Review of School Days

When I watch an anime I want to watch an adventure, big or small, that could end happily or terribly or end with girls just sipping tea all day. I want to finish a series slightly sad because the adventures over, but with School Days I'm left wanting the nightmare to end, not because its scary or suspenseful,( which it isn't), but because of it's terrible storytelling. Great anime requires excellent animation style and an appeal to hook the reader in. SD's animation feels pretty normal and the music fits where it's needed but the typical" boy wants to ask out girl"story line is so cliche, it's been done multiple times before and it just doesn't leave me wondering after the first episode "oooh, what's gonna happen." To be fair, the plot does thicken throughout the episodes but in the weird way. We begin to lose all sympathy for the main character because his actions turn the anime from a cute love story to a terrible harem drama who are all so in love with the main character, they don't know what to do with themselves. This steers the plot away and honestly the show has the same effect if you skipped episodes 4-10. The worst thing about this show aside from the main character is how seriously it takes itself. I would give it a 6 at the most if he was more comedic through the first 10 episodes instead of a cheesy soap opera with an idea so conceited, it's like someone got to have their really bad fanfiction turned into an anime. The last episode was the most intense and did a complete 180 from the first episode. It caught my attention, and Kotonoha became a pretty cool character for about 10 minutes. At the end of the show I'm left surprised ..............at myself for watching all of this crap. If you're looking for something scary/ girly watch Higurashi, Jigoku Shoujo, Umineko, Elfen Lied, don't waste your time with this.