White Album episode 3

IMPORTANT: If you are viewing this with Microsft's Internet Explorer, please switch to Firefox to view the sidebar in its correct position.

Episode 3 was a development of the main plot line. Touya becomes Rina's manager for a very short time, and he gets into a tough spot choosing to stay strong with Yuki or giving in to Rina's machinations, or escaping to Haruka.

Let me speculate on what really happened, I personally think that Rina was behind the breakdown of Yuki and Touya's plans to go out that Saturday and his firing as her manager. Why? She wants to create an impression that would give her plus points on Touya. "Make this up to you" my ass. She's the culprit. She may very well be, and she knows how to act. That slap looked real, so what's stopping her from making the firing look real. Her brother is also a tool for letting himself be dragged into the story.

Maybe you can look at Rina from two perspectives. First is the evil bully throwing her weight around in the worst possible way--by being "friends" with the girl she's victimizing. She may have fooled Yuki, but I can see through that facade. But you gotta give credit when it's due. Rina WILL eat Yuki alive when escalates into an all-out-cat war. . Second is the perspective of koolaid drikers who think that Rina's a strong willed woman who just tries to get her prize. I'm leaning more on the first, but all it takes is for me to see some weakness on Yuki's part and I'll root for Rina all the way.

And Touya, grow a spine. Stop that Goddess of the day shit and get a life. You'll get Nice-boated if you dont act decisively now.

RideBack episode 2

A prodigy is born

In this episode, we see the progression of Rin from an alienated ex-ballet dancer to being a super rookie RideBack racer. After being formally invited to join the RideBack club, Rin is overcome by her curiosity and starts looking up Ridebacks over the internet and drops by the garage again.

She was challenged by Tamayo to a race, with the stipulation that Rin will be her servant if she loses. Tamayo just happened to be the All-Japan champion racer, as told by Rin’s bro over the phone. Nevertheless, she accepts the challenge. The race itself was tenacious. Rin, being the complete rookie was supposed to be left to bite the dust, but to everyone’s surprise she hung in there and astonished Tamayo with both her tenacity and dexterity in riding. The race was inconclusive, as Tamayo suffered a race-ending crash and Rin did not finish the race to aid her.

RideBack is starting to give me the shounen feel in its portrayal of action packed adventure and a gung-ho, never-give-up heroine. It was as if I just saw a prodigy being born while watching the race, especially when Rin did that ballet trick on her RideBack. The way she nimbly moved that machine wasn’t surprising per se, being the ex-ballerina she is but it was the rookie factor plus the tension of the moment that made it awesome. After all, she was just racing the national champion one-on-one. However, the biggest plus factor I saw was Rin’s headstrong attitude towards challenges. The girl just never backs down. Indeed, Fuego has found a new master. Who said ballet is for sissies ;)?

RideBack feels very much like Air Gear minus the tweener aura, and I personally think that it is the strongest show of the season if it keeps up the excitement until it ends it run.