Anime Hajime Review: School Days

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for School Days. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

While riding the train to school every day, Makoto Ito (voiced by Daisuke Hirakawa) can’t take his eyes off a beautiful girl. Unsure of how to approach, Makoto resigns himself to looking at her from afar.

One day, Makoto’s close friend, Sekai Saionji (voiced by Shiho Kawaragi) learns of Makoto’s crush. After some light teasing, Sekai does something unexpected. She befriends the girl whose name is Kotonoha Katsura (voiced by Tae Okajima). Now with a reason to talk, Makoto and Kotonoha grow close and begin dating.

However, Makoto isn’t sure how to be a boyfriend. No matter what he tries, Kotonoha won’t respond the way he expects. Looking for advice, Makoto keeps turning to Sekai. He does this enough and starts to think Kotonoha is on the duller side of things. While still in a relationship with Kotonoha, Makoto begins sleeping with Sekai.

With an array of conflicting emotions, Makoto is unaware of the harm he is causing. That or he doesn’t care. Little by little, his indifferent actions and sex drive creates a huge mess.

A story that started as a fairy tale romance becomes something a lot crueler.

Series Positives

The review before this one was Azumanga Daioh. In it, I mentioned how I was acutely aware of what I was watching next. School Days is what I was referring to when I said that.

Azumanga Daioh was my most anticipated series of Pre-Blog Month 2. In contrast, School Days was the one I was dreading the most. I was not looking forward to watching this again. Many elements about it are, at best, forgettable. The show’s standard level was annoying and frustrating. Then at worst, things got downright disgusting. We will get into all that.

But before we do, I must answer some pressing questions.

I hold a lot of contempt towards School Days. It is not a fun sit. Thus, why would I bother coming back to it? Not only that, why would I make it the cap off to Pre-Blog Month? Last year, I gave that distinction to Anohana, one of the best anime I have ever seen.

To start, last year I also reviewed Gantz, a series that, in my opinion, is trash. It’s in my bottom ten. No bottom five. Okay, bottom three, it’s garbage. Nevertheless, I sat through it again. I did so because I just had to explore “why.” Why was it so awful?

The same self-punishing reasoning went into my decision to come back to School Days. I had to figure out why it did the things that it did.

Let me make this clear now. School Days is rough. I will never claim it to be anything else. It has many problems. Except I nowhere near hate it as much as I do Gantz. I’m not trying to say School Days is good; don’t think that I am. But School Days’ brand of headache fuel is far and away more fascinating than Gantz’s.

Gantz is simple and straightforward. The show sucks, end of story. You don’t need to try hard to see the mistakes that series took as it traveled down its path. It was like an inexperienced hiker thinking maps and established trails are for the weak. Is it any wonder how they would get lost? With School Days, on the other hand, I don’t believe this is the case.

The choices this show made were baffling. But try as I might, I can’t bring myself to say they were choices made by mistake. The directions School Days took were so mind-bogglingly wrong they had to be deliberate. They had to be.

School Days is an adaptation of the visual novel of the same name. I have never read the source material and thus what I am about to say may be way off the mark. Me being right or wrong though doesn’t excuse what the show did. Except if I am right I can explain the motivations.

Through my experience with other visual novels, dating sims, and video games in general, my gut is telling me one thing. School Days the anime is a faithful adaptation of the source material. Here are my reasons.

While playing School Days, the player will be presented with options from time to time. Those options will determine the outcome of the particular route the player has decided to go down. The ultimate goal is to foster a relationship with one of the possible characters to select from. Also from what I can tell, and the anime confirms this, School Days is an eroge. Therefore, “foster a relationship” is code for sexual intercourse.

To get this out of the way, School Days, the show, did have a fair amount of awkward fanservice. There were a lot of up-skirt shots that were dumb and forced in for no reason. There was also some nudity. I’m not going to harp on this aspect since there was enough BS to make the subpar fanservice come off as inconsequential.

For the series, the player, in this instance, the storytellers, were the one making the decisions. Every time they got to a decisive moment, they chose the option that would cause the main protagonist to come off as terrible as possible. The consequence of this resulted in the scumbag known as Makoto Ito.

How else would you explain the creation of this douche?

Makoto Ito is one of the most despicable, arrogant, repulsive characters I have had the displeasure of coming across. No, scratch that. He IS the most despicable, arrogant, repulsive character in anime. I kind of want someone to prove me wrong, but I also don’t because that would mean there is someone worse. And if there is, knowing me, I would then have to watch their show since I don’t know any better.

Regardless, that was but a taste of my hatred towards this character. I brought it up here because it does help illustrate my theory on this show’s mindset.

There aren’t many positive things about School Days. One of those positive things though is a culmination of these bad choices. Out of this month, it was this show that produced the most satisfying moment.

Near the end of this story, Makoto was at the pinnacle of his dickishness. He was riding high and didn’t care about, or even realized, the wake of destruction he was leaving. And at his peak, Makoto’s world crumbled. Everywhere he looked, his fortress of asshole broke, withered, and fell. Every girl he had fooled around with, he took advantage of, or he betrayed, abandoned him. He was left alone in the fecal mud he had created for himself.

Watching this guy beg on his knees through his tears was fantastic. Keep in mind; this was not worth sitting through the eleven episodes it took to get here. But since I had done that, I enjoyed every second of it. There are many aspects of School Days I remember. And this always puts a smile on my face. You best believe I was looking forward to this scene with glee.

Never has a character made me so pro-suffering. You don’t reach the level Makoto did and have this kind of payoff by chance. A story sets out to have this scene. This was a goal, not a byproduct. If the real point of this show was to watch the vilest anime character ever crash and burn, then School Days was a rousing success. There are two problems though.

One, the ends didn’t justify the means. Knowing this would be the payoff, I would rather skip the entire show. This scene didn’t make up for everything that happened before it. Suppose I offered you ten dollars no strings attached. But for twenty, you must allow me to tase you every hour on the hour for the next twenty-four hours. I know I would take the money and run.

Two, I’m running under the assumption I am correct in my theory. What if I’m not? What if the storytellers weren’t trying to create the greatest troll anime of all time?  What if they were genuine in their depiction of Makoto? That would be an issue. That would indicate the people behind this show had no idea what they were doing. And in their incompetence, they succeeded in bringing us one of the most sickening series of the medium.

I have enough faith in people to not assume this worst-case scenario. But School Days does make it difficult.

Series Negatives

I am going to try to keep this as organized as possible. There were a lot of things wrong with School Days. For most of the show, things were a mess. To ignore the worst of the worst, for now, there were plenty of technical and storytelling problems.

For one, the animation was bland. Visually, this series is not impressive. There was nothing about this show that was unique regarding its art style. If anything, this was as generic as they come. Even as I am writing this review, not a single physical detail about any of the characters is coming to mind easily. None of them stood out.

For instance, Makoto. Whenever I hear this series’ name, I think of how much I do not like this guy. But if you were to show me a photo of him with no context six months from now, I doubt I would recognize him. The same is true for the entire cast.

For the two female leads, Sekai and Kotonoha, I’ve seen them in many other, far better shows. Even their more “distinguishing” traits weren’t that inspired. Sekai has an ahoge in her hairstyle, and Kotono has large breasts. A series is going to need a lot more than that to leave any impact.

Then there was everyone else. Even as I was watching School Days, some of the secondary characters weren’t noticeable. They were around now and then, but each time they showed up, it was like meeting them for the first time. And of course, I don’t remember their names. When I mention a few of these people in a moment, don’t think I am doing so out of memory.

To go along with School Days' lackluster visuals, there was an odd amount of slapstick. None of these moments worked. Most were highly inappropriate given the circumstances of what was going on. For example, in episode eight, School Festival, there was an all-out classroom war in an attempt to bring in customers during the school’s cultural festival. It was goofy, silly, and flat out dumb. As well as uncalled for.

In the episode prior, Kotonoha finally had her long-awaited confrontation with Sekai. Things had been leading to this moment. The aftermath of it was real, and the characters were aware of this exchange. Why then would this series think anyone would care about this weak attempt at humor? Also, there was a nut shot joke around this time. That was the level of stupidity School Days employed.

Granted I wasn’t one hundred percent against this kick to the groin since it was Makoto on the receiving end. That notwithstanding, this story didn’t warrant this type of comedy.

In the beginning, School Days could have gotten away with this. You might find these moments amusing to a degree if you’ve never seen the show. But since I knew what was coming, these early episodes were gross.

And what I just said was at the core of why this was not an enjoyable re-watch. Knowing where this story was going, the stepping stones to that ultimate point were disturbing. I can imagine it now. During my first viewing of School Days, I would have told myself, “there is no way things will get that bad.” Except this show did get that bad. The series started a descent it never came up from. 

I am a firm believer that the goal a storyteller has in mind is for them to decide. If they want to create a tale about awful people doing awful things, that is their choice. This decision will not make the product fun for the consumer, but perhaps fun is not the point. Maybe the storyteller wants to create something intriguing or thought-provoking. And those words don’t describe School Days.

It's okay to have one or two characters who have no reasoning for their despicable actions if there is someone or something to counterbalance them. But when a story has almost its entire cast like this, the whole thing becomes mean-spirited. And in the case of School Days, there is no excuse as to why it went as far as it did.

The Characters

I want to bring this person up here because she was not the problem. Kotonoha was not a bad character. She had to deal with everything. She was the first victim of Makoto’s terribleness. Not only that, she was the target for everyone else too. And she did nothing to deserve this treatment.

The reason I didn’t mention Kotonoha in the Positives section was due to there not being any positivity around her. By the end of this show, the story had broken her. For the rest of this sub-section of the review, a large part of why the next few characters were insufferable was because of their treatment towards Kotonoha.

The first is Otome Katou (voiced by Haruka Nagami). Her biggest crime was being the leader of her group of vulture friends. Otome and her clique never had anything better to than give Kotonoha a hard time. Unfortunately for Kotonoha, this was something they were very efficient at doing.

On the brighter side of things, Otome was a nonentity for most of the show. This was fantastic since it meant we didn’t have to look at her. Except, none of that mattered because when she did become a significant player, she was nothing but selfish and self-serving.

Otome had a crush on Makoto. Why she did is beyond me though. Her feelings towards our protagonist do explain why she would feel jealousy towards Kotonoha. It doesn’t excuse her actions, but that’s not what I’m trying to say.

When Otome became important, Makoto had just abandoned Kotonoha for Sekai. Despite knowing Makoto was seeing somebody else, Otome had no problem becoming his side chick. Or to put it another way, Otome was now the same thing Sekai was to Kotonoha. And Otome’s resolve in this matter didn’t change even after a very public exposure of her affair with Makoto.

This element could have worked had Otome, you know, been a part of the show beforehand. Instead, School Days used Otome having sex with Makoto to start an insane chain reaction.  After these two did it, almost every other female character decided they should sleep with Makoto too.

Otome being the third girl Makoto was with would have been more than enough to setup Makoto’s breaking scene. Instead, the show, out of nowhere, made Makoto irresistible to women and abandoned the already well-defined roles of other characters.

For instance, School Days made it clear that Hikari Kuroda (voiced by Ryouko Tanaka), a person who had no bearing on anything ever, had a crush on someone who wasn’t Makoto. Then, surprise, guess who began sleeping with who?

You might be asking yourself, “How did Hikari and Makoto end up alone together despite almost never having said two words to each other?” Hikari had gone to Makoto’s apartment to convince him to see Sekai who was in a deep depression. Nevermind one of the reasons Sekai was depressed was because Makoto had cheated on her with Otome. And then one thing led to another.

By the way, School Days never showed us what Makoto said to convince Hikari to get into bed with him. I can say this guy is a lot of things, but charmer is not one of them.

This entire spiral began because a nobody character, Otome, threw themselves at Makoto. And I didn’t even touch on the fact Otome’s parasites known as friends also had sex with Makoto. What was their rationale for doing this? They didn’t want to feel left out.

It’s tearing me apart knowing I’m not done.

Another hard-to-like character was Setsuna Kiyoura (voiced by Keiko Imoto). Unlike Otome though, Setsuna’s tale was much more tragic. It’s easier to understand why she did what she did. Too bad Setsuna’s actions ruined Kotonoha’s life. That and the show took this way too far.

Setsuna believed Makoto was the one who could make her best friend, Sekai, happy. Due to circumstances, Setsuna could no longer be around to support Sekai who wasn’t the most emotionally stable. In her mind, Setsuna was looking out for her friend. She concluded, if helping Sekai meant destroying someone else’s happiness, so be it.

Setsuna’s mistake was thinking Makoto was a decent human being. For a character who appeared to be observant and levelheaded, she completely misinterpreted the situation. After helping push Kotonoha and Makoto apart, Setsuna tried to do the same thing with Otome. The difference was, Makoto had developed a massive ego and had stopped caring about other people’s feelings.

In a last-ditch effort to convince Makoto to stay with Sekai, Setsuna offered herself up to him. This was an act that resulted in nothing. Makoto wasted no time in going back on his promise.

To give School Days some credit, Setsuna was a decent tragic character. Or at least she would have been. Why did this show insist on making it so Setsuna also had a crush on Makoto? I’m against anything that would elevate this asshat; he doesn’t deserve it. And by doing this, the series compromised all of Setsuna’s motivations.

Although I believe Setsuna did have Sekai’s best interest at heart, the possibility of a more self-serving endgame exists.  Before the two had sex, Setsuna, unprovoked, kissed Makoto. Nothing forced her to do that. She saw an opportunity and took it.

Ulterior motives or not, Setsuna was in the wrong. She placed her faith in the dog turd Makoto. That and she was enabling Sekai’s selfishness.

Speaking of Sekai, it was her actions that started this whole thing. She was the person who introduced Makoto to Kotonoha. And she did this with the intention of bringing these two together. This type of plot point is a frustrating romance trope I see all the time. But School Days found a way to make this even worse.

Upon learning of Makoto’s crush, Sekai went out of her way to befriend Kotonoha. Sekai set out to create a bridge for these two to meet. Once Makoto and Kotonoha started dating, Sekai was the one giving advice whenever Kotonoha’s new boyfriend was a prick. She was also the one who would reprimand Makoto whenever he was that said prick.

Because apparently, a person needs someone to tell them that looking at porn on the first date might be a turn-off. That’s not a joke. Makoto did that.

Sekai did all this work that no one asked her to do. A generous act, sure, but Sekai didn’t fall for Makoto after this. She had feelings towards him long before she introduced herself to Kotonoha. And it wasn’t as if she was in denial for a while for the sake of adding tension to the narrative. She kissed Makoto at the end of the first episode.

Sekai went from meeting Kotonoha to stabbing her in the back in the blink of an eye.

Then Sekai dared to complain when Makoto dumped her for another girl. Everything she did to Kotonoha she claimed was unfair when they happened to her. Plus, not only was Sekai already in an unwinnable position, the girl she was berating was Kotonoha.

Show, did you think I would have had sympathy for this character? I didn’t, especially by the end of her story. In the beginning, I was on the fence. Sekai at least understood what she was doing was wrong. The guilt was so intense that she was on the verge of confessing to Kotonoha. Makoto, who was oblivious to how his unfaithfulness to Kotonoha was a bad thing, convinced Sekai not to say a word.

Now I have a question for you. Which of these two people is worse? Is it the person who releases the monster or is it the monster itself? For School Days, the right answer couldn’t be any clearer.

Makoto

Frail Utopian Carsick Kingpin Taunted Horrible Invisible Slaves Softly Consequently Heroic Muscular Unicorns Cheeped Keenly.

That’s not me having a stroke. Brownie points to those who decode that message.

Makoto Ito can die in a pit for all I care. He was the reason I was hesitant to come back to this series. In the past, I have described characters as insufferable, annoying, infuriating; the list goes on. But never before has a character made me feel ill.

I’m not saying the female characters I mentioned don’t have their share of the blame. What I am saying is, they do not even begin to compare to this waste of life.

Knowing what I was getting myself into, I wanted to make a list of every awful thing Makoto did during the show. Here are the results.

- There was the already mentioned looking at porn on his first date with Kotonoha.

- He went to an arcade and played a fighting game, solo, on the same first date.

- He expected a kiss after the first date.

- He was clearly the only one who thought the date went well.

- He brought Kotonoha to a movie theater and then didn’t let her pick the film for their second date.

- He attempted to force a kiss on Kotonoha who was actively trying to get away.

- He blamed Sekai for him being an ass.

And that is where I stopped making the list because God damn it, I wasn’t past episode two. But trust me, it got way worse. Makoto made douchebag frat boys look like gentlemen. He was manipulative, narcissistic, revolting, obnoxious, and do I have to keep going? Merely think of every synonym for the word “bad.” Whatever you come up with describes Makoto.

I can even pinpoint the moment he started down the path to becoming irredeemable. It came at the end of episode three, yes as early as episode three, Missing Each Other. When talking to Sekai about his recent date, he mentioned how being with Kotonoha was tiring.

When Kotonoha wouldn’t put out, Makoto moved on to Sekai who would. The scene where Makoto and Sekai started their relationship, the atmosphere was like any you would get in other romance stories. The rain was pouring; the two were staring into each other’s eyes and they locked-in with a passionate kiss. Except instead of Makoto embracing Sekai, he was feeling her up the entire time.

By the end of the show, every girl who talked to Makoto was no longer a person in his eyes. The only thing he saw was something new for him to put his dick in. Can you blame me for enjoying the scene where his world fell apart? He deserved a much more severe blow to the gut.

There are not many things to like about School Days. It is a hard watch. If you have played the visual novels, there is no point in seeing this. If you have already seen the show, there is no reason to ever come back to it. And if you have never heard of the series before this review, then I recommend it.

You didn’t misread that.

If you know nothing about the School Days franchise, then I recommend watching this show. Immediately below this point in the review, you will see a large image. Right below that will be a block of text with no pictures accompanying it.

If you are someone who knows nothing about the series, DO NOT READ THIS SECTION. Scroll right past it. Please jump straight to my Final Thoughts. For everyone who knows the game or has seen the show, I invite you to continue along.

I apologize for the random recommendation, but I’m afraid I have no choice in the matter.

School Days

For those who have seen the series, I’m curious. Did you think I would not talk about this? Why would I bother returning to an otherwise forgettable show? Well as we know, “forgettable” doesn’t describe School Days.

There was no mistake or coincidence. I knew this show was going to be part of Pre-Blog Month 2, and I planned for it to be the send-off for the event.

If you have not watched the show and did not heed my warning, you have no idea what I am talking about. Let’s just say, episode twelve, School Days, took a turn. A turn that, if you’re not ready for it, is shocking.

For you see, School Days, the game, has a reputation. I’m not referring to its eroge qualities. There are plenty of visual novels out there with sex and fanservice to meet your needs in this regard. Getting a “good ending” means you will get to see those things. Get a “bad ending” in School Days though, and you will learn of this reputation.

School Days is famous for its brutality. We are talking blood; we are talking violence. So, let’s be honest. If you’re going to make a series based on such a game, you don’t go with the less popular happy option.

Why do I believe the storytellers were trying to get a “bad ending” for Makoto? It’s because he got one.

This section belongs in the Series Positives segment of this review. The last episode of School Days is well-done. And knowing this was where the story was leading, it made several moments earlier in the series unnerving.

After Makoto’s breakdown, he decided to try to start fresh with Kotonoha. I don’t believe for a single second he was genuine in his desire to begin a new relationship. But then again it doesn’t matter. By doing this, Makoto broke ties with Sekai. This was a problem because Sekai claimed to be pregnant with Makoto’s child. Thus, Makoto abandoning the mother of his kid is yet another reason why he is lower than dirt.

To the shock of no one, except Makoto, this did not sit well with Sekai. To add insult to injury, Makoto blamed Sekai for getting pregnant, and instead of offering his help, he expected her to get an abortion. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Sekai told Makoto she wanted to talk and met him at his place. Once there, Sekai excused herself to the kitchen, and that was when Makoto heard his phone go off in the other room. Upon seeing the message, Makoto was confused. The sender was Sekai.

Makoto opened the text where the first line said, “Sorry.” What followed was nothing but space markers that went down and down and down. In the background, you could hear the sound of a teakettle whistling getting louder and louder. The message continued further with more of nothing. And by the way, this was beyond creepy. And then at the end, there was a single word.

Good-bye.

What proceeded was one of the most insane anime finales I’ve come across. Remember how I equated Makoto’s breakdown to an offer. I could give you ten dollars, or for twenty, tase you for one day. For this ending, replace twenty with a hundred. A little more tempting isn’t it?

Final Thoughts

There isn’t a lot to like about this show.

From beginning to end, this is a test of patients. A test that is hard to pass. This series boasts lackluster animation and occasions of awkward humor. Most of the cast is insufferable. Redeeming qualities are few and far between. But even these issues are fine when compared to Makoto. He is the absolute worst.

Except if you’ve never seen this show and know nothing about the series, I must recommend it. For anyone who is thinking about giving this another shot, I’ve already done it for you. There is no reason to come back.

The last thing I have to say about School Days is, it’s pretty unique.

But these are just my thoughts. What are yours? Have you seen this show? How would you advise School Days? Leave a comment down below because I would love to hear what you have to say.

And if you liked what you read, be sure to follow me on my social media sites so that you never miss a post or update. Also, please share this review across the internet to help add to the discussion.

I’m LofZOdyssey and thank you for joining me for Pre-Blog Month 2. I’ll see you next time.

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