You know what? I’m impressed. I’m fucking impressed by this ending. The way it wraps up so many plot threads, there’s a very good chance that it’s going to end up being the best ending of all the shows that end around these times. At the start of this series, I was expecting nothing other than a school days trainwreck ending. And yet here this show comes and does the exact opposite. Holy crap.
I love how the creators again did not try to end this show with a bang. There’s only one emotional climax in this entire episode: the point where Rina forces Touya to remember that what he forgot as a trauma, ten years ago. After that, Everything else follows naturally as he puts back the pieces of the puzzle that he once forgot. It’s basically a lot of exposition, but for Touya it makes perfect sense, now that he finally realized why he heck he turned into such a big player in the middle of this series. It’s a case where bullying went too far. Yuki actually tried to console him with a ribbon, but he threw it away. Haruka then picked up the ribbon, after Touya was scolded by his father and went back to search for it.
So as it turns out, the majority of White Album was just there, to get Touya to remember his past, and put aside his trauma. All of his actions don’t just stem from his loneliness created by how he was far away from Yuki, but instead out of escapism, created by that trauma. Influenced by both Yuki, Haruka and Menou at that time, he kept searching for his goddess, and never really found it. The way Touya healed in the final quarter of this series was also well built up. I think it started around the time that Mana left: it forced him to actually do something: get after Mana and instead stop running away. That time with Mana and after that Haruka really changed him.
Haruka breaking down in front of Touya’s door was of course a bit overdone, but with this revelation you can see that she’s not just another childhood friend who randomly falls in love with a harem lead (in the end, only Misaki took on that role), but rather, she too suffered from Touya’s trauma, and I can bet that she vividly remembered it: she had the ribbon to remind her of what happened. And with that, I can see why she fell for him in a moment of weakness. Menou in the end just turned out to be a girl who likes to fool around with guys. Touya was extra interesting for her because she met him when she was little. The reason she stayed with him was really because she liked him as a friend, rather than that she seriously had feelings for him. This rebellious way really comes from how she was raised: she resisted her strict mother, and because of that her mother became even stricter to Mana, who ended up listening to her mother and ended up studying really hard, to turn out about the opposite.
The iffy part of this episode was the performance, though. While the aftermath made sense and was interesting (Yuki and Rina finally got to work together as a duo, which takes care of the tensions between them of being competitions. And it’s not like everyone got a happy ending either: Rina’s brother still ended up in jail), but for a supposedly “perfect” idol, Rina’s English is pretty abysmal. And her showing up is also a bit hard to buy. Also, what happened with the animation in this episode? It’s back to the quality of the first season?
But really, it’s been a lot of fun to blog this series, even during the annoying times, there was tons to write about it. This ending also really showed that you don’t need to go over the top in order to create a great ending. White Album overall was a true breath of fresh air in both the harem and the hentai game adaptation genre. It for once took its time to give its male lead deep and memorable development, rather than just letting him be the same over and over again. Touya was a huge idiot throughout the majority of the series, but he could be one of the best developed harem leads out there. I would never have said this after finishing the first season, but I really hope that more series like this get made in the future.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
“I really hope that more series like this get made in the future.”
True that. This was really well done, and I for one enjoyed how subtle the anime was and the fact that you do have to infer and think about what happened rather than being completely spoon-fed the details. Oh, and I can’t think of another harem lead that has actually been developed as much as Touya. Perhaps someone could rectify that?
Well i could not get one thing, which girl would he choose? Can Touya have the courage to face Yuki? They can make an OVA about “some years later” or end it like this to keep the harem role for Touya?
what did yuki leave touya on the dresser? At first I thought it was a plane ticket.
@Ed
i understand how u feel bout making an ova and crap, but that would just ruin it… this already had a good ending…
back then i was hesitating 2 watch the 1st ep of the 2nd season..I thought it would be another REPLAY of frustrations, I guess it didnt turn out like that… Looks like i made the right choice by sticking with the anime until the end.. xD
loved the part where Fuji came in the room just too see Yuki’s farewell message on the mirror…
I think it was Rina that wrote the farewell message. It all adds up. The torn letter was Yuki’s letter to Touya and her Xmas concert ticket that was supposed to be received by Touya but was discarded and torn up by Yayoi and later picked up by Rina in season 1. The present i think was the Valentine’s day present from Touya ?. And if it was Yuki that left the farewell message, why would she give her phone number to Touya in a piece of paper later ?
it makes sense, but he was looking 4 yuki right?, not rina… idk what to think..anyways he graduated from being such a Huge bastard
I didn’t get it. I think the subs I watched ruined the end for me.
Meh.
It was interesting. It seems to me, Touya was just one big fat idiot.
🙂
Did Touya meet Yuki in the end then??
i think he met akira (without misaki, they are not togther anymore). yuki and rina are too busy with the new album, he will keep a distance from girls for a while and enjoy his new discovered “myself” after get away from the trauma. after all, what was those girls for him? did he fall in love with any of them? idk, maybe im talking bullshit 😛
well maybe he loves yuki, he couldn’t control himself when buying yuki’s white album, that showed something different from “that” personality.
About comment number five.
remember Touya never did give any present to Rina right?
So my guess is that present is the valentine chocolate from Rina in which she never gave to him, or so i think.
Also there is this about girls are the only one who gives chocolate to the guys on v-day. and the guys return the favor on White day right? Japanese culture.
I wish there would be another season to this anime because it was simply amazing, it was the type of anime that i was searching for and now its my top favourite ending, its also sad that it ended i feel like i still want to watch more or my life would be really boring. After finishing the anime i felt really sad :'(. The best part of my life is over 🙁