This episode begins with a young man (Touya Fujii, age 19 or 20) waking from a dream of his long time girlfriend (Yuki Morikawa, age 19 or 20) breaking up with him because she has become a Japanese idol. Once Touya turns on his TV he see Yuki getting interviewed, but he has to rush off because he’s late for his part time job. Later, when Touya makes it to college he finds Yuki waiting for him, and they talk about her TV interview.
After a few minutes, Yuki’s manager shows up and she has to leave for work, and it seems like Touya wanted to talk longer but Yuki runs off to work. Later, while Touya is at the university’s job office (later we find out that Touya lost his job because he was late for work) he runs into two mutual friends of his and Yuki (Misaki, and Akira), and Touya and Misaki sit down and have a conversation about school stuff and Yuki. Misaki tells Touya that Yuki will only get busier and they’ll have less time with her. So, she tells Touya that he has to grab hold of her even tighter (if he wants to keep her).
Later, Touya is walking with Akira and he asks him if he’s decided about Misaki, he suggests that after five years of hanging around with her that he would have made his mind up, he tells Touya to mind his own business. As Touya is talking with his friend about how his dream and today’s real world experiences have linked up, another friend of Touya’s shows up on a bike (Haruka), and she wants to talk with him. Akira makes a comment to Haruka and she takes off with Touya chasing after her, when he finally catches up with her, he tells her to forget about Akira.
After Haruka and Touya talk for awhile, we find out that Haruka arraigned today’s meeting between Touya and Yuki. As Touya and Akira are riding a train, Touya tells Akira that Yuki moved into the new apartment that her management agency picked for her. After Akira finds out that Touya doesn’t have Yuki’s new address, he tells Touya that Yuki’s production company might be trying to break them up as a couple.
Later at Yuki’s workplace, we see that Yuki had her idol outfit ruined, and she is being harassed by another idol group. We then find out that Yuki was targeted because the other idol group was too spineless to attack Yuki’s senior (the idol Rina Ogata). Rina asks Yuki if she has another outfit she could wear but Yuki tells her no, and that Rina should go without her because she’ll come up with something, as Rina is walking off she hopes that Yuki has the strength to not give in. Later, we see Touya at work with Akira at Cafe Echoes (it seems that Akira got him a job?). Later, Akira asks Touya why he just doesn’t asks his father for some financial help, Touya doesn’t like that idea, but he calls his father anyway and his father hangs up on him.
Then we see Rina performing at a concert, and we see Touya watching TV seeing Yuki appear in the game show he’s watching. Just then, he gets a phone call from Yuki, and he tells her that he just saw her on TV and she says that was recorded last week. They talk about their day, Yuki hides the fact that she was bullied, Touya tells her about his new job at Echoes, and they talk and talk, until Yuki has to hangup because Rina has come back to see her. Touya is left holding the phone in his hand wondering what was up with that? When Rina sees that Yuki did OK coming up with a new outfit at the last minute she give Yuki the “thumbs up”, she asks Yuki if that was her boyfriend, and she says she would like to meet him. Well, that’s all for this episode.
Well, I enjoyed this first episode more than I thought I would, this series seems to be pretty close to the same type of story that the REC. anime series (2006) had with the exception that the two characters from REC. were a few years older than Yuki and Touya. The setup for White Album is that you have a young couple that has been dating since high school, and now they are both sophomores in college. The girl (Yuki) has embarked on a career as a idol, she spends less and less time at school, and her new career path leaves little time for her boyfriend. The boy (Touya) is a average college student who’s time is taken up by his studies, and trying to hold part time jobs. Yuki is cute, nice, and somewhat naive about the sometimes backstabbing nature of her industry. Touya has a serious nature, but seems somewhat sullen at times because he’s unsure about his future status with Yuki.
The real issues for the characters in this series will be all about communication, and time management. Yuki seems like she still really cares about and needs her relationship with Touya, so she’ll have to remember to tell him that she still needs him, and she’ll have to find time to spend with him. Touya seems to really care about Yuki and he’s worries that he’ll lose her as she progresses in the industry, so he’ll have to tell her that he loves her and still needs her, but he’ll also have to make due with spending less time with her than before.
Overall, I enjoyed the first episode and will be watching the next couple of episodes, I look forward to seeing how Yuki’s and Touya’s relationship develops and if they can work through their problems. The supporting characters, such as Rina, Akira, Misaki, and Haruka seem interesting and I’ll also look forward to seeing how their stories and personalities get fleshed out.
