Review of School Days
Youth. Period of human's life that most of the people start to value when it's already a tale of the past. It's a time full of mysteries and discoveries about oneself and others. It is also a time of various experiences, both negative and positive. We often want to forget mistakes we made, clumsiness we showed, indecisiveness we represented in crucial moments. What if there was a show only about these elements, and few other more negative ones, that can easily define the dark side of youth? "School Days" is that kind of a show. This anime is truly a rollercoaster of emotions. You will findhere whole palette of them: love and hate; romance and lust; friendship and rivalry; sincerity and lies. Situations sometimes looking bizarre, even grotesque, but rather faithfully representing many physical and emotional dilemmas and reactions common for teenage years. Even if they are over exaggerated and simply unrealistically put together, as if they were artificially attached to each other, this kind of method simply works well within "School Days" to tell the story full of extremes, albeit with the pivotal element being showing how difficult can be entering adulthood for people who want to jump right into it without being actually ready, mostly emotionally.
Most of the cast is not likeable, but in my opinion they were meant to look like that to symbolize better certain tropes and emotions this anime wants to convey. At least I see this element of it like that myself. What surely needs to be commended about this series is how it deconstructs the popular concept of a love triangle. It does it by experimenting without being scared of adding new things, perhaps way more typical or even unique for another type of romance shows. In the end, everything simply works and result in having an entertaining anime to watch.
It is definitely an anime worth of watching. "School Days" has art style and animation which are pleasant to eye, accompanied by really nice music building up the mood. Its story is also good, even if it requires a certain amount of open-mindedness to get fully soaked into it and appreciate elements that might be omitted if one is not fond of discovering new things in animes seeming to be "regular seasonal shows" at first glance.