Review of School Days

*This is my first anime review. All constructive criticism is welcomed and appreciated.* School Days: After watching this you'll be thankful your days at school weren't as f**ked up as this! In all seriousness though, the mental torture some of the characters have to endure is heart breaking so if you intend on watching this expecting a light-hearted love-triangle, DON'T! This is one of the more psychological romance animes i've come across meaning you're likely to enjoy this if you enjoy depressing romance animes. Story: The synoposis already explains the jist of the story. A love-triangle between the protaganist's childhood friend, Sekai, and his love interest initially, Kotonoha.What makes the story of 'School Days' different to other love-triangle animes is how it's presented and carried out. Normally, a lot of those animes are light-hearted and throw in some comedy to lighten up the mood. This isn't the case in 'School Days' and because of this I find it to be somewhat unique in that sense.

Art & Sound:

Art - It's on par with most other animes for its time. I personally liked the character designs because they made the characters look cute and suited the anime rather well (similar to Kyoto animation). The background art was also fairly good.

Sound - The Japanese voice acting was good and suited the characters pretty well. However, the opening song didn't suit the anime at all. It's a very cheerful opening and, personally, it sucked. Not only didn't it suit the anime but I found it to be lame. With that being said, the ending song wasn't too bad. Sure, you wouldn't find me listening to it on my iPod but it did suit the anime pretty well. It sounded sad and depressing and that's the sort of song an anime like this needs. Normally I listen to anime OP and ED sequences but on this occasion both of them sucked. On the other hand, the sound effects and lip syncing was well done.

Characters:

The two female protaganists aren't anything new to the genre. Infact, they are quite generic to be honest. A shy/quiet girl and an up-beat childhood friend. However, the male protaganist, Makoto Itou, is in my eyes, to be frank, the biggest douche in any anime i've seen thus far. At a first glimpse he appears to be a normal teenager in love. That isn't entirely the case. He's like a child with a toy. When they don't like it anymore, they stop using it and throw it away. I feel this is a perfect analogy to use to describe Makoto Itou. He plays with their emotions and uses the girls for his own perverted pleasures. Then, when he's bored with them, he chooses another girl to sleep with. I guess you could say Itou is "the man"! But, in all seriousness, he's the most despicable protaganist i've ever seen. Personally, I quite liked this aspect of 'School Days'. They thought of the biggest douche bag possible and chose him as the leading main character. Something I don't see too often. The supportng cast was also fairly decent. Sekai's best friend seems almost emotionless but only cares for Sakai's well being whereas Itou's best friend is a cheerful, dorky character who tends to lighten up the mood by constantly trying to impress Kotonoha.

Enjoyment:

Personally, I didn't enjoy this anime and i'm amazed that it's raked within the top 100 in terms of popularity. Why is this piece of trash so popular?

Overall:

After I completed this series, I sat down and reflected on what I just watched while listening to some music. After about 10 minutes or so, I realised something. There is a moral to this story. The human heart is a fragile thing and you shouldn't play with other people's emotions. You can't just treat girls like some sort of object and throw them away when you grow bored of them. It'll eventually come back to stab you right in the chest.