School Days (TV)

School Days

Finally, another controversial anime. Ever since the hugely destructive emo soap opera in the name of Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien left me breathless, I’ve been clamoring for some other show that has all the angst of a mature romance story in anime form. Alas, no other anime ever came close to the greatness of that one… until School Days. But the question is, did School Days topple Kiminozo in my heart? Well, let’s see…

Based on the [animated bishoujo game->school-days] of the same name, School Days is a tale mainly of three persons and their love stories. There’s Sekai, the girl-next-door type, and Kotonoha, the ojou-sama type. The two of them are vying for the love of Makoto, our tired but true male lead. The setting is, as you may know… high school. These three characters become entangled in one of the most craziest plots I have ever seen in an anime. Okay fine, it starts out rather generic enough, Makoto likes Kotonoha, and Sekai is trying to bridge the two together. Well that’s nice and all… until Sekai starts to ‘seduce’ Makoto. Now let’s get the rollercoaster to hell rolling shall we?

Makoto joins the ranks of Bakayuki in being one of the greatest idiots in all of anime. All of us watching seem to agree, as we see him screwing up in every way possible. Watching him act like a freaking idiot every single second made the anime oh so frustrating to watch on the first few episodes. Her dates with Kotonoha were purely impossible, and he doesn’t understand girls’ feelings. The worst thing about Bakoto is how he is a crazed s*x maniac. Seriously, all he ever thought about was S*X, S*X, and more S*X. I could blame Sekai for that, because she was his first mate, but at least she wanted a proper relationship. But hell no, Bakoto had the nerve ‘not’ to break it up with Kotonoha at this point. That left Kotonoha pretty much devastated, she starts to become delirious, still believing as if Makoto were still her boyfriend. Stupid Makoto, if you only properly broke up with Kotonoha early on, this School Days anime would have been over in six episodes.

But that wouldn’t be fun… so let’s delve on the next half. Ah, this is where things get REAL interesting, because Makoto is by far the greatest s*x machine in the history of any harem anime… ever. By context of the story, I would really, really hate Makoto. BUT, by context on how I enjoyed his character, I like him because he is different from all other male leads of anime. Compared to him, all other harem/bishoujo anime male leads are wimps and losers. They only stumble and fall into their girls in ecchi situations, but that’s just it. Makoto is different… he SCREWS ‘EM ALL! Holy crap… in retrospect he had sexy time with a ever-so grand total of seven girls. AWESOME! Take that you other anime male losers. He gets the goods while you shy away from your girls. He’s da man.

Err…

Why am I talking more about the guy and not the girls? School Days the game can pass as a very nice introduction to bishoujo gaming, mostly because the girls here are extremely generic stereotypes found elsewhere. Lessee, Sekai is the generic girl-next-door and Kotonoha is the ojou-sama. We also have an imouto-loli, a know-it-all loli, an energetic semi-loli, a tall cool-beauty, a cool beauty childhood friend, and three girl bullies. All your base covered, maybe. The ridiculous thing here is that 90% of them are attracted to Bakoto in more ways than one, and that he basically had 70% of them ‘overpowered’. Ok, that’s typical eroge for you, but I can’t remember any other eroge-based anime where relationships can be so freaking multi-sexual. And this is one case of major plot-hole and non-structure, because I can’t comprehend how some of those girls acted. Friend screws Makoto ‘and’ tells him to be faithful with his girlfriend? These girls may be generic but towards the end they screw up their characterization.

Part of School Days’ appeal is that it could defy all logic and standards in anime storytelling, especially in such generic eroge->anime conversions. I don’t know if this is either in the “it’s so bad it’s good” or the “it’s freaking Kiminozo on steroids” category. All I know is that the in-anime craziness and [outside controversies->nice-boat] near the end made this one for the history books. Whether you like it or not, School Days has one of the most memorable endings in anime… ever, not only because it was ‘axed’ and replaced by a nice boat, but because the real ending itself IS a freaking nice boat (yacht)! Kudos to TV Kanagawa for ‘accidentally’ creating a funny meme that could actually tie in to the show itself… or is it JUST AS PLANNED? I bet EPIC LOL is heard all over the internet by now, and this is such an exciting time, because as far as I can tell ‘anyone’ can be satisfied with the kind of ending they made. When anime nowadays seem to have crappy or incomplete endings, this one breaks the mold. It catered to the School Days gamers by doing a rendition of some of the more popular (bad) endings in the game, and at the same time catered to avid Makoto-haters because he really got what he deserved in the end. Great, great ending!

Fanservice is the name of the game here. The girls are beautiful, very moe~, and wildly HOT. I’m not a big fan of these ecchi things but it adds to the flavor and nature of the story itself. The music was quite forgettable but I think it did strike a tone at some scenes. It kinda feels like the game itself, mostly because the game was actually animated too, but having this refined animation and production value ups the entertainment value higher.

Maybe it didn’t topple Kiminozo in my heart, but it holds a special place. School Days, even if you hate the bishoujo genre, is a definitive example of the genre taken to the EXTREME. With characters that turn from generic to wildly psychotic, and plot that rivals that of any emo soap opera story in any kind of entertainment medium, School Days is a definite, definite must watch. Ride this boat!

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This is a [Summer of Bishoujo 3->summer-of-bishoujo] feature