Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself here, as the early part of the episode deals with the plan hatched by Misaki's ex-boyfriend to blackmail Yayoi and also make some money out of writing an expose of her relationship with Touya. With her writing talents available, Misaki somehow gets dragged into this particular sordid little story, as she's requested (well, blackmailed as well) into writing the article in question. That is, until Menou of all people appears on the scene (something she has quite the habit of doing) and turns pretty much the entire scenario on its head, ending with Misaki writing an interview for her while she takes part in a somewhat risque photo shoot. Confused? Yeah, me too.
Before even this occurs, we see Touya find Mana at Haruka's not-so-secret hideout, but before he can say anything much she steals his taxi and heads off, leaving Touya and Haruka alone. Rather than making his own way back straight away, Touya accepts Haruka's offer to hang out for a while, and come that evening he's confronted with a naked Haruka trying to seduce him. At this point I'd like to say that he refuses her advances and leaves it at that, but let's just say that after initially rejecting her he has a change of heart and decides to complete the "Haruka route" after all. Can this guy be any more of an utter bastard if he tries? Is Rina going to slap him silly next episode? God, I hope so.
It seems that no matter how hard I try, it's becoming increasingly difficult to stop White Album from becoming the I Hate Touya Show in my head - There's simply nothing left to like about the guy, and despite the suggestions of him previously having feelings for Haruka in the past before she went a little bananas his taking advantage of her here is pretty loathsome, particularly considering the fact that he has a girlfriend... no, two... wait, two and a half girlfriends. Haruka is hardly an innocent party on this occasion either, but again Touya's inability to decide something for himself rather than just "going with the flow" is the ultimate issue here. The soap opera in White Album remains strong on account of his actions, but it can't be a good thing that I'm increasingly hoping for some kind of School Days-esque ending now.
Hasn't everyone watched a harem anime and at some point ended up shouting in frustration at the male lead for being totally oblivious to the girls' attraction towards him, or is limpwristedly terrified of responding to it? Just look at Kampher now - the hero has a whole bevy of girls who want to do nothing more than jump his bones and he decides that he likes the lesbian...
ReplyDeleteWhite Album isn't so much exploitative; rather that this time, the hero actually follows up on people making themselves available for him. If nothing else, I think that it's a refreshing change of pace.