Review of School Days

In my opinion, this anime was actually quite good, but not in the traditional sense. I did not "enjoy" watching this series... In fact, I hated it. The only preparation I had for watching this series was a gut feeling of what the series would become, after watching the first episode, and that gut feeling ended up to be very valid. I ended up watching this entire series in one sitting. This anime did exactly what it intended to, it made me disgusted with the fact that I was alive and it showed the very worst that teenage pressure and irresponsibility can offer. If youplan to watch this anime, understand that it is not happy. You will be frustrated. You will be angry. You will be sad... And the end was brilliantly unsatisfactory.

WARNING: Spoilers

Full Review:

Plot: 3.5 STARS. *Just a note, this gets really complicated really fast, so bare with me.

Our male protagonist is Itou Makoto, a first year high school student who falls in love with one of the two female protagonists, Katsura Kotonoha. Katsura is also a first year and likes Itou, as well. With the help of the second female protagonist, Saionji Sekai, the two begin dating. Little do either of them know, Saionji also likes Itou. Katsura and Itou's time together begins as any other couple dating, they go on a date.

At this point in the series, the plot simply seems to be an innocent love triangle. However, it is quickly established that Itou can be a tad pushy. Unlike Katsura, who wants to take things slow and is still adjusting to the idea of having a boyfriend, Itou (who also doesn't have any experience) is eager to jump into the physical aspects of their relationship. He tries to kiss her a few times and is humorously awkward, but when Saionji makes him realize what a jerk he was being, he makes a good faith effort to adjust his expectations to Katsura's timid demeanor.

This all changes, when he seeks advice from Saionji. Saionji, still very much in love with Itou, suggests he "practice" with her so he can be more prepared for the next time he interacts with Katsura. He wants to learn how to speed things up in the relationship while still keeping Katsura happy. Saionji gives him a "lesson" in which they end up making out. At this point, Itou walks Saionji home and asks if they could continue "practicing." Initially, she refuses, but her jealousy of Katsura and Itou's relationship becomes more apparent.

At this point, I already hated Itou and really didn't like Saionji. Katsura was still an innocent girl who was making a real effort to formulate a relationship with Itou, unknowing to his early betrayal. Over the next few weeks, Saionji and Itou stopped "praciticing" and the relationship between him and Katsura began to develop. Katsura, who at one point was nervous and avoided Itou, was quickly becoming very attached. Itou, on the other hand, began to like Saionji instead (we'll get to that in the character section of the review).

He slowly started to avoid Katsura and instead wanted to spend time with Saionji. Eventually, he ran to Saionji and, even though she was worried about Katsura, they had sex. Although Saionji was always somewhat against it, this continued time and again until, eventually, Saionji didn't care about Katsura anymore and submitted to her desires. Katsura saw them making out on the roof of the school, but was confused instead of angry. She didn't understand why they would do that and gave them the benefit of the doubt (once again, we'll get to that).

Katsura's confusion began to intensify as her fellow students began to bully her. She would say she's dating Itou (which was true), but nobody would believe her because there were rumors of Saionji dating him. One girl in particular, Katou Otome, also liked Itou and her group of friends continuously made life miserable for Katsura. At this point, most of the school believed Saionji and Itou to be dating, but during the cultural festival, Itou cheated on both Katsura and Saionji with Katou. Not only had he not broken up with Katsura (and Saionji knew this), but he cheated on both of them.

When Katsura finally started to realize what was happening, she ended up somewhat cheating on Itou (not that he didn't deserve it) with his friend, Sawanaga Taisuke, who is liked by Kuroda Hikari (but those feelings are not reciprocated). Sawanaga even yelled at Katsura saying that Itou had betrayed her. After this, Itou said a few words to Katsura that sent her straight back into believing he hadn't betrayed her and that they were still dating. As a result, Katsura broke Sawanaga's heart and further jumbled the students' understanding of what was going on. Sawanaga, possibly the smartest student believe it or not, actually started to catch on to Itou's unfaithfulness and almost called him out on it, but Itou convinced him otherwise quietly.

Throughout the series, Kiyoura Setsuna, the best friend of Saionji, attempted to keep Katsura away from Itou for Saionji's sake. During this time, Itou was finally forced to tell Katsura that he didn't want to date her anymore. Kiyoura was leaving for France at the end of the festival and needed someone to take care of Saionji (for a reason that was never stated, by the way). However (of course there's a "however"), Kiyoura also likes Itou because of some nice thing he said to her a few months in the past. In order to insure Itou looks after Saionji, Kiyoura sleeps with him...

Now, after all of this nonsense, Saionji discovers Itou's betrayal of her and retreats into depression and stays in her room for a few weeks, Katsura disappears and literally goes insane, and what does Itou do? He sleeps with all the other girls. Not kidding, he continues to sleep with Katou, he sleeps with the other horrible girls who tortured Katsura (one of which, if I may mention, has a boyfriend and doesn't give it the slightest thought), and he even sleeps with Kuroda (yes, the girl who liked Sawanaga).

Eventually, Saionji discovers that she is pregnant and, because she has only ever had sex with Itou, it was definitely his. She forces herself back into a relationship with him and for some dumb reason forgives him for everything he has done. Word of her pregnancy spreads throughout the school and Itou suddenly has nobody to sleep with. This frustrates him greatly. Saionji begins to live with Itou and they live happily ever after...

Nope. During the last month or so, Katsura was off going crazy. She would repeatedly call Itou and text him, even though her phone was blocked. He happened to run into her on the street, one night while trying to get away from Saionji, and he embraces her love again. She is very obviously crazy, but Itou is too sex-crazed to notice. He brings her back to his apartment and kicks Saionji out. Katsura then suggests a abortion clinic to Saionji. However, it would seem that Itou has learned his lesson.

From that point forward, Itou and Katsura return to their previous relationship, this time with more physical benefits. They actually seem to be happy and Itou almost (almost, I said) seems like he might be just a horrible person instead of the single most disgusting creature to ever have walked this fictional world. Saionji notices this and becomes enraged with the fact that they are having a happy relationship (please remember, Katsura is still COMPLETELY INSANE ). As a result, Saionji tricks Itou into letting her back in the apartment and viciously murders him.

In horror, Saionji runs off and locks herself, yet again, in her room. She receives a text from Katsura asking her to meet on the roof of the school. Stupidly, she goes. Katsura is waiting for her there with Itou's head in her bag. She claims that Itou is still alive and that they're in love. She wants Saionji to get rid of the baby she was carrying, so she asks if she went to the clinic. Saionji says no and Katsura accuses her of lying about the pregnancy in the first place. Katsura then proceeds to murder Saionji, tearing open her stomach to, quite literally, look for the unborn baby. She doesn't find one and becomes sure of Saionji's untruthfulness (we'll get to this too).

Finally, we see Katsura peacefully sleeping on a yacht... While clutching Itou's severed head.

Overall, the plot was very complicated and slow moving. The end seemed to come out of nowhere, but I think it was more foreshadowed than I initially believed. I decided to give the plot a 3.5 instead of something higher simply because of a few issues I have with the story's logic. For example, where were the teachers? Where were the parents? We heard mention of parents, but nothing ever came of it. These kids were going through seriously difficult experiences. Responsibility may be more of a factor in Japan, but parents and teachers still watch over their children and students, respectively. This may have been a bit of a plot hole, but it also adds a lot to the meaning behind the anime, which I'll get to after the character section.

Characters: 4.5 STARS.

Believe it or not, the character development in this anime was fantastic. From the beginning to the end, the three main characters changed a lot and the changes, although some may seem a bit extreme, were natural and believable.

Itou Makoto: In the beginning, Itou is simply an overly eager teenager who found his first girlfriend. He took things too fast and, as a result, he didn't get want he wanted. However, he quickly found other means of achieving his physical desires. At first, he had genuine feelings for Katsura and probably even for Saionji, but he quickly became obsessed with the physical aspects of his relationships. Not only that, he kept getting approached by other girls. By the time he cheated on Katsura and Saionji with Katou, both he and I realized what he was all about: sex. That was all he cared about. He had no emotional connection to any girl, anymore. This is one of the concepts the anime conveyed excellently, to the point where I hated myself for being able to relate to him in even the smallest of ways. If I noticed that I would like a certain aspect of a girl that he liked? I would hate it. The anime made me, as a guy, become disgusted with the type of attitude that was present in so many guys, of course not to this extent. I'd be interested to hear an in-depth opinion of this anime from a girl's point of view.

Katsura Kotonoha: Katsura was an interesting character, to say the least. At first she was nervous and scared of being in a relationship. As she allowed things to develop, however, she became attached. Very attached. She was so naive, that she didn't realize that something was wrong until she was so attached that she didn't WANT to believe something was wrong. A lot of people seem to think that her transition from sweet and innocent (dere) to murderous and insane (yan) in not only extreme, but unbelievable. While I agree it was extreme, I don't think its unbelievable. More happened to Katsura than just being betrayed and deceived by Itou. She was bullied, relentlessly. She was isolated and alienated. She was called a slut, whore, and flirt and she simply didn't understand why. Katsura was certainly dense in the sense that she didn't catch on to what was happening when she really should have, but her transition made sense. I think the scene at the very end was a little much, however. That actually suggests some deep psychological conditions that the anime simply didn't explore which is part of the reason that this section received a 4.5 instead of a 5.

Saionji Sekai: Saionji was a fairly simple character who ended up developing in the most realistic way. However, I actually have two opinions of her. One opinion is dependent on the fact that she was actually pregnant. The other opinion is dependent on the possibility of her lying about it. In all actuality, we were never provided with any real proof of her pregnancy. As psychotic as she was, Katsura had a point. We don't know if she was really pregnant or not. Perhaps it is explained more in the visual novel, but this is a review of the anime. However, both opinions start the same:

Saionji was clearly a confused teenage girl. She really liked Itou and, because of that, felt the need to try and match-make him and the girl of his affections together, that being Katsura. However, this hurt her. She wanted to be with Itou and ended up spending a lot of time with him. She lied to herself by calling what she did "practicing" with him and submitted to her desires. Eventually, she stopped caring altogether and proclaimed Itou hers. This would be a pretty natural thing for a teenage girl to do, honestly. It was entirely believable and so was her naivety in regards to Itou's betrayal of her. It never crossed her mind that Itou might also betray her because Itou betrayed Katsura for Saionji. When she discovers Itou's further betrayal, she retreats into depression, like many people (not just girls) would do. This is where my opinion diverges.

Opinion I: Assuming she was pregnant, her actions after discovering such would be quite believable. She freaks out, demands Itou takes responsibility, and murders him when she betrays and abandons her, yet again, in a fit of rage and emotional imbalance. As sad as it is, this is entirely believable. This has happened many a time, is happening in today's society, and will continue to happen. Her character development was natural, believable, and understandable (even though it was incredibly depressing).

Opinion II: Assuming that Katsura was right and Saionji wasn't pregnant, my opinion of her character development changes considerably. This concept not only colors her in a very manipulative and spiteful light, but a clingy and obsessed light as well. She will now do whatever it takes and say whatever she needs to in order to keep Itou all to herself. Regardless, she was still emotional imbalanced, as displayed with her murder of Itou.

That all being said, I should mention that I do believe Saionji was actually pregnant, but I could not ignore the possibility of it being a lie.

The Deeper Meaning: 5 STARS

This is the only aspect of the anime that I thought was perfect. This anime is cautionary tale about immaturity, irresponsibility, peer-pressure, and the dangers of moving too fast in a relationship. Watching through that lens makes the story believable and meaningful. Even the plot hole I mentioned above adds to the undertone of the anime. This is what happens when teenagers act unhinged and un-monitored, and unguided. I'm not saying that kids shouldn't be able to explore interpersonal relationships and I do believe that parents should give their kids freedom to discover life for themselves, but this shows what happens when there is no parental guidance. The only character that seems to have any parental guidance is Katsura and, even then, her parents never seem to question her incredible change in character and her descension into madness. These students were young and did not have any experience with romantic relationships before. This is an extreme example what happens when that inexperience gets out of hand.

The Ending: 4 STARS.

I wanted to talk briefly about the ending to School Days. About half-way through the series, I wanted Itou to pay. When it was becoming more and more evident that he was going to be killed, I even thought that was what he deserved, but when it happened, it felt empty. This ending was brilliantly unsatisfactory. Anyone who watches this probably wants Itou to pay. He was horrible all the way through and caused severe strife for almost all of the characters. Yet, in the end, when he gets murdered, I wasn't satisfied. In fact, I felt even more disgusted. Once Saionji died, that disgust was further solidified. As extreme as the ending may be, Katsura clutching Itou's severed head is the perfect metaphor for what this anime represents: The twisted corruption that can come from playing with peoples' hearts and minds.