Amethyst Dream

Series Review: School Days

I don’t think I really need to tell anyone how horrible this series was. It’s already a well-known fact.
(I LOVE THIS IMAGE thx 4chan)

Makoto Ito rides the train to and from school every day. However, at the beginning of his second term, he falls in love with a beautiful girl that also rides the train. Unfortunately, she barely knows of his existence. Her name is Kotonoha Katsura, and though they attend the same school, they are not in the same class. In an attempt to catch her eye, Makoto enlists the aid of a close female friend of his: Sekai Saionji. She helps him, despite the fact that she–unbeknownst to Makoto–is in love with him. Thus the three are bound in a love triangle of life changing proportions.
(source: ANN)
Talk about trainwreck! I’ll never understand why some people refer to Makoto as ‘the most realistic harem lead’. That’s realism? Well, if that’s realism, goddamn I hope I never end up like Sekai. Like most people, I watched this series hoping for one of the notorious ‘Bad End’s (thank God we got it) and nothing more. I wasn’t expecting anything, I had no high hopes. I’ve played through a decent portion of the game, and knew the anime would be terrible.. considering the game isn’t the greatest, either. Filled with infidelity, drama, rape, and horny males and females, School Days would have gone relatively under the radar if not for the ending. After having the last episode postponed due to a young girl murdering her father with an axe, School Days’ popularity definitely soared even more, leaving people curious.. and probably more willing to watch. Goddamn, they weren’t disappointed..

The ending–a true gorefest on par with episodes of Higurashi S1–had Sekai killing Makoto, Kotonoha discovering his body and consequently decapitating him, Kotonoha killing Sekai, opening her up to verify her pregnancy, and then cruizin off on her yacht with Makoto’s head. Kickass, if I do say so myself. As well as deserved on both Makoto and Sekai’s parts. Well deserving of being postponed. I’ve seen a couple people label it as ‘overboard’.. I don’t see it that way. In my opinion, both Sekai and Makoto got their comeupance: both contributed to the problem. Both–though especially Makoto–made it worse. You gotta hand it to Kotonoha for being such a badass though.

To me, honestly, this anime had no saving grace. I finished watching it out of obligation, and have come out of it with nothing, not even the usual feeling of satisfaction. While chocked-full of drama, it was very dry and even the bits of awkward humor they tried to stick in occasionally failed miserably.

I would like my 6 hours back.
(ps: I have ever so many great crazy!Kotonoha images, that I just felt like sharing my two favourite)

Tags: bad end, drama, school days