ホワイトアルバム Episode 25
White Album Ep. 25 review
White Album – 25

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Rina recovers from the poisoning attempt but she finds herself left without a voice and having to encourage Yuki to continue on with the Venus Festival preparations. Yayoi breaks off her relationship with Touya but tells him that Yuki needs him. Touya pays a visit to Akira at Echos to enlist Akira’s help in determining where Touya and Menou first met. Touya has a dream and then when Menou offers him some ramen, he remembers where he met her — when he was trying to find something as a kid. Since Menou back then called herself a goddess who’d watch over Touya, Touya has considered all women who’ve helped him in the moment as his goddess. She confesses that she’d forgotten about Touya until she ran into him prior to Yuki’s concert.

Kanzaki pays a visit to Rina to talk before going to Touya’s home to see Menou. Mother and daughter proceed to have a talk over cheap sake. Meanwhile, Yuki continues to prepare for the Venus Festival while Hiiragi is treated as a hero for having found Rina immediately after her poisoning. Touya goes to see Rina at Kanzaki’s request as Rina still has not recovered her voice.

Thoughts/Review:

So let me get this straight. Touya was some kid crying in the woods having lost something when a teenage Menou comes up to him, treats him to some shaved ice dish at a restaurant, tells him it will make him forget the bad stuff, then proclaims herself as his goddess protector. After that, Touya is completely messed up in the head about women being goddesses and that’s why anytime a cute girl helps him, she’s his goddess of the moment and must be slept with?

Ugh.

Man, that is some out there explanation if I’ve ever heard one. For starters, how would Menou recognize the adult Touya after not having seen him since he was a young child of what? Eight? I suppose it is possible but considering how much people change over 10+ years, especially from childhood to adulthood. Further, one encounter isn’t likely to make that much of a lasting impression. Certainly, it didn’t on Touya until the writers had to have him remember because of a dream and the way Menou presented Touya a choice of ramen. So none of that rang true to me.

That Menou is older than Touya by a few years surprised me. No wonder Seven Arcs felt comfortable showing her drinking and smoking. I had thought that she was just another underage teenage idol and that Seven Arcs were just showing another dark side to the idol industry. Once revealed that Menou was older, I had no problem with it because in episode 19, we learned that one of the members of Sakura-dan was already an adult and became the manager of another former member.

Finally regarding Menou, looks like she won’t get to sleep with Touya after all. Had her mother not shown up, she would have scored herself some Touya but bad timing. I’m willing to bet that in the visual novel, there was some lovin’ under the kotatsu. *_*

The lack of information is a frustrating aspect to this anime. The names “Misumi” (I’m assuming he was Kanzaki’s right-hand person early on) and “Makoto Sendou” meant nothing to me because I don’t remember them being mentioned before even though they had roles on screen. I mentioned last episode how we finally learned Menou’s friend’s name. How long was it before we learned Hiiragi’s name? I find that lack of basic information to be frustrating.

I’m still not sure if this Makoto actually was the one who poisoned Rina or not. I haven’t felt like rewatching the anime to see if that’s the case but if so, I’m at a loss as to why. It still seems like Hiiragi did it, then saved Rina to be the hero but who knows.

Also, is the grade school boy in glasses who was not happy seeing Menou and young Touya in the restaurant actually Tamaru? I’m going to say it is and that he has a sister complex. So based on the smeg explanation of how Touya’s way of life started, I’d have to say that Tamaru started his woman-hating ways by seeing his step sister flirty with some other boy. *_*

Speaking of Rina, I guess she won’t get any stick time with Touya now that there’s only one more episode. *_* I have been told by someone that they believe Rina and Touya hooked up in the visual novel much earlier, around episode 18 anime time. I suppose Seven Arcs couldn’t get all the sexual encounters in.

On that subject, Yayoi’s sudden breaking off her relationship with Touya was rather jarring. I say this because it just seemed like Seven Arcs knew they had only one more episode and needed to resolve that sex buddy of Touya’s. After all, has anything really changed with Yuki other than Ogata no longer being on the scene? As far as Yuki’s singing goes, I see nothing has changed so Yayoi’s suddenly deciding that Yuki needs Touya didn’t ring true to me.

I did laugh at Yayoi telling Touya she hated him and always did. She couldn’t have hated him that much to sleep with him all the time. *lol* I still think that while sleeping with Touya was a way to keep him at bay from Yuki, she also needed that companionship as well.

There’s only one more episode to resolve everything in. Frankly, I don’t see a very satisfactory resolution in the cards.