- Lots of MAL users are probably still teenagers that wage over the ages 14 to 20 or so. And this is a perfect show for the us of that age simply because it shows the true colors of the harem we dream of so much. You cannot throw away one person and choose second without someone getting hurt. You can't gain happiness if you're seeding sorrow everywhere.
School Days takes that dream and shoves it right into your face.
Let me explain: You will not like this anime. There's no way to love it; this anime is created for the sole purpose to be hated. The way it drills you in into the story, giving you a false idea of the happy harem outcome, the way it shifts its characters to these "innocent" teenagers to the "WHAT THE F***" moments ... everything is there just so you can hate it. And it's reasonable, trust me.
The story is quite simple; you follow the life of a horny teenager in the quest to lose his virginity. Standard harem story. However, quite soon you learn that the overall feel of the harem story kind of loses itself because the series take much darker atmosphere. Fanservice drops to few or none, you actually feel some bullshit storm coming along the way and you’re expecting it. I won’t go deeper into the story because you are better off by knowing nothing while entering the world of School Days.
I won’t comment art and sound because they’re not really important part of the School Days. I’ll leave that to your eyes and ears.
Characters – that is what makes School Days one great experience. I personally didn’t hate anyone; I liked the twist in characters, I like the feel of their “realism” because they cope with the situation in a human way. Which teenager wouldn’t take the opportunity to bang as many girls as possible? It is in our nature to do so and Makoto is a perfect example of that life – and how it can go so wrong that you’ll wonder why the heck did you even took that path. I think that he’s, probably, the most hated character there is (even above Sakuras from Brave 10, Code:Breaker and Naruto) and I honestly get the hate but I don’t understand it. It’s sad, really, to label something realistic to be utterly stupid. Most of the people give advice on what he should do instead of what he did; that’s not the point. He did what he did because it felt as good at the given time. People seem to be too judgmental – no one is perfect; neither Makoto, neither you nor I. We do things we believe are right; same goes for him.
School Days is an Anime made to be hated – its characters are made to be despised simply because they are those people we never want to encounter in our private life. People who play with our hearts, who lie to us and use us. But don’t we do that as well?
At this point, it even doesn’t matter. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that School Days is amazing or mind-blowing anime. It’s actually barely decent, but unlike all other harem-type and drama anime, it is realistic and it doesn’t end with the cliché “They lived happily ever after” – it shows that that phrase is just a lie.
Very few don’t hate this anime. I don’t mean the standard breed of hate (being crap and stuff). People think that this is great anime while hating it – it’s simply the effect it causes – it was done to cause it. IF you’re open-minded and like at least a small dose of realism in harem-based anime, School Days is one great experience that will teach you about life more than any other melo-drama-nakama-must-live-must-do-good anime.
