School Days

I'd seen a whole crapload of hype about this on 4chan, and after talking to a friend about it, I decided to give it a shot. I guess the only thing that kept me watching School Days was that I knew what was going to happen at the end. Up until the last three episodes, it's a pretty boring drama with unlikable characters and a slow-moving plot, but watching it was worth it, just so I could see that epic ending ;)

For those who have not seen this anime I must say it's not quite what I expected. Upon first impression I thought it was just another boy falls in love with girl, other girl falls in love with boy, so the drama is which one he will fall in love with.

But it's so much more than that. It's true that it is a love story, but in the must brutally emotional way possible. These girl turn out to be overly emotional about quite a few things, which leads to an unforgetable, allbeit, twisted finale.

I'd say if you're looking to be pissed off at a man ... it might be a good one to watch, but otherwise I'd steer clear.

Chances are, if you are viewing this page, you have seen this series, or are aware of what happens in the end, and the circumstances surrounding its broadcast (nice boat etc). School Days is one of those anime series that demands you form an opinion of it, whether disgust, hilarity, depression, aggression, School Days is successful in, if nothing else, than garnering an emotion.

At the outset, the plot seems pretty straight-forwards, a simple romantic comedy with possible harem connotations, not unlike shows like Haruka Nogizaka no Himtsu. By the end you are presented with one of the most unique (for better or worse) anime experiences ... you'll have. At it's core the show is simply misanthropic. No other way to describe it. The teenagers involved engage in a web of lies, infidelity and meaningless sex, not to mention the bullying, murder and rape; you know, the sort of show you can sit down and watch with your Grandmother on a nice Sunday afternoon.The story is fast paced if utterly ridiculous, most of the problems with the story lie with the lack of good characterisation. However, the anime seems to be struggling against the constraints of the source material at times. School Days, the H game is not a particularly good H game, and many of the complaints against the anime can be traced back to problems with the H game. This, however, does not excuse the bad dialogue and over-reliance on melodrama the anime has. The story in School Days is acceptable if only for its novelty and sheer exaggeration, although nothing more.

The Art of School Days is by the most part acceptable. Remaining true to the source material (albeit with much better animation), it is not particularly adventurous, yet not anything special either. The characters don't seem to be all that expressive, even during the emotional scenes (and, my God are there a lot of those). Also the characters have ink for blood and probably never sleep as they all have bags under their eyes.

The problem with the sound is not the delivery, although interviews with the Seiyuus indicate they way not have fully understood their characters properly ("Makoto's just an indecisive character, and a bit [!] of a pervert as well"). The problem with the sound lies with the dialogue. The poor dialogue really hampers characterisation and often sounds clunky and unrealistic.

Makoto is one of the most notable characters in anime, if only for the massive shitstorm his very presence manages to conjure up. Simultaneously whiny, indecisive and self-centered, I often find myself saying Makoto's promiscuity would be completely respectable if only he was a fucking man about it. the female leads seem incapable of rational thought, not that it's a particularly strong trait in anyone in this anime, and the more minor characters are so laughably badly developed that in the end they are robbed of any of their motivations and are reduced by the director to simple cock sleeves for Makoto. The characters in School Days are bad, just bad, but, here's the rub, they are effective. They create emotion in the viewer, whether empathy, exasperation or hatred, the characters are doing something many anime characters no longer do, and actually make you feel something.

I did not enjoy School Days when I first watched it. Maybe I took it too seriously at the time, but the show was so callous, I couldn't really enjoy it. It seemed to delight in the agonies of the characters, yet unlike a good soap opera, didn't provide any emotional resolution (consequence-free murder and an abrupt ending don't count). Others found enjoyment in mocking it, others found enjoyment in being able to get angry for half an hour every week. Not me though, by the time episode 11 finished I didn't want to watch it anymore, and only the promise of a BAD END made me continue.

First of all and probably the most important thing to say. School Days is not your typical romance anime.
It starts out pretty innocent and cliche but quickly turns into a sort of... "darker themed" romance in lack of a better description before just going balls to the wall crazy in the end.

To quickly summarize. Boy likes girl, girl likes boy, they become a couple, other girls like boy, boy has... "commitment issues"... and the ending is something not to be spoiled but experienced, cause again, they went balls to the wall with that one

The show does a very good job in showing how shitty a ... person can be and how people, probably especially teens with all the hormone buffs going on, can be controlled by certain needs and wants over rationality . I could imagine some people know a Makoto of their own, if not being him themselves. The consequences of his behavier is shown kind of realistically, before going crazy, and gives a decent picture of how things can end up if someone chooses to go down that path.

Do i think that School Days is a good show that's for everyone? No. Do i think that it deserves all the hate it gets online? Also no.
All in all it's an average / kinda cliche show in the beginning with a twist. 2 Reasons to watch it
1. Going into the show knowing that it's not your typical romance will no doubt make it more watchable, you might even like the series because it's pretty different from a lot of other stuff.
2. If you come out of this thinking it's a shitty anime, i believe that you will cherish the anime you watch that you actually like more and maybe even shows that you're not a big fan of it'll be like "At least it's not as bad as School Days". Exposing yourself to watching something you find trashy is not a bad thing.

When I first read about this anime being based on an 'eroge', I instantly frowned at it, but since there were some very good 'eroge-based' animes out there, like Kanon and Air to name a few, I then decided to take a shot at it.

The series started with nothing spetacular, with the ordinary high school guy who had a crush on a girl, and with someone else helping him out. My first impression there, was that the main character, Makoto Itou, had a weak, timid personality.

To avoid spoiling the plot, I can say that about the first half of the show was ... enjoyable, watching as a new couple go through all the probllems of a relationship, not knowing when is the right moment to say 'this' or do 'that' and blah blah...
The second half of the series went downhill for me, and the 'eroge' side came up, and transforming the main character into a selifish moron who can't make up his mind about who to be with. From that point on I hated the main character, in fact, he has become one of the worst(If not THE worse) main characters I had ever seen, along with the other main characters becoming disturbed and/or paranoid.

The finale was shocking, but kinda expected, and despite so many comments I have read saying how "stupid" this ending was, I enjoyed watching the main character getting what he deserved, though I don't think he needed to...

Want to suffer? Watch this!
Not recommended for those who are searching for a plain comedy romance. It drops COMPLETELY in the PSI-DRAMA section!!!
Don't be fooled by the character design and initial (apparentely) simple plot.
This develops into something you can't expect to see in this kind of anime, and ends in an even unpredictable, though kind of inevitable way.
It gets to yer head and on the last few episodes it's just frustrating to see (in a good sense though!!!)!
I'm still a bit shocked over this... enjoy!

I'm gonna hafta agree with Ceptryn on this one: This anime does take a very special person to enjoy it.

I don't really have a huge review/reaction planned, since this is the first one i'll be writing for Myanimelist.net...but i'll try and get the message through.

This series, from episodes 1 to about 6 or 7, was one of the most enjoyable series i've ever seen. The sterotypical love story with the close friend watching in envy. The mutual love that Makoto and Katsura share at first is pretty cute, but the feeling I got didn't last too long once I got to really ... know Makoto's personality and realise what a pig he is.

**SPOILER**

When Makoto started to shift his feelings toward Sekai, that's when I started to really love this series. Everything seemed kinda perfect...I could tell from the beginning that Katura and Makoto weren't a great couple (imo), and thought from the start that Sekai should be Makoto.

....but somewhere along the way....particularily when Makoto started becoming non-committal and sleeping around + getting caught after the fact, I just started to feel horribly depressed and had a EXTREMELY hard time finishing the series. /wrists XD
pretty much up down up down bi-polar-ness in an anime.

This was pretty hard to come up with a rating for and im still a bit confused and distrubed by how this series turned out, so i apoligize if i've wasted your time.

Story: I really thought this series was full of sadness, hatred, and revenge. All the characters i thought were despicable. Especially the Main Character Makoto. He really doesn't know how to read other people's feelings. He just goes around doing whatever he wants and being a terrible person. He thinks of himself too much in this series.

If you watch this series, and enjoy it, there is simply something wrong with you. This anime really made me feel torn apart inside. It is very crazy the fact you think that you could do whatever you want in the world and get away with it.

Other than ... that, I thought the art and sound quality of this anime was very enjoyable. It was on the lines of code geass and air. In my opinion that is.

My overall rating of this anime is 5 for creativity. Nothing more and nothing less.

Thank You, Inu_Y4sha.

School days a show about a sex addict and his harem who have less personality then a piece of cardboard. It also gave rise to the famous boat scene.
Actual Score: 5.4

Story: 8
The story of school days a first seems a typical romance with a love triangle but takes a big turn towards the psychological experiences of teenage love life which is a good plot and what kept me going through the whole series, there are no plot holes which another good point about the series and it ends with no cliff-hanger so this is a good one-stop series without having worry about sequels.

Art: 7
The art ... for the show actually pretty good with character designs nicely done and nicely detailed environments.

Sound: 5
The opening and ending are mediocre with nothing bad or good about other than fit the tone of show at the start but not so much the rest.

Characters: 1
The characters of school days are defiantly what ruins the show, starting of with the main character Makoto who is an average guy but unlike other harem characters he isn't that nice and later becomes a sex addictive which further ruins his character, then their are the two female leads Sekai the friendly back-stabber and Kotonoha the friendly innocent yandere while these characters do sound nice in reality it's not it is in fact unwatchable and the supporting cast is neither interesting nor remember able.

Enjoyment: 6
I kind of enjoyed the show the story was interesting but characters completely ruined it for me although it was fun counting how girls Makoto has sex with.

So I decided to write my own thoughts about School Days, and I am terribly sorry that most of my reasons are the "rage reviews" that most people have written here.
I know everybody have different opinions, and I respect that. But you don't have to bash over something just because you didn't like it.

Before starting, I want to share some random thoughts while I figure out how to give them some order:

Since we have some tracking in history, humans have always felt the need to communicate and express through a lot of different ways. These ways are often called "art", and it's all about ... how the artist felt when he was expressing himslef. People often confuse this and are literally conditionated to think that art must entertain them. While this is not bad, I have certain differences. While there IS actual art that focuses mainly on entertainment, this entertainment itself can come in different ways, and could be aimed to make you experiment different experiences that you may or may not relate to your own life and desires. This may be called "amusement", and it's often mentally challenging. The most basic example could be Horror movies or similar. Okay, time to end this and go to the actual review. Sorry about this.

*On to School Days:

School Days is an anime that openly and directly touches "the other side" of high school, which, no matter where in the world you live, may be familiar with it. School Days is about Promiscuity, Bullying, Childhood traumas, Rape and most importantly, the consequences that our actions may bring us and others. I was not personally touched by this anime, nor I felt identified or anything, but my high school times were actually plagued with temptations and I could certainly relate to some extent. I don't know if I should write about this here, but there were plenty of people in my school that went to similar or even worse stuff than what happened in this anime. You are only lacking the drugs and nasty parties. So I could say this anime is pretty realistic, depending on where you live.

*As a random note, before you read, I am kind of assuming you haven't watched School Days yet, nor you haven't heard or even read anything about it either. I know it's just impossible, but I like to review this way.

Story: 8

The set up is fairly typical and dull. There's this guy called Makoto, who get delighted as he sees this well endowed-bodied girl called Kotonoha, but he's too shy to talk to her personally. Soon he befriends another girl called Sekai, who's really socially skilled, and thus, happens to befriend Kotonoha when he tells her about his teenager crush. The impression of this anime changes when we are revealed of Sekai's true intentions, taking some other sides of Makoto's personality out. It turns into a much darker and dramatic watch, and most people make their decisions after getting right at this point. "Do I keep watching or not?".

I must say, that the way the plot advances is really predictable, but there's this thing that just keeps you watching just out of morbid fascination. I liked how it wasn't affraid to show you this side of the teenager school life.

I liked how it was executed, because it achieved what it wanted. It was some kind of a big impact on me.

Art: 3

This category was really poor because of the lack of adventure and ambition it had. The character design barely let me distinguish them among themselves. The atmospheres could have been way darker, given the nature of the anime.

I would have loved to see "SHAFT" re-doing this aspect.

Sound: 5

*Note: I usually skip Opening and Endings completely. This was not an exception.

I liked Sekai's voice acting. I don't think I have anything else to say about this aspect. Nothing really shined nor was terrible either.

*By the 2 previous categories, you can tell that the focus on the anime is not a Technical-Quality one.

Aaaaand here comes the big one.

Characters: 8

Despite the fact that pretty much all the characters are archetypical and clichéd, I just have to say (and take my hat out) that they were really well executed. And I am NOT trolling. I am serious.

It is the characters and their "peculiar" interactions between them that moves this anime through time. And it does come up with big things to achieve the so desired impact. To begin with, we must go into their minds and accept and embrace the fact that pretty much everyone is a sociopath; And almost none of them will hesitate in using another person for their own personal desires. However, I would have liked the idea of having explored at least the main characters' reasons to do what their did (with the trivial exception to Kotonoha, which was more of a trauma). Although we all know 12 episodes are never enough, this could have been quite something if we were at least hinted that there was a reason to all of them. I will keep thinking about it in my eternal curiosity.

And yes, there's absolutely no development at all in any of them, at least in a positive way. The psychological chaos is achieved at a certain point and it only gets bigger every second.

Enjoyment: 7

As an anime that feeds you morbid delightment and curiosity, I liked it, but there was also this close "empathy" (if you can call it like that) for the cast.

However, I feel that the limits could have been pushed even further, and we could have had some sex and violence scenes.And yes, it can be executed in a pretty ellegant way. Take Yosuge no Sora as an example. But we are not here to talk about other stuff and compare it. School Days was one of these intense uncomfotable and different experiences. And I enjoy feeling like that. It's just a matter of exploring and finding yourself.

Overall: 5

In terms of Quality, School Days is a really mediocre Anime.
Even with this, I think you should try it just for the sake of the experience.

*Let me know what you think about this review. Constructive criticism is always well recieved :) We can also discuss about differences in our points of view about this. I know that SD has a lot to be put into the table and talk about it.

First of all, if you don't know what exactly School Days is, and expect a lighthearted high-school romcom: DON'T WATCH THIS! If you are into the typical lovey-dovey fun romp and you are not a stone-cold cynic or have nerves of steel, give a wide berth to School Days, for your own good. Seriously, stop reading this review, close the page and forget you ever heard about this anime. Don't say I didn't warn you. (Oh, and tell whoever suggested this anime to you, to go where the sun doesn't shine, because you are obviously being trolled.)

So, what exactly is School Days, and how did ... it become one of the most controversial anime ever?

In short, School Days is a landmine. It's a cruel joke. One, that you play on your anime loving friends you don't wanna be friends with anymore. It's especially effective if your target loves high-school romantic-comedy series or games, like Toradora, Clannad, Love Hina and such. It's obvious the creators had the same goal in mind, because School Days is a horrific deconstruction of the genre, that not only makes fun of the premise and those who watch it, but it also breaks every rule in the book to drive the point home. It's a clear and concise "F*** YOU!" to the entire genre. The whole anime is perfectly camouflaged for a sneak-attack. The description, the cover images and even the first few episodes reek "fun romcom romp". The only thing, that might raise a red flag, is the R+ rating, but who looks at that anyway, right?

The story starts out normal enough. One could say TOO normal. Our protagonist, your average high-school student boy Makoto Itou, falls head-over-heels for a mysterious girl he rides the train with every day, yet he is too timid to even say hi to her. Instead, he takes photos of her with his phone and daydreams. His classmate Sekai Saionji finds out about his secret crush, and tries to play cupid to get Itou, and his love interest Kotonoha Katsura together. She succeeds in the endevour, Itou and Kotonoha becomes a pair, but in the process Sekai falls for Itou, too. Enter cliché'd high-school love triangle fun times. Or so you though! Be prepared for one of the wildest roller-coaster rides you've ever experienced in anime!

[SPOILERS AHEAD! No specific plot points, but if you don't wanna rob yourself of the shock value of this anime, skip this part!]

School Days' ability to lull the audience into a false sense of security is simply masterful! There is a reason for the R+ rating, which becomes VERY apparent in later episodes, and it WILL catch you off-guard. Let's be honest, School Days can be very shocking, unsettling and even downright vulgar and disgusting for some people. But the creators played the "boiling frog" concept like a boss, it all comes on slowly and gradually, it sneaks up on you until there is no escape, and that's when it tears off your head and screams into your soul. It hides the dark side, packages the vulgar in ecchi, the shocking in drama, etc, to the point you'll constantly be puzzled as "Wait, did I just see that?!". School Days breaks all the rules and stuffs them into your mouth as a ball gag while having it's way with you. This anime has everything from easy going humor, light romance and cliché'd hooks all the way to hardcore ecchi, bullying, depression, mental problems and all the "hard stuff" darker anime dares to go. But wait, School Days doesn't stop there, oh no, it goes BEYOND all that. Underage sex, physical abuse, teen pregnancy, outright mental breakdown, suffering, graphic violence, psychosis, murder and everything in-between. Don't worry, it's never outright graphic, all the NSFW stuff is merely suggested/off-camera or only talked about (this is not hentai after all) but it's there enough to make it VERY clear what just took place.

After the first few episodes, the anime takes all the drugs from the trunk, all the uppers, downers, screamers and laughers and it won't stop in Bat Country. It gets realer than real, it becomes a story that you might see on the evening news or read in the paper. After the last episode, I could've imagined what the news anchor would say about what happened, word for word. It's creepy! Not only that, but the reality seeps in through my own (and I imagine many people's) personal experiences. For example your very first incredibly awkward attempts at "love", physical intimacy, kissing, groping and even sex. How the inexperienced, hormone-filled minds try to rationalize everything and try to tackle very real emotions. How easy it is to go overboard when you don't know the boundaries yet, and how easy it is to just lose control and just catapult your brain to space, especially the last few episodes. The characters themselves are but hollow shells, they don't really have distinct personalities. But what they have is the uncanny ability to serve as a vessel for the viewer and their own personal experiences, like I mentioned. Like Itou, the high-school boy. We get to see inside his head based on his actions and dialogue. I mean I'm a young man (close to 30), but I still remember how I was back then, we all had dirty thoughts and I imagine many would've done the exact same thing Itou did in the series. Maybe not go as far as him, but given the opportunity, I think many would've jumped at the chance to do some of the things he got to do. [SPOILER] I mean what standup high-school boy didn't dream of banging all the girls in the school, LOL! [/SPOILER] But it's not only teen angst and suppressed urges, it's the rest of emotional scale too, ranging all the way to the inexperience resulting in insecurities and indecisiveness of dealing with your first relationship, the good and the bad of the learning experience. I can't speak for the female viewers of the anime, but I imagine the creators captured at least a good number of the thoughts, desires, insecurities and fears that really goes on in the heads of high-schoolers.

It's a downright insult to call School Days "dark", it's way beyond that, It's like waking up from a nightmare to the smell and warmth of your house burning down around you. It's something, that not many people will walk away from unscathed.

[END OF SPOILERS]

I'm pretty sure School Days was concocted up as a sort of genre experiment. A sort of anti-romcom, that may or may not have actual artistic merit to it, it all depends on the viewer. One thing is for certain, however, that there is intent and effort behind all this. A sort of method to the madness. School Days is not just some random psycho's idea of a sick joke that he made in Paint on a lazy afternoon. There is real work, artistic credit and real production value put into this anime, by not just one, but many people. Someone wrote this, someone directed it and someone animated it. What I'm saying is, School Days is not an accident, it's been intentionally made to be what it is. And if you can look behind the shock value and the pretty obvious stream of "in your face" innuendos, there are some very real and very hard questions and societal critique buried in there. And also, there is the WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU, why are you still watching this, are you mad, seriously it only gets worse and more mental the more you watch it, why are you doing this yourself *cries*

In my experience, the only way to "enjoy" watching School Days, is to not take it seriously. Channel your inner cynic and go all the way, draw every last drop of sadistic pleasure from it. Disconnect yourself from the story, and watch it as a very badly made drama/dark comedy, and you might get a few laughs out of it. Because if you let yourself get immersed in the story and you get emotionally invested, you WILL get wrecked. School Days doesn't pull any punches, in fact, it lays into them with incredible force. It wants to hurt you, and knows exactly how to do it. The one person I inflicted School Days upon, got reduced to a sobbing mess by the end, with a thousand yard stare, whispering to me "Why? What did I ever do to you?"...

So, in closing, School Days is a landmine for the fragile-hearted romcom watching crowd. If you look at it like that, it's a brilliant anime. It's exceptionally unassuming, draws you in and then blows your soul sky high, you won't even know what hit you. If you are cynical enough and/or have no soul, you might even find it weirdly entertaining. There are morals and the asking of hard questions, and some profound meaning in there also, if you are into that sort of thing. Other than that, School Days is the perfect weapon to troll your light-hearted anime watching friends, but do take care in choosing your target, because this landmine is definitely not a dud.

This anime managed to create quite a buzz which tricked me into watching it. After all, it's only 12 episodes and how bad can it be?

Yet after episode 5, I'm more or less satisfied with the plot as it is and I'm just wondering who's gonna kill who with what. (So basically, I'm now watching "Clue"? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluedo ). Well, serves me right for finding out in advance where the end is going, I guess.

Seriously though, after episode 5 all the series is about is the psychological mistreatment of more and more of its cast. Up to that moment the plot was still believable, but ... after ep. 5, it had me going "wtf?" more and more. The main character just gets himself into more and more trouble, and he's not even noticing it. How dense can you be? Not once is there a spark of hope for a happy ending, except pherhaps in the last episode, but it's pretty obvious by then they're just trying to set you up up for a shock.

If this anime has any redeeming qualities, it's that it's storyline is original. Allthough... part of me feels he's just watched some hentai with the XXX parts cut, so pherhaps it's not all that original after all.

School Days is an anime that is a mentally stunning, and emotional.(Based off an eroge game) Once you watch it you probably do not wan't to watch it again. School Days shows the consequences of having affairs with people and how the other person will feel. Well it shows how much the human heart can handle, emotionally, and physically.

The story is like a typical anime that revolves around a Teenage boy and the other heroines in the story. Makoto Itou,the main character, has a crush on girl who he see's everyday on the train to school. One day he manages to get a picture ... of her and put it as his background on his Mobile Phone. Another girl, Saionji Sekai, see's this picture and tells the girl's name and her interests. In this case her name is, Kotonoha Katsura.

This anime is psychologically troubling and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone with a delicate heart(Anyone can watch). The main character IS a sex-addict and has no clue on how the girls around him feel. Although he does these things, they somewhat bother him at times.

(Stop Reading;Spoilers if not yet Watched)

The ending, I personally didn't enjoy the ending. I knew something similar would happen and everyone would be sad. I think they should've just had the main character go back to his original crush and everyone would've been fine. I know his actions proved he deserved it, but he later gets back on the right track and realizes what he's been doing. The main character would've gotten to say his sorry's and it woul've been a happy ending. A Great anime, a great plot, and perfect Characters.

Moral of the story: if you cheat, women are even more attracted to you.
That is all.
Well, not entirely, but I think this points out the absurdity at play throughout this series. It starts out friendly enough but then it quickly spirals out of control, in a way that didn't feel natural to me at all. The characters are mostly annoying, especially the main character. He tries to redeem himself at certain points, I guess to prevent him from seeming like a total monster. But really, the character personalities in this series are anything but subtle.
This is a pretty iconic series, so you're probably going to ... watch this from the sheer hype around. For me personally, it did a go job of riling me up at the beginning, but it quickly becomes utterly silly. And I personally did not like the ending, as it reconfirmed my thoughts of the progress feeling totally unnatural.

School Days is an anime about happiness and love. Just kidding I'm sure you're already well aware of what goes down in this anime.

Story
------
Guy has a crush on classmate, eventually starts dating her with the help of a female friend and then starts having sex with ever girl in the school which leads to some dire consequences. Needless to say the story is completely ridiculous and degrades all the women in this anime to the status of sex objects. I think there might of have been something of significance that we learned, shitty writing leads to a boring and all together shitty anime. I mean ... every guy wants sex but I doubt anyone would ever go this far or even get the chance to.

Art
---
Nothing interesting to look at boring scenery and boring characters. Actually I guess it's realistic with its depiction of Japanese since their hair color and eye colors are usually brown unlike anime likes to make us believe they have pink hair.

Sound
-------
Good voice acto... No that really didn't change my opinion on the series

Character
----------
Oh god I don't know if any anime has character worse than these.
I think these girl's have created a new anime stereotype called vaginal hole, they are literally just vagina who sometimes have dialogue.
Even the robot (emotionless) girl eventually turns into a robotic vagina.
The main character is a huge douchebag no one can possibly like him can someone tell me how many times he has sex in this series? Isn't this series over like a one year span and he has sex like over 20 times?
Also where are the parent's in this situation? You can't make me believe every high schooler lives alone in a dorm, that isn't very affordable.

Enjoyment
------------
The ending is funny, made me laugh, it just gets more ridiculous as the series comes to a close. Most of the anime is pretty boring, typical and predictable.

Overall: 5
Watch just so you can know how to tell the difference between good or bad anime. It's pretty short as well only 12 episodes for a storyline you might see on a soap opera.

School Days, don't be fooled by the Romance genre tagged, if you came here looking for a romance type anime, because you have heard of it or due to it's title, don't, it can mislead you.

Story [6/10]
The story talks about a school student, Itou Makoto, a typical student who comes to school by train, listens to music and has teenager perverted toughs. On the same train goes Katsura Kotonoha for whom Itou seems to take a special interest, he also takes some pictures of her.
After a little while we are introduced to Saionji Sekai, Itou's classmate who discovers Katsura's pictures on Itou's phone and ... decides to help him getting a date with Katsura. A little after a love triangle between them starts off.

Art [4/10] / Sound [4/10] / Character [3/10]
As for the art, nothing outstanding and nothing too poor, as for the sound some decent OP and ED as ambient music for each situation.
Now as for the characters:
The main character is just an egocentric, perverted, sex-addict, selfish bastard, all he does with every character he meets is just brake their heart, using them for is own advantage and then just leaves them, he plays with other's people's emotions, doesn't attribute any value, probably the character that i hated the most on an anime, sure it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad character, point of view is everything here and there are moments where we see that he feels regret for some of his actions, he seems to have feelings after all, otherwise he couldn't even be considered a human being.
As for the other 2 characters on the love triangle, Saionji even makes things worse, even knowing that she was breaking someone's heart by some of her actions she kept on doing it and as for Katsura i just feel sorry for her, she took all the pain, suffered the loneliness, the rejection, she got so paranoid, so obsessive due to her true feelings and innocence, poor soul.
Relatively to secondary characters, and main too, mediocre comedy mixed, or very predictable as for an harem anime genre it would be expected, there are no story progression among secondary, nor story background among main characters, secondary are just introduced to us to serve as a new "recipient" for our beloved protagonist cof* cof*
They are just typical students, on a typical school living their typical lives.

Enjoyment [5/10]
Finishing up, i can say that despite the cuts and bruises, i got attached to this anime, i felt sadness, rage, hate and as each episode progressed i was curious about the reactions the characters would have. Not mentioning the ending that is disturbing and twisted, got me shocked but i see it as a good ending. This is all related to psychological issues, like how messing with your emotions can really mess up with a person's mind and create a different "I" he could have never possibly imagine it would exist.

Picture any typical ecchi harem anime and throw it out of the window. School days is an epic anime about cucking and cheating some of my personal favorite elements of romance in anime. School Days is an emotional roller coaster every time inevitably watch in and it has become one of my favorite anime of all time.

Plot: 3/10

The story fallows Makoto through his romantic tale in high school. with out going into further details without spoiling i can say that it was just ok. the main idea is simple but the execution is where school days shines. (just trust me after ep 6 theres ... NO WAY you can put this down)

Art + Sound 3/10

I will simplify this and combine the two categories.... Their both bad and nothing to wright home about. unfortunately these were the lowest parts of the anime but they both have a couple of scenes where they a nice. but aside from that its underwhelming compared to the rest of the great anime.

Characters 3/10

Again the characters are nothing to write home about but they are certainly like nothing i have seen before. The characters are all shitty people but thats the intent of the anime. I think its like a play on your're average High School ecchi harem anime or something but it sure does make you think at times.

Enjoyment: 9/10

I was hooked on this anime from ep 5 and could not stop. i was constantly surprised at twists in the plot and it made me concern for the characters on a personal level . I cant really say more. If you like cheep drama and bad anime, you'll love this.

Overall: 6/10

This anime is so bad it's good. Everyone is scum, and I love it. This low key is enjoyable through and through and i highly recommend it.

Darkness, misery and despair.

Basically you have to get through 9 average and boring episodes, to get to pretty interesting 3 last ones.
Culmination and ending of this story is, in my opinion very good, but rest of it is at most average. You can easily watch first and secound episode and directly go to 9th or 10th part because nothing important is happening. Just Kotonoha and her boyfriend are apologizing each other 5 times per episode.

Characters are flat, we have Kotonoha who apologizes for everything, boring and bumb main character (I forget his name 5 min after watching anime) and Sekai jealous all the ... time. There's of course bunch of other unimportant characters.
Overall it's pretty average anime with potential wasted by very slow action and undeveloped characters.

School Days: NOT a nice romantic anime about the drama of high school romance....well there is drama - ALOT OF DRAMA - but not just normal drama.

Ok, so to all who HAVE NOT WATCHED this anime please note that I will go through my scoring here without spoilers, but after I will put a header under which will be (you guessed it) spoilers....so don't read past that line if you want the suspense.

SCORES:

Story - 7
I give it a 7 and not a 2 because, the horrific ending DID make me want to beat many of the characters to a pulp. For me, an anime is ... only successful if it can make me FEEL some emotion...and boy this one did! I was so pissed! Uhhhhh! I can't even talk about it!

Art - 6
Fair, but MANY scenes look like they were done too quickly and not enough detail was put into them. Others where great, the detail in the closeups on hands was pretty impressive. Eyes were good despite being the common anime girl eye style. The lack of highlights made the later scenes even more...creepy.

Sound - 6
Eh..ok..nothing special though.

Character - 3
Characters started out with good foundation and felt emotionally present and realistic but by about the 6th episode I started to wonder if the staff had changed the characters personalities w/o changing their faces and names. All of a sudden they were all weird and so FAKE.

Enjoyment - 3
I liked it very much until, again, about the 6th or 7th episode. When Katsura started acting REALLY weird and some more secrets about Makoto came out, I was just getting annoyed. One, I wanted to sock Makoto and two I wanted to slap Katsura into sense! In the end: VERY BAD TATSE in my mouth, so to say. Really not liking the disturbing end...

By the way, why is it not labeled at pshycological or horror here? IT NEEDS TO BE!

Overall, watch of you like (semi)perfect situations that turn out wrong in EVERY POSSIBLE WAY. This ends with no innocent "school days" love!!!!

OK SPOILER TIME!



I REPEAT: SPOILERS BELOW - DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED!



I just finished the show and DAMN THAT S**T FACED B*****D MAKOTO! He was all innocent and then BAM! Sex maniac! I was like WTF?!?!?!?
And Katsua: SORE LOOSER! CLINGY B**CH! even after Makoto is DEAD! she friggin cuts off his head and rids off into the sunset hugging it! Thats SICK! @.@

Damn, all the girls were ok...and then they all turned into backstabbing whores! I am SEVERELY DISSAPOINTED in how this show ended....Im not even gonna try and watch the OVA's unless they are different. F**K! I need so SERIOUS flowers, and rainbows, and sunshine with ALOT of unicorns on top right now!

I watched this anime after watching a few harems. Clannad left me craving for more and the title for this anime lured me in. This was a big mistake. School days wasn't happy for me, nor was it sad. It was stupid.

Story:1. Boy discovers his sexuality 2. Boy Likes girls 3. Boy can't choose

Art: The art is good, its a bit bland for my taste.

Sound: The sound is probably the best part about this anime, the soundtracks are nice.

Characters: 2-demensional, inexperienced, naive characters. School days shows how life would be if nobody learned their lesson.

Enjoyment: Its up to you. But I'd skip this and go ... watch something good.

Overall: Skip