School Days

"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.

You ever cut your eyes out with a butter knife? Well, you will know the experience once you watch School Days. I was on the verge of just staying in my room for a couple days and not even feeding myself. Yes, this anime was THAT bad. Now by bad, I mean something other than the traditional "shitty" or "garbage" most people are familiar with. I mean, it's just so god awful that it left a sour taste in my mouth. I will expand more on this feeling and provide you with a somewhat accurate portaryal of this steaming piece of doodoo.

Story:
The story is very ... simple to begin with, but then become very "unwatchable". It follows the school life of some guy (I don't give a flying ass about his name) and his relationship with two girls. There is a loudmouthed overspoken girl, Sekai, and the shy, quiet girl, Kotonoha. The guy originally liked Kotonoha but then like most guys, he becomes sex deprived from this shy girl and decides to screw the other girl for "practice". Blah blah blah, a few boring sex scenes later, a problem arises. This loser guy is now a horndog with no consideration for women's feelings. I'm not gonna ruin this marvelous (bullshit) ending for you, but it is very, um, intriguing. (You ever hear of the famous boat scene? Yeah, there's a reason why it's so popular.)

Art:
The art was ok to look at. It wasn't outstanding or new, it had the art most animes follow nowadays. There wasn't much physical action or movement in this anime, save the ending, so it was near impossible for the animation to fail. The art was probably the only thing I didn't puke at in this anime.

Sound:
The BGM felt very monotonous and I skipped the ending and opening so I don't have a deep opinion here. However, I must say the music during the final scenes were quite nice. It really let the series climax. (haha climax. Get it? I used a sexual joke for a sexual anime!)

Characters:
Fuck you. No, not you. Fuck the characters. If I could meet the characters in real life, I would murder each one for the sake of my own sanity. Well, the guy's friend was kind of funny. He was horny too, but he didn't go overboard and he provided some comic relief. Anyway, back to my thoughts for the main characters. I would chop off the main guy's weiner for his overhorniness and complete disregard for women's emotions. I would stab Sekai with a trench knife for her overall attitude and lies. Then for Kotonoha, I would give her a cookie filled with cyanide and my dog's diarhhea dump. I will NOT describe these characters any further. Let me warn you. You will hate these characters so much, that you will end up hating yourself. Oooh philosophical. School Days suck sweaty asshole, Confucius say.

Enjoyment:
*Snicker*

Contrary to my review, go ahead and watch this series. Cmon, you know you want to. I ended up watching this anime through peer pressure, and even though I wanted to cut myself, it did teach me some valuable lessons about womanizers and pimps. It's worth a watch, even though you will hate me and yourself for it. I don't think you can really say you watched "everything" until you watched an amazing frustrating anime like School Days. Go watch it please.

Cheers, you poor bastards.

Orright me mates!! This here is a classic anime me mates a classic deconstruction of the harem genre!!! It's a deconstruction because the main bloke bloody well shags all the fit anime birds doesn't he??? I'm telling you me mates you'll get a shock watching this!! I was eating me dinner when I watched it and I nearly spilled gravy all over me trousers!!!

This bloke Makoto is a complete bantersaurus a true lad!! First off I think he's just another chinese cartoon wussy boy with a limp willy but then he really turns it all around!!! He's into this bird right named Kotonoha more like ... Kotitnoha right me mates haha!! This is the kind of bird we like to pull if you know what I mean great honking tits and everything!! But she's got some weirdo complex and she's right scared of willies so what does our proper lad Makoto do when she gets all frigid?? Goes right for her friend Sekai!! Good on you Makoto!!

Soon word gets around and all the birds in the school want a bit of Makoto so what does he do?? Well he bloody well shags them doesn't he?? Even the skinny bint with no breasts at all!! Haha the absolute madman!!!!

Sekai can't handle the banter so she uses all kinds of tricks to get Makoto to stay!! She even says she's pregnant what a typical woman!!! Makoto's tired of her whinging so what does he do?? Well he's shagged all the rest of them so he goes back to Kotonoha because he still hasn't given her a bit of the old Makoto meat!! Absolutely bloody brilliant!!!

Well Sekai wasn't having any of that and she right well gave him a piece of her mind in the end too!! Oops me mates I don't want to spoil anything but what a SHOCKER!!! Well with a lad like Makoto he was always going to end up in trouble with the birds wasn't he??? I'm telling you me mates you have got to watch School Days!!!

OMFG I just can't believe that I've ever recommended this thing to someone.
It started fine, as a love triangle anime, something like Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, but the more I saw the more I hated it. In fact, its a shame to Kimi ga Nozomu Eien to to be included in the same post with School Days.

The story, at first, was fine. Like I've said before, a love triangle with a pathetic male, shy girl and a hyper girl. But the more I saw, the less it could be called >triangle<. The creators wanted to make it complicated, but in the end it turned out ... to be pathetic.

The animation is the only good thing about this anime. the animation and the sound. In fact, I like the art-style here. ;;XD
There were some little problems sometimes, but overall it was good.


The sound is another thing that was good. In fact, I cant stop listening to one of the ending songs. ^^"


Character. The characters, all of them, are just the worst. Every single one of them is so pathetic that I cant bear it. In they're place, if was in the same situation, I would die rather than being so pathetic. ._.
And if they are pathetic, Makoto is the most pathetic, annoying and disgusting character that I've ever seen. He's just a sex machine, and thats all he cares about - sex. If someone will kill him, I will add himher in my fav list. '-'

Enjoyment~ hmm. Well, a least its not boring and you'll never expect what is coming next. BUT, the Characters are more annoying in every episode, so every time I watching an episode, I'm in a bad mood for a couple of hours after that.

Overall - well, its not recommended for someone like me. like I said before, it started fine, there was even a time when I actually liked it. If Makoto was less sex addicted and pathetic, and the love triangle was just a >triangle<, It could have been a lot better.

this review is based on:
11 episodes of the anime seen
Episodes 1-11 of Japanese w/ English Subtitles
This review contains mucho spoilers in the 'story' section. But other then that, everything should be mild-spoilers.
Please keep in mind this review is meant for people who have seen the anime.

My notes & Opinion on this anime
[This portion is meant for people who don't want to read the whole review.]

I was going to write this review when I finished the series, but honest to god, I don't think one episode is going to change my opinion about this anime.
...
If you're looking for a deep, love love, romantic, tear-jerker anime, then please cancel that batch download of School Days immediately and take this anime off your plan-to- watch list. You won't be impressed by School Days. It wasn't very well thought out, it seemed like the creators were trying a little too hard to make this a complex love story. Even if you're an ecchi, h-game fan you will find this anime to be pretty pathetic. That's all I have to say.

This anime is something I don't recommend, but it's all your choice whether you'd like to watch it or not.

Story
Ok. So I thought this would be just a regular cliche high school love story. It seemed a little immature of Makoto to fall in love with Kotonoha at first sight, but you know, that's how most relationships in anime start. Didn't impress me, I was hoping it'd get better. That's when Sekai came in and a little love-triangle started. I actually thought Sekai and Makoto would end up together in the first place, and some how live happily ever after. Think it'd stop there? Ahaha. I wish it did.

Then the anime just gets pretty irritating. I thought it'd stop at Sekai, but it doesn't. Setsuna kicks in and decides to have sex with him, kinda almost outta nowhere. I wouldn't let a guy violate me for the sake of my friend. Setsuna's interest in Makoto was hinted, but going so far as to sexual relationships is not what I was thinking. Think it'd stop there? Apparently not. Otome comes out of the blue and decides to go at it with Makoto. Think it ends there? Nope. He decides to have a little fun with Hikari as well. This is just high school people. Very unrealistic. Most anime is unrealistic, but come on people. It was a really poor attempt at some kind of sex in the city anime, but worse. In the end, you just find all the characters really annoying, even the ones you liked from the beginning.

Art
Actually, the reason I decided to watch this anime was purely the art style. I had some pictures from the game back in 2005 and thought it looked so pretty. 2 years later, I find the anime and thought it'd be nice to watch because of the art style. I think the only good part of this anime is that you'll want to go out and save pictures and scans from this anime because the style is so pretty. But I think it's another one of those Anime where they put so much detail into the girls, and the guy doesn't look the least bit attractive.

Character
Aah. Where do I start with the characters? I think the good points. The creators did a good job as far as characters and their reactions. All the characters reacted to such situations as any other human would, so that's a plus. It wasn't too over done where you see the characters wanting to commit suicide, and it wasn't too little of emotions shown.

The bad part is that you think all the characters are idiots.
For the most part, it seems that all the characters fall in love with each other at first sight. Even with Sekai. She knew how much of an idiot Makoto is, the way he treated Kotonoha, yet she still is blinded by love and wants to be with him. Some how, I just don't get that. It makes her look dumb when she loses her innocence to him, and that's not what an audience wants to see.
You also find Kotonoha to be annoying because she's trying a little to hard to be with Makoto. She's pretty damn persistent.
And oh. my. god. Makoto. I don't know. Doesn't he have ANY sense of moral values what-so-ever? I mean, I love dense characters in most anime, but this guy is just terrible. Absolutly terrible. He disregards all feelings of other girls and just wants some. Reading a book for girl advice? Come on. Asking another girl for girl advice? Now that's going too far. Dumping your girlfriend to go for the girl who gives you the girl advice? I don't even know where to begin with how idiotic that is. Most guys in high school are a bit more mature than that.

The other characters... I feel like they're just there for the sake of being there. Even though Setsuna claims to have a close relationship with Sekai, you just don't see it. Even though Otome claims to have liked Makoto back in the day, you just don't see it. And I don't know about Hikari, but it was kind of all just out of the blue for me...


Ending Statements
I obviously did not enjoy this anime. But hey, there's only one episode left and I never have to see anything from this anime again. Hey. This anime is ok if you honest to god have NOTHING else to do and no other anime to watch, but believe me, you won't really get much from this anime. Nothing deep, but a little TOO serious for something in high school. None of the relationships, nor the characters, have realistic feelings, especially on Makoto. This anime is something I don't recommend, but it's your choice whether you'd like to watch it or not.

Now on to the review of what I should call "an extremly overhyped series." Though it is somehow a popular series for its genre, it just didn't appeal to me.


Story: Is it really an outstanding story? Well I can say that it is outstanding for being a mediocre romance story. Even if romance is not the key for this anime, I have a need to critic what is bad, and this is no exception. The so called romance in school days lacked in its true value of what romance should really mean. What starts as a simple boy loves girls actually turns out to be ... a big fat pool of sexualisation and lust. I'm not actually surprised, since it is actually based on a eroge game. The REAL story actually starts on the second half of the show. Yes indeed, the first half was literally bullshit in the development. For the second half, the big pool I talked about is still there, but instead going for the better, the story debut its journey into a downward spiral which lead to the so called "Amazing ending".

Characters: All I have to say is that Makoto is probably the dumbest character ever made in anime histories. Am I over the board with my statement? I am not and I'm sure a lots of you would agree with me. I just couldn't find any values for him. As for the defaults that he has, he's selfish, stupid, have no heart and he's a big fat asshole. He's not the only asshole of the story, in fact most of the characters are, but he's still the biggest of them all. As for the female characters, which represents 95% of the population in this show, all have one similar point. They can't control their lust. Every girls in this show(no exception) are portrait as easy girls and sluts. Which is rather disapointing. The psychology made no sense either. You can't just stop loving a girl just like that to love another one. It's actually nonsense, but for Makoto, it happens on a daily basis.

Art: Not much to say about it. Character art was fairly generic, as for the backgrounds nothing outstanding, but nothing mediocre.

Sound:Didn't really like the opening and ending, though they smartly use a suspense feeling to some of the scenes.

Enjoyment: Though the first episodes were not so good, the last ones are what actually makes the show "enjoyable". Emotionally disturbed, Kotonoha is probably the character which made the show enjoyable. I would compare her to Carrie(Stephen King Novel). As for the ending, you would probably expect that since it's the only reason to watch this show.

Overall: I'm giving it a 5/10. It was enjoyable at some points, but the series still lacked in many aspects(characters for example). As for the moral, I'll just quote something from the song Billie Jean:

"People Always Told Me Be Careful Of What You Do
And Don't Go Around Breaking Young Girls' Hearts"

Enjoy!

When an anime has a high level of drama like School Days, it is best to keep it serious. This mixture of intense drama and comedy is not compatible. The forced humor is obvious, especially in the first 2-3 episodes. It is mostly due to the sorry excuse for a harem male character. Some scenes may be so ridiculous that they're laughable anyway. Indeed, School Days delivered the brutality of high school life well, and the scenes are likely to draw anger or sympathy from the viewer. Creators had the right idea for a love triangle, but it was not executed properly.

Story (5)

High school involves ... your typical drama (betrayal, bullying, heartbreak, psychological trauma, etc.). School Days does a good job at focusing on these themes. It is thanks to the characters’ heartfelt emotions that is likely to spark certain reactions from the viewer. It began on a good level with the introduction of a love triangle. It was more easygoing just following the three MCs, but later came the downfalls and the quickened pace.

The first two episodes, along with the anime’s OP, spoils the anime beforehand by revealing nearly the entirety of what’s to come. Some characters’ connected pasts were not revealed, leaving only the viewer’s imagination with dialogue. Everything is rushed in the final three episodes with complex subplots that are left slightly unfinished. Well, the ending destroyed all hope of furthering those subplots anyway. The way the show ended was completely unnecessary and quickly turns away from the anime’s theme. It seems like the creators ran out of ideas and picked the most shocking, frightening way to say “The End.”

Characters (6)

Characters contributed to the dramatic theme, even if they highly lacked in character development. Mature high school harems are likely to involve a selfish playboy who cares only about fulfilling his sexual desires, but School Days has the most emasculate harem male character. From the start, Makoto was always clumsy and embarrassing himself at every turn. He is constantly indecisive with either someone always speaking for him or being hesitant and irresponsible for his actions. Therefore, none of the events resulted from his own actions, and he only changed later when he reached a dead end.

Sekai and Kotonoha both remain clueless and hopelessly in love with Makoto. They never develop on a positive note by moving on or anything comparable. Despite having feelings for Makoto, Sekai spent the beginning of the series playing Cupid and a love counselor for Makoto and Kotonoha. Then she basically spends the remainder of the series confusing Makoto’s lust for love. Kotonoha is a shy girl who sadly catches hell from nearly everyone, and it begins to take a toll on her psychologically. Her emotions triggered darkness and despair. Since the anime revolves around a love triangle, I didn't expect much from Sekai and Kotonoha.

Some of the supporting characters were there to intensify the drama, especially Kotonoha’s bullies. I disliked how those characters are given decent airtime at the last minute. The rushed ending immediately takes away all hope of learning more about them or their connections with the three MCs.

Art (7) / Sound (8)

Character design is the basic big and bright-eyed characters with slim bodies, but it draws attention to one or two characters with smaller eyes and different facial structures. Also, Makoto’s face is noticeably chubby compared to the others. The camera continually concentrated on femininity, stressing the perverted thoughts of Makoto. The colors are dark and kind of bland, giving off a depressing feeling. The backgrounds were well-designed.

The sound effects were superb, and the OP and EDs suited the anime’s atmosphere. I see the OP (“Innocent Blue” by DeviceHigh) as displaying the hopeful feelings for Sekai and Kotonoha’s chances with Makoto. Sample of the lyrics: “Even if it takes a detour, I want these feelings to go straight to you.” Because of OP’s tune, it’s easy to tell that School Days is based off a game. There are 8 EDs in all, and I didn’t like the constant changes for every episode, but they admittedly suited the mood shifts of the anime. Apart from that, the background music matched the moods perfectly within the anime. The seiyuu portrayed the voices of the characters very well, while ensuring that the display of personalities are genuine.

Enjoyment (6) / Overall (5)

School Days is definitely unforgettable, because it’s rare to see a shockingly unforeseen ending like that one. There are other drama anime like Rumbling Hearts and White Album 2 that easily surpass School Days, and I definitely don’t plan to re-watch School Days again. It’s entertaining with the drama and the characters’ genuine emotions, but Makoto can be unbearably annoying. As a result, I laughed most of the time, but I sympathized with Kotonoha the most. It’s likely that none of these characters are likeable, because there is no development. They all remain the same and became worse as the series continues. Overall, School Days had a good motive, but it was far from reaching its goal.

Back when I was younger, I believed that if a movie or a television series or a game didn't end happily, then it wasn't worth getting involved with. However, as I matured, I realized that there are titles that can be just as fulfilling to watch as the feel-good ones that choose to end in a cheery manner. This may be due to a "change of pace," or something that intrigues me or others simply because it is different from what I or they are originally accustomed to. If one is to truly appreciate what they've come to enjoy, would they rather bask in that ... topic forever? Or perhaps explore other topics in order to see what would meet their interests the most? While opinions will always differ, one thing is certain: human beings aren't play things. Emotions are what make a person who they are and constitute to what they believe in. But in some cases, these emotions can turn on oneself, if manipulated by an outside source.

Referring back to my opening statement, the decision to remain faithful is an important part of what School Days means to convey. School Days is an anime about high school, which is nothing short of truly original. However, School Days doesn't follow the typical make up of what school-oriented romantic comedies tend to abide by. Instead, it decides to turn the best possible scenario into the worst possible scenario through the enflamed emotions of students in heat. A single action can have major implications for events to come.

School Days takes place in an unnamed rural town and is normally shown from typical settings in school themed anime. The train station, the classroom, the characters' homes; places of that nature. It begins with our hero, Makoto, as he narrates about how he's "taken an interest" in a quiet girl who rides the train with him everyday on his way to school. This quiet girl turns out to be Kotonoha, a fellow student of his school and an all-around gentle person. He proceeds to take a picture of this girl, while never speaking a word to her, because of an in-school rumor stating that if you take a picture of a someone you like on your cell phone and keep it a secret from everyone you know for a pre-determined time, you'll eventually get together. It's this action alone that shows that School Days began with what many would assume to be another typical high school romance. Unfortunately for Makoto, his myth is ruined when a female classmate named Sekai barges over and catches him gazing over the picture of Kotonoha on his phone. His luck turns when Sekai offers to help him get together with Kotonoha for absolutely no reason. Her efforts are successful and the two eventually get together, but at a cost.

A lot of the unprecedented attention towards this anime comes from the decisions Makoto makes throughout the entirety of the anime. After getting together with Kotonoha, he begins to behave differently from the all-too-familiar submissive main male lead that the anime industry has turned into a cultural norm. To this, I would suggest is because of experimentation. As any experienced anime viewer would know, not many anime titles feature a main male lead who has enough bravado to chase after his physical desires. While they may fantasize about it, fantasy and reality are two completely different experiences. The trouble with this is that Makoto becomes unlikable and unrelatable to those who choose to watch the anime. And because of this, the overall enjoyment of viewing this anime is likely to turn for the worst. One can only applaud the decision to take the road less traveled.

While Makoto is seen in a negative light, Kotonoha has a similarly opposite effect. The viewer genuinely feels bad for her, knowing that she doesn't have the will to stand up for herself while at the same time she's kind (or naive) enough to forgive Makoto for his actions. Not only this, but she's later bullied by virtually everybody in the series through strings and misunderstandings about her relationship with Makoto that even she makes decisions she regrets. Kotonoha is the perfect sob story, while Makoto is the perfect villain. Everyone's roles are established and they perform them well, if only for an instant.

In regards to the minor characters, they take part in the story by either making Kotonoha look better or Makoto look worse. It's almost pitiful to see some characters disappear for a few episodes, only to have them return for a couple minutes in order to relegate themselves for the sake of the plot. What's more disappointing is that some of the minor characters had potential to become something more than background space, but are usually disregarded halfway through the series for the sake of the main characters' reputations. School Days also likes to give off the impression that gossip travels fast around a student body. Whether this be true or not, it served the plot well, both realistically and half-heartedly. The absence of adults in this series is also a subject of this series' lack of realism, but it's minor compared to others aspects of the anime.

The animation for School Days actually impressed me. For an anime airing in 2007, I could have sworn it was made by the turn of the new decade. The character designs are nice to look at, while at the same time standing out from the dull background. What this could imply is that the importance of the series is based on the characters and not their surroundings. As long as nothing slips outside the realm of School Days' logic, nothing is at risk of being criticized. Nothing looked out of place and the expressions were as gut-wrenching as the drama within. Other than the unnecessary fan service outside of the hot and heavy scenes, I have no complaints about the style of animation. Just a nice looking moving picture.

To say I didn't enjoy watching this series would be less of an understatement and more like a joke. Words like horrifying, disgusting, revolting, vile, gross or repulsive don't even compare to the feeling deep within the pit of my stomach as I watched the second half of this series. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, it did. Just when I thought the characters wouldn't act any more irrational, they did. This title takes the expectations of a light-hearted, romantic drama and beats it into the ground. The characters' actions are worthy of controversy. Their mindsets could be compared to an unstable dam, withering away at the amount of sheer force with which the waves of reality strike them. The ending sums up the worst possible scenario and makes it a reality, taking any likability away from each character in the series, whether it be because they weren't developed enough or their final decisions proved disappointing. This is not a happy anime. But then again, it's not supposed to be.

If there is an anime that is considered "the douchiest anime ever made", then School Days is the one you're looking for. Infact, i was surprised that this wasn't produced or sponsored by MTV, since it looks like an anime that could have been made by the producers of My Super Sweet 16, Teen Mom, the US remake of Skins and Jersey Shore. Hell, if i were an MTV executive who wants to make an anime in Japan, School Days would be it.

Before i go further, let me tell you abut one man named Tucker Max. He was an Ivy League graduate of Duke ... University and around 2007 (The same year School Days was aired), he published a book called "I Hope They Served Beer in Hell" which tells of Tucker's harem tales of all the chicks he fucked.

Now, if you adapt "I Hope They Served Beer in Hell" into a harem anime with a twist ending, then you basically got an entire series of School Days. That's pretty much it.

The original visual novel was good, but this is not. And it's not even bad. It's just shocking, and it's not even that shocking. The only way to describe this anime is that it's the biggest middle finger ever pointed at the viewer. Seriously, this anime is made just to piss you off, and it did a great job at that. The visual novel is basically another take on the harem genre, and this was made to piss off not only anime fans, but also fans of the original visual novel.

Now the story is basically about a clueless idiot named Makoto who fell in love with a shy girl in school named Katsura. Makoto's classmate Sekai wants to help him get Katsura as his girlfriend, but in the process she fell in love with him. And then, a love triangle occurs which turns into a hexagonal bullshit harem between Makoto and almost every female character in this series which ends up as a display of really nice boats.

That's the story. Once you finished this series you'll start thinking "WTF did i just watch?" It's simple as that.

Speaking of WTF, let's talk about the characters. Seriously, this anime has the worst characters ever. The guys are douchebags and the girls are sluts. Makoto starts off as a clueless generic harem lead, but by the end of the series he becomes a dick-waving asshole that he even makes The Situation from Jersey Shore look good. And every character in this series wants Makoto's dick. Hell, they even turn the only sane character Nanami into a slut despite not wanting Makoto. And i fucking despise Sekai. Seriously, it's her fault for making moves on Makoto in the first place. Hell, she's the reason why Makoto became a douche and why everyone (including herself and Katsura) ended up being shit. She's a horrible woman and she is as bad as Makoto. Hell, Makoto and Sekai deserve each other instead of Katsura.

But the one thing that kept me from dropping this anime is the visuals, the direction and the sound. I mean, this was disturbingly well-directed and animated. Hell, this was directed by the guy who went on to make Katanagatari. But again, shock value must be well-presented. I mean, A Serbian Film was horrifying but it was still well-directed. And this was well animated for a studio that does primarily low-rate anime and hentai OVAs.

And then, there's the sound. The seiyuus are pretty good and Daisuke Hirakawa does a great job with Makoto. You also get side-character roles by the likes of A-listers like Chiaki Takahashi and Minami Kuribayashi, but the rest are mostly rookies and c-list seiyuus. And the music is very good. You get OPs and EDs sung by really famous singers like Kanako Itu, Haruko Momoi and others. It's a strong point for this series and the songs done by them fits well with the episodes of this series.

But sadly good visuals, direction and sound does not justify the douchiness of this anime. In the end of the day, you feel like you're gonna need a drink just to forget that you saw this.

So should you watch this? Well, i suggest you should try and watch it on a date. Have a 6-hour marathon of this pissfest with your girlfriend with lots of beer and pretzels. See how that goes

But the only other good thing is that this anime has a really nice depiction of boats. They're so nice, that i even signed up for a membership at a prestigious boat club in Monaco, and now i'm hanging out with ousted dictators, Victoria's Secret models, arms dealers, Republican congressmen and billionaires. So thank you School Days for getting me into boating. You get a credit for that.

School Days teaches a lesson we should all learn: people aren’t toys, so don’t play with their emotions. The person might just end up breaking.

And after you watch School Days, this will be a lesson you'll never forget.

Itou Makoto has a crush on the shy Katsura Kotonoha, but he doesn’t even have the courage to speak to her. When his classmate Saionji Sekai finds out, she offers/forces Makoto to let her help them get together. Sekai eventually succeeds, and when Makoto asks how he could ever repay her, she kisses him, saying that’s enough. Sekai runs onto the train when it arrives, leaving a stunned ... Makoto wondering what in the world just happened. Does Sekai have feelings for him? And could he actually have feelings for her, too?

School Days starts off as a cute little love triangle, but things quickly turn sour as the show progresses. With great animation, music, voice acting, characters and plot, School Days is quite an interesting experience.

In most anime that have love triangles, you can easily guess who the main character will end up with. However, in this anime you can never quite tell.

In most anime that have love triangles, whoever didn’t end up with the main character might be disappointed, but they know that their broken heart will heal over time. But that doesn’t always happen. And School Days shows just that.

I don't think I've enjoyed hating an anime so much. I'll just get on with the review.

Story - 5
Pretty straightforward story. A dude gets a girlfriend, doesn't get why she doesn't spread 'em the second he wants her to and goes off to look for some fun from his friend who is doing her best to help him progress in his relationship. This leads to him craving the V like there's no tomorrow and several um... interesting situations arise from this.
Then comes the end.

Art & Sound - 8
the Art was watchable for me. I probably would've rated it a 10 because I don't know enough ... about art to judge except for the fact the little blood in this was black. The same goes for Sound. I don't really have much opinion either way. The soundtrack wasn't horrible by any means.

Character - 10
I give this a 10 because the creators did a bang up job of creating the worst examples of human beings possible. I'll sum it up, pretty simply.
The Main : Innocent enough until he gets some action between the sheets. Then all his morals fly out the window. He becomes the biggest arsehole in history. You might agree, you might not but to me he is the worst possible case of a teenage guy. If you think your boyfriend is being a dick, watch this. Seriously.
The Shy one: Can't say I blame her, her personality doesn't hold up well to the emotional and psychological battering she receives throughout the course of this anime. In the end........ well demented doesn't quite cover it.
The Lively one: On the face of it, she'd be the faraway lover of the main who sacrifices everything for his happiness. Not here. She becomes the unbelievably selfish attention whore who gets her heart repeatedly stamped on but still doesn't get the message.

Enjoyment - 3
You can't enjoy this anime unless you're the sick and twisted individual who get their kicks from watching torture, for want of a better word. However the anime is definitely an interesting watch.

Overall - 6
The characters carry this anime for me. I'm not sure any set of characters will ever be hated more than these but they make for an entertaining watch, for all the wrong reasons. If you don't get too attached to what you're watching and want to see what the worst case scenario of a teenager with next to no resistance to sex is, voila! School Days is your thing

I feel it's time to lay down some truths about School Days. This delightful little anomaly has managed to become infamous, a universally-reviled attempt at adapting a visual novel that is always either condemned as the worst shit ever to grace the screens of viewers or ironically upheld as a cult classic, mockingly praised for being utterly unique.

In some ways, I'd agree. In others... Not so much.

The truth of the matter is, School Days is actually a fairly inspired, creative and even necessary show. It's also pretty intelligent. It's also horrendously terrible. This review is going to have two halves: first, I'm going to explain ... the constantly overlooked importance of School Days, and then I'm going to describe my reaction to actually watching the damn thing. Let's go.

To begin, I'd like to take a moment to talk about harems. Before I got into anime, the concept of a harem was about as outlandish as something like anarchy or cannibalism. A pack of women attached to a single man sounded like something reserved for old-world tyrants or a Spinal Tap album cover. Its almost certainly going to be a toxic, manipulative, dehumanizing experience and anyone who stands in the center and pulls the strings in such a situation is pretty much a textbook villain. Right? Well, turns out, anime found a different way to portray this vile concept, over and over again: a single, heightened immaculate male protagonist who is 1. totally oblivious, and 2. too goddamn nice for his own good, who therefore ends up in a situation where large numbers of females constantly fawn over him and attempt to seduce him while he manages to remain in a perpetual state of ignorance and inaction. Apparently, people like this. It makes them feel important or powerful or magnificent as they step into the shoes of this completely unrealistic dude and get a taste of what it feels like to be simultaneously morally righteous and universally adored. The formula sometimes gets shaken up a bit, sure, like in Steins;Gate, and there are even times where even though its textbook harem I can survive it because it's not the focus of the show, like Bakemonogatari. But the fact of the matter is, I can't think of a single instance where the presence of a harem has ever done anything to improve the investment, creativity, or values of a show. The fact of the matter is, it's a pretty twisted scenario. It's a result of a selfish and manipulative person messing with the insecurities and emotions of a number of other people. Every once in a while we get a show like "The World God Only Knows" which jabs at the lucrative nature of this far-too common story element, but only once did we get something that truly attacked it with all of its might.

Only once did we get School Days.

For all the hate he gets, Makoto Itou is in many ways a more believable character than many of his far more popular counterparts, like Kirito or the beloved Onii-sama. He's a high-school boy who finds himself in a position where a bunch of girls want him at once and he starts fucking as many as he can because he's a sick, borderline-sociopathic spawn of satan. His harem is believable: he leads all of the girls on by showing them attention and compassion whilst simultaneously destroying them because they all know that they aren't anything special to him. He's just a horny womanizer who has no understanding of his emotions and wants to get with people. But YEAH, see, THAT'S HOW HAREMS WORK IN THE REAL WORLD. Unless you live on a commune, if you want to remain the ever-present center of sexual attention in a group of competing girls, you have to be a pretty selfish fucked-up bastard! And if you take part in said circle, it's probably either because you're extremely emotionally insecure and crave compassion of any kind, or because you see this as a good opportunity to get some (for several of the characters in School Days, this is indeed the case.) School Days absolutely despises harems, it hates the genre, it hates the people who feed and support the genre, and it wants to tear back the veil and show people just what it is that they're laughing and blushing over: a disgusting sack of shit. It is the front-runner in the line of attack and an absolutely necessary approach to take if there is to be any hope in ending this idiotic fad.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned, this review has two parts.

The positive terms I have so far used to describe School Days are things like 'inspired' 'innovative' and 'necessary'. Notice how I have not once referred to it as 'good'.

This show has some of the worst execution I have ever seen on anything, ever.
It can't hope to ever possibly get its point across. No one is ever going to have the slightest desire to listen to anything that this show has to say, because goddamn Mars of Destruction was directed better than this. I absolutely hated watching this show. It wasn't because I thought that the ideas were bad, it's because how they were presented made it feel like the people behind it had gotten all their knowledge of film from infomercials. I'm pretty sure the artists for this show had about two colors in their palette: grey, and more grey. The character designs are utterly uninspired, to the point where it's difficult to even tell them apart. The animation could be aptly described as "there is none", the soundtrack at its best sounds like it's from a bad sitcom, and those aren't even the biggest issues, not by far. The writing is offensively bad: it reminded me of watching "Maisy" when I was six years old, except those voice actors seemed to grasp the concept of basic emotions like happy and sad rather than sounding like the pre-recorded features of voicemail. I can't even recall a single goddamn line from the show: it's like what happened was beamed directly into my brain so that my mind could forget the terror of the experience of actually watching it. The characters themselves exist for only one of three purposes: 1. to fuck, 2. to be fucked... Wait, did I say three? Whoops. They don't exist as people whatsoever outside of that, which is simply awful character writing as it is difficult for me to empathize with a character whose entire existence can be summarized with the phrase "pork bucket". The pacing reminded me of when I used to play with slinkies and they would get all tangled up and I would just say 'fuck it' and hide them under the bed. This, if anything, did the most damage to the show: watching 11 episodes of pointless womanizing is going to make anyone irrevocably hate what they're watching before they even finish the damn thing, making the point moot. It falls on deaf ears. In the end, that's really the show's undoing: it falls on deaf ears because it's so utterly incompetent at what it does.

While I detested each and every moment of watching this show, I still find myself pleading that we get more shows like it. Sure, it probably couldn't been a worse version of itself, but at least it was A version of itself, as opposed to being another fucking Clannad or Sword Art Online. The harem genre is idiotic, it exists only to appease a shallow and lifeless fan-base, and it needs to go. I don't want to see any more of it. If what that takes is a few more shows like School Days to come in and absolutely brutalize it, then I will accept them with opens arms. The fact of the matter is this, though: if the show isn't executed well, no one's going to care. So please, let's have this concept not be produced by the same people next time?

~ Makoto: I'm the worst ~
The most accurate quote in the entire show
[TL;DR Below]

An example of great artistic intent - that isn't fully supported by technical merit.
It's probably the most infuriating show I've come across. But this aspect in itself does NOT rub off negatively on the quality. To summarize: It is a dark and powerful production oriented about deception, desperation, love and betrayal. Make no mistake: it seems to hide behind an uninspiring "Slice of Life/Romance" facade to begin with; but soon you'll start to see its true colours (about at the halfway mark).

School days is a frighteningly effective and manipulative anime that will ... destroy everything you've come to know of conventional "protagonists". Now there are reasons as i'll come to discuss why School Days isn't the best in some areas, but it GENUINELY BAFFLES ME why so many people DO NOT UNDERSTAND that passionate feelings of "hatred" and "I can't comprehend X character's stupidity" are not demerits. Is it not obvious that If a show can invoke such feelings in the viewer and cause such a stir, that it has SUCCEEDED at being a psychological anime?!

If you're still unsure of what a "Psycho-Manipulative" production entails, It basically means that it breaks the "4th Wall". An example could be an extremely emotional anime that makes you cry.

Now that's out of the way, onto the analysis...

School days plunges you into a highly unoriginal and predictable school setting. There's no unique selling point to the premise alone, so i'll keep it brief. It's an appropriately "ordinary" setting that enhances the realism of
the real-world drama to come - But is difficult to credit in this area.
Wait! Don't Go! There's more...

While slow to begin with, School Days is an impactful story of lust and deception; a crescendo of unforeseen misery. Its fraught with passion on one end, and ignorance on the other. To begin with, it may deceivingly appear to be a "boy sees girl" tale of bland romance, but it is FAR from that.
"Okay", "How nice" are words I came into the anime saying. "Wow", "Jesus...", are the words I left with.
School Days is a show that makes great use of dramatic irony; empowering the viewer with an all-seeing eye that even foreshadows some of the controversies to come. FAR from a romance story, or even more accurately: a story of infatuation... School Days is incredibly dramatic, and at the same time: very frustrating to watch. It plays off the general concept of "love and loss" through a seemingly unending string of bad decisions on the main character's part. Starting off as lust, and then a lust-triangle, followed by a lust-hexagon: School Days' plot escalates in complexity exponentially, and a great deal of uneasiness and weight is added with every expansion to our polygon.

As is mostly evident from the female characters, as opposed to our "protagonist" who appears to retain the same naivety throughout... emotional struggle becomes an overriding theme; from many directions. The decisions of the characters surrounding Makoto become increasingly unpredictable, and all of the drama just stacks and stacks relentlessly; culminating in a brilliant explosion of action at the show's conclusion. The event-driven plot, and the way that everything initially goes in favour of Makoto's stupidity, exists to annoy. The story itself is certainly more complex than you likely think it may be, and its great at enhancing the sheer awkwardness, and frustration of the developingly "taboo" situations that continually arise throughout.
There's not really much else to say about a story revolving so closely to the rather commonly documented themes of romance and greed, but its a bleak and disturbingly plausible chain of events that leave you with an appreciable message: "Cherish what you have, and do not be a slave to temptation". Therefore, while far from innovative or unique, the story compliments the characters and realistic setting.

Character development is a significant area generally for any show that can't rely on relentless action sequences, so lets get straight to the good stuff... Makoto, also known as our main character...

Simply put, School Days doesn't have a protagonist... Makoto is the antagonistic, parasitic, narcissistic, manipulative, borderline sociopathic, and infinitely detestable face of the show. He is to an extent the POV character, and this gives the viewer a very intimate insight into his never-ending, selfish, naive, and uncaring personality. During these 12 episodes, you will watch as while he is undeservedly presented with ample opportunity for a meaningful relationship; he simply ruins everything he touches. I mean this quite literally.

My hate for this character is completely off the scale, as his naivety: selfish, and inconsiderate personality couldn't possibly be more prominent or blatent. Yet as much as I uphold my desire to see him suffer as a result of his purely callous acts, the show wouldn't be the same without him. "Makoto" brings to light a disturbingly plausible and selfish, sexually-driven male attitude that makes you more aware of the barbaric implications and effects of harems, because at the end of the day: we have to fight our most primitive of desires. School Days certainly reflects this often barbaric behavior in an deceivingly "mature" and "civilized" society. Or as you may prefer to see it: there are simply a lot of dick-ish men out there, who don't really care for anything beyond lust, or themselves.

School Days utilities a range of colorful personalities, who for some reason, can't get enough of our ridiculously stupid MC. Its a deliberately convenient setup of hidden feelings, clinginess, and fantasy up taken by the range of surprisingly illogical female characters. From the rather air-headed and naive (for the most part) Kotonoha, to the awkward and suppressed feelings of Sekai... It wouldn't be wrong to say that they're all practically slaves to Makoto's unexplained influence. This obviously works in favour for presenting such a frustrating story consisting of so much ruined opportunity.

While the setup is appropriate, if not a little "too appropriate" to a cringy and shallow extent. There is an interesting degree of development on top of these thoroughly incomprehensible female thought processes. I've got to give credit to the way in which School Days very vividly conveys the emotional struggle and plights of the developing, fragile female personalities - which gradually become thoroughly battered as a result of Makoto's interactions. They bring with them, complex feelings of sympathy and "maybe THEY'RE the real victim" here to the mix. The evolving and damaged female characters continually posing the question: who is in the wrong?

In hindsight, I can honestly say that NOBODY in this show has a moral high-ground. With the exception of the overly accepting Sawanaga (who's basically just a novelty supporting fall-guy), none of the characters can really be described as "reasonable people". Undeniably then, School Days is a dark show indeed...

Art?
Things are a little sub-par here. With the exception of the last 2 episodes, School Days has a tendency to overuse still frames. The detail is pretty low, and so it could have been greatly improved.
A notably lazy animation style.

Sound?
Delicate, beautiful, and worthwhile. The music is phenomenal, which conflicts a lot with the expanse of flaws in many other departments, as i'll get to right now...

FLAWS
While the psychological aspect of the show, the drama, and topics are striking. It is on the other hand quite cheap: the way in which such devices: foreshadowing and flashbacks included, are used in an attempt to cover up a significant amount of flaws. While I could argue that impact on the viewer can scale with quality, School Days is as said initially - an example of great artistic merit and abstract approach (ie: the psychological aspect), that isn't executed to its best ability.

Setting Makoto aside, the female characters are all undeniable completely irrational. Perhaps the biggest flaw with the anime is that... it never really explained WHY all these girls are falling "in love" so easily. They're all complete tools: some of which are barely elaborated upon atall. When you pair this with the painfully unimaginative, SoL styled love story to begin with - one can see why the technical merit, is just not on par with the artistic intent.

School Days looks polished as a package, and as a whole: the story is quite dramatic, breaks the fourth wall, develops the characters, and even comes with a message. With everything together, I can accept it as a successful psychological, unpredictable show; with a genuinely hard-hitting aspect of emotional struggle.

I loved the ending, and want to be able to give a mark that scales with the passion I felt while watching. Its just that I can't deny the very noticeable gaps in logic when you start to deconstruct things...

~ Am I not good enough? ~

[TL;DR]
[+] Hard-hitting reflection of adultery in the modern world
[+] Good message of cherishing what you have, and the destructive potential of infatuation
[+] Main female characters develop quite well, as a lot of "struggle" is conveyed
[+] Story gets heavy and interesting beyond episode 6, and takes some unpredictable twists
[+] Good ending

[-] Lazy animation quality
[-] Boring and slow story prior episode 6
[-] The females are all completely devoid of logic
[-] Generally un-innovative

Had the technical aspect better supported my liking for the edginess of this show: 9/10
Reality, as a reviewer: 5.5/10
Reality as myself, with a liking for the psychological power, and dark twists: 7/10

When I first decided to watch this anime, it was simply because I thought the two main girls looked cute and the name 'School Days' sounded like a typical slice of life/high school anime. If you're thinking what I thought, think again. School Days is a very psychological anime that shows how relationships/romance isn't all hearts and flowers. When people talk about School Days, it's usually "wow that anime is so messed up" or "that anime is a work of art". For me, School Days was a little in between.

Story:
The series starts with a student named Makoto seeing a pretty girl on the ... train named Kotonoha. Instantly she catches his eye and he falls in love with her. There is a rumor going around that if you have a picture of your crush as your phone wallpaper for 2 weeks without anyone noticing, then you will end up together. Later on, a girl in Makoto's class, Sekai, discovers Makoto's love for Kotonoha and decides to help him out. She begins to fall in love with Makoto and wants him for herself, so she offers to let him "practice" various things on her so that he can be prepared when he's with Kotonoha. The story begins to go downhill when Makoto starts getting into relationships he cannot commit to and craves more and more lust. Throughout the series, you will get to see the things people are willing to do to be with the one they love and what happens when you push someone to their limits. Being someone who doesn't really like romance animes, I liked the story because it was different. The fact that they decided to make a romance anime with such an interesting twist to it made it really special.

Art:
There's not much I can say about the art, I would say it's a 6.5/10 because it's just "fair". Throughout the series, the art pretty much stays the same. They don't add in little chibi moments or breathtaking scenery. It's not amazing to the point where you will gaze at it and make gifs of the art, but it's also not bad enough to make you not want to watch it. There are some scenes in particular that I thought were quite beautiful, but overall the art was average.

Sound:
I think the sound is something that they did a great job on. The voice actors suited the characters well and the background tracks added suspense to the anime. The opening is upbeat and I had no problems with the ending tracks, they had multiple different ones and they all sounded great. The tracks were wonderful and gave me the chills. It replays certain scenes in my mind when I play them, meaning it was powerful enough to leave an impact on me. All in all, the sound is probably my favorite part of the anime.

Character:
There's quite a variety of characters in this anime, but let's just discuss the main characters for time's sake. For starters, we have the male protagonist, Makoto. He starts out as a well-mannered, innocent, typical high school student. As the story progresses, you will get to see he is not as typical and innocent as he seemed. Makoto is one of the worst, if not, then the worst, anime character I have ever seen. He hurts just about every girl in the anime and shows absolutely no remorse and/or shame. It angered me that he was treating the girls in such manner and didn't even feel a sliver of regret. Then it began to scare me when I realized he was able to do such things without feeling like he was doing something wrong. Then we have Kotonoha, Makoto's love interest. She is a shy, quiet, beautiful girl. She tends to keep a distance from guys so Makoto was quite surprised when he found out she was interested in him as well. Because she is shy and quiet, she is not used to the relationship that Makoto craves and begins pushing Makoto away. Although she tries her best to make the relationship work, she comes off as indecisive due to the fact that she simply isn't comfortable with Makoto's actions. This triggers Makoto to go to Sekai, his classmate, for advice. Sekai is an out-going and cheerful girl who likes to poke fun. The more Makoto went to Sekai for advice, the more Sekai started to fall for him. It wasn't long until 'advice' turned into practice and practice turned into an excuse. Sekai continues to push Makoto to improve his relationship with Kotonoha, but selfishly wants him for herself on the inside. The characters are well developed throughout the series, you get to see how much they change and how they react to certain situations when things don't go their way.

Enjoyment/Overall:
Overall, I rated the anime a 6/10. I can't say I enjoyed this anime a lot, but I can say I liked how different it was from the other romance animes. Because of it's 'originality', it has become quite infamous. Personally I feel like it's not as bad as everyone says it is, but it honestly isn't a masterpiece either. When I finished the anime, I didn't feel bored and I didn't feel amazed either. I simply felt satisfied, but at the same time it was a satisfaction that didn't feel quite right. I wouldn't recommend this anime to everyone, but if you're someone who likes plot twists, psychological animes, and/or unpredictable romance, then this should be right up your ally.

[The Confessions of a Cheating Bastard]

My name is Makoto Ito, and I have a confession to make: “I’m a bastard.” Now, you may ask, why am I a bastard?

Well, I have been accused of having sex with several women and that during those intense moments, I had a girlfriend. Well, I will not deny that I cheated on my girlfriend.

However, what I will deny is that I approached them, in fact, it was the opposite, those women approached me. They wanted a piece of me. And I gave it to them. Should I have declined their offer?

No. That would be stupid. That would not make ... me a man, but a pussy.

If a woman asks for sex, then I will give it to them. Because, really, I’m the best man there is. And, besides, all those women were stupid and slutty.

I mean, if you have a boyfriend, why should you go cheat on him for me?

My only conclusion seem to be this: I got the right stuff and those women wanted a piece of it.

In the beginning, I wasn’t like this, I was infatuated with a girl named Kotonoha Katsura. She was polite, reserved, and cute. At one point, I was dating her, with a little help from Sekai, and things were good. After awhile, I was getting bored, I wanted our relationship to progress, you know kiss and sex and what not, but Katsura didn’t like that.

I turned to Sekai to fulfill my sexual urges, and she fulfill them. I never knew how easy that was! I think that’s because she liked me, but I didn’t care. I just had sex and it felt so good.

And then, afterwards, many women approached me and asked for sex, and I, being the gentleman that I am, had sex with them.

On the surface, I’m a nice, kind, and well-spoken person, but underneath I’m a lying, deceptive, dishonest, egotistical person.

But, women don’t care about my personality, all they really want is me and my body.

If this body leads me to having sex with woman, so be it.

The End

*This is my first anime review. All constructive criticism is welcomed and appreciated.*

School Days: After watching this you'll be thankful your days at school weren't as f**ked up as this! In all seriousness though, the mental torture some of the characters have to endure is heart breaking so if you intend on watching this expecting a light-hearted love-triangle, DON'T! This is one of the more psychological romance animes i've come across meaning you're likely to enjoy this if you enjoy depressing romance animes.

Story:

The synoposis already explains the jist of the story. A love-triangle between the protaganist's childhood friend, Sekai, and his love interest initially, Kotonoha. ... What makes the story of 'School Days' different to other love-triangle animes is how it's presented and carried out. Normally, a lot of those animes are light-hearted and throw in some comedy to lighten up the mood. This isn't the case in 'School Days' and because of this I find it to be somewhat unique in that sense.

Art & Sound:

Art - It's on par with most other animes for its time. I personally liked the character designs because they made the characters look cute and suited the anime rather well (similar to Kyoto animation). The background art was also fairly good.

Sound - The Japanese voice acting was good and suited the characters pretty well. However, the opening song didn't suit the anime at all. It's a very cheerful opening and, personally, it sucked. Not only didn't it suit the anime but I found it to be lame. With that being said, the ending song wasn't too bad. Sure, you wouldn't find me listening to it on my iPod but it did suit the anime pretty well. It sounded sad and depressing and that's the sort of song an anime like this needs. Normally I listen to anime OP and ED sequences but on this occasion both of them sucked. On the other hand, the sound effects and lip syncing was well done.

Characters:

The two female protaganists aren't anything new to the genre. Infact, they are quite generic to be honest. A shy/quiet girl and an up-beat childhood friend. However, the male protaganist, Makoto Itou, is in my eyes, to be frank, the biggest douche in any anime i've seen thus far. At a first glimpse he appears to be a normal teenager in love. That isn't entirely the case. He's like a child with a toy. When they don't like it anymore, they stop using it and throw it away. I feel this is a perfect analogy to use to describe Makoto Itou. He plays with their emotions and uses the girls for his own perverted pleasures. Then, when he's bored with them, he chooses another girl to sleep with. I guess you could say Itou is "the man"! But, in all seriousness, he's the most despicable protaganist i've ever seen. Personally, I quite liked this aspect of 'School Days'. They thought of the biggest douche bag possible and chose him as the leading main character. Something I don't see too often. The supportng cast was also fairly decent. Sekai's best friend seems almost emotionless but only cares for Sakai's well being whereas Itou's best friend is a cheerful, dorky character who tends to lighten up the mood by constantly trying to impress Kotonoha.

Enjoyment:

Personally, I didn't enjoy this anime and i'm amazed that it's raked within the top 100 in terms of popularity. Why is this piece of trash so popular?

Overall:

After I completed this series, I sat down and reflected on what I just watched while listening to some music. After about 10 minutes or so, I realised something. There is a moral to this story. The human heart is a fragile thing and you shouldn't play with other people's emotions. You can't just treat girls like some sort of object and throw them away when you grow bored of them. It'll eventually come back to stab you right in the chest.

There are few shows that make you truly put yourself in the shoes of the protagonist as School Days. That being said, be prepared for one of the most complex and lovable main characters in anime if you intend to watch this show. Yet, despite all the empathy, feel-good moments, and moral lessons present, the show itself isn't the most recommendable thing.

School Days is the story about a boy named Makoto struggling with his undying love and affection in a cruel world trying to take advantage of him. With a cast of predominantly crude females trying to erode his incredible spirit, you'll smile every time ... he manages to come out on top; I won't spoil it here, but the understanding and sheer consideration the main character possesses in the face of adversity is inspiring to say the least.

Of course, that's where the show's story shines, but it also has some less sightly aspects. For instance, this is a drama, which means it moves slow, and if you couldn't tell by the title, it takes place in a "School" during "Days," which is as exciting as it sounds at times. It's easy to be bored, at least before getting to know the illustrious depths of our male hero's goals, but once invested, you may weep with passion.

It doesn't help that the art is rather dull, being barely passable as something to look at. Some characters look nearly identical and that's rather misleading. They seem cute and bubbly, which may be artistic subversion, as it's quite a dark world our innocent Makoto inhabits.

Sound isn't much to write home about, but what you can write is one of Makoto's amazing, heart-felt speeches to his adversaries. It wouldn't surprise me if the script for this show was written by a politician; this character knows how to move a crowd.

Overall, if you want to experience an enlightening, warm character come...out on top of it all with a will to triumph against all odds, you must watch this show, even though it's mostly slow and uninteresting.

YES. It is ANOTHER SchoolDays review!
First and foremost I have a split personality and sometimes "it" also wants to write. "It" is a very tidy monster so it will use (brackets) to do so. Ignore him if you want.

"School Days haters. They're Everywhere."

How far would you let your emotions take you?
For a magnificent and very singular piece of work, a (excentric) ordinary review.

The truth about us humans is: we make mistakes, undeniably make mistakes. Some of us try to go back and turn them into good solutions but others only live on with things like they are.
SchoolDays is a H-game based anime, nothing compared ... to what you have ever watched before. One could say it shows the "true side" of dramas/harems. You may like it or hate, however, almost everyone who watched it says it was unique. For modern anime fans it's a must.
(This is the "viewers" thoughts, of course.)
The production thoughts would be something more like: We made a nice profit from this game... why don't we put it on TV and see if we can make more (honey) money from it?!

Shall we start with the best elaborated part of it? The Story!
Your School Days weren't that awesome? Aren't you glad that you had a ordinary school life?
After you finish watching try to answer this question.
It's the freshman year for Itou Makoto... blablabla. I won't waste your time with the summary of this story. What you need to know: It was based on a GAME, so don't expect too much. Basically, it follows the well known patern of harems. 50 different writers gathered to write their ideias, then in the 7th day, the director selected the worst of them and gave it to a monkey. The monkey selected the best parts and then SchoolDays were born. Bald with red eyes. (Sorry I digress, lets get back to the topic)
This is a story you must (try) to watch without any kind of spoilers (yes I know, even here the synopsis itself spoiled the entire first episode) but make a try because if you do so, you'll (probably) have a way better enjoyment of the series than the ones who already knew the ending. This way you'll keep getting surprised until the very end.

I'd give 9 of 10 to the characters of SchoolDays. While reviewing we try to give scores based on how this characters were placed into the story, how were they animated and how character development worked. Working with this parameters, it was a magnificient job for a Visual Novel adaptation. Now, if I were to review the characters personalities' (...)
Twist this score upside down and you have my rating.
The main character is a damn man whore. His only objective is to have sex with almost every girl he meets. (I spoiled? where!? oh...) Fluffy stuff like "other ppl feelings" doesn't mean a thing to him. In order to maintain my dignity here, I won't talk about the girls.

I would review OST and BGM. Would give it a score and show the good and bad aspects about it (like every other review) but... To be honest, I didn't give importance to it. It was there, of course, but nothing stood out. It was average. So average that I can't even remember any song in particular. The OP and ED were nicely animated but again, followed that cliché pattern.
Keep in mind that this isn't a anime that will have heart touching moments with violins in the background like it's usually seen in other romance/drama stories.

Just like sound, don't have great expectations about the artwork. It is alright. Not perfect. You can notice that it lacks of budget sometimes. For characters, they all had pretty "standard faces" and expressions sometimes seemed distorted. The girls obviously had gorgeous bodies that sometimes appeared with larger boobs like in the bikinis scenes, making you wonder "how I didn't notice it when she was in her school uniform?".
Simplifying it, Artwork: As you would expect from a average harem.

Its hard to measure the enjoyment of this show. You may find it disgusting, horrible, much more realistic than you expected, messed up, perverted... Don't worry! Even if you find it hilarious you're not crazy at all. (Hysterical laughter would better describe it)
This is a anime for you to sit back and watch. Don't try to find a "deeper meaning" into it, because THERE ISN'T ONE.
There're a lot of reviews about this anime saying it deserves a 10/10 for its "psychological touch" and all this crap. For me, enjoyment is measure by how you liked watching. It doesn't necessarily mean you felt good after watching it, sad stories are also great. However, if you finish it stressed, cursing everyone, or wondering "what the f*** did I just watch?" then my friend, it was CRAP.
[FAQ]Is it twisted? Yes, it is. Don't expect a light-hearted school drama.
After watching this, you'll feel the need to watch something innocent. Try Lucky Star :D

Final score> yeah... worth watching.
::Story 6/10 | Characters 9/10 | Art 6/10 | Sound 6/10 | Enjoyment 4/10 | Overall 6.2/10::
Thank you for reading my nonsense. (triyed hard to not make a "nice boat'ed" review)

[English is NOT my first language, for the mistakes my apologies!] [Whatever button you decide to hit, please help me improve by making comments or sending me a PM. Appreciate it]

It should be noted that this series is a tragedy, if you don't already know. If you're after a sweet romance, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a horror series with yanderes and blood galore, you should also look elsewhere. If youre looking for an ecchi harem, you might not be dissapointed at first...but you'll feel guilty by the end of the series.

This really begs the question, who is this show for exactly? The only answer I can come up with is bitter lesbians. yes. By the end of this series you too will walk away with such a hatred men everywhere that with ... a pair of loose fitting jeans and a short haircut, you might just pass for a lesbian yourself. Even if you're a man.

Without giving away too many spoilers, the story begins like any ecchi harem would. Dimwitted guy has several girls falling for him, and darnit! He dosn't know what to do! But this is where we leave harem world and things get real. At this point the asshole protagonist decides to get with ALL the girls, which might work out well in To LOVE Ru, but in real life it makes you a two timing (or six timing) douchebag. Thats once thing the story does all too well. By the end of School Days the male lead Itou beat out Light Yagami the mass murderer for my #1 most hated protagonist. Easily. Apart from that however the story relies on cliche, coincidence, nonsensical events to tell an unrealistic tale of an idiot getting his just desserts. Story gets a 6/10 and thats being generous.

No complaints with art to speak of, decent enough throughout. Sound was decent, voice acting was par, but the happy-go-lucky opening theme got old in a hurry, and ruined the tragic depressing mood on more than one occasion. Art 8/10. Sound 7/10.

School Days deserves one honor. It has, hands down, the worst cast of characters I've ever seen. I hated literally every character that appeared on screen. I'm having trouble coming up with adjectives, because idiot, asshole, and pervert don't do the main character justice. He isn't a lovable idiot, he's not a wisecracking asshole, and hes not a lovable pervert. He is just...terrible. The supporting cast is equally abysmal, from nearly every girl who inexplicable falls for, and clings to this asshole protagonist, to the protagonist's equally annoying male friend, to the manipulative skank female lead, I. Hated. Everyone. And you will too. Characters 3/10, and again, I'm being generous.

This show is not enjoyable. Every episode is specifically designed to make you hate the protagonist more and more untill the inevitable, blissful end. And what an ending it was. People joke that for a tragedy, School Days has one of the happiest endings of all time, and I must agree. School Days was literally 6 hours of head pounding, forehead slapping, swearing, and daydreaming of creative ways the protagonist might die. School Days was not, however, enjoyable. Only because of the ending does this series get a 4/10 for enjoyment, instead of a 0

Overall School Days earns a 5/10, I'm sure far worse shows have been, and will be made, and ultimately, I DO reccomend the show for those 16 and up. If for no other reason than because it is 'unique' and because its a legend in the anime community. Albeit a horrible legend that we all want to forget.

For my first review, I never thought it would be School Days but I just couldn't hold back so I will keep it to the point.

This isn't one of them anime's which goes along the lines of 'your typical romance school life'. No, this is far from it. The anime is filled with tragedy of how cheating can affect someone’s mind and the type of drama on which can happen due to peoples actions. This can be related in many forms of very day life but as you progress into the show, I believe that everyone can agree on how 'over the top' it ... becomes.

Without as many spoilers as possible, the story starts off revolving around the main characters, Makoto, Kotonoha and Sekai. Starting out to be your typical anime love triangle, Makoto and Kotonoha starts dating with the help of Sekai, when suddenly she begins having feelings towards Makoto. Now this is where everything begins going downhill when Makoto true colours are beginning to show..

I couldn't help but find how disgusting Makoto is as a character, I won't say too much as I don't want to spoil anything. He starts the show off as what you will think, is such a great guy but suddenly out of the blue.. Turns into the complete opposite. Understanding of his rights and wrongs and also unknowing of what his actions cause to the other characters; he is suddenly controlled by his desire for sex doing what he wants as he pleases.

I just couldn't stop myself but I was spending most of my time shouting 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?'

Now we have Kotonoha, very lady-like and insecure with little self of esteem. Loving Makoto with all her heart, but when he leaves her behind she is then left thinking that its only herself to blame. I couldn't help but feel sorry for her but thinking at the same time of how much Makoto never deserved her. Sekai on the other hand is a very to the point type of person, while she is helping Makoto build his relationship with Kotonoha things start going for the worse. Deeply in love with him, when he comes crawling back to her she is then believing that he loves her back. Two interesting characters, both full of drama that’s for sure.

Makoto being this, well far from realistic type of a character stuck inside this love triangle, heavily full of events such cheating, even rape but not all is bad for School Days. It left a surprisingly satisfied ending on which you can see coming episodes before hand, but its twisted and dramatic. Very over the top I should say but overall I still found it to be a shallow watch and very frustrating for that matter.

Please beware of the different endings between the Manga and the Anime.

Do I recommend this anime?

Well, its a very dark type of anime which isn't filled with happiness but provides a form of message towards the viewer on the tragedy and disasters in life. I do not recommend being someone like Makoto however. But it is greatly done, has a pretty good production for the year it came out in and the music is excellent and fits in beautiful with very decent opening and closing themes. But if you are into dark type romances with everything this anime provides, then this would be perfect for you!

I give this an overall score of: 5/10

Now if I was given money for very time I heard someone say sorry within this anime, I would be very rich..