White Album 12
ホワイトアルバム Episode 12

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Rina learns of Touya’s relationship with Shinozuka-san and tries to warn him off of it, even trying to woo Touya herself. He rejects advances so later in her dressing room, she recites Yuki’s letter from memory in which Yuki blames herself for the failures in the relationship, her fears about the concert, and her desire to have Touya fill one more wish before she stops bothering him — to come to her concert. Rina fires Touya as a result.

Touya leaves a message for Yuki promising her to come to the concert but he can’t get a ticket. Mana, Misaki, and Haruka all provide him tickets. However, Shinozuka-san is still determined to keep Touya away from Yuki and no matter what, he can’t turn down sex from her. Despite this, he makes it to the concert. Meanwhile, Misaki and Akira are confronted by Tamaru, who tries to stab her. However, the book that she had lent Touya protected her and this causes Akira to lose it.

Thoughts/Review:

This anime is a soap opera, plain and simple, and White Album 12 nails it home. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but this episode really drove that feeling home for me. I’ve seen several of the dating-sim, visual novel game anime adaptations and none of them left me feeling like I watched a soap. I’ve seen other romantic anime titles and the same thing. Let’s face it, no other anime I’ve watched has ever made me think, “soap opera.” However, this one does.

I’m not saying it is a bad thing, but IF the anime writers wanted to, I think they could make this a long-running anime soap. A second series/season has been given the green light and because it is based on a visual novel, I doubt the Japanese will go for anything but how the game tells and ends the story. Its a shame really because if the series is good enough to warrant a sequel, then some clever writing could have us all coming back week after week to see what that loser Touya does. 😂

Mana is a surprise this week in White Album 12. I was floored by her mother being the woman in charge of Sakura-dan. No wonder Mana is so up on Touya’s “delusions” when it comes to Yuki and Rina. I still wonder if she’s Yuki’s sister somehow (or half-sister). Mana and Haruka’s friendship is still odd but nice. I’m glad to see that Haruka has someone else besides Touya though her befriending someone so young says something about Haruka’s maturity level.

Poor Akira — no matter what, he can’t escape Touya’s influence on Misaki. I can understand him not liking it that the book Misaki lent Touya was the instrument that saved Misaki from being stabbed. However, just be thankful she wasn’t stabbed, dude. Then again, maybe Akira feels (as do I) that Misaki doesn’t have any strong feelings for Akira as she did for Touya. Sucks to be you, dude.

Speaking of the stabbing, I figured that there might be an attempted killing. Tamaru didn’t go after Touya but did go after Misaki. Now here’s an interesting question — you see the psycho ex-boyfriend of Misaki basically ambushing you and always keeping one hand behind his back. Despite his words stating he wanted to apologize, do you (A) let him get close enough to stab Misaki if he has a knife behind his back or (B) do you not trust him and try to keep a safe distance, always keeping an eye on that hidden hand. If you are Akira, the answer is “A” and maybe that’s why he was so upset. In the end, he didn’t protect Misaki but the book returned by Touya did, meaning that in a weird sort of way, Touya protected Misaki.

Now for that scum, Touya. I know that sex for guys is a great thing. We want it all the time if we could get it (something I don’t think women truly understand, though they understand enough to withhold it as a weapon). That said, I’m not sure I can appreciate Touya’s inability to stop banging Shinozuka-san. If it were just sex, Touya could have taken the opportunity to try to score with Rina too since Rina made one last desperate attempt to get Touya from Rina (more on that in a bit).

However, Touya rejected the much hotter Rina in favor of Shinozuka-san, whom he doesn’t love. Heck, he even rejected the woman he claims to love in favor of Shinozuka-san (Yuki was ready to give it up for Touya, remember?). I know he put Yuki on a pedestal and I suppose in a way he’s done that with Rina. I guess he knows that sex with Shinozuka-san has no romantic strings involved, therefor he can iku all he wants, hate himself for it, then iku again. Ugh.

Rina. Only when she is rejected by Touya does she actually take a firm stand for Yuki. Up until Touya’s rejection, I think that Rina would have even entered a sexual relationship with him. I think that she would have justified it somehow in her mind but after learning of Touya banging Shinozuka-san, her justification would have become, “I’m doing this to keep Touya from Shinozuka-san, thus I’m actually helping my friend.” Once rejected, she finally did the right thing on all accounts — she recited Yuki’s letter to Touya and she fired Touya. About time, too. I never understood what she saw in Touya beyond maybe having a “safe” male (since he was Yuki’s boyfriend).

Poor Yuki though. She FINALLY gets a call from Touya (proving he always had her number and is a complete and total bastard for not calling her). Yuki has done a lot to try to carry on without Touya and in my mind, Shinozuka-san’s plans to keep Yuki from Touya is a mistake. That aside, I hope that Yuki asks Rina about why her letter was relayed through Rina. We’ll see what happens though.

So White Album 12 is a complete and total soap opera and like all soaps, there’s an addictive quality to it. As such, I’ll keep watching and see where things go.