School Days Review

Aahh yes, School Days.  What better way to celebrate an Alcoholic Reviewers blog beginning than to present a review of an anime that led him to alcoholism in the first place? With that message I present to you, one of the most infamous anime of all time: School Days. So sit back, relax, enjoy the moments of joy you have, before this anime sucks them all away.

This shit isn't ominous AT ALL!

First off, let me state this: There will be spoilers, I can’t review this anime without going into details, so if you have a problem with that, just look at the review score or move on. 

Plot Summary:

This story follows Itou Makoto, a regular, kind-hearted high school student, as he follows the girl-of-his-dreams, Katsura Kotonoha. The two are brought together by Itou’s new best friend, Sekai Saionji. However, as Makoto waits for the train to go on a date with Kotonoha, Sekai suddenly kisses him.  Could it be true that she has feelings for Makoto? (The answer is yes by the way.)

OOOOOHHHHHHH SHIT!

As is the case with some real-life relationships, Makoto grows bored with Kotonoha, however instead of breaking up with her, he begins an affair with Sekai, as you do. Cue dramatic music and impending doom.  This affair sends Kotonoha deeper into the throes of insanity, which will be important later in the story.

Now, as Makoto continues his affair with Sekai, he finds himself becoming bored with her as well, so he pretty much starts banging everything with legs, even the tsundere archetype Setsuna, somehow. Meanwhile, Kotonoha is still descending further into madness, now having conversations with the message on Makoto’s phone telling her the number is unavailable.

The final ingredient in this sadistic recipe is added when Sekai breaks the news to Makoto that she is pregnant. Needless to say, this erases his popularity with the ladies, all of which are now worried if they too may be pregnant. Including the girls who were in the foursome with him, Fucking Asshole. Now that Makoto is depressed that no-one wants to have sex with him, i.e. like the rest of us, he starts wondering the streets aimlessly, eventually running into Kotonoha, in all her crazy glory.  When he sees what he has done to this girl, he says that he wants to be with her and they embrace. With this it looks like Kotonoha is on the bus out of crazy town.

Of course, there is still the matter of Sekai. Her insistence on keeping the baby (How Selfish) eventually drives Makoto to snap at Sekai, and to suggest to her that she get an abortion. Best open those bottles now kids, ‘cause it gets better.  When Makoto greets Sekai the next day, asking her how the procedure went, she insists that she go and make tea. However when she sees the dinner she had prepared for Makoto the previous night in the trash, she decides to send a text to him. As his phone is in the other room, he gets up to answer it.  While he reads the message “I’m sorry…….. Farewell” Sekai appears behind him, and proceeds to stab him to death, before fleeing, leaving Kotonoha to find the dead body of her boyfriend (and cut his head off, off-screen thankfully. I guess you could say Kotonoha gives good head! Anybody? Anyone at all? Fine.)

Wow just, Wow.

Now here comes the cherry on the cake. When Sekai receives a message from Makoto’s phone telling her to meet on top of the school, aptly enough where the three of them used to eat lunch together, she travels there, only to find Kotonoha, (Also the bag with Makoto’s head in it, oh joy) who then proceeds to kill Sekai and disembowel her, to see if she is pregnant or not. The last scenes of this anime show Kotonoha on her family’s boat, clutching onto Makoto’s severed head. (*Cough* Nice Boat *Cough*)

Just so you know, SHE'S HUGGING A SEVERED FUCKING HEAD!

My Somewhat More Personal Thoughts on this Anime:

I experienced many emotions while watching this anime, happiness, sadness, fury, and finally, crushing, crushing depression. Itou Makoto is undoubtedly a character that will be universally hated by almost everyone, and those that don’t hate him, are most likely douche-bags themselves.  However he was not the only character that was so easily hateable, almost the whole cast was pretty much unlikeable, and that works for the better in this case.  I have already mentioned Makoto in his supreme douche-baggery, but I have not yet told you about Sekai single-handedly turning him into said douche-bag or about Kotonoha’s stubbornness in regards to basic relationship acts, i.e. kissing (For Christ sake), which led Makoto to seek it elsewhere.

Like here.

And here.

Oh, and also here.

Though this story infuriated me to no end, it is still one of the most well-presented anime stories I have ever experienced. Rather than presenting outright betrayal and brutality, it slowly reveals these things to you, I wasn’t aware that this was a dark anime until four episodes in. However once it was revealed how dark this anime could potentially get, I finished the rest of the episodes in a single sitting. However this is both a good thing and a bad thing, as while the story is absolutely fantastic, it is incredibly emotionally draining, causing me to become the aforementioned “Alcoholic Anime Reviewer”.

The voice actors did a respectable job in this anime, Makoto’s and Kotonoha’s in particular. Makoto’s death gurgle at the end of the anime was very satisfying in a sick way, and Kotonoha’s voice actor did a very good job conveying the characters mental instability.

The visual style in this anime is quite pleasant to behold, with the female characters being very nicely drawn and animated, which is good considering how important they are in this story. Though almost as a trade-off, the designs for the males, while certainly not bad, feel a lot more generic than the female designs. This can be forgiven as there are not many males (I’m fairly sure I only saw four or five in the whole series) it still needs to be mentioned.

I will give one word of advice though; do not under any circumstances watch this after either getting out of a relationship, or being unable to find one. It will fuck you up big time.

Score:

Story: 5/5

Audio: 4/5

Visual: 4/5

Overall: 4/5

Recommended Drink:

Whiskey - lots of it.