Rina reminds us again why she's so awesome.

Richie: A double feature today. Why is this a double feature? I’ll explain later. For now, let’s bask into the glory of episodes 2 & 3 of White Album Season 2.

Page 15: "The things you can't find will destroy what's around you. Because they're not there, there's nothing that can be done."

Episode Summary:

Many plans were made in this episode which was set on New Year’s Eve. Yuki & Touya were reunited again at the top of the hospital. Yuki shares her uneasy emotions with her career, thinking that her president is giving her a lot of day offs because she’s doing a lousy job. Touya lets her hug him again the same way they’ve always hugged to ease her woes. Later that night, Touya was at his father’s hospital bed, and his father started to talk about how his reminiscence would always put him to tears due to the age he’s in. He even cried in front of his son’s face at that moment. Touya reminded his dad that he had cried before for his friends and loved ones, but his dad tells him that all those people are pointless and that he’ll eventually end up alone. Touya stares at his father, affirming in his thoughts that he doesn’t want to be alone again.

At Echoes, Eiji told Frankie (& eventually Yuki.) about the time when he first laid eyes on the painting he recently acquired from Sakura. He knew the painting was of his mother, even if they hadn’t met, and he talked about the countless times tears would stream down his face and how he plays his guitar each time he sees it. He then clarified with Yuki that nothing was wrong with her performance as the day offs were more for his benefit. He noticed Yuki wasn’t happy even with the recent victory over Sakura, so he decided to make her day even better.

C'mon Yuki, you've done enough already. SMILE!

Throughout the day, Mana & Haruka were spending quality time with each other. They’ve decided to spend the night at a cabin in the forest. Akira & Misaki decided to take Touya’s father home and spend New Year’s Eve with him. Rina was doing a special New Year’s Eve performance on television. Touya was alone in his suite until he had an unexpected visitor–Yuki visits Touya once again along with Yayoi, and the reunited for a second time in the same episode. The two kissed at Touya’s balcony, but Touya didn’t look pleased with their smooching. Touya heads off to the New Year’s Shrine and implies his invitation for Yuki, but she never showed.

During that time, Mana & Haruka were still at the cabin, Menou and the little girl were on a train & Misaki & Akira tried to advance their relationship further, but discarded the thought because Touya’s dad was in the same household. Before Touya left for the Shrine that night, Yayoi told Touya to meet her at Echoes the next morning, which was exactly what he did. While he was waiting outside, Eiji noticed him from inside. He was about to greet him until he sees a black car which he easily recognized as Yayoi’s. He figured out what was going on, and the scene cuts to Touya & Yayoi riding in the same car down the streets of January 1st.

YOU DESERVE A SMACK TO THE FACE.

Richie’s Response:

GOSH I HATE TOUYA SO MUCH. I mean, I hate Yayoi, but now Touya’s sunken into a level lower than her! The situational irony here is ever so prominent in this episode in comparison to the first few episodes of the first season… Ugh, I hope the next episode will be better concerning the Touya storyline. He was a jerk to his girlfriend, a jerk to his dad, and a jerk to everyone he meets pretty much. He doesn’t realize it, but he just didn’t get that one clear message that will eventually change his viewpoint… Ugh.

Otherwise, the other side stories were really nice to see. While we still don’t know much about Menou & the little girl (I thought they would never mention them until I saw them on the train.), we learned that the man (Who I’ve mistaken as a new character before.) holding the guitar in the gallery was a younger Eiji, and we know that the painting was his mother. Akira & Misaki’s relationship develops further, and the friendship between Mana & Haruka also develops.

One of many relationships ACTUALLY progressing.

I’m just glad that the anime is actually set on directions rather than spinning like an out of control compass like the first season. All of it is straight forward, and not confusing for this viewer. It just makes you wonder how everything will eventually linked in the end of the season or if they will be resolved. We’re into the second episode and already a bunch of (good) questions need to be answered.

Again, I just hope the episode will be a lot better concerning the Touya storyline.. That’s all I wish for. Otherwise, this episode was an okay one which accomplished a lot and left more for viewers to see the next episode.

Page 16: "Thinking back to when one was young, there are things so embarrassing it makes one writhe in agony. Compared to that..."

Episode Summary:

At the start of the episode, Touya finds himself waking up after a dream of an older man reaching out to take a younger version of himself. Afterward, he met up with Yayoi in the cafe of the hotel they stayed in. He thanked her for ripping up that letter Yuki wrote for him. He wondered about Yuki’s career and asked Yayoi about it. She told him that Eiji wanted Yuki to compete in the Venus Music Festival this February to further her awareness & publicity. She said that Rina also wanted to participate in the past, but didn’t due to her brother stating otherwise. Touya thought it would be a good idea that the two would compete in the event, but Yayoi confirmed that only one singer per company may attend, which could lead to some dispute within the company. Thereafter, Yayoi broke up with Touya and left the hotel.

During this time, Touya’s father collapsed in his house due to the steam from Akira’s cooking. Akira & Misaki brought him to the hospital. Akira left a message in Touya’s answering machine to come to the hospital as as soon as possible. Touya receives the message after buying himself a copy of Yuki’s single and head straight there. After conversing with the doctor, Touya sat by Misaki and told her that his father had a case of high blood pressure. Akira wasn’t preent because Misaki let him leave. Misaki asked Touya if Yuki knew that he was spending time with Yayoi. Touya said that he she only picks him up once in a while, he never got around to telling Yuki about it though. Touya left the hospital, leaving Misaki behind. In the evening, Misaki was about to leave the hospital but notices Touya on the phone. She overhears him talking to his uncle saying that his father’s heart might be removed depending on his examination. Misaki, shocked by the news, leaves the room and heads up to Touya’s father’s hospital bed. She apologizes to him, and Touya’s father exclaimed his gratitude for both Misaki’s & Akira’s company.

Like a father to his daughter, unlike a father to his son.

Meanwhile, Haruka & Mana were outside their cabin. Haruka asks Mana why she was out cold in front of Touya’s suite. Mana, agitated by the question refers to what actually happened to her into a story she said happened to her friend. Touya was doing homework while at his father’s hospital room. Yuki tries to call Touya again, but gets no response. She leaves a message on Touya’s answering machine saying that she’ll be home tonight, and leaves to attend a meeting at Ogata Productions.  In this meeting, Eiji reveals to everyone in attendance (Yuki, Yayoi, Rina & other employees.) about the Venus Festival. He tells everyone that only one representative from the group can participate, and expressed how difficult it is to decide between the two of them. Rina, annoyed by her brother’s antics, came to the conclusion that he was only doing this for Yuki. She decided that she will be separate from Ogata Productions, leaving everyone except Eiji in the room speechless. She orders her ex-employees to drive her home, and leaves the room. Yuki, distressed as ever, runs to Rina as she enters the elevator. She wanted to talk to Rina, but Rina silently cuts her off, apologizes and watches the elevator door close in front of her & Yuki’s eyes.

Yuki runs back to the meeting room, and was infuriated about the entire situation. She expressed her infuriation by demanding Yayoi to help her catch up to Rina. Yayoi was about to come but she was stopped by Eiji. She ended up telling Yuki to wait for her downstairs. After shutting the blinds, Eiji tells Yayoi that he knew Hiraki was taking pictures of her and Touya, saying that he might bring the situation to the authorities when the time comes. He wondered about her relationship with Touya, and in response she said that there’s nothing between them. Eiji warned Yayoi that if anything happened to Yuki, he won’t forgive her. Yayoi told Eiji that Rina might affect Yuki too, and leaves the room to pick Yuki up.

Concern is in the air.

Enter another series of events; Akira & Misaki were at Echoes with Frankie. They were invited by Haruka & Mana, whom the latter of the two recognized Misaki working behind the counter. Eiji, while in a traffic jam, recalled past memories of Yuki trembling at the start of her career and Rina stating that she didn’t want him to destroy her career. He gets a phone call from Itsuki Kanzaki asking if he wanted to meet up with her. After getting off the phone with Eiji, one of her employees informed her that Menou & the little girl returned in the storehouse they last put her in. Rina, while riding to her house was stopped by Yuki’s car who swerved right in front of her car. Rina & Yuki both stepped outside of their cars & Rina, being composed as ever, slowly walks away from her car while Yuki tried to catch up to her. Touya leaves the hospital, listens to Yuki’s message at his suite, and starts to miss her again as the album he bought entitled “White Album” quietly sits on top of  his bookshelf.

Richie’s Response:

Yes, I’m glad that Yayoi broke up with Touya, and Touya officially grew a brain. *applause*

This episode basically made amends as to what the last episode left us behind with, and introduced some new information to further the suspense of some plot lines. Granted, it wasn’t as much as the previous episode, but it still does a good job to keep the viewers in the clouds and keep that anticipation factor for the next episode. Examples include how Touya’s father factors in with all the character’s relationships, where Touya will go after him getting dumped by Yayoi, and the conundrum between Yuki, Rina & the Venus Festival. These anticipation factors keeps the viewers who are interested in this anime to maintain their interest for the next episode. Of course, this is not for everyone, as it may appear as confusing for some folk, but that all depends on the matter of preference and style of each viewer. If you don’t think you like this type of genre, then don’t watch the anime — granted, it should be obvious by now and I should’ve made this comment way back in Season 1… Blame that on my wretched organization skills back then. I just wanted to restate this point.

Rina's & Yuki's relationship; something to question in future episodes.

The Yuki & Rina interaction at the end of the episode was this episode’s highlight for me. The fact that we now know that Rina will be antagonizing Yuki is exciting enough, her characteristics surprisingly fits the antagonist role of the show. Of course, she may not be the main antagonist (Who knows? Maybe Sakura might use Menou for the competition.), but she is a noteworthy one nonetheless. Also, I love the relationship between both her & Yuki. Rina hates the fact that her brother likes to plug Yuki into a lot of these concerts and competitions, being “the next big hit” for Ogata Productions, but you get the impression that she still has a high respect for Yuki as a friend. It’s just nice to see such a relationship surface in an anime that you wish relationships like that would actually exist in the media or in our everyday lives. It’s a real treasure to see now a days, and I’m hope the two of them will maintain this relationship after the Venus Festival.

Does anyone remember the pictures Eiji is referring to? I don’t remember them from the first season, I never knew it was such a big deal. Sometimes the disadvantages of having a second season months after the first season is that viewers may not remember information from the previous season that may pop up in the second season. With a series like White Album, which was seriously all over the map in the first season, it is a lot more difficult for viewers to remember such information. Maybe it’s just me, since I haven’t been in touch with the anime for a while, but this is something some anime companies have to consider. I’m going to have to re-watch the first season to see who this Hiraki guy is. I have a feeling he might be a Sakura guy, and that he’s been in front of my face this entire time.. But, I’m going to be an idiot and rewatch the entire first season to see if I missed anything.

Is it him?

Overall, another decent episode.

Now the reason why I’ve combined both blog posts is a fairly short one. Being new to anime once again, this series has been recently gained by CrunchyRoll, which caused gg (Subbers of Episode 1) to drop the series. I was super confused as to where I would go next, since this caused me to think that CR would be the only website subbing the series. So I waited, waited until Sunday of last week, where Minnie told me the subs for episode 2 were already out. Rushed, I was working on the episode 2 entry, but then episode 3 came out. Thinking that separate posts for 2 & 3 would be redundant, I decided to combine the two together — which wasn’t an easy task because I never expected this to happen at all. Well, it was a learning experience, and I doubt I’ll be combining episode posts now that I know what I’m doing. So, expect to see the next episode back to my usual style and more sooner than — perse, four days after its released.

Until next time, take care~