School Days

High school student Makoto Itou first notices Kotonoha Katsura at the start of his second semester, freshman year. Immediately, he becomes entranced by her beauty, but his bashfulness doesn't allow him to approach her, even though they ride the same train every day. Instead, he snaps a photo of her in secret and sets it as his cell phone's wallpaper: a charm that, if kept under wraps, would supposedly help you realize your love. However, classmate Sekai Saionji spots the picture, but instead of ratting him out, she offers to help set him up with Kotonoha—going so far as befriending her just for him. Thus, the trio begins a rather impromptu friendship.

School Days follows the lives of these three teenagers as they traverse the joys and hardships that come with being a high schooler. In a story alive and brimming with romance and melancholy, the tale of these three students will linger in memory long after the momentous conclusion.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Katsura, Kotonoha Main

Okajima, Tae Japanese

Itou, Makoto Main

Hirakawa, Daisuke Japanese

Saionji, Sekai Main

Kawaragi, Shiho Japanese

Kiyoura, Setsuna Supporting

Imoto, Kei Japanese

Katsura, Kokoro Supporting

Ashiro, Megu Japanese

Kato, Otome Supporting

Nagami, Haruka Japanese

Sawanaga, Taisuke Supporting

Matsumoto, Yoshirou Japanese

Kanroji, Nanami Supporting

Takahashi, Chiaki Japanese

Kuroda, Hikari Supporting

Tanaka, Ryouko Japanese

Obuchi, Minami Supporting

Kuribayashi, Minami Japanese

Itou, Makoto Producer

Nakagawa, Shinobu Producer

Gotou, Masanori Producer

Koike, Katsumi Producer

Reviews

Jul 3, 2013

Polyphemus

Recommended

A character that is not likable is not the same as a bad character. You wouldn't complain about the characters "doing stupid things" in Othello, would you? That's the point of a tragedy. Othello believed the lies about Desdemona because he was a flawed human being as Makoto cheated because he was a flawed human being. Things are not as simple as detractors make them seem and you can’t expect a cast of deeply flawed characters to make smart decisions, like the detractors of the series supposedly would.

Where did we get this idea that a character must be likable and flawless to be a ... good character? Raskalnikov from Crime and Punishment is one of the greatest characters ever written and most people who read the book simply despise him. Any of you guys read the Flashman Papers? It was some of the best historical fiction ever written, but Flashman a worthless douche and was the epitome of an immoral picaresque protagonist. People don’t hate the School Days characters because they are bad characters; they hate them because they are bad people and that simply makes no sense to me. They are fictional characters, you don't evaluate the quality of a fictional character the same way you would evaluate the moral quality of a human being.


Makoto was guilty of lust, but he was not entirely guilty of ignorance. He knew he was being an awful person, but he simply could not help himself. He was weak and eventually he stopped trying to fight his urges. He may be an awful person, he may be the "worst," as he calls himself on several occasions, but his reactions to his situation were anything but unrealistic. When examining his character it should be kept in mind that all of the women who were awful manipulative people and were responsible for making him a female-impregnating manwhore, turned their collective back on him when he abandoned a pregnant girl. And hell, he's the father, is it that ridiculous for him to want her to have an abortion? Should a high schooler be expected to take that kind of news well? It is possible to have some amount of empathy for him as well, as it should be for any three dimensional and well-written character.

School Days is somewhat dependent on its ending, but most series (particularly tragedies) are. To say that it was just a cliché romance before the last episode, as I have oft heard claimed, is simply absurd. You should have realized that this anime wasn’t a typical rom-com in the first episode where Makoto almost gets violent with Sekai over nothing. The infamous ending was the culmination of the rest of the series that was meticulously built up to, and while it was surprising, it certainly did not come out of nowhere in an otherwise normal anime.

Rather than being drawn out and ending with the couple getting together, like most harems, the relationships are established in episode 1. Most harems have an assumed happy-ever-after ending, but in School Days, just like in real life, things aren't always sunshines and rainbows. School Days deconstructs this idea and other tropes such as the "matchmaker crush." There is also a fuckton of fanservice, like there is in most "innocent" romance anime. It's very impressive and entertaining how School Days gives you a set of things to expect (largely through more subtle means than typically thought) and then proves those expectations to be false, one by one.


School Days is not entirely realistic (which I’ll discuss in a bit), but Makoto’s character is actually relatively believable. If all the girls in school suddenly started coming on to a high school guy, he might just act the way Makoto did. Many other harem protagonists, such as Manaka from Ichigo 100%, are also selfish and generally bad people, but most harems attempt to paint the main character as the good guy. School days harbors no such delusions. Makoto is the protagonist, but we are certainly not rooting for him. In this sense it’s a clever and scathing attack on the (mostly atrocious) harem genre.


That said, it’s not true that Makoto was completely worthless or a blank character. It’s also not true that the girls fell in love with him out of nowhere. One girl fell in love with him because he was the first boy to ever stick up for her against bullies. One girl started sleeping with him because he accepted her when she felt unloved. One girl fell in love with him because he didn’t make her feel self conscious and he wasn’t just after her body like all other men. Three girls slept with him due to his impressive sexual reputation. These things all happen, they are explainable and believable. Every character has their own motives and is three-dimensional.


In most anime having/being a shy and pure girl is a good thing. In School Days, just like in real life, it is not that simple. Kotonoha’s shyness makes her difficult to interact with and her prudishness is largely the reason why Makoto cheats. It’s also the reason that she was too weak to just dump Makoto or confront him, which is why the whole debacle got as far as it did. School days makes it clear that her behavior is not normal or healthy and that it’s a result of bullying and isolation. The fact that Kotonoha is an extreme version of an overused character archetype would normally be a flaw, but in "School Days" it’s used to deconstruct said archetype and darkly explore what would make a character this way.


Another archetype that “School Days” deconstructs is the "bromantic foil." You know, the perverted best friend who’s just there for comic relief, has no development, and despite being a huge pervert, can never ever get laid. Well in school days the bromantic foil commits an unforgivable and undeniably realistic act against another character, in a fit of sexual frustration. “School Days” treats that archetype like a character that actually matters and has feelings, you know, like a real person. You might not like him, but he is a well written character who has a clear purpose and significance beyond comic relief. The alpha bitch bully is also deconstructed and is given clear motivations for her actions. She hooked up with the protagonist, which defeats the usual purpose of the trope, where the bully only exists to get fucked by karma. It's also interesting how she is overthrown as alpha bitch and her posse fucks Makoto behind her back; this could be considered karma for her bitchiness, but they ended up being even bitchier than her.


While “School Days” is intentionally exaggerated and satirical in some aspects, it’s actually darkly realistic in others. People do avoid ending relationships because it’s too painful for them. People do refuse to take responsibility for getting a girl pregnant. People do fake pregnancy. These are things that happen all the time and to label them as “melodramatic” or “unrealistic” is ridiculous. There are no incurable diseases in school days, no ridiculous coincidences, and no melodrama. Believability is stretched intentionally in several elements (a certain someone sleeping with Makoto to get him to stop cheating) of the story for satirical and deconstructive purposes, but the work remains realistic at its core. It balances satire and realism in the same way that great works like Candide do.

“School Days” is a mixture between a clever deconstruction, a stunning tragedy, a realistic harem, and a somewhat comedic work of satire. The change in tone, foreshadowing, and build up to the incredible resolution were simply masterful. Watching all of the characters relations entropically crumble was a spectacle to behold. The characters and plot may not evoke positive emotions, but they do evoke emotion, as was their purpose, all the same. School Days was ultimately a shocking and memorable multifaceted experience that I enjoyed immensely and appreciated on multiple levels. The mediocre audiovisuals keep me from giving this anime a 9, but 8 is still a very good score. If you go in with an open mind I think you’ll like it or, at the very least, appreciate it for what it is.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Feb 14, 2015

lawlmartz

Mixed Feelings

"I have touched the flower that everyone wants. The feelings for that flower, I have put into words. To hurt this world was not my intention. If there was no one there to question you, would that mean you could do anything?"

Preface:
Well, today is Valentine's Day, so what better series to review than one of the most controversial love stories ever to be put in animated form? That's right, I'm talking School Days, one of the biggest cases of subverted expectations I've seen in recent days.

Overview:

Our story begins with two star crossed lovers, Makoto and Kotonoha (Katsura). Young love is so fragile, and so ... fleeting, and none know this better than our dear characters. Enter Sekai, third party, and friend to both.. What happens next is a rollercoaster of emotion (mostly fury), detachment, lies, betrayal, and sociopathy, right up to the very end, where the story of our Lovers comes full circle. When the truth comes out, Makoto, Kotonoha, and Sekai learn the full ramifications of the consequences they wrought.



Art: 3 (two points for eps 11, 12, one point for the rest of it)

The characters are animated poorly, barring the last two episodes. Inconsistently drawn, poor facial and body animation, TONS of stillframe, key frames are few and far between. While there's not a lot of action, even the mundane slice of life is animated roughly. Uneven drawn edges, lack of faces or animation of faces during speaking, and generally repetitive environments (including a shot of the front of the school that’s used about 352 times an episode). The attention to detail is decent, however. Some of the art is useful in the symbolism, (more on that below) such as the trains and certain details in houses, and the school.
One recurring, and annoying, tendency of the art is when there's a pan and the image is rotated about 80 degrees to one side- rather irritating to have to turn your head to look at it.
The last two episodes are animated extremely well by comparison. Faces show real emotion, character movement and framing are much more purpose driven and subtle (something it was heretofore lacking a lot of, subtlety).


Sound: 4

OP and ED are fine, nothing to report. I started skipping the OP after about episode 4.
Voice acting is decent- not Trinity Seven, but also not absolute garbage. The main character’s voices aren’t particularly grating, but some of the supporting casts’ are.
Soft piano music sets the tone in some dramatic and playful moments, nothing distracting, and nothing really enhancing.


--- Spoilers from here on---


Characters: 5

I wanted to give a point to this category for every character Makoto has meaningless, detached, sociopathic sex with, but decided against it.

Makoto is our MC- selfish, uncaring, and a borderline sociopath- he exists only to indulge his own narcissism, regardless of who he affects or hurts. He seems absolutely callous to the feelings of the girls he comes into contact with, and the effect on their psyche. Incorrigible pervert, pushy, and clueless, he's a self gratifying user, and pure slime of a guy. He has no qualms about cheating on his girlfriend, or the irreversible effects that has on one's relationships, or even those of the future.

Though there are some times where it appears his decisions have some measurable effect on his mental state, he always manages to follow up with something self serving and detestable, but, he's still human, and it shows in his times of weakness. He goes from being the object of many a lady's desire, to being an absolute pariah, and being hated by essentially everyone that he knows.

Kotonoha, the first girlfriend, is a repressed, timid girl who really gets mixed up in all of this. She's honestly the only character in the show I found sympathetic, because she didn't ask for any of what happens to her- to be lied to, betrayed, and repeatedly torn down, despite her headstrong (and later delusional) belief that Makoto is in love with her. She gets absolutely ragged on by every other female character in the show, even though she's the only one ever in the right by claiming to be Makoto's girlfriend. We see this poor girl experience an immense amount of emotional trauma- abuse from her 'friends', mistreatment at the hands of her so called lover, that it's no surprise that by the end of the show, her psychological state is significantly altered. What was once a kind, shy girl was rendered into a soulless husk, devoid of any life aside from her dissociative, misguided obsession over Makoto. The real love that she once felt became nothing but an empty shell. Symbolic, I think.

Sekai, our third 60 degree angle of this love triangle, sets herself up as a jealous and manipulative friend who only acts "in the interest of helping Makoto get what he wants". She uses his perverted nature to get close to him under the guise of helping him with "special practice" to understand girls so that he's able to finally hook up with the girl he's been crushing on. She is driven, and shrewd, and actually seems to genuinely care for Makoto, and ironically is the person who really sets things into motion with the infidelity, and is the origination of the problem though she never sees it that way herself. She, through her own machinations, sets Makoto up with herself, but at the same time plays him off on Kotonoha and triggers the boundary-less relationships that form the crux of the conflict within. The way that she turns on him later, with a classless and utterly selfish attempt to keep Makoto with her smacks of hypocrisy, juxtaposed to her earlier efforts, and reminded me of Makoto himself with the self seeking and ugly way it was presented.
Is she his girlfriend? Are they just friends with benefits? She has a clear answer, but Makoto seems to have different ideas about it.

There are some other girls who make appearances, but side chicks and booty calls weren't important to the character, so I'll ignore them too.



Story and Overall: 6, 6

Had I solely gone on word of mouth, reviews, and the score, I'd have never watched School Days, as I've heard nothing but terrible things about it, aside from the uniquely shocking conclusion, but I feel that "School Days" is a much more complex commentary on relationships and life than many other reviewers on this site, and elsewhere on the internet believe (OOO wow, dissenting opinions on the internet, who'da thunk?)

In my opinion, School Days is a deconstructivist take on the Harem genre. It shows a realist take on the idea of having multiple girlfriends and them all being okay with it, because no-one truly "possesses" the desired person. The idea that jealousy would never take over when someone has something that you long for is a novel one, but one that's ultimately flawed. School Days exhibits that we all possess jealousy and covetousness in some way, and that suspicion, deceit, and betrayal all play into it, RARELY with a favorable outcome.

While this show makes a STRONG case for monogamy and reinforces the ideas that fidelity and trust in relationships are necessary for them to be healthy and functional, I think it also examines the inner being of Makoto. Makoto is a character who doesn't know what he wants out of a relationship. It starts off innocent enough, the hugging and kissing, and quickly falls down a path to more and more pushiness, and an insatiable lust for what seems to just be dispassionate sex addiction. It delves into the psychological aspects of cheating in a relationship, and the every growing mountain of lies and deceit that one has to maintain to keep up the facade; and while Makoto is unable to do so, he sees his web of deception unravel before his eyes.

An ironic note: the name "Makoto" is explained in the beginning of the show to mean Faith.


Symbolism, Foreshadowing and Callbacks:

I thought that School Days did an excellent job with the foreshadowing and symbolism. Having known the ending going into the show (but not who actually commits the act, and the Boat Scene was also unknown to me), I was on the lookout for subtlety, and was pleasantly surprised to find it.

1. The movie theater and stage play scenes were particularly interesting. Within the first 3 episodes, we had the plot play out before our eyes in about 30 seconds, but in a meta way- the two girls in love with the guy, who then fight amongst each other, and decide that neither can have him.
a) Setsuna goes to a stage production, and the dialogue is referential to the conflict at hand. (see opening quote)

2. In episode 6, Kotonoha sees Makoto and Sekai together on a train passing by the station she's standing on. She believes it to be a mistake, and thinks nothing of it. Later, it's Sekai who's at the train station, who believes Makoto to be home, and sees Kotonoha with him on the train.

3. Also in 6, at the moment Kotonoha reaches the rooftop, she drops her roll of blood-red yarn thread, which unravels as it rolls down the stairs. Symbolic, and important.

4. Kotonoha is cooking in her kitchen, and her gaze lingers on the knives for a second.

5. At the end, Makoto is making tea, which, as it comes to a boil (symbolizing his choices and the impending, extreme consequences they bring upon him) burns him.

Enjoyment, and Conclusion: 6

High school is just brutal guys, and the outcome is not always pretty- this is the heart of School Days. What we think is right is sometimes wrong, and even when we know it's wrong, sometimes we don't want to be right. An absolutely shocking and brutal conclusion to an otherwise wretched slice of life/ harem show left me speechless. It was a struggle to get through the first 7 episodes, but from 8 to the conclusion were a dark, tragic, and ultimately deserving series of events. Even as I write this, I have no words for the ending of this show, other than that I will not forget it.

Now, for the question that's so hotly contested: is School Days the worst anime ever?
No, but it depends on the viewer. There's a lot to hate about School Days, but if you have a taste for the psychological, and can stomach the first half, which is pretty painful and rage inducing to watch, it sets up a second half that gets deep into interpersonal relationship conflicts, and what extremes people can go to when they're irrational, because love... is irrational. The conclusion to this show was one that was remarkable at the time, and will be discussed from now on. A pioneer in the genre (yandere) as well- so it has some value in that.

tl;dr:
+ justice is served in a twisted way
+ gets better past the halfway mark
+ dark, surprising conclusion

- detestable characters
- side characters fall in love with main character for no reason
- garbage SOL plot *up through episode 7
- terrible dialogue at times
- bad animation


Nothing says love like a journey with a beautiful girl on a yacht, floating off into the sunset--

and then they were finally alone, "just the two of them".

Happy Valentine's Day.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jan 22, 2014

CherryLemonLime

Not Recommended

Characters - The characters are ALL, ALL devoid of ANY logic. It is VERY clear that this anime started out as a visual novel. The characters are absolutely ridiculous. Almost nothing that they do makes sense. There is one character that you will feel empathy for, but only for a couple episodes. Very quickly this character turn into complete trash like the rest. Apparently every single girl in this show is insanely stupid. Girls in this show are portrayed to be walking sex dolls with JUST enough brain power to give consent to sex. The ONE THING that I will give to this show about ... the characters is that the girl cliques seemed pretty accurate, barring the random "herp derp, you know our best friend who we've been helping to get that guy that we've never talked to or met before? Let's all 3 of us go have a foursome and bang him". Cheating is as common as breathing air in this story. Doesn't matter that you've went through half of the girls in your school, your only consequence will be hearing the phrase, "Are you cheating on me? Promise me you won't do it again!" x 100. Here's my favorite bits of "logic" from this show:

I want you to stop cheating on my best friend! If you promise me you will, I'll let you cheat on her with me!

I came here to talk you into talking to your girlfriend, but hey, let's bang.

Story - "Love triangle" is putting it lightly. It's a love pyramid, with one guy at the top and his harem of women at the bottom. If I was reviewing some hentai visual novel, it'd make sense, but it doesn't fit well at all in this format. The story is literally a joke, and the person laughing is the writer, thinking to himself, "I can't believe people actually liked this". The ending of this show is so obvious, you'll see it coming way before it happens. What happens to the characters at the end would give you slight satisfaction if watched immediately after the first few episodes. However, by the time you actually see the end, it's too late to derive any enjoyment and wash away the horrible taste that this show has left in your mouth.

Comedy - You'll get a couple chuckles during the series. Although not enough to warrant watching it all. Most of the episodes in the second half are almost completely devoid of it. Sadly, the few laughs I had convinced me to continue watching the series. Big mistake.

Music - Can't really complain about the music. Nothing great, but nothing bad either.


1/10. Of all the manga I've read, anime I've seen, and visual novels I've played, I've NEVER thought of one so bad as to rate it 1/10, so you can imagine how it must be for me to rate it that. Save your time. You've been in non-existence for nearly 14 billion years. This is your once chance to fucking LIVE. Don't waste 4 hours on this pile of nonsense.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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