Review of School Days

Story: 2/10. Wow. Basically, the crux of School Days is "Average high school student tests how much he can get away fooling around with girls until it eventually backfires". There's really nothing else outside of this; no interesting slice-of-life scenarios, no emotional connection to any characters, and no overarching plotline other than our protagonist Makoto trying to date as many girls as he can while being the most unlikeable person alive. The show basically feels lifeless, and the only things it gets right is showing how Makoto digs himself further into a hole and ends up paying for it at the end. I guess you cancall this a 'deconstruction' of the high-school romance genre, although it's pretty poorly done.

Art: 4/10. The settings all look dull and bland, and all the characters are stiff with no diversity or variation to their look. Ironically, this mirrors the show perfectly; every character (for the most part) is mellow and reserved with no unique traits or personalities.

Sound: 2/10. The OST isn't memorable at all except for one song at the end.

Character: 3/10. For the most part, there are only 2 prevailing emotions throughout the show: mellow and frustrated. There's no 'spark' between Makoto and the girls he dates, it just feels like something the show pushes on us to watch unfold for no particular reason.

Now, the show does give some semblance of development to Makoto, as he starts out as a relatively innocent kid but eventually gets desensitized to hurting others' feelings to get what he wants. But as a character himself, Makoto isn't interesting or notable at all. If anything, the only notable aspect about the characters in this show is what a couple of them choose to do at the very end, which made for a rather shocking ending.

Enjoyment: 7/10. I found it utterly fascinating watching this catastrophe of a show run its course. While there was very little to like about the actual narrative and execution of the plot, it was pretty entertaining to see how badly Makoto could mess up his current situation. Also, the ending was pretty cathartic.

Overall: 3/10. Not a well-made show at all, I definitely wouldn't recommend unless you were really bored and wanted to pass the time watching something crash and burn. The only other reason to watch the show is to get why people bash on it a lot and understand why it was a meme several years ago.