White Album

[Ryllharu]

The cracks in Touya and Yuki's relationship start all from a series of small lies, or maybe they were already there, and these events are just highlighting them.

So far, Rina seems to be genuinely after assisting Yuki in her love life, whatever way possible. She did lie about the length of time she had left on her phone card, which got me suspicious, but that turned out to be just a way to lure Touya to the studio. On the other hand, Yuki's manager seems actively engaged in breaking them up. Perhaps this is just to protect Yuki's budding popularity (nothing kills an idol's public appeal like a boyfriend) or perhaps she had been ordered to separate them by the president himself for the same reasons.

The lies between Touya and Yuki are another matter. He lied to her about his connections with Rina, perhaps legitimately developing a crack in his relationship, and Yuki has either been lying to him about the first time they met, or simply neglecting to tell him that they met once before he thought they did. Or Touya forgot. It's too soon to say what the significance is there.

I don't know what to make of the the would-be tutored student, but I still hate Haruka. She's really clingy, and determined to separate Touya and Yuki for her own gain.

Rina was really pissed about Touya getting fired. How much of this was her being angry from someone messing up her plans to assist Yuki, and how much of this is her being angry that someone took Touya away. For now, it seems that anything between Touya and Rina is one sided, but who knows when that could change. The President of the other girls made an interesting comment about Rina's performance. It is always the same. Is this foreshadowing her losing her popularity, freeing up a lot of time for her to get bored and later attempt to seduce Touya? Or is it supposed to be a representation of her skill as her brother claimed?

Too many questions, and I know I missed a lot more subtle details this time.

And wtf was with the broom closet? Were we supposed...I don't even know what we were supposed to get out of that. Hidden passage in the store?

[Hawkeye32]

From what I gather it's Ogata Eji's creation location. Some people find inspiration in the strangest places. Some like to be in the bathroom when they think or create others on rooftops. Perhaps being shut in the dark closet in solitude helps Eji write his songs. At least that's what I figure.

[animus]

I thought it was weird he went straight for the broom closet. I'm sure he didn't know that it was Eiji's "room", and there were other rooms he could've come out of.

[narutosharingan]

I figure there's another room nearby. I'm not really sure what anyone can do with standing-room only space. Secret passage would always be interesting.

I'm curious to see who got Touya fired so quickly. Maybe it was Yuki's manager, seeing how she interfered with Saturday's plans. Maybe it was Rina herself, just as a way to mess around with Touya, maybe "showing" that she wants him back a lot.

[Ryllharu]

It wasn't Rina, she seemed genuinely pissed at her brother over the firing. It had been Rina's plan to mess with things to give Yuki and Touya more time together. Even if her motivations weren't that pure, it was still someone taking away Rina's newest toy.

It was probably Yuki's manager talking to Eiji that fired Touya.

[narutosharingan]

Interesting that the manager would have that much pull.

[Ryllharu]

Isn't this the era where nearly ever facet of an idol's life was controlled by their managment as a way to promote them? If they are noted for having a personal life with a guy, their marketability goes way down because of a reduction in fantasies among the male fanbase that an idol, "could be your girlfriend one day."

It's something that is still true today, but done to a much lesser extent.

It might not be Yuki's manager with that much pull, but she's a highly disciplined control freak, much like their President is. That seems to be the reason their talent agency is so successful. Pathetic mewlings like Rina's former manager couldn't possibly persuade Eiji, but someone like Yuki's manager certainly could.

There was that odd scene in episode two that ultimately turned out to be Eiji talking to Yuki about releasing a single (where she started crying in Rina's arms), but they did a pretty good job of making it look like Eiji was either ordering her to separate from Touya, or was about to molest her.

Well, it looked that way to me anyway, especially with Rina's reaction before Yuki told her what actually happened.

[Marik]

[Eclipse] White Album - 04 (1280x720 h264) [D0860817].mkv

[Eclipse] White Album - 04 (XviD) [1B4F33EF].avi

[narutosharingan]

Looks like Rina definitely had her own idea, but underestimated Touya's tardiness. I initially thought with Touya and Yuki missing each other, that they wouldn't find each other in the end. But Yuki was able to tell him about her single, and they ended up going to her room. Though I wonder if his head or his heart was telling him that he belonged to Yuki. He's still thinking about Rina

[Ryllharu]

Looks like Rina definitely had her own idea, but underestimated Touya's retardiness.

Fixed it.

I thought it was very cute that although Rina had finally made her move, it completely backfired on her. I suppose ingratiating herself to Touya as a middleman and master secret planner was a long term strategy. It's still unclear what she actually wants out of it, but that will come sooner or later.

I really enjoyed the scenes where Yuki and Touya kept missing each other. Particularly because that has actually happened to me. Granted it was only an hour instead of all day, but we had the advantage of cellphones. This is still 1986, where it is a lot easier to miss each other when you can only rely on payphones. It might have been a little over the top when he would just pass right by her when she was using the payphone, but I completely recognized the experience.

I'm guessing from the flustered look on her face when she got a good look at Touya, that the high school girl was the girl he was supposed to be tutoring last episode.

What really shocks me in this episode was right at the end. How can Yuki and Touya have been going out for so long and know next to nothing about each other? They don't know where each other lives, Touya and Yuki have very different beliefs on how they first met, etc. It's really no surprise they've been having a little trouble lately in their relationship. There's no trust. Yuki is too shy to tell him anything, or backs off when he mentions something else. She was about to finally tell him they met before on the mountain where he building now is, and just because he mentioned he has shitty memories of the place, she stops? Very strange.

Did Yayoi (Yuki's manager) think Yuki was about to cry at the end of their phone call? It seemed very odd that she would suddenly have such a human reaction after everything we've seen with her.

...and Haruka is still a fucking stalker.

[animus]

What's the deal with Touya's dad? What a douche bag.

[Marik]

What really shocks me in this episode was right at the end. How can Yuki and Touya have been going out for so long and know next to nothing about each other?

That and he doesn't even know his own girlfriend's phone number. I thought that was really weird. Poor Misaki, she's not getting any screen time at all. I want to see her get involved more, maybe stir things up a bit.

Opening - Mizuki Nana - Shin Ai [PV]

[Nipponsei] White Album ED Single - Maiochiru Yuki no You ni [Suara].zip

[narutosharingan]

I'm assuming he didn't know Yuki's number because she has a new phone, or her manager doesn't want her giving her phone number to others.

[Marik]

[Eclipse] White Album - 05 (1280x720 h264) [B75D3D99].mkv
[Eclipse] White Album - 05 (XviD) [0D94D2F8].avi

[animus]

I was thinking throughout the car conversion that she was gonna offer something like that, especially since when she asked if she could take a detour. I thought she was gonna say "My home". Then I just kinda had this feeling she was gonna say that, wasn't expecting the free cop though. I mean, she's way too hot to just be a plain old selfish manager.

Quite fiendish of her to use it that way so she doesn't fail on her second prospect miserably. Pretty despicable.

Wasn't expecting a harem out of this anime, but we've got one going.

[Marik]

This was an awesome episode. I can truthfully say, I did not see that coming at all. I would have never guessed, that she would would turn out to be that kind of character. I expected her to try and keep them apart, but I thought that she would do it from behind the scenes, not force herself upon him sexually.

Touya's harem is shaping up quite nicely, with five girls now. I can't wait to see what happens next.

[David75]

I guess she's depicted as a beautiful woman, but they also depicted her coldness and mechanical way of doing things quite well. I'm even thinking she's so mechanical because she was told to do it... Am I sick thinking that, well we are in the 80s after all.
Touya's comment about how she's a doll when she kisses hits the spot, but it'll be harder and harder to resist to her forceful ways.

Funny thing is that the harsh driving is a stereotyped way to "shock" women, break the ice. Here the roles are swaped.

[Ryllharu]

She's really harsh. I expected the Production Company to start something about breaking them up (very bad for a budding idol, not to mention the story she told Touya about Rina), but that method caught me by surprise. The cold mechanical way she did everything was jarring, as everyone mentioned, but the part that really creeped me out was when she offered him money like some reverse-hooker, and then predatory posed in the cab.

The scene was enhanced by the absolutely discordant music in the background, making you more uncomfortable. I didn't even notice it at first, but they played it during the whole date, and it certainly affected me. The wrongness of the "date" just oozed out of everything more strongly.

What's even stranger is as much as Touya was horrified by it, he kept remembering the feel of her breast. Either way, Eiji and Yayoi's plan is already working.


I'm more surprised that not only did Haruka give him the note, she even deciphered it for Touya. She's usually trying her own plans to interject herself into their relationship. Maybe Haruka isn't so bad after all. She seemed to cool it down after their little note passing session.

Misaki on the other hand may be something else entirely. She really didn't care about Touya's input, she was just trying to steal some time with him. Maybe I just don't remember it because these episodes are so dense, but what was it that Misaki did to the asshole president of her circle/club? Write something better than he did? Win an award where he felt he should have? I'm not sure if they went over this already or not.


And then we have Rina. What's her angle in all of this now? She's trying to set up a meeting between her and Touya, but I wonder if it is again another plan to have him meet with Yuki, or like before, she's trying to steal him away for a bit. I would imagine if she knew what her brother and Yayoi are doing, she'd be pretty pissed about it. As much as she seems like she'd steal him away, she also seemed to be pretty genuine about preventing Yuki from having the kind of horrible debut and stardom that she's had. She's protected Yuki before with her clout, and she does seem fairly interesting in keeping Touya and Yuki together. I just don't know what to make of her, and sadly she didn't get much time this episode.


Hah! It was a secret room.

[animus]

Yayoi is quite the mystery. Even though her methods are quite disgusting, I still want her to have a good role in the story. Though, that probably won't ever happen. Still, she's just way too hot.

[David75]

She's really harsh. I expected the Production Company to start something about breaking them up (very bad for a budding idol, not to mention the story she told Touya about Rina), but that method caught me by surprise. The cold mechanical way she did everything was jarring, as everyone mentioned, but the part that really creeped me out was when she offered him money like some reverse-hooker, and then predatory posed in the cab.

The scene was enhanced by the absolutely discordant music in the background, making you more uncomfortable. I didn't even notice it at first, but they played it during the whole date, and it certainly affected me. The wrongness of the "date" just oozed out of everything more strongly.

What's even stranger is as much as Touya was horrified by it, he kept remembering the feel of her breast. Either way, Eiji and Yayoi's plan is already working.


I'm more surprised that not only did Haruka give him the note, she even deciphered it for Touya. She's usually trying her own plans to interject herself into their relationship. Maybe Haruka isn't so bad after all. She seemed to cool it down after their little note passing session.

Misaki on the other hand may be something else entirely. She really didn't care about Touya's input, she was just trying to steal some time with him. Maybe I just don't remember it because these episodes are so dense, but what was it that Misaki did to the asshole president of her circle/club? Write something better than he did? Win an award where he felt he should have? I'm not sure if they went over this already or not.


And then we have Rina. What's her angle in all of this now? She's trying to set up a meeting between her and Touya, but I wonder if it is again another plan to have him meet with Yuki, or like before, she's trying to steal him away for a bit. I would imagine if she knew what her brother and Yayoi are doing, she'd be pretty pissed about it. As much as she seems like she'd steal him away, she also seemed to be pretty genuine about preventing Yuki from having the kind of horrible debut and stardom that she's had. She's protected Yuki before with her clout, and she does seem fairly interesting in keeping Touya and Yuki together. I just don't know what to make of her, and sadly she didn't get much time this episode.


Hah! It was a secret room.

Yayoi's behavior this ep was pure gold, they really did an incredible job here. That's one of the reasons I watch anime. In the pile of stereoptypes and time consuming animation, sometimes you get jewels like that one.
Everything was simple, cold, yet very effective and well thought.

Rina?
Well I think she may also be playing the same dirty role as yayoi... but from the other side of the coin, with a gentle and carrying way. She may not be totally aware of it though, or actually get a liking to him, rather than doing this coldly for results...

Misaki? I'm not too sure about what happens with her. For the moment her character is a bit weak because her links are.

And yes, secret room!