White Album

White Album is a 1998 adult visual novel adapted into an anime in 2008. A second season was released in 2009.

Nothing to do with that White Album, BTW.

The story deals with college student Touya and his girlfriend, the rising Idol Singer Morikawa Yuki, and the stress this--along with the rest of Touya's semi-wanted harem--puts on their relationship. The series is actually set in the 80s, and the lack of cellphones is important to the plot. Seriously, this story wouldn't work set in the present.

A sequel, White Album 2, was released in two parts between 2010 and 2011.


 * Arc Words "Goddess of the Day"
 * Art Shift: The art occasionally shifts into a kind of soft, pastel-ish style that is very, very pretty.
 * Catch Phrase: Haruka has "Stingy".
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Hopefully there won't be any "Nice Boat" in this anime.
 * Dysfunction Junction: Pretty much everyone has some kind of problem.
 * The Eighties: The series is set in that decade, it seems specifically so that Yuki and Touya can conveniently miss each other's calls.
 * Forgotten Childhood Friend
 * Freak-Out: Rina's brother has a massive hallucinatory one in one episode of season 2. Yuki at one point freaks out and starts biting her own wrist.
 * Harem Genre: Deconstructed. Touya begins the series with a well-established girlfriend, who progressively becomes less well-established as Touya's pathological need for intimacy takes a hold of him. Seriously, this guy thirsts for human contact almost as much as Makoto Itou thirsts for sex.
 * Hollywood Nerd: Art student Misaki, who dresses in an incredibly frumpy sweater.
 * Idol Singer: Yuki, Rina, Mendou
 * Lonely At the Top: Rina is the most successful of the artists, at the top of her game. And incredibly lonely. Of course, in this series, everyone is.
 * Lonely Together
 * Love Dodecahedron: About half a dozen girls like Touya; two of them have stalkers of their own. One acquires a boyfriend in addition to her stalker.
 * Please Put Some Clothes On: Touya to Haruka.
 * Running Gag: Mana mistaking other women for Yuki.
 * Tsundere: Mana
 * Unlucky Childhood Friend: Haruka especially seems to fit this niche.
 * The Voiceless: Franky, the Master of the bar,
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: Eiji Ogata.