Review of School Days
Chances are, if you are viewing this page, you have seen this series, or are aware of what happens in the end, and the circumstances surrounding its broadcast (nice boat etc). School Days is one of those anime series that demands you form an opinion of it, whether disgust, hilarity, depression, aggression, School Days is successful in, if nothing else, than garnering an emotion. At the outset, the plot seems pretty straight-forwards, a simple romantic comedy with possible harem connotations, not unlike shows like Haruka Nogizaka no Himtsu. By the end you are presented with one of the most unique (for better or worse) anime experiencesyou'll have. At it's core the show is simply misanthropic. No other way to describe it. The teenagers involved engage in a web of lies, infidelity and meaningless sex, not to mention the bullying, murder and rape; you know, the sort of show you can sit down and watch with your Grandmother on a nice Sunday afternoon.The story is fast paced if utterly ridiculous, most of the problems with the story lie with the lack of good characterisation. However, the anime seems to be struggling against the constraints of the source material at times. School Days, the H game is not a particularly good H game, and many of the complaints against the anime can be traced back to problems with the H game. This, however, does not excuse the bad dialogue and over-reliance on melodrama the anime has. The story in School Days is acceptable if only for its novelty and sheer exaggeration, although nothing more.
The Art of School Days is by the most part acceptable. Remaining true to the source material (albeit with much better animation), it is not particularly adventurous, yet not anything special either. The characters don't seem to be all that expressive, even during the emotional scenes (and, my God are there a lot of those). Also the characters have ink for blood and probably never sleep as they all have bags under their eyes.
The problem with the sound is not the delivery, although interviews with the Seiyuus indicate they way not have fully understood their characters properly ("Makoto's just an indecisive character, and a bit [!] of a pervert as well"). The problem with the sound lies with the dialogue. The poor dialogue really hampers characterisation and often sounds clunky and unrealistic.
Makoto is one of the most notable characters in anime, if only for the massive shitstorm his very presence manages to conjure up. Simultaneously whiny, indecisive and self-centered, I often find myself saying Makoto's promiscuity would be completely respectable if only he was a fucking man about it. the female leads seem incapable of rational thought, not that it's a particularly strong trait in anyone in this anime, and the more minor characters are so laughably badly developed that in the end they are robbed of any of their motivations and are reduced by the director to simple cock sleeves for Makoto. The characters in School Days are bad, just bad, but, here's the rub, they are effective. They create emotion in the viewer, whether empathy, exasperation or hatred, the characters are doing something many anime characters no longer do, and actually make you feel something.
I did not enjoy School Days when I first watched it. Maybe I took it too seriously at the time, but the show was so callous, I couldn't really enjoy it. It seemed to delight in the agonies of the characters, yet unlike a good soap opera, didn't provide any emotional resolution (consequence-free murder and an abrupt ending don't count). Others found enjoyment in mocking it, others found enjoyment in being able to get angry for half an hour every week. Not me though, by the time episode 11 finished I didn't want to watch it anymore, and only the promise of a BAD END made me continue.