Otaku Review

White Album – Episode 2
Studio: Seven Arcs
Air Date: 1/10/09
Genre: Romantic Drama

With the second episode, ‘White Album’ further cements itself as one of the leading dramas of the season.

The Story

Yuki and Touya are continuing to fight for the relationship in their own ways. Yuki is still consistently busy with her emerging idol career but finally makes time for Touya by dropping into the café where he works along with Rina. Meeting Rina for the first time, Touya is a little flustered but with one single action things will completely change for all three of them.

Good and the Bad

There are lots of little things along the way which will try to take your attention away from what this series offers. From the first moments of the episode, there are choices within the animation that will scream out to the viewers. When Haruka and Touya have their meeting in the park is a great example of this; overall this scene is well played out. Looking at the profile images of Haruka and Touya though, viewers will readily be able to see some less than perfect choices for lighting the characters that do a great job of killing some of the drama created. It really shouldn’t be enough to distract or even turn off any viewers but it is certainly noticeable.

Still, the animation is one of the strong points of ‘White Album’. Remaining from episode one are the on screen captions to spell out the inner monologue of the characters and sudden switches to pencil style artwork. The on screen captions continue to be something that this series does so very well.

Using on screen captions for thoughts is very difficult to do because the dialogue has to be simple and subtle as to not make it redundant. In this case ‘White Album’ manages to do this by creating a very realistic feeling. There isn’t a single person reading this (and that includes the person writing it) who hasn’t had a moment where they were talking about one subject while wishing that they could express what they really wanted to say and ‘White Album’ captures that feeling beautifully. I can only hope that this is something that the series continues to expand upon and use to its fullest potential.

Moving further into the series, it is obvious from this episode that if pacing was a big issue for you before it is going to continue to be an issue for the rest of the series. Never in a rush, every scene moves along at a solid but very methodical pace. Seven Arcs has done a wonderful job so far of making sure that every second of each episode counts for something. Even when very little is happening, at least one story arc is being moved forward in very subtle ways. Filled with nuance, this is not a series for those who need their exposition and development spoon fed to them.

The characters are where ‘White Album’ is already succeeding the most though. Within one episode, ‘White Album’ has managed to create characters and relationships that will stay with the audience long after they leave the episode behind. The primary relationship between Yuki and Touya had me hooked at episode one. In this episode however, that relationship is highlighted even further as the audience gets their first real chance to see these two interacting face to face after their short meeting in episode one.

What struck me about this scene in particular is how their relationship is presented: always very casual, never any excitement in either of their voices to see each other and no signs of affection. With scenes like this, it would be hard for anyone in the audience to be excited to see the relationship developed any further. The first meeting between Rina and Touya however is completely different.

The chemistry between these two characters is very real and apparent from the first moment that they start to speak to each other. Fans can debate all day about Rina’s actions and what they think of her (which, by the way you are welcome to do below since it’s a discussion that I wouldn’t mind having either ^_^). But when that café scene completed, all I was left with was a feeling of wanting to see these two together more.

Music

The music in this drama continues to be another strong point to the presentation. While there aren’t any insert songs like in the premiere episode (in fact, the careers of Rina and Yuki are barely even talked about in this episode), the background music remains absolutely beautiful. Generally when background music begins to stand out from a series it’s because it’s either been done very well or very poorly.

In this instance however, the music stands out in every scene because of how wonderful it is. Filled with influences from classical to jazz, every scene presented so far owes at least a small amount of thanks to the wonderful music that plays along with it. From the soft piano solo in the park scene to the smooth jazz as Rina comes home and then the strong piano theme that closes out the episode, ‘White Album’ remains filled with wonderful tracks that I would love to listen to on their own and out of context.

Cast

So far, all of the cast members are doing a wonderful job with keeping their characters very restrained. Aya Hirano (Yuki) continues to do a great job of selling how timid her character is while Nana Mizuki (Rina) is starting to show signs of bringing her character out into the open more.

Perhaps the biggest complaint from fans regarding this series could be that for a romantic drama, there has yet to be any real emotional hook beyond the troubled relationship between Yuki and Touya. With the set up in this episode however, there is more than enough foreshadowing dropped here to leave audiences wondering who will be the first to break through that flat barrier.

Overall

With only two episodes aired, ‘White Album’ has set itself up as one of the best series in a season filled with mediocrity. From the characters to the innovative storytelling, this series has done more than enough to hook in all of the audience members who were certain to be viewers. Better than that though, with the foreshadowing created in the final act they have also created enough of a hook to bring in those on the fringe. The third episode will be the big test for this series but already ‘White Album’ has created enough excitement in me that I want to call it the first ‘can’t miss’ series of the new season.

Final Grade: A-

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