White Album

[Buffalobiian]

Whatever "spectators mobilized" means in this context, I can only guess at.

That's the turnout I'm guessing. Rina has Touya to thank too, for this idea. Without him, I doubt Rina would have realised that despite complaints and refunds, her fans would still do just about anything to see her show.

Yayoi looks to be warming up to Touya. Touched by his (not so) persistent love for Yuki? I don't know what to think of the letter though. I don't think it was a break-up letter though. Perhaps just telling him she doesn't want him to see her until after the concert? He never picks up, after all.

[David75]

Regarding that "original Yayoi" line, I was wondering if it's Touya of the future speaking, a Touya that would have spent some time with her.

[Buffalobiian]

The first time Yayoi kissed him was on the taxi, and he stumbled out afterwards.
The second time was in the car, and I think he resisted again.
The third time he embraces her back, and we can only guess at how late he was to get home.

This is the forth time "on screen" that we've seen them meet. Touya seems to have warmed up to her, "What's wrong? You're trembling.", and likewise, her to him.

The may or may not have met up between the third and fourth encounter, but the way things are leads me to believe they have.

As for the "original Yayoi" comment, I think he refers to the first time they had an intimate moment. Not the kissing scenes mentioned above, but the first time Yayoi took him out for a ride.

She asked him to leave Yuki's side, and said "but you'll be lonely, right?". This was followed by a hand-to-chest gesture. It's entirely possible that the first time Yayoi was not only interested in filling Touya's void, but also hers. Perhaps during that moment, Touya felt that Yayoi was truly lonely.

The kisses were afterwards. Along with the date, they may have all been professionally set up by Yayoi to follow up what she did to benefit Yuki's career. However, that first time, it was a lonely Yayoi.

The "original" Yayoi.

/speculation

[Buffalobiian]

Ah...that makes sense now. Intentionally ripping apart Yuki's letter doesn't quite make sense, since all of Yayoi's actions how have been to get Touya to give up on their relationship, but she hasn't made any attempt to stop Yuki's phone calls or other attempts to get a hold of Touya.

Seemingly true to Yuki, it too didn't seem like Yayoi intentionally ripped apart her letter, but I couldn't make sense out of it neither.

But then so she's mooching over Touya AND facilitating contact between him and Yuki

[Marik]

[Eclipse] White Album - 11 (1280x720 h264) [8E208605].mkv
[Eclipse] White Album - 11 (XviD) [3512A0F2].avi

[Nadouku]

I like how Yayoi is such a play girl and takes advantage of the mentally depressed Touya. Other than that, there were lots of lies flying left and right to keep Yuki and Touya apart.

[animus]

That was such an awkward episode.

[Ryllharu]

That was such an awkward episode.

Touya breaking down to tears? Certainly not something we normally see in series like this. Or how difficult this episode is to discuss? I admit I had some issues writing this post and making some form of point with it.


I thought it was mostly consistent with the rest of the series. Rina trying to take Touya around like a "pet," Yuki being blissfully ignorant, Mana going with her assumptions and not believing Touya, Haruka doing...whatever she does when she's not stalking, Yayoi being consistently somewhat eerie in her methods of seduction, and Akira being a total possessive freak about Misaki.

What was interesting was of course Rina's strange behavior (according to people usually around her) and her increasing lack of consistency in her performance. Either she's really beaten up about losing the Arena, or her career has hit a rough patch and it is all downhill from here. Will she try to further her grip on Touya to comfort herself and make up for it?

Also, Haruka's lies through omission. Mana's general misconceptions (due to lack of belief in Touya) were brought up many, many times, but Haruka only corrected her on her relationship to Touya and her own name. Mana mentioned jokingly about Yuki and Rina, one of which Haruka knows about for sure, and she didn't bother to correct her.

Lastly, Touya's breakdown. Whatever plan that Eiji and Yayoi have, it is at least working on the one front. Lack of communication has really shaken Touya's confidence in his relationship to Yuki. He knows that she's busy, and it is actually his fault for being so nice to so many other girls and missing all her phone calls (though Yayoi taking him out when she knows Yuki is at home to call him is also a large contributor), but not hearing any word from her in so long has got to be pretty devastating.

Ultimately, I'm still wondering how pure Rina's intentions are. She may like to think that she's just helping Yuki and Touya out, or at least she did initially, but she seems to be shifting towards something more serious as her career begins to suffer. The look on her face when he told her he was meeting Yayoi was something, that's for sure.

[shinta|hikari]

I actually think that Touya is part of the reason Rina has been changing and becoming "inconsistent". Maybe her concentration is being diverted from her songs to romantic feelings towards the cheating bastard.

[Buffalobiian]

Aye, that could be the case too, but it really is hard to figure out whether Rina's really taken losing the Arena lightly or not. I think she's still hung up about it, just from her reactions when Eiji set her up and she lost the venue and all. To comfort her, she's got Touya hanging around, whatever good that does. That part is evident as much she she looks at Touya in the stadium, but notices that he's not looking at her, but daydreaming somewhere else.

Touya also seems rather open to Yayoi. I'm really wonder how they each see their relationship. In fact, I don't think we've ever seen him let so much out to any one person, talking about this and that. He said :

"Oh, and, I've mentioned this before, haven't I?"....meaning he has these occasions with Yayoi no infrequently, and talks so much that he forgets if he's told her something in his daily life. NOT a good start.

They've refrained from showing anything beyond kissing, but I still think it's suggestive that they've made out every time.

And the lick....I can't make out if it was sexy, wrong or scary.....

(edit: Bringing up the letter from last time, Yayoi's really making it seem like she ripped the letter out on purpose. If you consider her motives, it's convincing since she's already preying on Touya's emotions, slowly stealing him from Yuki. Well...not stealing, more like taking advantage.

But when you factor in the scene in the car last time where she was going to hand him the ex-manager's letter, she's got no reason to do that. The only thing that comes to mind is that she intended to hand him Yuki's original letter.

BUT....if you looked at the bin in the flashback, there wasn't any other ripped-up letters, and if memory serves right, there were TWO letters addressed to Yayoi-sama. So, she only decided to rip one (the unread one?) up, and crumple the other, or she intentionally tore up Yuki's.

[Ryllharu]

I still think Yayoi ripped up Yuki's letter as part of the procedure Eiji has laid out, and then pondered giving Touya her own letter in a small moment of weakness. It isn't like she had it out in hand, only to look at it and realize it was the wrong letter. She knew it was the one addressed to her.

She's playing it strong to the Rina's old manager, but I think it really bothers her, either on a personal level or for her charge. She may believe that she is failing at her job again, or that she isn't really as stoic as she portrays herself.

[shinta|hikari]

The scene at the car when Yayoi was holding the letter may also suggest that she just realized that the letter she was holding was the wrong one. For a moment, the camera focuses on the addressee text, then Yayoi hesitates.

This can mean two things. One, she mistakenly tore up the wrong letter, and realized too late (and that her face is extremely stoic hiding surprise upon this realization), or two, she tore it up intentionally, and considered opening up to Touya about the stalking issue (which is supported by her "trembling" scene).

@Buff - I don't think Touya is "opening up" to Yayoi. It is just that Yayoi is so robot-like and unresponsive (aside from her sex toy function) that it is very easy to tell her things. It is not trust on Touya's part, but rather indifference on Yayoi's part that allows Touya to say those things. A mere object cannot judge, after all.

The tear licking thing was definitely sexy, and scary, but the only wrong part about it is how Touya's mouth was not moving despite all the weeping sounds he was making during the close up.

[David75]

an interresting idea could be she showed that letter to Touya to clear herself by saying something like: I showed the letter, but then we were caught in things and forgot about it.
It was before Rina rebuild that the original found in the basket.
But since now Rina is also hiding the fact that Yuki tried to contact Touya, she can't say anything anymore about it. She had the opportunity to, and decided otherwise.

What's interresting is that Rina didn't anticipate the fact that Touya could fall for Yayoi that much.

I'm still wondering if Yayoi is totally without feelings for Touya. It may be so, but it could be interresting she cares a little, in the future. At least for those wanting some drama to happen.

[Buffalobiian]

an interresting idea could be she showed that letter to Touya to clear herself by saying something like: I showed the letter, but then we were caught in things and forgot about it.
It was before Rina rebuild that the original found in the basket.
But since now Rina is also hiding the fact that Yuki tried to contact Touya, she can't say anything anymore about it. She had the opportunity to, and decided otherwise.

This part is interesting. I remember Rina putting the letter back together, reading, then crying "It's too late." The only real thing that happened between Yuki wanting to give Touya the letter and Rina reading it was that he bacame her manager.

From the bits and pieces of the letter, I'll wager it said that Yuki wants to be in top condition for the concert, so she's refraining from seeing him till Christmas. However, at her very first concert, she wants Touya to be there. To see the new Yuki she's worked so hard to become.

Now that he's Rina's manager, he will see Touya more often up till the concert, but he won't be there to see her show.

No doubt Rina chose not to reveal the truth to Touya (there's truth in this show?), but as things are now, It's too late.

[Marik]

[Eclipse] White Album - 12 (1280x720 h264) [890CA312].mkv
[Eclipse] White Album - 12 (XviD) [D2E5DED7].avi

[Nadouku]

I was actually happy that Rina decided to fire that bastardous Touya, who's still letting Yayoi walk all over him like some escalade. I just don't know how much more faithful he can be to Yuki at this rate.

[shinta|hikari]

Rina didn't fire Touya because he is a bastard (don't get me wrong, he is and I hate his guts). She fired him so he could go to Yuki's concert, which she herself informed him of. The pained look in her face seemed to indicate that she already has an emotional attachment to Touya, enough for her to offer herself as Yayoi's replacement before, and enough for her to feel pain in letting Touya go to Yuki.

Touya crying while going at it with Yayoi is so stupid. Yayoi herself admitted that she tore up the letter, and then you make out with her? WTF.

[Nadouku]

Yea, I can't expect someone like Touya to undestand anything about commitment, but I didn't say that he was fired because he was a bastard. I was describing his characteristics.

Anyway, Touya is starting to remind me of Dominique from Gears of War 2. Remind Dominique of his wife and he'll start crying, like how Touya tears up when he's remembering Yuki, or some form of her, whatever seems to make his mind float.

[shinta|hikari]

I know what you meant. What I was pointing out is that you shouldn't be happy about him being fired since it was actually for his sake. You practically said "I am happy because Rina just helped Touya out despite him being a bastard."

[Nadouku]

It was more like "I am happy that Rina doesn't get involved with Touya any further because Rina would only suffer if she continues to be around him, even if she is to lose her attachment to him." Of course, this could be nulled in the next season of White Album, but we'll see. I just don't like good characters like Rina to develop any feelings for Touya, to be honest.