12 moments in anime 2009; how a harem should be “done”, Touya’s philandering ways!

For my 10th entry in my “12 moments in anime 2009” I’m choosing the philandering ways of Touya from the White Album series.

 

       In the harem themed anime of the past such as Ranma ½ and Tenchi Muyo the guy at the center of the harem had many redeeming qualities that would lead the girls surrounding him to want his DNA. The harem leads from the past weren’t pathic punching bags for all the tsundere chicks in his harem like Keitaro was from Love Hina, and I could no more picture either Tenchi or Ranma getting slapped around by all the women in their lives as I could ever picture myself putting up with any of my former girlfriends/lovers slapping me around to show me that they love me.

 

      So, what the hell happened to the harem genre and their males leads over the intervening years? Well, my personal theory is that in the past, anime in general was targeted and viewed by a larger general audience, and those shows made back their production costs, and then some, by being popular enough to actually make money off of commercial advertising. So, as television audiences and anime audience’s numbers began to slip the production companies had to reley on sales of VHS tapes and later DVD sales to make a profit. 

      This situation led to these types of anime being targeted towards the hardcore buyers of DVDs and away from trying to attract a large diverse audience. So, where we once had male leads of harem type anime where female viewers liked them and male viewers looked up to and aspired to be like them we’re now left with male leads who are avatars for lonely/sexually impotent male viewers who spend more money on anime then getting laid.

 

        Even in a harem anime such as Bakemonogatari where the male lead, Koyomi, is a pretty tough hard core guy and surrounded by attractive females who are available, he’s sexually impotent. Koyomi gropes Mayoi and both enjoys himself and loathes himself for the act but can go no further, he leers at Nadeko who’s attracted to him and available but does nothing, and even when he finally gets Hitagi as a girlfriend he practically had to get dragged kicking and screaming to their first date, she did all the work. Then we have other harem type anime such as Kiss X Sis, Kanokon, and Kiss on my Deity where the male leads practically have pussy shoved in their faces everyday and they’re so pitiful and impotent it’s no wonder why Japan has a negative/zero population growth problem judging by how these males react to women.

Loser #1

Loser #2

Loser #3

 

       So, all this ranting brings be to Touya from White Album, the hero of this post. While Touya may be many negative things such as; a very bad boyfriend to Yuki, a man-whore, a liar, an unreliable person, and a piece of shit, he’s certainly not impotent. When Touya gets that loving feeling he’s not contented with a little panty shot, he wants what’s underneath that thin piece of cotton, and he knows where his sausage belongs. Out of the six main girls in Touya’s harem he’s filled the love canal of three of the six girls (Yayoi, Misaki, and Haruka), and made out with two of the remaining three (Rina and Yuki).

Hit Yayoi many times.

Hit Misaki and left it.

Hit Haruka and left it.

Kissed Rina and wanted to hit it.

Yuki, the girlfriend, kissed her and been trying to hit it the whole series.

       So, in the spirit of the awards season Touya wins the erect penis award for knowing how a man should react to readily available lonely women. Yes, Touya’s shining example should be a guiding light to all males involved in harem situations: Yes, Keitaro you should have slammed every chick before settling on Nauru; Yes, Keita you should bang both Riko and Ako before picking one; Yes, Kouta you should have deflower both Chizuru and Nozomu; Yes, Yuuri you should really taste Mashiro and all the other girls around you; and Yes, Koyomi you should have acted first by picking a girl and doing something; you’re all losers compared to Touya.

All male harem leads please read the following advice.

 

White Album 13 (S1 ending) review; Yuki’s big performance, and nothing is settled.

 

       This episode begins with all three sets of idols getting ready for their concert performances, Yuki’s seems a little nervous, Rina’s venue looks like a sellout, and the Sakura-dan group is missing one member (maybe Touya got to her). As Yuki is about to go on stage, Eiji tells her to forget about everything and just sing. Yuki’s concert seems to go over very well, Rina sings to a fully packed stadium, and the Sakura-dan also plays to a full house. As the concerts are going on we see Haruka sitting by herself, Mana shopping alone, and Misaki and Akira running out of gas. As Rina finishes her concert she rushes from the stadium to the other venue to put on another performance.

 

        After Yuki’s show is done she rushes off stage to cry in Yayoi’s arms. Later, Touya and Yayoi run into each other, and as Touya is about to ask Yayoi to give Yuki his gifts she tells him that Yuki wants to see him. When they meet, Yuki and Touya talk about her concert, and Yuki wonders why Haruka, Misaki, and Akira didn’t show for her concert even though she sent them tickets? Touya tells her that they were just being considerate of their feelings. Then Eiji tells Yuki that they have to leave as she’s giving Touya her x-mas gift, and she tells Touya to come with them. After Touya gives Yuki her gifts she tells him that the phone call ban is over and that she loves him. Touya is left standing there as Yuki and the crew drives off.

       After Yuki and her crew drives off, Eiji offers Touya a ride, later Eiji tells Touya that they won. He also talks to Touya about all his Yuki replacements, he tells Touya that Yuki will probably tolerate unfaithfulness on his part but she probably couldn’t tolerate herself being unfaithful. Eiji tells Touya that both he and Rina do battle with songs, they defeat them, and they make them their slaves. But, he says that Yuki is different, she like a song’s lover, sometimes she wins, and sometimes she loses, she gives off the illusion to the audience that she lives to sing. Eiji asks Touya want he wants to do? Just then, Yayoi pulls up and Eiji tells Touya that his ride is here.

        Then we see that Akira and Misaki have finally made it to a gas station, and they debate whether they should continue on to visit Touya’s father. Misaki tells Akira that she’s sorry, but she promised that she would visit him. When Yayoi drives Touya back to his apartment she tries to put the moves on him, but he stops her and tells her that she’s much too cold. When Touya gets to his door he finds Mana asleep by his door, and he bends down to wake her.

        When Touya wakes Mana, she tries to say that she went to visit a friend but that friend went out with her boyfriend, so she decided to visit him because he was close by and just dozed off. Touya invites her in to warm up, but Mana says she has to go and gives him the gift she wanted to give her friend. Touya notices that Mana looks really cold and a little sick so he insists that a girl with cold hands and cheeks has to come in to warm up. At that point, Mana starts to cry but blames it on the cold wind in her eyes.

        So, Mana agrees to come inside to warm up as long as Touya doesn’t try anything. While Mana is warming up and Touya is making her some food his doorbell rings. Yayoi is back saying that Touya left something, when she sees Mana, she touches her forehead and finds that she’s burning up. Mana asks if this is Yuki, and before he can tell her that she’s Yuki’s manager, Yayoi puts her in the car and drives off. Inside the car Mana asks if Yuki is older than Touya? Yayoi says she’s about the same age and gives Mana a not very nice look.

       Later, Haruka shows up at Touya’s door and he thanks her for the concert ticket. Just as Haruka’s about to say something to Touya she notices a umbrella by the door and food for two at the table. Touya tells Haruka that the weather is to bad for a walk and before he knows it Haruka has run off. Touya then puts two and two together and goes after Haruka but she’s already driven off on her bike. When Akira and Misaki get to Touya’s dad’s house there is no answer when Misaki rings the bell, she notices that the doors open and decides to go in. When Touya finally finds Harukahe asks her why she left so quickly. Haruka asks if the umbrella was Misaki’s? No, Mana-chan forgot it. Haruka asks what the hell was Mana doing at his place, but before he can answer her Akira pulls up in his car and tells Touya that somethings wrong with his father. Then we see Yuki trying to call Touya after she opens her gift, but there’s no answer at his place, and we also see that Yuki’s gift to Touya was a new phone/answering machine. Well, that’s all for this episode and the first season of White Album.

       Well, it’s finally come and gone, season one of White Album is over, and I can’t say it happened soon enough. While I felt that White album started strong and had potential, I feel that the series got bogged down with too much emo self-torture, unrealistic situations, and many of the main characters became just plain unlikeable.

      I think that the concept of a up and coming idol and her boyfriend struggling to keep their high school romance alive through the intervening years is some pretty good material to work with. But, I thought both Yuki’s and Touya’s problems were too silly to be believable, I never bought the whole concept that they could never find a spare hour to see each other and do the whole BF/GF thing.

      As the series began I thought that the supporting characters were interesting and intriguing, but as the series went on I felt that many of them became just plain unlikeable.

       Touya’s buddy Akira, after all the time Touya spent trying to get Akira to hook-up with Misaki you’d think that he’d be grateful when it finally happened, but no, he’s so jealous or paranoid  of  Touya that it almost boarders on a mental disorder. Plus, the way he talks to and treats Misaki he deserves to be promptly dumped by her.

      At first I really liked Misaki, I thought she was calm and refined with her head screwed on tight, but after watching her put up being treated like shit by the theater club’s president and Akira made me feel that she likes being a punching bag.

      I don’t like or dislike Mana or Haruka, both of them are typical of their character types. Mana’s your typical lonely anime schoolgirl. Mana acts tough and together, but she’s really deeply lonely because her parents are almost totaly absent from her life, out of all the girls she’s has the realistic reasons to fall for Touya. Haruka just a messed up and confused young woman, she probably can’t distinguish whether she thinks of Touya as her lost brother or she’s really attracted to him in a romantic way, she needs counseling.

     I also really admired how strong of a character Rina was at the start of the series, but as the series went on she became too indecisive and compromised for my tastes. At one point in the later episodes Rina basically knew the whole deal about what was going on between Touya and Yuki and she could have fixed the problem or at least limited the damage to their relationship by just telling Touya that Yuki really misses him and Yayoi never delivered Yuki’s letter, and she could have told Yuki that Touya really misses her. But, Rina chose to protect Yuki from finding out about Yayoi’s attempts to keep Touya from her, while this might have protected Yuki’s career it might have destroyed the relationship with the man she loves.

     The only character I would really like to see inside their mind is Yayoi. While I can understand her wanting to protect Yuki’s from being distracted by Touya I think that her relationship with him actually means something to her. At first, maybe, Yayoi thought of her sexual trysts with Touya were just part of her “job” but I think she needs him as much as he needed her. Yayoi never struck me as having much of a life after work so maybe her little trysts with Touya where actually filling a void in her life, like I said in a earlier review “the only bad sex is having no sex”. Plus, if Yayoi was only interested in keeping Touya away from Yuki she should heve been happy seeing Mana at Touya’s place but she seemed more concerned with getting the girl out his room then she seemed about Mana’s health, and the look Yayoi gave Mana was quite wicked where it was suggested that she was older.  

       Overall, I feel this series had potential but never used much of it, and I really never came to care for any of the characters so I’ll watch season 2 but I won’t be blogging it. White Album was worth the 25 minutes a week it took to watch it, but it was a hollow meal indeed.  

 

White Album 12 review; Almost all is revealed as Yuki’s concert approaches.

 

       This episode picks up with Rina questioning Touya about his relationship with Yayoi, how did it happen and so forth? Touya tells her it just sort of happened; what does it matter I’m just an obstacle to Yuki’s career? Rina tells him it’s too dangerous, and that Yayoi can’t love anyone but Yuki? Touya tells her that he’s sorry it happened this way, so Rina asks him for a date, but he says he’s already been asked.

         During Touya’s next shift at Echoes, Rina shows up to see Touya but he takes off with Yayoi leaving Rina alone with the master.  When they get to Touya’sapartment, Touya tells Yayoi that she can’t become Yuki’s replacement but she can become something else. Once inside his apartment Yayoi asks him what she can become? Touya embraces Yayoi from behind and he tells her she can become “the goddess of the day” as he maneuvers her on to his bed.

       The next day after a emotional workout session Touya enters a room to find Rina waiting for him. As he’s about to speak, Rina tells him to shut up and listen to Yuki’s words. Rina reads off Yuki’s undelivered letter to Touya from memory, the letter explains to Touya why Yuki didn’t tell him about the concert and why she’s avoided him, and the letter covers all of Yuki’s hopes and fears about her upcoming concert. After hearing Yuki’s words, Touya breaks down in tears, Rina tells him that she can’t stand to be near someone who causing her dear Yuki this much and fires him on the spot.

Then we get a little montage of Touya’s memories of Yuki.

      Later,  we see Touya making a call to Yuki, and he only gets her answering machine. When Yuki gets home she sees her machine flashing and she plays Touya’s message. He tells her he got her message from Rina, and that he’ll be at her concert no matter what, he also says sorry. Yuki wonders why he got her message from Rina, and she struggles with herself resisting the urge to be strong and not call Touya. Then we see Touya failing to find a concert ticket for Yuki’s show, and the next day Mana makes fun of him for not getting his ticket soon enough. Mana also insinuates that if Yuki really was his GF she would have sent him a ticket, or he should have gotten one from Rina, either way she thinks he needs a shrink.

       Later Haruka and Mana meet up and Mana tells Haruka what happened with Touya not having a concert ticket, in the middle of their conversation Haruka gets up and calls Yuki a idiot and rides off. Then Misaki calls Touya and she finds out about Yuki not sending Touya a ticket and she is confused by Yuki’s actions. Touya also refuses to go visit his father with Misaki during the holiday saying it’s better for the both of them this way. Later, we see Mana asking her mother for a favor, then we see Mana giving Touya a ticket to Yuki’s concert, plus she bought him a gift to give Yuki for her birthday.

      When Touya gets back to his apartment he finds that Misaki and Haruka have both left him tickets to Yuki’s concert, now he has three tickets to the main event. The next day we see Akira and Misaki walking down a path when the drama club’s president steps onto the path and he tells them that he’s tried to see Misaki so he can apologize to her but her “boyfriend” is always in the way. So, he begins to apologize to Misaki when he stabs her with one of her prop knives, then he rushes off. When Akira  kneels beside Misaki he finds out that she’s not really hurt because the poetry book that Touya returned to her has broken the knife blade, Akira is angry that Touya manages to save the day when he’s not even here.

       Then, on the night before Yuki’s concert, we see that Yayoi has shown up at Echoes to give Touya a “ride home”, he tells the master that it’s only a ride.  When they get to his apartment, Yayoi begins her usual seduction of  Touya, but he tells her this has to stop. She continues to touch and caress his body, she asks him if he’s fallen for her or if he loves her? He says no. Then why don’t you stop me? Touya says that he only loves Yuki. Yayoi begins to kiss him again and says that she can’t allow that to happen. The next day we see Touya entering the concert hall to see Yuki’s show. Well, that’s all for this episode.

        Well, with only one episode left to go in White Album’s first season almost everyone’s plans and schemes are revealed. Rina now knows about Touya’s sexual trysts with Yayoi, and she also now knows the the full extent of just how far Yayoi will go to protect Yuki’s concert debut. What I found interesting is that Rina gave Touya a chance to stop his affair with Yayoi, she warned him that Yayoi would never be able to love anyone. But when push came to shove, Rina chose to fire Touya instead of also confronting Yayoi about her part in the Touya/Yayoi affair, could it be that she realized if this became a battle her brother would side with Yayoi?

       In this episode Touya also finds out that Yayoi sat there and lied to his face whenever he brought up the issue of Yuki’s not trying to communicate with him, and he also knows that Yayoi threw out Yuki’s important letter. But, whats even more interesting is that even after knowing all of Yayoi’s lies Touya still chooses to continue their affair and have sex with her. Maybe, Touya is just a needy guy, a guy that has to have a woman around him even if he knows she’s lies to him and he’s nothing more than a peice of meat to her?

       I wonder how Yuki is going to deal with Yayoi now that she knows that her manager lied to her and never delivered her letter to Touya. I don’t think that Yuki’s reaction will be very pleasant when she finds out that everyone knew about Yayoi’s and Touya’s affair but her. But, like I’ve said in earlier reviews, Yuki has to take responsibility for quite abit of her relationship problems. Yuki shouldn’t have relied on a third party to communicate her feelings to her boyfriend, if she would have just given in to her desires and slept with Touyaso he wouldn’t be out there trying to nail every piece of warm girl flesh he runs across because he can’t figure out whether on not his GF cares about him.

       I think that the most interesting character in this whole series is still Yayoi. I really would like to know want she really thinks, even though she says she’s just doing her job I wonder if she really wishes that Touya would fall for her? Yayoi has always left me feeling that she’s a deeply lonely person, so I wonder if she would be happy becoming Yuki’s replacement for real, if it would make her happy knowing that her and Touya’s sexual relationship means something more that just sex. I actually think that Yayoi and Touya could make a believable couple, just imagine the lying, cheating, emotional monster they could give birth to, sweet.