Review of School Days

It's been almost 13 years since School Days has been released where it has gained a status of infamy within the community due to the topics it presented throughout the 12 episode running time. School Days, to me, is an excellent example on how to break genre tropes in a more natural way. Ever since shows like Love Hina and To Love-Ru have defined what harem is, the harem genre has been falling off over the years as it has not provided anything new or groundbreaking besides trying to merge it with other genre. School Days created something that other anime that was supposed to breakgenre was its actual success on doing so.

The anime itself has done a decent job on animation, music, voice acting department but what I really think it has done the best at is the story.

Following a story of betrayal, it captures how unrealistic the relationships of harem are and placing it in to the real world where people's actions do have consequences especially for the main character. Many people in the anime community despised the writing for the character, Itou Makoto, for being "retarded" or "clueless" in the story and that's their excuse for why the show is considered "bad". I believe that it's the show's intention to make the main character to have this naivety on relationships. It made the show more interesting in a way where we can see how situations divulge in to a mess sometimes. Just the fact that people in the anime community are furious about Makoto's character is showing how effective the story is on deconstructing of what would have been just a standard harem show. The main character is still human like the rest of the cast in the show. The topics presented here will give a better understanding on just how fragile relationships are, even a small misunderstanding can kill a couple. The ending was beautifully executed as it has been the payoff for all the actions the main character has committed.

I still think, even after 13 years of getting praised and shitted on at the same time, it has aged well as an interesting show for people. It has certainly challenged the harem genre and broke new boundaries to its storytelling. Judging by its placing on popularity at #190, it will certainly captivate and anger people for years to come.

Favorite Episode : 11 (Everyone's Makoto/The Truth about Everyone)

9/10