I’m not really inclined towards the genre and hearing the words “generic” and “clones” from a first episode review just doesn’t tickle my fancy.
I hope the animation is good, because I don’t think the seiyuu are going to be good enough to sustain and make up for the series faults.
@lubczyk:
White Album.
@Bluemist: Really? I feel that they are somewhat bland to me but maybe I have been fed with the constant indulgence of extremely impossible-to-have anime girls in real life that a normal girl like Yuki or Rina no longer becomes anything special. They become generic. Let’s hope that the girls change for the better during the course of the series, and I think I might watch it since I generally like romance.
I do not know whether I like Touya for now. He just rubs me the wrong way for some strange reason.
@Lub: Yep, I will usually feel this tingling sensation when someone did a good job on the characterization. I am not feeling it. That said, it’s still the first episode and anything can happen. I remember that Ginban Kaiedoscope started out very generic but ended with one of the most beautiful conclusions that I ever watched in my entire life. I cried buckets.
@Anony: Playing crisis core: ff7 currently. God, that game is hard but I am a very weak gamer.
@Nazar: Well, if showbiz is not backstabbing then it will be boring. They got to make some jazz to the show since it is rather bland at the moment. Note: Look at the main picture. It will tell you exactly what I felt.
@Myssa: Arr, well, I do not really care whether an anime came from any company. As long as it is good, I will praise it. I have little care of the reputation of the anime I am blasting because bad anime will be bad. That said, White Album is tolerable, like a C-. It’s like having a fever. It sucks but not that badly.
@Pablo: I didn’t wish to use those terms but that actually sums up the whole darn show. Now, it’s hard to find me saying “this show is so original.”… HMMM.
[...] As Impz put it before, this is a character-driven show. And as such, I was thoroughly confused by the exposition – a whole lot of stuff happens but not in an order that makes a lot of sense at first glance. That indicates that either (1) it’s deeper and I’m stupid or (2) they’re not doing a good job of making the story flow and are bad at producing the most crucial [promotional] episode. Seems like they’re trying to cram everything in one episode but it backfires. [...]
*grins*
I liked the “impossible-to-have” girls comment, there’s so much truth to it. I’d say that there isn’t much to base any judgment on, but I’d say it’s hard to dislike Yuki already
…
About the triangle: I’d be extremely surprised if the main “rival” would be anyone else but Rina herself. Yuki and Rina are the “poster girls” of the show, so that’s where we’re headed.
This show absolutely needs a couple of more episodes. And what I like most is that it’s so different from almost all other romance shows lately: 1) no silly comedy to ruin the mood, 2) just enough moe to make the idol aspect believable, nothing more, 3) the viewer is actually required to use his brain to pick up and judge the details.
odd, I’m not feeling any yuri undertones. I think that’s a good sign because when things get yuri, it will mean huge “OH GEASS NO” plot twists.
You are all so cruel to that show. It’ll probably turn out to be the best of the season and I’ll be the one laughing in the end.
Agree with jp.
Generic hatefaggoty.
[...] Impz: it did show that there are a few interesting quirks that makes for refreshing takes on this popular melodrama genre, but I doubt that it will move far from the conventional plot. …[T]he BIGGEST PROBLEM, is that none of the female characters contain any tangible appeal at all, [they're all very similar]. [...]
” mean, if one of them is less energetic, and another one is perhaps …more ditsy, it might make them a bit different.”
I agree with you on the not having attractive characters part, but I totally disagree on that the girls presented should be very different in personality. The only – ONLY – reason why I applaud this series is because of its attempts to make the personalities of these girls more realistic. In real life, and especially in Japan, girls aren’t that different from each other – there’s no “cool, brainy, girl” or “short, sweet tempered girl” or “beautiful tsundere…” Sure, you may have variations of these types in real life, but anime (and TV in general) has overused them to the point of being cliche.
lol I just read the beginning of your post and I had to say…
OMG I got a PSP for Christmas too! That’s very cool. I’m playing Crisis Core right now
It started out to be very confusing and it characters were rushed to much, and it had a slow beginning. Hopefully this will change, but I do agree the Seiyuu’s are the biggest thumbs up for this series.
While most people flung crap at the OP/ED animations, I found myself liking them. Pastel colors + snow is always a good combination for me.
[...] No Comments White Album is one of the shows I’m hyped about this season. I’ve read some interesting posts on it, watched the raw and the sub of episode 1, and finally discussed it in MTF. [...]
[...] from the storytelling conventions of today’s plotlines. Besides, if that’s not enough, this very first episode got panned by Impz, and we all know what happened the last time a certain green-haired loli-trap panned a romance [...]
it’s not going to be the best show, and it’s not going to the be the worst. anyway, it’s too early to say whether the characters are appealing or not, isn’t it?
[...] Tout simplement parce qu’il a été littéralement descendu sur de nombreux blogs anglophones, qui n’ont pas hésité à le qualifier de pure crap ou encore de shittiest anime ever. Je [...]