Review of School Days

(SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY) School Days, eh...? The infamous anime about a love triangle that turns into a enneagon, and made thousands of people cringe due to the characters motivations and its infamous ending. Time to have some words about it. Even though you can tell by my score that my opinion about this anime is not positive, which is not wrong in any means, I won't call it a "bad written", in part because this became a common sense in the community, and this review would be like any other here. But, even with my thoughts about it in mind, I will make the complete disclaimer here. So again,the purpose of this review is not to bash the anime out and call it "bad written", as most people do. To be honest, I don't even find SD apalling, as most people claim. However there is, obviously, no intentions to glorify it either, as I've seen in some reviews here. Still taking about this, this review will take into consideration the fans who call this anime a "desconstruction" of the harem, which I think is a very dubious and generic argument (if that is even an argument). But to end the "realism" sense here, which is one of the least logical terms to School Days, one axiom needs to stand out (which is not necessarily about SD by any means, but about media in general);

Reality doesn't mean high quality - nor lack of realism means low quality.

Pick Odyssey. Ulysses' goal is to see his family again after war - which happened a lot during that period. But the mystic elements don't ruin it in any means, they actually enhance the experience. If Odyssey didn't have those ideas, it would still be a wonderful and memorable work of art, but it just wouldn't be the same if Ulysses just returned home as expected, without any issues. Now pick 20.000 Leagues Under The Sea, from Jules Verne. It depicts a saga in Nemo's submarine, told by Pierre Arronax, a teacher and doctor. It is a very good book, but it feels boring in some parts, due to the immense detailing regarding fauna and flora of the ocean. It is realistic, but Odyssey use its elements in hand way better.

But let us first begin with School Days plot, before the subject changes completely.

School Days is an anime released in 2007 (wow, 15 years already, uh). It tells the story of Makoto Itou, a 15 year old freshman, and his love triangle, consisted of other two students: Katsura Kotonoha and Sekai Saionji.

The story already begins with Makoto in a train, taking a picture of Katsura, and using it as his new wallpaper in the cellphone. He did this because it was told to him that, if somebody keeps their crush's picture as a wallpaper for a certain period of time, they will end up together (without the crush's acknowledge). So, we learn by this very scene that he feels an obsession towards this girl, that is kind of creepy if you think about it right away. In the end of the episode, they both start dating, but in the very last scene, Makoto kisses Sekai.

From that moment, the main character's obsession and passion fades away. And he starts dating with Sekai, which started because, acording to her, he had to "train his dating skills". With Makoto's fame rising in school, nearly every female student hooks up with him. After the "love enneagon arc" finishes, the story focus again on the three main characters. Sekai is pregnant, but at that time the MC tells her to do abortion, and then suddenly decides to go after Katsura again, even though they were a couple in the whole anime, but Itou never dumped her. Mad about it, Saionji stabs him several times, and is confronted later by Kotonoha, who kills Sekai, and then opens her belly, discovering that there was never a baby (or she didn't want to see it). The anime ends with Kotonoha holding Makoto's head in a boat trip through the sea.

Now, one thing that always makes me grind my gears is the NPC behaviour, present in most of the characters. They seem alienated, especially the three characters. Not only that, but their attitude doesn't make sense at all. Makoto's sudden change of thought feels out of place, and he is one of the worst main characters of all time, not because he is evil - again, a bad argument, since there are way worse (morally speaking) characters, that are well written and even commended, such as Griffith and Askeladd. With this in mind, I've heard from fans that his annoying persona is what makes him hated, but this is just not true. The character's main problem is that his motivations and reasons are all out of place. Even though his problem regarding self control is interesting and was explored in the anime, the whole character doesn't work like a logical human being, starting from his sudden change of reasons in the very first episode.

Katsura was one of the few characters that left me a good impression (almost the only one), and her neediness towards Makoto, along with mind issues worsening, were surprising. Sekai is manipulative, and had complete safety about her relationship with Itou, but deep inside she was as needy as Katsura emotionally.

Most of the characters are bad morally, such as Sekai herself and even Makoto's friend, Otome? Yes. The sudden love felt towards the MC is illogical? Yes. But their morals is not the reason why it didn't appeal to me, as it is heard here and there.

It relies a lot in fan service and more girls to make the story continue, but it wrecks by not developing any of the relationships, and not having anything substantial in the middle part of the anime (not only in the middle, but whatever). After all, it is just about Makoto hanging around with the other students, and leaving Kotonoha out to dry, just for the sake of the infamous ending. Everything worked out just for that moment.

The other elements didn't really amaze me, but were ok, considering the quality of the anime. Music was good, but nothing unforgettable; the design was generic, but I liked it. None of the other elements come as close as the train wreck that becomes the anime itself.

School Days, in general, is a very divisive anime, that did right things, but also had lots of bad ideas. Do I recommend you to watch it?

Yes and No.

It was a very unique experience, I'll never watch anything like it. I'm sure of it. But the whole plot wasn't worthy of the time, even though I had this morbid reason to see where it would end. However, it doesn't matter, since the ones who didn't watch will do it either way... sigh

Don't hold high expectations, and enjoy the wreck.