Review of School Days

Ah, the harem genre: We all know what it’s about. Guy moves to some new area filled with unfamiliar faces, meets girls, and decides to date one of them, in typical visual novel form. School Days is, yet again, an adaptation of a visual novel, using this tried and true formula. School Days, however, decided to go the extra mile. A harem doing something new? What blasphemy is this!? -Story & Characters- Makoto Itou, our main protagonist, is your average teenage boy: He’s shy, he’s clueless, and, well, stupid. The beginning of the first episode depicts Makoto riding a train to get to school for the newterm, and takes a picture of a girl that he likes, Kotonoha Katsura, that boards the same train as him. Rumor has it that if you take a picture of someone that you like with your cell phone and keep that picture saved for a certain period of time, you and your crush will eventually start dating. After Makoto takes Kotonoha’s picture, he arrives at school and sits down at his desk and looks at his picture of Kotonoha while Sekai Saionji, the girl that now sits next to him, peeps at him, and starts bombarding him with questions. The episode then progresses, and Sekai decides that she’ll help in getting him and Kotonoha together. The two of them end up dating, and Sekai decides to, for some reason, kiss Makoto right on the lips before leaving school, revealing that she has feelings for Makoto.

This already doesn’t make any sense: Why would you want to hook up someone that you like with someone else? Why not just take him for yourself? What would have worked better is if Sekai genuinely wanted to help Makoto, then as she watches him and Kotonoha date, she gets jealous, and learns that she also likes him, but nope: She just likes him right away, for no reason. And this isn’t even the worst part.

EVERY girl in that entire school wants a piece of Makoto. I mean that literally, too, Makoto ends up having sex with almost every female character, whether it be a major character or just someone in the background, if it has a pair of breasts and a uterus, Makoto WILL have sex with it, mark my words. What kind of a school is this, anyway? A school filled with hookers that give him freebies? Are ALL girls this easy?

For the entire anime, Makoto will cheat on Kotonoha with everyone, completely ignoring her in the process. She does her best to spend time with Makoto to make the relationship work, but he blows her off every single time just to find that next good time. The story itself is very straightforward and consists of little more than Makoto sleeping with everyone. There are a couple of good moments that happen (The Culture Festival scene gave me a good laugh), but the story, to be frank, features some of the worst writing that I have ever seen. There is no substance to be had here; it’s just a twisted harem.

The overall cast of characters are even worse than the story itself. These are some of the most idiotic characters that I have seen in a very long time. The only two characters that were likeable were Kotonoha and another girl (Who also has feelings for Makoto…… shocker) named Setsuna. But the worst of them all is Makoto: This guy is my most hated character of all time. He is literally the absolute most morally reprehensible, selfish, manipulative human being that I have ever seen. His idiocy, his face, his voice, his mannerisms…… everything.

However, there is one redeeming quality in the story: The ending. This is, without a doubt, my favorite ending of all time. I saw it coming, but that actually added to the experience: Seeing my prediction come true was extremely satisfying, and, as much as I hated this anime, the ending made me glad that I watched it.

Really, if you actually like this story, then I can’t take you seriously, I really can’t.

-Visuals & Sound-
The visuals of School Days are fairly adequate. While they aren’t anything amazing, they’re still above average. However, I do want to commend the show for its distinct art style. Everything looks bleak and drab, and while this sounds like a bad thing, it works in its favor, and it makes everything feel more realistic. The character designs are also worth mentioning, as there is not a single character with “anime characteristics.” No one has huge eyes and pink hair, or green hair, or what have you. Everyone looks normal, which I have yet to see in any anime.

The show has no dub, and since I don’t know Japanese, I cannot, in good conciounce, critique the Japanese dub, as I don’t know how well the lines are delivered or how much emotion is portrayed, so I cannot comment here.

The soundtrack, however, is really quite nice. I can’t say that every single song stuck out, but they were definitely very solid, however, my absolute favorite song has got to be Kanashimi no Mukou he, which plays during the show’s bone-chilling ending. Listening to this song, even out of context, gives me goosebumps every single time.

-Conclusion-
School Days is, without a doubt, the worst anime that I have ever seen. I’ve seen some really bad anime, don’t get me wrong, such as Elfen Lied, Tsukihime, Sword Art Online, and Air (I could go on), but this just takes the cake as the worst. School Days is just a hair-ripping, rage-inducing, and overall frustrating experience, and despite the grand finale, it doesn’t justify 12 episodes of pure juvenile garbage. Like I’ve mentioned before, if you actually like this anime, then I’m sorry, but I cannot take you seriously. Don’t watch this.

You have been warned.

+Solid visuals
+Good soundtrack
+Amazing ending
-HORRIBLE story
-Idiotic characters
-Makoto is the worst character is any narrative medium

Final score:
1/10