White Album – 11



Short Synopsis: Preparations for the upcoming concerts commence.
Episode Rating: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
AlexS has a very good point here: the characters here don’t behave like they are in 1986, they behave like modern day characters who have somehow lost their mobile phones and computers. Interestingly enough, answering machines were already invented and on the market in 1986, so why aren’t they used here? Having an huge focus on realism is a double-edged sword: on one side it’s awesome, and really allows the characters to shine, but the flaws become much more noticeable this way, and that’s what currently is happening with White Album.

Because it’s seriously getting harder and harder for me to like this series. I really want to be a fan of this series and its subtle execution, but these melodramatic scenes are getting harder and harder to take seriously. When I started this series, I guess I was hoping for a sort-of more dramatic version of Natsu no Sora, and the drama has really been excellent when it just involved characters talking to each other, but hwen they started crying and whining, I just couldn’t take them seriously.

The one crying in this episode was Touya, and this was really the most pathetic scene of the entire series. Idiot, if you want to see Yuki so badly, then go look her up! You’re daily making out with her manager, for god’s sake. Couldn’t he at least have asked her when she has a small break in her schedule? Besides, after all his flirting with Rina, Yayoi and Misaki, I’m surprised that he’s still genuinely missing Yuki.

But yeah, i guess that these characters are really meant to be hated. I’m going to wait until episode 13 before really labelling this show as overambitious, but that midway climax had better be damn good.

9 thoughts on “White Album – 11

  1. I give you alot of credit for staying with this series. I gave up actively watching the episodes last week. As you seem to have realized, the series seems to drift too much. At first a gave Touya credit for considering Yuki’s career. Then it appeared he was being manipulated by the supporting cast. At some point, I just concluded that he is just too passive to be considered realistic. Why is he even that attractive to the female cast?

    I’ll stop by from time to time to see how things progress. I just needed to vent after seeing your episode review. A part of me hoped things improved. This show had some promise.

  2. Dropped this one after the episode 10. It’s not worth my time when I’m forcing myself to watch it for the sake of watching and even my favorite VA’s doesn’t help the issue.

    When I heard that it got another season instead of leaping from joy I thought “Oh hell no. I’m not siting through this shit anymore”.

  3. Well, about Touya breaking down, I thought it was about time. Touya and Yuki are/were a serious couple, right? And they separated for the sake of Yuki’s career? I don’t believe a bond like that can be set aside without any effect. They’ve been out of serious contact with one another for so long, and thanks to Yayoi messing up with Yuki’s letter, Touma failed to learn about Yuki’s concert from her directly. That ommission hurt – like final proof for Touya that, as far as Yuki is concerned, it’s over between them, even though it’s not Yuki’s intention. Drama, drama, drama.

    Yayoi told Rin that she tore up the letter intentionally to keep Yuki undistracted but I still think it’s a lie, since the truth would have been much more complicating to explain (Yayoi’s stalker, etc). But thanks to this, I think things will get much more complicated. Rin’s shocked look when Touya tells her he promised to meet up with Yayoi after his shift at Echoes. The wheels must be turning in Rin’s head as to why Yayoi might have torn up that letter. And she might not be completely wrong….

    The way Yayoi licked Touya’s tears away, as if to say, “This is my fault. To compensate you, I’ll give you my body…everything.”

    Rin, unable to concentrate cos thanks to Touya being right before her eyes all the time, she can’t set aside her disturbed feelings from what she read in that letter. Man, I’d really like to know what Yuki wrote in there. From Yuki’s behavior, it might have been some kind of confession or something cos it looked like she was expecting some positive response from Touya. Maybe setting up a date for him to be there for her first concert? I wondered at first if maybe she wanted to dump him or something but she wouldn’t be that happily anxious for Touya’s response if that was the case. So Rin’s “It’s too late” response to reading the letter means….?

    Nice of Aquaplus to give a lesson on what all the numbers meant. XD

  4. This episode was below bad. It’s incredible how the series fell apart:

    – everybody seems to be able to phone Yuki (ex Rina in this episode), so what’s preventing Touya from doing so?
    – to make all the drama hang on this stupid note misunderstanding is quite grating, since it’s so random and gratuitous. I like my drama to underlie a serious issue, not to be an advertisement for mobile phones.
    – Toya’s breakdown seemed so fake. The guy can go scream to the moon in front of her girlfriend’s appartment, but does not deem useful to talk to her?

    My ability to suspend disbelief has been totally raped.

    But oh well, having seen 11 episodes, I guess I’ll have to stomach Yuki/Touya breakup in the next two. In any case, for the second season I’ll need some raving comments from psgels before I even consider watching it.

    And kudos for the Eclipse team in subbing the series.

  5. I don’t understand why everyone found that episode bad. We knew from the beginning that Touya’s Character was twisted, and that was because he was so intersting as a male lead character. Of course everyone would have come and see his girlfriend, but for Touya, he imagines that il would be just selfish.
    He trusts Yuki, and he thinks that because she doesn’t phone hin or see him, that’s because she doesn’t want to, because she’s very busy with her concert. He’s a pure character, too pure maybe, and he’s also weird, but that’s why the other girls are attrated to him.

    It’s just in this episode that he begins to doubt Yuki. I don’t understand Yayoi, because she doesn’t speak much and she doesn’t express her real feelings. What said Meow up there can explain her behaviour.
    And of course, Touya is tempted. That’s one thing I have in common with him. Would you not be tempted all of you? If you say no guys, I won’t believe you. But because he cheats on Yuki that he can’t see, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love her anymore.

  6. The problem is not so much the morality of Touya (who cares, if the story is interesting?).

    The problem is rather that as a character he’s inconsistent. I come back to the same example: he goes to Yuki’s place, but does not call her?

    He suddenly worries about his relationship with Yuki, but for weeks was happy to let her in the dark?

    And the problem is not really only Touya… If Yuki want’s to talk to Touya, why doesn’t she ring him? or sends him a proper letter?

    The issue is that the characters “conveniently” lose all means of communication whenever the plot needs it. And a plot becomes bad when it requires so many unconvincing crutches.

  7. I’d agree that Yayoi is hot. Terrifying, but hot. There must have been steamy windows in that car, and those old BMW seats really recline well.

    As far as AlexS’ comment on characters losing communication, don’t forget it’s set in the eighties. Early mobiles were the size of a suitcase or car-bound like the one in Yayoi’s BMW. Ordinary people didn’t have any such thing. It was much more difficult to get in touch with people than it is now.

  8. >Dop

    I was born in the seventies, so I know how things where in the eighties. It was not hard to get in touch with other people. You just did it differently. Looking at this anime, you’d think otherwise.

    Besides, nowadays there are people who mismanage mails and mobile phones so badly that it’s actually even harder to reach them, since often they ALSO don’t have a regular phone line. You can still snail mail them, though.

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