Short Synopsis: Due to a stress, Yuki pays a surprise visit to Touya.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
Ah, why not; I’m going to blog this series. It’s going to be a nice quick series from a genre that I usually don’t blog about. I’m able to blog three new series this season, and for the final one I was doubting between this one and Kemono no Souja Erin (I think it’s pretty obvious what the other two are going to be ^^;). I was at first edging for Erin, but then I changed my mind: White Album, while it may have some clichés in it, it’s way better executed than Erin. The problem with Trans Arts is that they’ve got an eye for new and fresh premises, but they don’t know squat about actually making a good story. I’ve been disappointed by them one too many times, especially considering that none of their series went really right so far.
I definitely know that I’m not good at blogging romance shows. With True Tears I kept switching sides after every single episode, and my experiment of blogging Macross Frontier turned into a complete disaster. Still, I’m going to take this chance again because these two episodes have been really well written. The creators have an eye for detail, and manage to get the best out of their actors. This show has subtlety, of which I’m a big fan of. It also brings Hirano Aya back to a role that actually FITS her: a subtle one. The Yuki here is reserved and not very confident of herself, and far away from the energetic characters that she usually plays and fails horribly at.
My biggest fear for this series is that it’s going to turn into some cheesy harem along the way, but I’ll remain confident for now. There are plenty of male characters so far with their own distinctive personalities, and I’m especially intrigued by Rina: something tells me that there’s much more to her than what we just saw of her: here she accompanies Yuki to see her boyfriend, and then she starts hitting on the guy behind her back.
It’s interesting how this show doesn’t seem to have a director, or either the director is so obscure that he/she wasn’t even mentioned on the show’s promos. In fact, most of the important staff members of this series have relatively little experience. This can be either incredibly bad (they don’t know many of the major pitfalls yet) or incredibly good (new ideas that current anime staff can’t think off). I’m really edging for the latter with White Album.
“I’m especially intrigued by Rina: something tells me that there’s much more to her than what we just saw of her: here she accompanies Yuki to see her boyfriend, and then she starts hitting on the guy behind her back.”
And what was that parting statement to Yuki as she left just before she started hitting on the boyfriend? ‘Are you sure?’ It’s almost as if Yuki asked her to hit on him.
All in all this reminds me very much if I”s. I had major, major problems with that manga, and didn’t bother with the anime. This looks to be a much better balanced version of I”s, but only time will tell.
I just finished the first episode but I definitely agree with your impressions on it so far – I can’t stand harems anymore so it’s refreshing to see a college student who actually has a personality and girls that don’t look like they came straight from the loli factory.
This 2nd ep was 100x better than the first. Pacing was much improved and we know how each of the girls feel for the main lead. I’m still not completely sold on this until we see how the relationships are handled. If this guy just sleeps with everyone, I’m gone. I think school days really set the standard for a badly handled harem series. At least for me. Anyone know what source is used for this anime.
Irie: I know that this is based on a visual novel, though I’m not sure what kind of it. I’m suspecting that it’s something similar to True Tears, but I can’t say this with 100% certainty.
psgels: Appreciate the response. Well True Tears was exceptionally well written and executed. Hopefully this series will follow that example.
This series is based on a visual novel released a decade earlier so I wouldn’t be too quick to compare it to anything more recent(I’s, true tears, etc). The pacing seems slow but I might be able to adjust if the story is done well. I think this might turn out to be more of a love triangle than a harem actually.