White Album - Episode 7

Spread yourself too thinly, and keep on telling little white lies (or, more to the point, don't tell people things they should know) and it's bound to catch up with you in the end. Thus is the lesson that Touya is, perhaps ever so slightly, beginning to learn in this episode of White Album.

After doing so much to help Misaki in the last instalment, we see Touya going to even greater lengths here, arranging for her to stay with his father so that she can work on the costumes she needs, with Touya of course helping as much as possible. His time spent with Misaki is later confused by Rina as him cheating on Yuki, which is something that he seems to fail to convince her about - and who can blame her for not trusting him? In turn, Rina leaves Misaki angry with Touya as he goes running off after Rina and leaving her to pay for dinner... Our protagonist really is a lost little lamb in the midst of all these girls isn't he?


Away from what is arguably the real crux of this episode, Yuki finally gets her first single recorded, and gets a literal kicking from some other idols in response, Haruka seems to be having some kind of breakdown, and Mana Mizuki is rather predictably unveiled as the girl Touya has to tutor as he desperately tries to earn some money.

After not seeing much of her last episode, Rina's reappearance boosts my levels of interest in this episode substantially - Although she still seems to be pulling out the stops to help Yuki (in particular helping her find what it takes to get her single recorded), my money is still on her having some sort of ulterior motive that will be to her own benefit above anyone elses, and I similarly still believe that she's intent upon dragging Touya in on this into the bargain. I realise I have less and less evidence to back this train of thought up every episode but hey, a gut instinct is a gut instinct, and I simply don't trust Rina.

That aside, I felt that this episode trivialised the rift between Touya and his father somewhat, making what I assume is supposed to be a pretty huge rift between them seem far more playful and trivial than I believe was intended. I also continue to be a tad surprised by Misaki's actions too, given that she knows Touya is with Yuki but still seems intent upon stealing him for some reason. Still, I suppose the fact that I care about all this stuff is proof positive that White Album is doing its job at keeping me engaged with the series, and although it's no classic I still find myself looking forward to the latest developments each week.