Comments on: White Album end: a question of lust (and spineless losers)

By: jai

jai — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:40:00 +0000

I think it was a good anime. Somewhat similar to the story of I”S. Touya is so hopeless even Yuki too. Yeah touya was a total idiot…can’t resist the seductive charm of yuki’s manager but it can’t be helped.For a man like him, he only wants to wander around questioning himself if he is suitable to be yuki’s boyfriend. Also the lies,…he keeps telling lies when yuki is calling him whenever someone is hanging around to his apartment.

By: Kabitzin

Kabitzin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:42:24 +0000

I definitely think we are supposed to dislike Touya. Just the text-thought alone serves to highlight his faults, whereas if we didn’t get to read his thoughts we wouldn’t see his “Goddess of the Day” crap and think so poorly of him. That’s probably why Yuki hasn’t dumped the chump yet; she can’t see what we can see and so she just assumes Touya is being a bit weird because of the situation.

By: Martin

Martin — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:27:54 +0000

@Chris: I quite liked Yuki actually. She was a bit wimpy at times but there were some scenes where she’s visibly trying to be tougher emotionally and more professional, but yeah…they would’ve got it on if she hadn’t fallen asleep! *facepalms* I wouldn’t under-estimate the risks they’d be running in trying to maintain a normal relationship in the public eye though – what about that incident involving Rina and the cigarette machine?

@Zyl: indeed. Well spotted! It seemed appropriate given how the series is set in 1986 iirc.

@Hanners: I’m hoping Yuki gets her act together in the second season – now she’s effectively ‘made it’ career-wise she can concentrate on getting that numbskull of a boyfriend in line. If she finds out about his antics things would get even more interesting! It certainly was a risky path making a pair of leads who aren’t necessarily engaging, which highlights how there’s a fine line between bravery and foolishness in the writing. I’ll definitely come back for more, if only because I don’t dislike Yuki like so many people seem to!

@Smankh: there’s an even better shot of Yuki’s headphones in one of the episodes, but I’ll be damned if I could find it. I love the little bits of attention to detail in this series though.

By: Smankh

Smankh — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:54:42 +0000

Oh, I wasn’t the only one who identified the AKG K 240 studio =D

By: Hanners

Hanners — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 08:46:12 +0000

Given White Album’s roots I was fully expecting Touya to be an indecisive idiot, but I certainly wasn’t expecting him to be quite as much of an asshole as he eventually turned out to be. I certainly agree that we’re supposed to dislike him, but that’s always a risky path to tread and I’m genuinely not convinced it worked here. While his behaviour created a lot of the show’s drama I suppose, it equally detracted from the strengths and weaknesses of other characters, as every other major player in the series ended up posted on a scale labelled “how stupid I am compared to Touya”, and needless to say most of them lost handsomely.

As far as leads go, Yuki wasn’t much better really, a damp squib if ever there was one – If we were supposed to be rooting for a happy Touya-Yuki ending, then it isn’t working.

This disappointing major pairing is a shame really, as there are some interesting characters on show here – Haruka needs to be fleshed out beyond just being some weird girl as there should be an interesting story there, and Rina is a definite bright light and a fascinating character in her own right; I’m still not entirely convinced that she’s an outright heroine though…

Still, this series has proved to be good fun for all the drama, and that 80s setting has made a refreshing change from the anime norm these days of characters picking up their cell phone every two seconds to communicate. Doubtless come Autumn I’ll be spending another dozen weeks shouting “Touya, you idiot!” at my screen. :D

By: Zyl

Zyl — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:09:42 +0000

[OT] A Depeche Mode fan per chance?

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:57:11 +0000

I think you might be right about the viewer is supposed to dislike Touya, but the problem I had with the series was that I really didn’t like Yuki. As far as I’m concerned, Yuki takes at least half the blame for their relationship problems, I soon got tired of her sad, lonely, poor virgin girl act, Yuki could have just as easily snuck over to Touya’s place to pay him a visit. I know it’s supposed to be the 1980′s with no cell phones, but they did have taxi cabs.

The only two female characters in white album I found interesting were Rina and Yayoi. But, by the end of the season, I became disappointed with Rina, she kind of knew about the whole twisted web and decided to do nothing. Now, Yayoi is a different story, I really would like to get inside her head, does she or doesn’t she feel anything for Touya? When she saw another girl (Mana)in Touya’s room she should have been happy to see Touya focusing on another girl and not Yuki, but instead she snatches Mana from his apartment, I’m sure Mana wasn’t going to die from her cold.

I’ve said in one of my previous reviews that I would have liked Touya to be played as a total scumbag jerk. Have him sleep with every woman, Rina, Misaki, Haruka, Yayoi, Mana, and even the Sakura-dan group, then let Yuki decide whether she wants to steal him back or let all the girls go School Days on Touya.