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 5 review, you can have me if you want someone.

 

     This episode picks up with Touya getting out of Yuki’s shower to find her sleeping, Touya just stay by her bedside for the rest of the night. Once morning comes, Touya leaves Yuki’s apartment to find Yayoi waiting outside, at first she is worried that Yuki and Touya might have been photographed together and so forth, but once Touya eases her fears she offers him a ride home.

 

     While in the car Touya asks why Yayoi is so worried about Yuki, she’s a new unknown singer and he thinks that no one would really care what she does? But, Yayoi recounts a scandal that Rina went through when she was branching out on her own, and because of that scandal Rina has had to never show weakness or faults again. Then Yayoi asks Touya to take a walk with her, she tells Touya that Yuki must stand on her own and if she gets into a scandal she doubts she could protect Yuki. Touya asks Yayoi if she’s telling him to not see Yuki? She asks Touya not to be a hindrance to Yuki’s career, she also says that if they break up it should their decision. Touya then gets the impression that Yayoi is offering a fee for breaking up with Yuki, and he laughs at the idea of getting a breakup fee for leaving Yuki.

 

     Yayoi tells Touya that she’s not asking him to breakup with Yuki for free, and Yayoi takes Touya’s hand and places it on her chest and basically offers herself up if he and Yuki breakup. Touya jumps back in shock at Yayoi’s bold gesture. After Yayoi drives Touya home she asks what he has planned for the rest of the day, and he tells her sleep as he walks away. Later, Touya is woken by his doorbell to find Yayoi at his front door, she asks him where they should go, and after Touya offers nothing, Yayoi asks Touya to go to the movies with her.

      While taking the train, Yayoi tells Touya that Yuki greatly regrets falling asleep on Touya and that he should expect a phone call from her. He again asks Yayoi if she thinks that they should breakup, but she tells him that anything they decide should be their decision not hers. After the movie is over, Yayoi takes Touya to dinner, and after their cab ride back to Touya’s apartment he accuses her of trying to bribe him into breaking up with Yuki. Yayoi then asks Touya if she can become a replacement for Yuki as she starts kissing him, she then tells him to let her know if he has a need for her and she tries to offer him money, Touya rushes out of the cab in shock.

 

     When Touya is back at his apartment he finds that Masaki has left a script of a play she wrote, she asks him for his opinion on the content. While Touya is reading the script he gets a phone call from Rina, she knows about his date and she wants to meet with him tomorrow, but Touya can’t make it because he has to do something at school tomorrow. Yuki tries to call Touya but this time when he hears the phone ring he just ignores it.

 

      The next day at school, Haruka questions Touya about where he was the other night, maybe with Yuki? Later, Touya runs into Akira and they talk for a while, and Akira asks Touya to stop trying to force him and Masaki together. As Akira is leaving he gets Touya to take his next shift a Echoes for him. Then we see Masaki’s script getting accepted by the theater club, but they dump off all the prop and costume production off on her as they head off to drink.

 

      Then we see Yuki doing rehearsals for her upcoming single, and she’s having a hard time getting it right. Later that evening we see Yuki handing Haruka a note, she tells her to please give it to Touya. At Echoes, we see Touya reading Yuki’s note, it says that she won’t sleep tonight and she’ll be waiting for him. Later, Touya lies in bed trying to figure out what to do, he keeps rehashing in his mind what Yayoi told him about not standing in Yuki’s way. Just as Touya’s about to go see Yuki he gets a phone call from Masaki asking him for his help. Well, that’s all for this episode.

       Well, five episodes of White Album down and eight more to go, and with each episode my dislike of Touya grows. After watching the first two episodes I was hoping that this series would have been a nice romance with the two leads struggling to overcome the obstacles hindering their relationship, and eventually their love and commitment to each other grows stronger for all their troubles. While I have no problem with Yuki, she knows what she wants, and she makes it as clear as day. I have a problem with Touya, I can deal with a certain amount of emo longing, but Touya is turning into the typical weak willed male harem lead; wishy washy, uncertain, insecure, uncommunicative of his feelings, and a total lack of a man card.

      In the 4th episode Yuki made it clear that she wanted to take their relationship to the next level (she doesn’t only want dreams), but when she fell asleep all Touya could do is sit by her bedside and stare at her. Hell, at least he could have snuggled up with her for a good night’s sleep, imagine how nice it would have been for Yuki to wake up in the morning to find the man she loves sleeping next to her. I won’t get into the whole Yayoi offering herself to Touya in place of Yuki, I found that plot point just plain silly. If Touya somehow manages to be stupid enough to pass up on going to Yuki’s place after she sends him the note telling him that she won’t fall asleep this time and that she’s waiting for him then the only companionship he deserves is a bottle of lotion and a box of tissue.  

 

White Album 4 review, walking past each other & I don’t want to meet only in our dreams.

      This episode begins with Touya getting a phone call at around 5am from Rina, she says she’s calling because Yuki’s too busy to call, Yuki needs to move up the time of their date. Touya suggests 10Am at the scheduled meeting place, or because he was so sleepy was it at 11Am somewhere else? So, the next day both Yuki and Touya board separate trains to travel to the their meeting place. But, it seems that Touya is uncertain about what gate he’s supposed to meet Yuki at, so he goes searching around the station. While waking around, Touya bumps into and knocks a schoolgirl down, and when he tries to help her up she calls him a pervert.

       After talking with the girl, Touya asks her if she’ll look for his girlfriend at this location while he watches another location? She says that she doesn’t know what his girlfriend looks like, and when he tells her his girlfriend is Yuki the idol, she laughs at him. While this is going on it seems that Rina has something up her sleeve, she seems to be searching for Touya for some reason of her own. After a while, the schoolgirl suggests that since Touya and Yuki were supposed to meet at the school anyways that he should just go there and wait, and with this logical suggestion Touya declares the girl to be his goddess of the day. At about this same time, Rina also gives up on waiting and jumps into a cab, also the schoolgirl decides to tag a long with Touya.

      As soon as Touya and the girl arrive at the school, the girl jumps on another bus, and as she’s leaving she tells Touya that she hopes he finds his girlfriend. Back at the train station, it’s after 11Am and Yuki is now waiting for Touya to show up. As Touya is waiting at the high school he sees some smiling kids, and he has flashbacks of him, Yuki, Akira, Haruka, and Misaki all smiling and laughing as kids. Touya then realizes that he’s in the wrong place to meet Yuki, so he goes rushing off to meet her, and in the process he runs right past her as she’s in a phone booth.

     When Touya finally makes it to where he was supposed to meet Yuki, he tries to call her office but they won’t give him her contact information. At the same time, Yuki decides to go to their old high school, and when she gets there she also has flashbacks of her high school days. As the day goes by, Yuki and Touya keep running past each other. Back at Eiji’s office Rina keeps stalling her practice session with Eiji until it gets so late that Yuki’s manager finally gives up and leaves, and Eiji asks if he’s finally free for the day?

      As Yuki’s manager is leaving the office she gets a call from Yuki, and she tells her that it’s too late, so the lesson is canceled for today. As Yuki is leaving the phone booth Touya spots her, and they embrace on the sidewalk. While they are hugging, Yuki tells Touya her secret, she will be releasing a single that Eiji wrote and composed for her. After they talk for a while, Touya asks Yuki if she wants to go back to his apartment, she says no, but she tells him that he can walk her home. As they walk home, they talk about the misunderstanding about the time and place of their meeting, and once they get to Yuki’s apartment she invites him up.

      Yuki tells Touya that she doesn’t want dreams of being with each other to be only in their dreams, so Touya goes inside the apartment building with Yuki. Once they get to her door, Yuki and Touya face each other and begin kissing. While Yuki is in the shower Touya sits on her bed thinking to himself. Well, that’s all for this episode.

      Well, this was another episode filled with misunderstandings, miscommunications, and too much angst. First of all, I really don’t get what the deal is with why Rina has to be the go between for Yuki and Touya, can’t Yuki make a call on her own, and why doesn’t Touya just tell Yuki that he wants her apartment phone number? Also, why can’t these two young adults ever just be able make a date and actually keep to the time and place, I don’t really care if Yuki’s a idol, she should be able to meet him at cafe or at one of their apartments at 11PM or so! Now to the issue of Yuki’s and Touya’s longing for each other, give be a break, they clearly need each others company and have deep feelings for one another. So, if they don’t finally get busy, then as far as I’m concerned, they can pine away for each other and I won’t feel the least bit sorry for them. Well, for now, I’ll keep watching to see how it works out for them, and I’m also interested to see what Rina’s part in the whole story is.