White Album - 01
Thoughts: A lot of emotion was in this episode.
Overall Rating: 9
I didn’t think that this would be such a serious series right off the bat. It was also nice seeing a lot of different side characters introduced in just one episode. It really helps keep you interested in what their connection was to the main character. I was stunned by the OP song. Nana Mizuki really did a great job on it. It’s my favorite opening of the season so far.
White Album starts off with the main character, Touya, having a dream about his close friend Yuki. In the dream, Yuki becomes an idol and won’t be able to stay with Touya any longer. By the looks of it, this will be an important plot device for future episodes. They’ll probably make Touya keep thinking of this dream in order for him to get more motivation to ask Yuki out seriously. The thing I didn’t like was that Touya was basically a lazy bum and spaced out quite a bit at times. His apartment was a mess, and he got fired from his part time job for being late. I understand it’s just the first episode, but I’m still tired of seeing lazy bum character meets pretty girl.
Eventually, Touya meets up with Yuki at the school and only gets a couple minutes to actually talk with her. It’s obvious he needs to be a little more assertive. He meets up with a few acquaintences and one helps him get a job at the store Echoes. It was pretty nice to see that his friend had a crush on Misaki and hasn’t asked her out for 5 years. I’m hoping we see more of them in the future.
Ogata Rina looks like a really interesting character. I’m curious to know how Yuki knows her so well. Maybe they grew up together or went to the same school. Yuki also needs to get some confidence in herself. Her character has potential, but I just hope she won’t be a useless character for the entire series. It’d be nice if Rina and Yuki were the ones who rang the doorbell at the end of the episode. I can see the second episode being possibly funny if Rina is introduced to Touya. Overall, the episode was really top-notch with great character designs. The music and vocal song Rina sang were very good. I can’t wait to see if Yuki sings in the later episodes.
Hmm… I mean, she managed to solve the bullying problem all by herself, without outside help. Likewise, she managed to sidestep the attempt of the TV guy to picture her friend Rina as a scary commanding type all on her own aswell. Therefore, I think that if anything, Yuki was displayed as pretty apt on her own. So, why would you consider her “useless”?
Comment by Mentar — January 6, 2009 @ 6:36 am
Sorry, you misunderstood me. I don’t consider her useless. It’s my fear that she’ll become useless as the series draws out. I do acknowledge how she overcame all that. But, I just think her character is prone to let others take advantage over her.
Comment by Tales — January 6, 2009 @ 11:47 am