Summary:

Touya takes a shower after Yuki does, but by the time he comes out, she’s already asleep. Deciding to let her be, he tucks her into bed and leaves. He finds Yayoi waiting for him downstairs, and she offers him a ride because she wants to talk with him. Claiming that she’s not telling him not to see Yuki, Yayoi explains how her concern stems from an incident back when Rina had just debuted. They had been betrayed by a production head, and Rina had gotten photographed buying cigarettes from a vending machine for him. Yayoi attributes Rina and Eiji getting through the scandal to their own strength, but she isn’t sure if she could protect Yuki in a similar situation. With all the work Yuki has to do now for her debut single, Yayoi doesn’t want Touya getting in the way, and she offers herself as a replacement. Touya is shocked when she puts his hand on her chest, and he makes her drive him home. Not giving up so easily, Yayoi shows up at his door later and convinces him to accompany her to a movie and dinner. At the end of the date, she kisses him and offers him some money, but he doesn’t take it.

When Touya gets back home, he finds a manuscript written by Misaki waiting for him. Misaki wants his opinion on it, so he starts reading, but he’s interrupted by a phone call from Rina. She wants to talk to him about something, however since he’s not available when she is, the two have to put it off. Later that night, Touya gets a call from Yuki, but he doesn’t pick it up and feels sorry the entire time the phone is ringing. At school the next day, Touya tries to meet with Misaki, but he’s late and misses her. He talks instead with Akira and informs him about the manuscript, but Akira ends up telling him to stop forcefully trying to bring him and Misaki together. What Touya doesn’t realize is that Misaki wanted his opinion before presenting the manuscript to the drama club, and although the members ultimately decide to go with it, they force her to make the costumes and props for it despite her objections. Yuki meanwhile finishes her vocal practice with Eiji and has Yayoi take her home, but along the way, the car passes by Haruka, so Yuki gives Haruka a message to pass to Touya: she won’t sleep tonight and will be waiting. After getting the message, Touya thinks it over and remembers everything Yayoi’s said to him. He ultimately decides to go see Yuki, but before he can get out the door, he gets a call from Misaki. When he hears her say that she doesn’t know what to do and ask for his help, he thinks to himself that he’s the one who doesn’t know what to do.

ED Sequence

The song didn’t change, but the images that went with it did. I’m not sure if this set has any more significance or meaning than the first set though – if it did, it went over my head.

Preview

Well if there was anything eye-opening this episode, it was Yayoi’s advances. Right as I was starting to think this might be a slow episode since Touya and Yuki didn’t end up doing anything, Yayoi puts Touya’s hand on her chest and later kissed him. That’s certainly one way to spice things up. What I don’t understand is why she’s so motivated to protect Yuki like this. I mean, she clearly wants Yuki to succeed without Touya getting in the way, but it’s a bit extreme to be selling her own dignity and body in exchange. For the sake of Yuki and Touya ending up together though, it’s a good thing that Yayoi was so lifeless and business-like in doing it because I suspect that if she had turned up the charm and really tried to seduce him, she could have succeeded.

Of course, it still isn’t so easy for Touya and Yuki to get together, and the newest obstacle looks to be Misaki. My impression from the first episode was that Misaki would be a stronger character than this, almost like an older sister type, but this would seem to disprove that. Now if only Touya was better about knowing when to ignore the phone and when not to ignore it. As someone who’s entrenched in technology (as I’m sure many folks out there are), it’s very frustrating for me to see something like communications in the 1980s get in the way of things. But I guess if Touya and Yuki are ultimately able to get through it all and end up together, they’ll be stronger because of it. The question is if they will be able to.

As a final note, for anyone confused about the message that Yuki wrote, see aohige’s explanation here.

37 Comments

  1. The first episode was awesome for me. From second to fourth episodes, they waere so tone down that i was about to give it until this episode brought the hope back. I hope things speed up more and see how is the resolve going to be when Rin falls for the protagonist and Yuki finds out about it.

    I believe Haruka also likes him, but she always keeps it for herself (i want to see her telling the protagonist at least once since she is my favorite character but i don’t think i will ever happen). Also, when the protagonist is protective to Haruka, it almost looks like as he likes her too.

    So far the count in the harem is 5 girls in chapter 5! Although i never predicted that the manager would be part of the harem too.

    banzemanga
  2. Well if they trust you a message to deliver it someone probably you won’t read it. Looks like Haruka doesn’t care about that rule. Well it’s an unwritten rule but still. Btw interesting episode with the Yayoi stuff and with Misaki at the end. Can’t wait for ep6.

    yomax
  3. I’m actually surprised in how they can keep this melodrama up. This is the first time in a long while that I’ve kept watching an anime that I hate. I must be trying to punish myself for something *goes off to find out what I did wrong this time*

    Megas
  4. Finally, this episode shows the significance of the closet.
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Not really what I was expecting.

    on another note, this episode caught me off guard. I can’t wait for the next episode.

    twilightlegacy
  5. And like in any cliche that idiot Tomoya is going to help the other girl instead of going to his girl….Not to mention that not only he doesn’t have a cell but neither does she, I mean, what the hell? electronics are cheaper that fruit over there aren’t they? At least she should by them so they can chat without a problem……. Then again this is a drama anime and they will have a misunderstanding because he will not say a thing and she will think that he is dumping/rejecting her. God I really hope that doesn’t happen because what I like about this anime is that the main character actually acts like a human and not like a harem character

    SakuraAyanami
  6. @ Amethyst

    mobile phones were extremely rare in the 80s, i believe in this decade they actually came with a briefcase. by the next decade they evolved into a more portable brick-like form (a la zack morris’ phone) and then eventually becoming smaller into what we now know them to be. of course, if you’re asking why there were no cell phones in the 80s, you probably don’t know who zack morris is. =(

    sorry for the lengthy post…i just wanted to mention zack’s brick phone

    RickyMack
  7. at one point, the glasses guy in charge of picking the script said to misaki “its not as bad as the things u do for me” before he left, did it mean what i think it meant?

    lotuskonoha
  8. Mental Magma = Spam

    Ok disregard that. I bet everyone will get to know about that later.

    Back to White Album 04…

    … oh great. Just when I thought Touya’s “harem” would just revolve between Rina, Yuki and (a character I forgot her name). What’s with Yuki’s manager… err, Yayoi?

  9. @SakuraAyanami
    I don’t know about you but in my culture two people aren’t considered a couple before they become intimate. Touya and Yuki are far away from what I would consider even dating. They just have an illusion that they are going out but in fact Touya is as close to her as any of the other girls.

    Kalessin
  10. I gave a laugh at the scene where Touya was watching TV and there was this “President Harno of the Philippines arrived as a national guest-.”

    I dunno but it just felt weird since election day is coming next year and is a pretty hot topic here in Philippines. Coincidence Perhaps? And what’s with the name :))

    Kabayongtao
  11. @Kalessin
    I kind of agree with you. Touya and Yuki can’t be considered dating since hardly make anytime together to understand each other. Well we can say that they used to date each other and now they don’t date each other but are keeping their relationship. (after all the reason for dating is just to spend time knowing each other better but not dating doesn’t mean that they don’t have lover’s relationship)

    banzemanga
  12. I can’t understand why you would watch a harem anime when the main character is a giant bag of douche, much less blog about it. Usually the main character is likeable, or at least has some redeeming qualites that can make you overlook how lame he is.

    From what I’ve read, this Touya character is a just as big a douchey loser as Motoko from school Days — A show I stop watching two episodes in.

    How’s that for foresight?

    Ericrsteele
  13. @Ericrsteele, You’re a fucking idiot. Be a little less biased, ‘douche.’ If we relate this to real life, he IS like an average male living in difficult time. “Get your head out of your ass”, or do Americans say “get your dick out of your ass”?

    I’m sure what you so call ‘redeeming’ quality is certainly there, but you just don’t see it. You’re so wind up in novels by Ann Rice and that gal who took the teen-lust by storm with her TWILIGHT story. There is no fucking “knight in shining armor” crap. There is perhaps, but only in one’s eye, I suppose.

    As for comparing him to Motoko from School Days, I label you as a … (I won’t even go there). Someone stated earlier, which perhaps you just trolled and never took your time reading, that Touya knows how to control himself whilst on Makoto’s side, he likes to swing his penis around and let it publicly hang for the next available pussy that’s willing to accept another foreign object. I’m sure, Eric, that you may be able to win Makoto over if you bend over and accept his manhood. You’ll understand soon enough tonight when you wake up having a wet dream about Makoto raping you like a sniveling piece shit you are.

    Andynai

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