[Tsumori]

WHITE ALBUM - 03

Summary:
On the phone with Touya, Rina asks about the fortune that she brought him, so he explains that it just means she brought Yuki. Their conversation is eventually interrupted by the sound of the doorbell, but it turns out to be Haruka again. She’s not here for another walk though - she’s here to tell Touya about how they have to re-register for classes by Saturday because of some new computers. When Touya returns to the phone, Rina offers him some more fortune: a job helping her manager. She convinces him to do it by revealing that Yuki will be with her, and shortly after the two end their call, Touya gets another call from Yuki. She claims that it’s the first time she’s trying to call tonight, and he claims that he was just on the phone with Akira, but regardless, Yuki wants to go out with him on Saturday. Remembering the registration thing that he has to do, Touya runs back out to talk to Haruka who’s still there. He decides to have Haruka go for him on Saturday, and he tells Yuki that he’ll be free after all. She then hurriedly hangs up the phone because she’s not allowed to be on it for longer than five minutes, and Touya isn’t able to say what he wanted to say. He’s also curious about the secret that Yuki mentioned right before hanging up.
The next day, Touya gets a call from the school because they’ve got a person for him to tutor, however he has to turn it down due to his new job. On his way in, he runs into Rina’s manager, but the man scampers off without saying anything. As Touya finds out from Eiji afterward, the old manager was fired, and that in turn makes Touya into Rina’s new manager. Rina then shows him in to Yuki’s dressing room, and she’s surprised to see him. During the subsequent recording session, Eiji has a chat with the woman representing the group of girls that Rina previously scolded. He then talks to Yuki’s manager Yayoi about his concerns about Yuki, and Yayoi asks him to leave things to her. Rina meanwhile notices Touya waving to Yuki in the middle of her performance, so she stops to slap him. She then leads Touya and Yuki to a room and starts yelling at them, but it’s all a ploy to trick everyone else so that the two can secretly get some time alone on the rooftop. Yuki admires Rina for doing this, and she spends her time with Touya hugging him from behind. When Touya brings up how they first met, Yuki remembers a scene in the woods, but Touya remembers it being later in high school. Touya then asks about the secret, but Yuki refuses to tell him until Saturday, and even then she only promises to tell him half of it.
Unfortunately, Yuki calls up Touya later because she found out that she has to work on Saturday after all, so she can’t make the date. To complicate things further, Touya receives a phone call informing him that he’s been fired as Rina’s manager. This leaves him no choice but to return to his father and beg because he’s out of money, but all his father is willing to give him is some food. Touya then goes to school and finds out that the person who needed a tutor really wanted him in particular. The registration form lists the name Mizuki Mana, so Touya heads to the person’s house, but no one answers the doorbell. However, he sees some curtains move in an upstairs window and decides to stick around for a little while. While he’s sitting there, he remembers how he and Yuki had planned to visit their old high school, but his thoughts turn midway to how Rina slapped him. A paper airplane then hits him in the head, and it’s a note from the person inside the house telling him to leave for today. Given that, Touya heads to Echoes and chats with Akira, but their conversation is interrupted when Rina suddenly bursts in to the cafe. She goes into the back and brings out her brother to confront him about what he did to Touya. Eiji avoids explaining and escapes, so Rina goes after him after promising to Touya to make up for this. With his thoughts on Rina, Touya heads into the back of the cafe and is surprised by the broom closet there.

Preview


WHITE ALBUM is turning out to be one of those series where you have to pay a lot of attention to the details because there are a number of little things that can be fairly easy to miss. Aside from stuff that’s just plain confusing (I still don’t understand the significance of the closet at the end), the series has a knack for being very subtle at times because characters aren’t actively pointing out discrepancies, and there’s a relative lack of inner thoughts to help clarify things - only sparse bits of on-screen text. Two examples of those from this week are Yuki and Touya lying to each other over the phone and then how they don’t have the same memory of when they first met. Those things may not be immediately obvious or absolutely critical to the immediate story, but they do reveal that there are some problems with Yuki and Touya’s relationship in terms of honesty, trust, and being able to speak freely with each other.
It doesn’t help either that Yuki’s manager Yayoi appears to be working against them, as evidenced by how she was eavesdropping on them on the rooftop in one scene and then Yuki finds out that she has to work on Saturday in the next scene. On the other hand, contrary to my earlier assumptions, Rina’s intent to get closer to Touya was so that she could help him and Yuki get more time together, not because she was making a move on him. If that holds true, then any straying Touya does will be of his own accord, and in fact, he already seems to be thinking about Rina more than he does about Yuki. Plus he’s got all those other girls around him to pull him away from Yuki, so I can see things going downhill for him real fast.

[anoos]

but they do reveal that there are some problems with Yuki and Touya’s relationship in terms of honesty, trust, and being able to speak freely with each other.

a great preview
i thought that rina trying to steel Touya away from yuki
and i was shocked when i found that she only tried to help them see each other more often

but i dont buy it
i think all the girls are in love with Touya