Review of School Days

(TLDR Review at the bottom, as always, thanks for reading) "In the school, the three guys met. Their relation had been changed in the season, and turned into three love stories." School Days. This one show everyone seems to love to hate, mostly for superficial reasons, which in turn implies quite a bit of anime fans aren't deep thinkers, which is a "good" thing. But the reasons why is a story for another day. In any case, it is very easy to hate what this show gives, which is a normal reaction, but School Days is one of those anime that is a victim of the productit gives forward, a product that people will inherently dislike because the theme is one that is of questionable content, albeit there are some more legitimate reasons to dislike School Days, which I will go over. Basically, you use the "wrong" things with the wrong people and you get a huge hivemind of simple hate that comes from a simple audience. In most cases, it is good for such things to happen, if you have a similar mindset, which most people do, then everyone here has done a great job at telling you if or if not you will like School Days, because chances are, you won't like School Days if you consider yourself an average viewer. Solely from looking at the scores, episode discussions, or other threads on forums, you can tell that something went wrong with School Days. Very wrong. But as said, it is simple hate. Most people didn't like this one thing, and therefore everything about it is suddenly trash. I can't call that good criticism, but it is criticism nonetheless. Though you should imagine it like this: "I don't like shounen anime because there is no good story" which a lot of people will say, but shounen anime has a specific purpose at times, that is why the success of it is of no mystery, people like brainless fighting and such along those lines. The same can apply for School Days, it's not bad for what it gives, because that is not looking at the whole picture. In any case, School Days has become one of, if not, the most misunderstood anime I have seen due to this simple hate people have for it. It is a shame because School Days unpacks a lot in which I haven't seen something quite like it done before.

Narrative:
School Days narrative is interesting. It is a real take, to an extreme level, on the absurdity of the harem genre and how such things cannot actually work. Sounds like an interesting thing to get into. I know I would like to see how such a story would turn out, and honestly, I have plenty of good things to say about this story. It may not be magnificent, but it is solid for sure. The writing is a little slow and the good parts come later on, whilst slow stories tend to be the best for most people, if you don't leave yourself enough time things get wrong quickly. In the case of School Days, nothing goes lop-sided but there isn't a lot to feed off because of how it easily throws things to the audience without leaving a good amount of time to take it in. To be fair though, I have no reason to believe School Days was dwelling into understanding the psychological aspects to a significant level, such as for example, the point of symbolism or detailed analysis referring to a lot of external sources, it merely presents it and goes forward. Whether that benefits the writing is something you can comment on, and honestly, it isn't bad in that case, but I would have liked to see more because it could have been better in storytelling in that matter if I am honest. Something else to point out with School Days is what kind of story it is. Some people would level this with Shakespeare quality drama, others will call it the dumbest story on earth. I find myself in between the two. As said, it is merely a presentation of the extreme, accompanied by some decent writing to go with it. Other than that calling it either the best/worst story seems a little extreme because nothing actually gave it anything worth those titles. Nothing in which seems rational anyways. There is a lot more to go into School Days, which I would say makes it better than what I would have described it to be, but that would go into spoilers. I suppose all I can say is that School Days does use quite a bit of interesting plot devices for sure, enhancing experience. As if it slowly descended into this pit of hell to reel out some evil glory. Anyways, good story.

Characters are a strange situation. I will start with the two most hated, Makoto and Sekai. I will be one of the first to say that I didn’t hate Makoto, I don't have that kind of emotion to hate cartoon characters. I also think that the dude isn’t a bad character in a way many will put him as. Yes, he is extremely stupid, but that doesn’t make him a bad character. It's like telling me Spongebob is a bad character for constantly annoying Squidward. What does make Makoto a bad character is that he is literally a representation. He and Sekai are, but Sekai has the benefit of the doubt since the last few episodes change what she has going for her. What I mean by this is that the two exist to do things and that is pretty much it, they have nothing to call themselves and are borderline living plot devices. They are very one-dimensional to the point where you could probably predict everything they do and get it right. What makes it worse is that Makoto and Sekai are main characters that actually have quite a bit of attention, so you are there looking at two ideas do things rather than two humans. It is sad because I would have actually enjoyed School Days more if Makoto and Sekai acted a bit more, let's say, evil, I suppose. It is a case of completely unused potential. In saying all this, however, I can say for sure that they are by no means unwatchable. Obviously, if you have something against immoral characters, then what I have said is false, however, in them being representations, it isn't like you may find yourself staring at complete brick walls, just robots if this analogy goes well.

Kotonoha is one to talk about to. She is without a doubt the best character in here for developing slowly into this mad mindset she has going for herself. She actually experiences major development compared to everyone else in the show. Considering how she is the one who gets the short end of the stick with virtually everyone she interacts with, it would probably be to no surprise that she gets developed so that the story can do something with her. Maybe you could say it is forced, and to some extent, I would agree. But remember this is quite an extreme anime. Anyways it was nice to see her grow with the passing events here. There aren't many problems I can point out with her because she is also one of the most realistic people in School Days. She is generally just fine. I suppose what could make her better was more insight into her, but what can I say, the anime wasn't really supposed to be excessively deep. I like her overall.

As for Setsuna, I honestly didn't think she was entirely bad of a character, only until the last few episodes did she become irrational and a bit more retarded. But hey, teenagers have their limits don't they, they're not very high. Other side characters aren't anything worth the while to talk about, they exist simply to push the plot forward. They did so in a good way on that not too.

Audiovisuals:
With visuals, it is a bit harder to rate them, since this anime is nearly 14 years old, however, I must say that they were pretty good for their time. Nothing to write home about, and I would have said the visuals were better if it had shown off some more detailed scenes, every now and then School Days loves to show a good scene or two but never actually was consistent in this. I can only recall one segment where it showed off what it was capable of with very fluid animation. Maybe too much of the budget would have gone to waste so it didn't try. I am not sure honestly.

The audio is probably School Days highest selling point, I haven't heard something this good in a while. The vocals are what really got it for me but the other instruments accompanied the vocals so well that the OST is something to remember in the long run. It is honestly so good. The OP checks out too, sometimes it randomly plays in my head, it is incredibly catchy and has this hint of melancholia. Everything with OST has been amplified to near-masterpiece territory, no question. The only reason why it isn't a masterpiece is that it doesn't hit like Clannad for example. I have a little complaint with seiyuus too, I really question how much Hirakawa Daisuke got paid to do Makoto's voice because I swear this dude put in zero effort. Legit sounds like some actor out of the worst OVA with scores less than 4.00, it doesn't hurt to listen to but I really think that was low quality. Anyways amazing audio with a few hiccups.

Enjoyment:
At the end of the day, I actually enjoyed School Days, it is a nice twisted anime you don't get every day. Obviously, this varies for everyone, with the score currently standing at 5.63, it suggests that you will probably dislike this a lot if you are not open-minded or really fixated on your viewpoints in life. More times than often do I see people hating School Days than praising it. It is quite polarising so I will just cut myself off by saying look at the stats and the comments with no spoilers if this review didn't quite make it for you. As a personal comment I highly suggest you open your mind really, I have to say that you really do miss out on School Days if you don't actually see what it presents for itself. It is a tragic reaction this gained but it is to be expected.

Overall - 7.1 (7)
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TLDR Review:
Story - 8: Very interesting and nicely played out story. A little too slow but it works out in the end.
Visuals - 6: Fine for its time, hits the nail and that is it.
Audio - 9: Amazing audio. Great vocals and instrumental harmony making for songs to remember in the long run.
Characters - 6: Makoto and Sekai are ideas rather than people. Kotonoha is the best character, has great development. Setsuna fine and everyone else are representations.
Enjoyment - 7: Enjoyable, nothing too amazing though, obviously you won't enjoy this if you don't like people doing evil and disgusting acts. That is just how it is.

Overall - 7.1 (7)
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Not surprised at why people hate this lol. Considering how hivemind hate has gone from hating to douchebags in anime, to hating incest, to hating the representation of adults interacting with underage characters over the course of 14 years, I have to say it is quite an interesting development. In any case, School Days is one of the hardest things to recommend because again, chances are you won't like what you see. Though in saying that, isn't that also contradictory as the anime has successfully created an asshole character as the negative reaction gained is due to the immoral things the MC does? Hey, that is just me on the matter. You have to consider it though. Just saying. One is missing out if they don't watch School Days too. So I leave it off with the old saying:

Having more than one waifu ↵
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will ruin your laifu.