Review of School Days

A pitfall for many shows that attempt to be dark and mature is that they often mistaken edginess for depth. They present dark world views, display acts of immorality and cruelty, all under the misconception that they are laying bare some dark truth of the world. For an example, look no further than this infamous 12 episode anime series. School Days is the perfect picture of a show that confuses sadism for pessimistic insight. This is a show that is thoroughly patience testing in its sheer unpleasantness; saved from the bottom of the barrel only by the karmic bite of its conclusion. While its ambition(to put a dark twist on teenage romance) is quite an interesting one, the show sacrifices human dignity and decency in its attempt to shock us, and becomes too mean-spirited to stand with any sort of validity.

School Days starts simply enough, like all high school romance shows, with a crush. High school student Makoto Itou has a crush on Kotonoha Katsura, a pretty but quite girl from another class. He's had his eye on her for some time, but is unsure of how to approach her. That is until the girl that sits next to him in class, Sekai Saonji, finds out about his crush and decides to help him. After some effort, they succeed, and Makoto and Kotonoha start a timid relationship; while Sekai hides the feelings she has developed for Makoto. Problems begin to emerge when Makoto wants to take the next big step in their relationship, namely having sex, but Kotonoha is less comfortable with rushing things. Makoto looks to Sekai for help, and after some convincing by Makoto the two begin to participate in "practice sessions". Thus, School Days simple romance turns into a profoundly screwed up tale of infidelity, which might have been compelling if it was handled with the maturity and delicacy such a story requires. Alas, this isn't the case.

The biggest and most apparent problem is the characters. The thoroughly unlikeable, usually flat-out despicable characters. Makoto is simply a terrible protagonist. At first he seems like a completely generic rom-com male lead, then as the story continues, he turns into an irredeemable sex-crazed sleaze. His development is essentially like watching plain yogurt become moldy spoiled yogurt. As the series progresses, Makoto spouts lie after lie while completely disregarding the feelings of everyone around him, especially his supposed love interests. When he gets tired of Kotonoha, he avoids and ignores her while starting a sexual relation with Sekai. When he gets tired of Sekai, he moves on to having sex with every girl he comes into contact with, including Sekai's BFF, Setsuna. Any momentary kindness he displays feels like a forced attempt to make him sympathetic, which fails because he is a loathsome little worm. Makoto is such a profound scuzzbad, and his actions so despicable and far removed from what a feeling human being would do; it becomes impossible to empathize with him. It becomes impossible to feel anything other than boiling rage toward him. This might have been the show's intent, but it hardly excuses the mean-spirited lengths the show goes to, and it certainly isn't good characterization. Makoto is one-dimensional scum, and for the show to try to pass him off as an average teenage boy who is misguided because of sexual desires is outright insulting.

Sekai, for her part, is just as despicable in her own two-faced way. She's often shown feeling guilty about having sex with Makoto while he is in a relationship, yet she continues to do so because she's in "love" with him. She even lets people incorrectly think that she's his girlfriend at one point, and lets Setsuna harass Kotonoha about being around Makoto. This is a character that the show expects us to sympathize for. Kotonoha is easily the most sympathetic of the three leads, but doesn't make her likeable, nor does it make her a well written character. She's just the nice, timid girl... until she loses her mind. The stress and paranoia from her strained relationship drives Kotonoha insane in almost comedic fashion; by mid-series she's walking around dead-eyed and delusional, having imaginary phone conversations. Both girls are very unflattering depictions of their gender, each in their own way. However, both share the most undignified of characteristics: their obsessive and unhealthy love for Makoto.

Of course, this might have not happened if every other girl in the show wasn't a bitch to Kotonoha. Majority of the supporting cast, which mainly consists of girls, are there to be horrible to Kotonoha or have sex with Makoto... or (most likely ) both. Even the only guy in the show besides Makoto is a horn-dog who only makes things worse. Herein lies the reason School Days twisted drama doesn't work, none of these characters feel like people, let alone high school students. They are nothing more than mean-spirited caricatures; driven only by an obsession with sex and shallow feelings they take for love, and devoid of any of the other passions or anxieties that people would have at that age. This robs the show of any potential poignancy; since all these characters are lacking humanity, there isn't anything to relate with or sympathize for. All that is left is a mess of unpleasantness.

Still, that isn't to say there is no reward for those who have the patience to sit through this unpleasantness. School Days concludes with a violent flash of karma. I'll restrain myself from giving away any details (though I'm sure most already know what happens), but suffice to say that it is satisfying to watch characters get some well deserved comeuppance. It isn't really enough to forgive all the anger inducing smut that came before, but does enough to qualify it as a guilty pleasure for those who enjoy watching miserable excuses for people learn that karma is a bitch... the hard way. (i.e. me)

Visually, School Days looks like most visual novel adaptations. Character designs with big eyes and cute faces, wearing neat school uniforms. Backgrounds that comprise of the usual class rooms, apartments, rooftops and cityscapes. This isn't of any surprise as the show is adapted from a visual novel, and attempts to be a deconstruction of sorts for the genre. The music is also reminiscent of most visual novel adaptations, though some tracks are a bit more focused on evoking shock or dread. Unfortunately, it isn't all that effective nor well composed; it almost feels just tacked on to some scenes. Sometimes it is unnoticeable, other times distracting. The inset song that plays at the climactic scene in the final episode is oddly fitting and certainly memorable, though the latter might just be because the scene it is featured in.

School Days is a failed attempt at a dark subversion of school romance dramas. Sure, it took dark shocking twists that turn some tropes of the genre on their heads, but ultimately it was all for naught. In all its effort to shock and offend us, the show throws out any notions of human decency and consequently gives us almost nothing to connect to. As a result, it comes across as extremely juvenile; something a disgruntled teenager who has no idea what he is talking about would write and claim as a deconstruction of the romance genre. It is a vile, horribly convinced, poorly written monstrosity. It must be said, however, that School Days isn't something easily forgotten. It's the kind of bad that will linger in your head long after you finish it. At the very least, the ending will most certainly be burned into your mind.