Why White Album Is The Way It Is

Kabitzin on March 23, 2009 · in White Album 1

As the first season of White Album nears its conclusion, I thought I’d jot down some thoughts about one of the soapiest series of the season. It’s very easy to dismiss White Album for its terrible male lead, but what many viewers do not seem to understand is that Touya is constructed this way with a well thought out purpose. This is in contrast to most eroge adaptations where the male lead is vague and indecisive because he is just a stand-in for the viewer to vicariously screw all the girls.

If you think Touya is bad, clearly you have read about as much Robert Browning as Touya has. Consider this section of Browning’s popular poem, Porphyria’s Lover:

Happy and proud; at last I knew
Porphyria worshiped me: surprise
Made my heart swell, and still it grew
While I debated what to do.
That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
Perfectly pure and good: I found
A thing to do, and all her hair
In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her. No pain felt she;
I am quite sure she felt no pain.

Obviously the first reaction is “Dude WTF?!” but when you think about it, there is a reason why Robert Browning’s book is pushed so hard in White Album. In both Porphyria’s Lover and My Last Duchess, the speaker commits shocking acts to preserve himself as the sole object of the woman’s affections (in his own mind). Just like the speaker, Touya is convinced he only loves Yuki and he is cheating on her and avoiding her in order to help her. Touya convinces himself that he doesn’t want to be an obstacle, and commits crazy acts of infidelity. At times the argument seems persuasive, until the viewer realizes that small gifts and occasional letters would probably be a better way to encourage Yuki.

I know, I thought the book of Browning poems was just a throw-away plot device too, but after Tamaru failed to knife Misaki (ironically, due to Browning’s book) I realized that I had been tricked into watching 12 episodes of an anime adaptation of Victorian poetry. It’s not just the way that the characters reveal their thoughts in text, but how we come to understand Touya better through his thoughts used to justify his actions.

Rather than thinking out loud, the character composes a self-defense which the reader, as “juror,” is challenged to see through. Browning chooses some of the most debased, extreme and even criminally psychotic characters, no doubt for the challenge of building a sympathetic case for a character who doesn’t deserve one and to cause the reader to squirm at the temptation to acquit a character who may be a homicidal psychopath.

Akira’s line in episode 12 lamenting how Touya always comes through as the hero in unexpected ways has me suspect that Touya will eventually be responsible for Yuki’s final transformation into a confident, independent idol. Touya is building up a very diverse portfolio of romantic transgressions and lies, and I believe that this will be the pain-bringer that shocks Yuki into severing her last tie to the old, helpless Yuki who relies on her horrible boyfriend. I find Yayoi’s character especially delicious in the way she hurts and helps both Touya and Yuki, and I feel that this models the way in which Touya’s deplorable actions will end up saving the day once again.

I also find it notable that all the males in White Album seem kinda nuts. Akira’s been cheesecaking and stalking Misaki for five years, and yet would rather pass out crime scene fliers than help her with her dream play. Frankie never talks and just sits around listening to music, and Touya’s dad brings the photo of his dead wife with him wherever he goes. Eiji is constructing fiendish schemes in a way that would have most boards of directors replacing him in an instant, and we have yet to get a real explanation for the secret entrance in the broom closet. And then there is Tamaru who tried to knife Misaki with a lead paint-coated prop knife to punish her for getting a new boyfriend.

Anyway, what do you think of Touya?