Review of School Days

School Days. I doubt there is much I can say you haven't seen or read before. And since the rise of the extremely infamous anime/visual novel, I doubt there is anyone looking to get into the series because the story sounds intriguing or the characters look good. School Days is to anime as Fifty Shades of Grey is to literature and the big screen, repulsive, unapologetically sexual, but most importantly crude in its delivery of intrapersonal relationships. While I believe School Days is far from the greatest piece of entertainment to grace the medium of anime, it is without a doubt a necessary work forany aspiring to get into the field. Being completely fair to School Days, I realize that it's a psychological show and deserves greater analysis than just a few minutes after the twelfth episode to think about to fully grasp. The verdict, after weeks of though only solidified and certified what I already knew.

School Days is definitely not awful nor is it even bad. What it has going on for it is tremendous but of course it isn't without the course of criticisms.

*Spoilers Ahead*

Story: 3
School Days starts off rather terribly, the premise itself a method of skipping all the steps of needing to get characters to like each other and learn about each other. And while many SoL's do this, some just as terribly as School Days (Kanokari), others are quite charming in its delivery with nonchalance and even acknowledgeable of the cheap plot device (Saiki). School Days is an anomaly in that point because while one part of the show seems to shun the idea of liking someone before you understand or know them, another part of the show wholeheartedly depends on it to get the main message across, most of the main message hidden under the shocking ending anyway. It creates this idea that while yes, School Days knows the relationship between Kotonoha and Makoto is rushed and immature and capitalize on the opportunity to criticize relationships like it, the emotional baggage the show sags under would not exist without said immature and rushed relationships. It is a depiction of human nature but the way in which it is forced makes it so that the relationship itself is realistic but means used to get there weren't, almost devaluing the relationship's realism entirely. The show subverts a lot of plot tropes definitely but many of them are difficult to brush off as more than pure shock value. The artistic direction of Taisuke raping Kotonoha was lost on me outside of just wanting to subvert the brainless friend trope, something that Hyouka not only does better but in more interesting and realistic ways too. Similarly, shows seem to believe a hard-hitting impactful ending deliver the message best when School Days' ending is the whole reason so many people despise the show, abundant in pointless conjecture and purely for the controversy and shock-value when the message actually does exist under the bloodied glamorous coat. It's unfortunate so many people simply will turn their heads to the importance of School Days' message especially with how relevant it is to our own relationships in real life only because it comes off as over-the-top meaningless garbage. This isn't saying controversial shows can't toss in important themes with controversial scenes (hospital scene in EoE, FMAB chimera), this is saying that School Days failed at it. Interesting themes but it ultimately doesn't manipulate the plot's charm and when the plot turns its face on the messages by adding in so many seemingly unjustified shock-value scenes, it's overly-hard to see through the mist to the point where any attempts at being insightful by School Days can be be brushed off as unintentional.

Art: 2
The art is just terrible. It's bland and the disgusting shades of colors that they choose do not please the eyes nor do they give off the feeling of greater creative intentions. Character designs aren't interesting, sticking to what's safe of the mid 2000's era. It's not lost on me that this could be an attempt at portraying what other, similar-looking shows like Clannad *could* have been, but it just looks so one-note in comparison that coupled with the same boring settings over and over that it does more than bore the eye, it hurts.

Sound: 6
Kanashimi no mukou e to. Probably the anthem of murderous girlfriends around the world. Otherwise, the opening sucks and the ED sucks. No other memorable tracks but the timing of Kanashimi no mukou e to was so phenomenal every time that I felt it merited an above average score.

Character: 5
The characters in School Days act on intuition and display the most raw form of the inherent cruelty of humans I have ever seen in media. Serial killers don't even touch me the same level as seeing Makoto sleep around does. But underneath this raw exterior, an exterior many will defend purely for being so exposed and naked, rest an interior of characters that are ultimately mostly driven by illogical motivations and make illogical decisions, even given their unique circumstances. There was nothing more infuriating, and not because I felt bad for them, but for the technical story writing ability of watching Kotonoha deathly attached to Makoto for reasons that are just incomprehensible. How does one come to the conclusion, "he's the only one not after my body!" after he loses interest in you after you show visual hesitance in giving him your body? And it's not like the anime can't weave intriguing dynamics subtlety and well. Kotonoha's devolvement into a husk to relieve Makoto's sexual urges was done very well. Sekai's paranoia as a result of her own guilt and awareness of Makoto's scumbag tendencies were also written in a realistic and enjoyable way. Ultimately, though, many of the positives are only brought out by the characters constantly making the dumbest possible decision to get to that point. Not to mention how at the end, many of the girls are dehumanized into simple sex sleeves for Makoto almost completely ridding the significance of Kotonoha's development. Don't misunderstand, I believe that School Days grasps cliques pretty fairly but there was no need to have Makoto to sleep around even more after Otome and Setsura, both relationships that were handled delicately and well, in my opinion. It felt like a cheap tool to make us hate Makoto even more and pity the girls even more. In reality, it becomes abundantly obvious without the added sex scenes just for us to hate Makoto more, we as an audience would question the integrity of the rationality of almost every character's actions thus far. It almost feels wrong to give School Days a 5 in this category when it experimented so much and even succeeded in some aspects but when positives are met with equal negatives, it feels as middle of the pack as possible. It's important to note that I think their actions and thoughts are irrational even considering their circumstances rather than thinking their actions and thoughts are irrational if applied to everyday circumstances.

Enjoyment: 8
If there is one thing I'm unashamed to say, it's that I enjoyed watching School Days. The ugly art, interesting morality and psychology, and experimental plot all combine to make an enjoyable experience purely due to the fact it will never be replicated again. Truly the only show of its kind, School Days is fun to laugh with and laugh at.

Overall, School Days is probably one of the most over-hated anime I've ever had the privilege of watching. The arguments against it are often purely subjective and simply calling the characters bad because they are bad people is doing a disservice to both their positives and actual negatives. It's a case study on the incorrect amount of shock-value to place in an anime but also a case-study on how far interesting psychology can take your characters. For every thing it has in support of calling it an undeniable classic, it has a thing that calls it utter garbage that deserves to be burned.

With this in mind, though, it still does deserve the right to be called a classic. After all, what other anime has achieved what School Days has achieved in radical separation of anime fans? And you would be just as hard-pressed to find an anime that made such conscious messages while also ironically unaware of its own faults as School Days.

School Days, a 6/10 for me.