Warning: The following review contains minor spoilers.
Plot: 7/10
Summary: Matoko is a normal teenage boy who has a crush on Katsura, the girl who rides his train and also happens to go to his school. Sekai, a friend of Makoto finds out about his crush and helps the two get together, despite having a crush on Matoko herself. This ends up leading to a very twisted sequence of events that can only be described as "School Days".
The Good: This anime, while not entirely fresh, is definitely different from what one may be accustom to seeing. School Days deals with the morality of cheating and lying to others. It shows in detail the psychological implications that these behaviors can have on the teenage mind. It dares to go where many anime dare never to tread. For that, and that alone, I highly commend School Days. It's not afraid to break from the mold as it were, and create something that people won't like in the hopes to convey a darker aspect of human nature.
The Bad: I could write all day about what is wrong with this anime. Other than what is mentioned above, the plot has no good points at all. It's actually highly annoying and by episode 4, perhaps 5, you'll probably want to bleach your brain and throw the viewing screen off a roof while cursing like a maniac. It's really that bad. So. Much. Drama. Not only drama, but completely unnecessary drama. If anything, it was pretty incredible how much bullshit was able to be placed within this anime.
So why rate the plot as a 7/10? Simple: the ending. I'll get to that later.
Art: 5/10
The art wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. At times it was downright lazy and they didn't even try to hide the fact. The angles and the drawing was oftentimes just odd or unappealing. However, it wasn't horrible either. In many scenes, the animation was very well done and even commendable. Because of the blatant laziness at times, I'm giving this part a 5/10. After weighing the good scenes with the bad it pretty much evens out as simply being average.
Sound: 7/10
Voice Acting: The voice acting wasn't bad. I think the actors conveyed exactly what was meant to be conveyed. While it wasn't awe-inspiring I think the voice actors did a very good job portraying the characters.
Music: I liked the music. It went along with the feel of the anime and did it's job exceedingly well.
While only one bit of music was particularly memorable, the majority of it is quite easy to forget. The voice acting, while good, wasn't brilliant, earning a 7/10 from me.
Characters: 8/10
Now, this is where it gets interesting. The characters. Holy fucking hell...the characters. What more can you say except: Are they really that damn immature? I know it's high school, but I've seen grade-schoolers with more maturity than the characters of this anime.
The Good: You will loathe these characters. If you don't, then I'd love to hear your reasoning as to why you like them because there isn't anything to like. Nothing. And you know what? I LOVE that about this anime. Weird, right? Let me explain. You are suppose to hate these characters. They aren't meant to be likable. That means that the people who made this anime did their job. You will hate them, especially Makoto, with a passion that will likely be unmatched for many other anime characters you'll come across. This wouldn't be possible if the characters weren't so well written and played out.
The Bad: Literally everything about these characters. Everything.
Makoto: He's like a little kid that goes into a candy store, eats every piece of candy he can find, then wonders why he has to pay for what he ate. That's really what his character boils down to.
At first, I could understand him. I really could. I even sympathized with the prick. My sympathy for him ceased by the end of episode 11. If anyone can continue to feel for this character after episode 11, I tip my imaginary hat in your direction, because I'm just not that nice.
A lot of people may not like him because (spoiler) he's pretty much a sex-addict. That actually didn't bother me. He can do whatever he pleases to whomever he pleases, but it's the way he goes about it that makes him so despicable to me and more than once I wanted to commit violence against him while watching his dumb-ass.
In the end, he's just an immature teen who can't handle the slightest bit of responsibility. I don't say this often, but the guy could have benefitted from growing a pair.
Sekai: Also known as the Slut of School Days. I may be one of the few that didn't see her as such. It's not wrong, in my opinion, for a woman to want to have sex. I'm fine with that. What I wasn't fine with was her overall personality. I wanted to like her, I truly did. I was rooting for her quite often, but there is only so much stupidity one can handle.
In the end she came off as weak and a home-wrecker who had about the same maturity level as Makoto and it was nearly impossible to feel badly for her.
Katsura: She the one you are suppose to feel pity for. I didn't think she was pitiful. I thought she was just pathetic.
That being said, I understand why she ended up the way she did. I wanted to slap some sense into that female so desperately at times that it make me sick just to continue watching what was playing before my eyes.
Other characters were just as bad. One in particular I found to be very distasteful and out of place. This friend has a crush on someone throughout most of the show, then suddenly with no reasoning behind it, she's having sex with Matoko.
I see two reasons for this. The first is shock value. The second is to make Makoto look like an even bigger dick than before. It's like the creators just woke up and thought to themselves 'Let's see how much more we can get the audience to despise these characters." I'd say in that factor, they succeeded. Far, far too well.
Again, this is what I love about School Days. At first, everything is normal. The characters are normal, the events are rather realistic, but then it gets crazy. Not just normal crazy, but bat-shit crazy. You get to watch these characters change from normal people into twisted individuals over the course of the 12 episodes and School Days did this almost flawlessly. That is why this is rated an 8/10.
It's not a 10/10 because no matter how great the anime succeeded with making us hate these characters, it doesn't change the fact that I really REALLY hate these characters.
Enjoyment: 5/10
There really wasn't much to enjoy. It was like watching a badly made horror movie that leaves you shaking your head at the sheer stupidity at what is unraveling before your eyes. You'll probably curse, bang your head against a hard object a few times, and.....wait YES! Redemption! Suddenly, those agonizing hours spent watching this anime seem worth it. How? How can this be? It was almost painful to watch, how could I possibly enjoy it now?
Simple.
The ending. The ending is worth it. Now, I knew about the famous ending before watching this anime. It was completely spoiled for me before hand. That was the reason I decided to watch this in the first place. So I stuck with it and I'm SO glad I did. I rejoiced at this ending. I wanted to celebrate and throw a party. Not because it was over (okay, maybe a little for that reason), but because the ending was really just that damn satisfying.
Hence, why I give my enjoyment level a 5/10 (and the plot a 7/10).
Overall: 7/10
Did School Days suck? Yes. Were the characters unbelievably idiotic? Definitely. Would I watch this again? No. Okay, well...maybe the ending.
Putting aside everything I dislike about this anime, I can still say it was good. The staff who created this knew what they wanted (well, mostly). They created characters we were meant to hate and they did that amazingly well. They tackled a subject you don't often find in anime and also did that amazing well, despite the filler and over use of pathetic 'pull your hair out because this is so damn stupid' drama.
Would I recommend this anime? Absolutely. Not because I liked it, but because I think it's worth watching, if for no other reason than for how happy the ending will make you after hours of questioning why you're still watching this crap.
I think this anime did what it set out to do. It showed us the darker side of relationships. It showed cheating, hatred, heartbreak, insanity, jealousy, etc... and did it in a way that I found to be interesting (if not slightly unrealistic). So, overall, yes, it was a good anime to me.
That being said, I definitely wouldn't recommend it to someone who hasn't really watched anime before. This is one you'll probably have to be introduced to slowly and one you'll have to have a high tolerance level for before going into it. It's worth it though.
That ending...yeah. It's worth it.
