WARNING! THIS POST IS NOT SUITABLE FOR THOSE UNDER 17. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. THIS POST MAY ALSO CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME SCHOOL DAYS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE IMAGES USED IN THIS POST.
I finally did it. I don't remember why, but I did it. I watched and finished "School Days". And now I'm going to add to the massive store of reviews on this anime.I've heard that this anime is harem ecchi. I've also heard it's horror, psychological, slice of life and hentai. So clearly I need to find out what this anime really is. After watching 12 episodes, I... OH COME ON! THIS IS OBVIOUSLY A HAREM! I'm going to review this as a harem anime.
Let's start from the very top. And by top, I mean the opening. I think the song played is Innocent Blue, but I could be wrong. Either way, the song is very nice and I really liked it. Don't misunderstand. I liked the song, NOT the opening. The opening does nothing to prepare you for the hell you're in for. Though the sequence is fitting, the song isn't. To put it simply, the song fits the sequence not the show and the sequence fits the show. The first few episodes felt like a easy, smooth and relaxing sort of harem anime.
One of the reasons why people hate this anime is because the protagonist, Itou Makoto, is a complete and utter piece of crap. Though some people disliked him from the very minute they saw him because of his design, I was not one of those people. I actually liked him a little cause he reminded me of Amano Yukiteru, the protagonist of my currently favorite anime, Mirai Nikki.
;
Am I the only one who thinks they sorta resemble each other? Anyway, at first I liked, or rather, NOT HATED everyone. And when the anime broke out the first love triangle, I was still not pissed. However, when Makoto started liking Sekai, that's when everything started to get annoying. I would've praised this anime had they portrayed the sudden change in Makoto's feelings differently. But they way it was portrayed, it made Makoto detestable in my eyes.
Let me explain, the way they portrayed this, it seemed to me that Makoto was actually moved by Katsura's beauty (her huge cup size) and when he couldn't do "perverted things" to her, he shifted his sinful eyes to Sekai, who let her do perverted things to her. To top it off, Makoto's perverted mind was explained using "He doesn't understand girls' feelings". Now, I don't have a girlfriend and I don't plan on having one anytime soon. But I think that even I would know how to behave. I mean, HE LITERALLY CONFESSED TO KATSURA AFTER ONLY KNOWING HER FOR 2 DAYS. I'd think that common sense, shyness and natural caution would be enough to drive him in the right direction. Also, he said that he wanted to practice kissing with Sekai. He almost had sex with her after kissing. Ignoring the obvious flaws in this tactic, I don't think couples anywhere in the world have sex right after their first kiss. In the next episode he switches his attention to Sekai. It was at this point that the show became aggravating to watch.
The thing that finally turns this show into complete crap is when Makoto has relation ships with every girl that is important except Katsura's sister and a tall, short haired girl. It is here that the love triangle turns into a love polygon. This becomes so confusing that I drew a graph to see what the polygon looks like. Here it is:
To me, it looks like a quadrilateral with smaller quadrilaterals (and a triangle) in it. If there's some geometry expert reading this, can he/she please tell me if this shape has a specific name or not?
Frankly, I slowly lost respect for each and every character of this anime until I only liked Sawanaga and Setsuna. Then Sawanaga raped(?) Katsura and lost my respect as well. Finally, there was just Setsuna. As if to piss me off even further, this anime got even Setsuna involved with Makoto for bullshit reasons and she lost my respect as well.
The final episode, in my opinion, is actually the best episode in the entire show. Yes it's dark! Yes it's twisted! But I still say this episode is the best because Makoto got what was coming to him. He deserved every last thing that happened to him.
How dark is the final episode? It feels like a typical episode of Jigoku Shoujo. I honestly think that if Sekai contacted Hell Correspondence and got Ai to drag Makoto to hell and later Katsura used Hell Correspondence to send Sekai to hell wouldn't be unfitting to the episode. But of course, this isn't a cross-over. So instead of watching Ai and her gang drag Makoto and Sekai to hell, we see Sekai kill Makoto and Katsura kill Sekai.
So are their actions justified? At first glance I thought so. But upon thinking about it a little, I realized that even the reason for all this suffering is bullshit as well. This isn't some deep betrayal or bigger meaning behind it. It's just cause two dumbass girls decided to chase a total douche bag and didn't know how to move on with life. I mean seriously, if your girlfriend/boyfriend cheats on you repeatedly, don't you think it's high time you dump him? Sekai had NO REASON to kill Makoto. Yes, he was cruel. Yes, he cheated. Sekai could've just ended her suffering by dumping Makoto. When Makoto broke up with Katsura, she should've moved on. There was nothing that couldn't have been solved without resorting to murder. Sekai and Katsura should've done what Otome and Hikari did. They should've dumped Makoto. Even in the last episode, it was not too late for Sekai to break up with Makoto. There was no reason (besides the fact that Makoto's death was satisfying to watch) for Sekai to kill Makoto.
Speaking of Makoto, let's talk about him as a character. I get that this anime was adapted from a visual novel/dating sim of the same name, and I can see how Makoto can work for a video game, but I don't think his character works very well for an anime. Let's recap what we know about Makoto's character. He's a student, he likes music, he's perverted. His motivation is... To have sex with lots of girls? He... ... ... is... immoral and... cheats and... ...That's pretty much all we know about him. Characters like this maybe good for games as the player can put himself/herself in the protagonists shoes. But I personally don't think this type of characters are good for anime.
So what did I get out of watching this anime? It pissed me off. The first few episodes were good. The opening is awesome. The ending is different for different episodes. And the final episode was very very satisfying. Watch it or don't. It's your choice. You won't miss much if you decide not to watch this. You can argue that the story shows us the bad sides of teenage recklessness, cheating and the importance of morderate parental guidance, but it's not enough to save this anime. The only redeeming quality of this anime is the opening song and the final episode.
I rate this: 40/100
Thanks for Reading!
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