Review of School Days

~ 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 willdestroy 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