White Album – 04



Short Synopsis: Rina arranges a date for Touya and Yuki but the two keep running past each other.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
Well, this series continues on the same thread that it’s been setting for the past few episodes: very unpredictable, complex, hard to understand and full of subtle emotions. I’ve seen this series compared to School Days a few times, and I guess that the two are similar at their basic premises, though the big difference was that School Days was really badly written: characters went out of character just as the plot saw fit, there was hardly any attention to detail or attempt to flesh out the characters beyond their basic stereotypes.

And that’s indeed why I’m liking this series so much. The basic premise is a pretty simple one of a boy who interacts with a bunch of cute girls, but the creators really made the cast come alive, and avoid lumping their characters along with all of the thousand stereotypes that are already there. Okay, so what if they don’t know how to spell “north”, the backgrounds overall are pretty basic in this series, but in order to make up for it the foreground animation is really well done.

So, if I understood it correctly, Rina arranges a date between Touya and Yuki. However, since she calls Touya at five am he’s half awake when he hears the appointment and fails to correctly remember the time and place of arrival. At first I found it a bit strange why the guy didn’t have her cell phone number, but then I remembered that this series is set in 1986… not 2009. ^^; In any case, at the station he accidentally bumps into a middle school girl who mistakes him as a molester, so he also wastes precious time trying to get that misunderstanding straight, and at the meantime she also helps his indecisiveness at the moment.

What made this episode so hard to understand was the huge amount of small flashbacks that the creators threw in. Especially when watching raw, it is a bit confusing when suddenly characters start looking back at past events. I like this however a lot. Those flashbacks really feel like memories: they’re there, and before you know it they’re gone again. This series isn’t of long ten-minute flashbacks, but instead it presents these flashbacks as how a person would remember them. Very nice touch.

Another complex part is Rina again: what the heck is she up to? Why couldn’t Yuki arrange the date herself, and why did Rina have to phone Touya about it, at such a nonsensical time of five o’clock in the morning? What was she planning to do at the beginning of the episode, disguised and all? And how about Yayoi? I originally thought that she was simply taking on the role of the very strict manager, but her mood was completely different this time.

10 thoughts on “White Album – 04

  1. I’m finally starting to warm up to this series… I really hate “sure-chigai” which is when you basically miss someone even though they’re very close by, especially how most anime depict it. It happened so many times in this episode, and it aggravated me, but only because of personal experience. I remember time’s where I’ve tried to meet up with someone, yet I didn’t have their cell number or we didn’t clearly set up a meeting location. White Album depicted these type of scenes much nicer than other series I can remember.

  2. 1986….I didn’t even realice.

    Well, I’m feeling actually the same way you two have written already, psgels, Tess.
    This seems very promising, it really doesn’t feel like some of the other series out there.

    I love how they from time to time use watercoloured scenes and I like how the ending has been done very much, music inclueded. As psgels already said the memories are handled really well, and I can’t help but love how they really are using those words as thoughts in the background at the same time our lead character is talking to someone.
    There is no words for his thoughts, but he is actually thinking wordlesly and I like it since it’s different from the usual. In other series the thoughts are actually said aloud. I suppose there must at least be couple of series that have used written language instead of voice, but in this series it’s done so well in my opinion.

    Thanks for blogging again psgels.

    I wonder how serious those two’s relasionship is going to get along this series, it seems very serious already. For some reason Haruka’s character really interests me and I want to know what happens to her while this series goes along.

  3. Very underrated series, I’d pick this over the dozen of uninspired harem series we get every season anytime. But I seem to be in the minority there, seeing how popular this is compared to any of the superficial ecchi anime out there.

  4. Another complex part is Rina again: what the heck is she up to? Why couldn’t Yuki arrange the date herself, and why did Rina have to phone Touya about it, at such a nonsensical time of five o’clock in the morning? What was she planning to do at the beginning of the episode, disguised and all?

    Rina wanted to “rent” Touya before the date and hence told him the wrong station (yuunagi) on purpose (yuki is suspose to meet him at hotarugasaki-station) Touya ended up going to hotarigasaki-station anyway because he only remembered the change in time but not the change in station. Rina called Touya about it because Yuki could not…and I donno why 5 am of all times xD

  5. Even though I have advanced knowledge of japanese, I have to agree that this series actually requires thinking and you have to pay attention to almost every single detail to fully understand. If you don’t understand japanese, i dont think u should bother with the raws and wait for the subs instead.

  6. Yeah, now that I think about it…doesn’t it seem kind of pointless to try blogging a series if you don’t even understand half the shit that’s going on? Just wait for subs…your evaluations will improve if you do so.

  7. Not sure if I’m comprehending this correctly but I get the impression that Touya feels he is losing Yuki to her career. It was subtle but his reaction to the new of the CD debut was somewhat panicky. Early on, I had the feeling Touya was considering his other options since the loss of Yuki seemed immanent. Not so sure now but he was considering his feelings for the other girls.

    Interesting series and very complex. Hope they handle it well until the end.

  8. This series does seem to be relatively creative compare to otheres of the same genre. I only regret the typically apathic protagonist. In these types of series I always want to punch the guy. Why can’t they for once use someone more energetic and enthousiastic to play that role? You don’t need to be overly passive in order to hesitate about which girl you want to go out with…

  9. AlexS while I agree most protagonists of this genre seem overly passive, Touya actually has a legit reason to do so. He’s supposed to be with Yuki, whom he considers his girlfriend, even though apparently they’ve not really gone to the next level before this episode. Like Irie said, he’s losing her to her career and is considering other options. But I think he’s hesitating and rightfully so. I think their bonds have grown stronger by the next episode, only to be broken much harder. Because, well we wouldn’t have an interesting anime then now would we..:P Possibly by Rina whose motives are still unclear to me. Let’s not forget about Misaki(that senpai on whom Akira has a crush) either.

  10. Mihan: I understand perfectly what you mean, but still I find him too passive. If he’s uncertain about his place in Yuki’s future, he should be busy carving it, that’s how it’s done. I don’t mean that Touya’s behavior is unrealistic, I just find it unappealing. He seems like a drifting piece of wood, that will go in the direction of whoever pulls the strongest. That’s dull. It would be more interesting if he tried things, failed them, etc. In matters of love, there is always room for hesitation, and hesitant characters are not necessarily dull, if they feel and try to do things:

    Just think of Hamlet, the quintessential hesitant: his waverings do not prevent him from trying things, and failing badly. That’s much more interesting.

    As for the female characters, they are much more interesting, since they do things (considering Touya’s passivity, they have no choise). Even the Yuki, the most sedate of them, is going for it…

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