School Days (Generic Discussion)

[chrno]

Say, I got a question. What's this whole deal when you see the phrase "A Nice Boat"?

I mean I saw the last episode but after the whole matter of the show being preempted because of the murder incident you kept seeing this posting called "A Nice Boat".

So what is it all about or is it joke?

[User65554]

It was delayed for a week, and during that week, at the time that it would have been on, they showed some boats, with the caption 'Nice Boat'.
It wasn't as good as the actual episode.

[Shana]

Originally Posted by chrno

Say, I got a question. What's this whole deal when you see the phrase "A Nice Boat"?

I mean I saw the last episode but after the whole matter of the show being preempted because of the murder incident you kept seeing this posting called "A Nice Boat".

So what is it all about or is it joke?

Originally Posted by VK-Pitt

It was delayed for a week, and during that week, at the time that it would have been on, they showed some boats, with the caption 'Nice Boat'.
It wasn't as good as the actual episode.

+ Adding

Spoiler for Spoiler ep12:

After Kotonoha kills Sekai, she takes Makoto's head and hugs it in Kotonoha's-family Nice Boat

Quite interesting, isn't it?

[User65554]

Originally Posted by Shana

+ Adding

Spoiler for Spoiler ep12:

After Kotonoha kills Sekai, she takes Makoto's head and hugs it in Kotonoha's-family Nice Boat

Quite interesting, isn't it?

Oh yeah! I didn't notice that...

[chrno]

Originally Posted by Shana

+ Adding

Spoiler for Spoiler ep12:

After Kotonoha kills Sekai, she takes Makoto's head and hugs it in Kotonoha's-family Nice Boat

Quite interesting, isn't it?

Oh yeah!! Hahahah!! Now that is funny.

Oh well. I guess someone will be picking that up when the time comes. I almost would have expected 'Geneon' because of 'Higurashi', but now that they're leaving us, the task will have to fall to someone else. Maybe 'Funimation' considering their release of 'Rumbling Hearts'.

I'm still debating whether I'd actually buy this series. I mean I watched 'RH' awhile back and that had me on edge. But I enjoyed it. But 'School Days', just had my nerves in "knots". I was a just a bundle of nerves and emotions. I was pissed off most of the time. And the ending made my hands shake. Not to mention seeing finding some of the playthroughs from the game on 'YouTube'. I guess I'm a bit squeemish with excessive violence of that type. But I did enjoy it. But I really gotta think about it. By then I'll be over the shock. Hahaha!

Oh to 'xcomp' on the picture that he posted "There's no one inside. Check before entering." -- now that's awesome!

*Now last question:

If this series were to be released here in the states, does anyone think this series would be a good suggestion for an art college library to have in it's collection. And why it would be a good recommendation?

[wormspeaker]

I have a low tolerance for shows like this. I spent every episode up to about 7 or 8 shouting at the computer screen. "Choose one you stupid twerp!" Heh, I had to stop and wait for it to complete so I could watch it all at once to the end instead of obsessing over it. (I'm going to wait until Ghost Dog is complete and watch it all at once for the same reason.) But then a lot of new anime came out and I forgot, then I hear something about how the series turns out and I think, well maybe I should go back and watch it. Something about that little twerp getting his just deserts... Could be good. P.S. Nice Boat!

[User65554]

If nothing else just watch the last episode. You probably know the characters well enough by now anyway.

[CJL13]

Originally Posted by VK-Pitt

If nothing else just watch the last episode. You probably know the characters well enough by now anyway.

You have to watch it all to get the whole impact. If you just skip to the ending it seems like the ending was made the way it was just for ratings.

[User65554]

Of course you should watch all the episodes, but if you really don't like it...

[Shana]

Originally Posted by CJL13

You have to watch it all to get the whole impact. If you just skip to the ending it seems like the ending was made the way it was just for ratings.

The ending of the series wasn't like that for ratings?

[CJL13]

Originally Posted by Shana

The ending of the series wasn't like that for ratings?

When you watch the whole series you can understand why what happened happened.

[Shana]

Originally Posted by CJL13

When you watch the whole series you can understand why what happened happened.

You can't say that was the best meaningless ending you have seen. It's that bad that you finish liking it.

Spoiler for If someone hasn't seen the series:

First of all, what's that of killing someone becouse of being jaleous? That's quite stupid, at my view point.

Kotonoha's normal, though. If you got a boyfriend/girlfriend, you both start dating and that, then someone wants to take you off him/her, you'll be mad or sad, as Kotonoha. She got her boyfriend back again, they were very happy. And so, you enter your boyfriend/girlfriend's house and you see your girl/boyfriend's body, he/she already died and you know who killed he/she, what would you do? You get crazy, wouldn't you?

Sorry for the speech.

[Luapman]

Dear god! Just marathoned the series. Must say in many ways Makoto is my hero (not all of course), and the veiled allusion to the three-way had me laughing my ass off. Makoto gets my vote for anime pimp of the year.

[NoSanninWa]

There were 22 posts discussing if Makoto deserves to die for his actions and it didn't look like it would stop soon, so I moved them to their own thread. If anyone is looking for that discussion you'll find it here:

Does Makoto deserve to die?

If anyone hasn't finished the last episode and doesn't want to see spoilers, then please don't read the thread.

[Ksendrix]

I watched the first episode with my girlfriend, which of course she didn't like assuming that this was gonna be another love/drama anime with the same plot as the rest of them. Well I put off watching the rest because I was busy with Christmas and all (since I like those sappy drama animes >.>) and marathon'd the other 11 episodes.

Spoiler for The whole School Days series:

I'll admit I've never seen anything about the game or the OVA, so when the show started getting f'd up halfway through, I was rather shocked. Honestly I think he got what he deserved because he was absolutely heartless. No man with any speck of respect would do something like that, and I think their world would be better of without him.

My only real complaint would be that it was a little bit too easy to drive Kotonoha crazy. I mean she was bats''t crazy.

My impression: 8 of 10

[Droplet]

I rated this show 10/10

8/10 for Kotonoha for actually being a samurai [see game], then turning Claymore, then turning An-Hero.

The other 2? Well, that's one each for Makoto and Sekai, because they make a fitting couple, i.e. 'pimp-n-whore'

[boggart]

I just finished watching ep 7 and all I can say is that Makoto is such an asshole. I can now see why he was laid-down as one of the worst male protagonists EVER! But I guess there is some blame to Sekai as well... but at least she's not as thick-headed and as dumb as Makoto... It's starting to become tedious trying to watch such a loser.

[magnumcyclonex]

My opinion:

Spoiler:

Wow...I rarely don't post here much but this series just piqued my interest. I started watching this anime thinking it would be another one of those harem anime (which I would've simply skipped if it was really lame), but the kiss at the end of the first episode reminded me of KGNE (girl helps friend hook up but also likes him and later steals him)

I liked the drama aspect of Makoto's indecisiveness but he swayed too much between Sekai and Kotonoha. At one point I thought he would really dump Kotonoha and stay with Sekai, but the flip flopper just couldn't let go properly and make a solid decision. Then, to complicate matters, we have his middle school friend become his fuck buddy and a few stolen kisses from Setsuna...in front of Kotonoha. Then Otome's friends paid him a visit and Setsuna also made love prior to her departure.

I really liked and hated this anime. I liked it because it is different from other harems. Not only is Makoto more twisted than a screw, but he wasn't shy of fondling Sekai. I think this is one aspect I would've loved to see more in drama/mature animes in the future. These types of things happen in the real world and I'm glad this anime wasn't just about accidental nudity, enormous breasts, and panty shots that make the guys go ga-ga over girls' bodies.

The ending was ok to me. I really felt that the bastard deserved what he got because of his multi-timing experiences with so many girls.

I hate this anime because it could've been so much more. If this was 24, or ~50 episodes long, I'm sure many more things could've been covered. For example, they could've developed some of the partial relationships Matoko had with some of the girls. Perhaps Otome would've had her time as a "girlfriend" like Sekai and Kotonoha did and we'd see them going out and doing things together. There could also be an arc of his time with the other girls who visited him. With the amount of characters to screw around with, I kind of regretted this anime to be so short. It had the potential to become on par with KGNE but it fell way short and just left us with an abrupt ending.

Nonetheless, the memory of watching it has already been etched in my mind. I'm glad I watched it. I seriously hope there will be more anime like this (although not that extreme...I don't want to see people killing other people for the sake of love all the time) The drama aspects were a good start and if there is adequate "reality" included, I think those types of anime would be successful.

[Rookie103]

Makoto is an asshole, not only did he cheat on Kotonoha, but Sekai too. Also, do you think he was actually sorry when they made up in front of the tree?

[Kailu_Lantis]

I wish I had joined this discussion earlier. I have been reading most of the posts in this thread and can see pretty much everything concerning Makoto has already been covered. Nevertheless, I would like to share my thougths on this character in hopes of discussing anything that hasn't been boiled down up till now.

Makoto Itou was, what I consider, a normal teenager at the beginning of the story. Being there so many sources for adult material available nowadays, it was no surprise his mind was already filled with images of naked women dancing around him and all sorts of media that stimulate a 15 year old lad's libido. The magazines and tissue box he had under his bed are proof enough.

When he finally saw a girl from his world, a schoolmate, being a step ahead from the rest in the process of becoming a woman, and a very attractive one at that, it was only natural for him to develop an interest in her. Just an interest. He was smart enough to know the difference between a fantasy and his real life. Coupled with his shyness that didn't allow him to even speak to her, Makoto was happy just being a spectator.

Then, one day, he jumped from being a stranger to this girl to becoming her boyfriend. All of this due to Sekai's intervention; a girl he was not really interested in befriending; and who began doing him favors he did not ask for. Was he prepared for this? Evidently not. The mistakes he made on his first and second date were laughable but would it be fair to call him a jerk for that? My answer would be no. Just like Kotonoha, he had no experience dating someone, but most importantly that he was not yet ready to abandon his world of harmless entertainment (the best example is the magazine he was skimming right in front of her in the bookstore.)

When he later realized this fact, Makoto was honest to report it to Sekai by telling her he was stressed and tired of playing the boyfriend role. Perhaps he wasn't able to picture why things weren't working out like he had imagined, but he felt it and complained. All of us have had this feeling before, especially when little, when we decided not to do something because we felt it was wrong or made us uncomfortable rather than understanding why.

This is where I believe Makoto made his first real mistake: allowing Sekai to decide for him. Sekai appeared to be quite a dependable character, always having an answer for everything and giving Makoto advice at every turn. The truth was she was just as inexperienced as Makoto, and I would dare say less mature for not being able to confess her feelings the way he did; creating instead this "game" of hers where she was the master in charge of educating him. The situation obviously got out of control in little time and Sekai stepped down from being the master to become a player herself and leaving no one in charge. It's right here where Makoto should have realized the problem she was going through and put a halt to it. Contrary to this he gave in to his desires, which Sekai helped awaken in him, knowing she was more likely to give him what Kotonoha refused. Sekai's pregnancy was a clear signal of how unprepared those two were...

From that day on, things just began to get worse for everyone, fueled by Makoto's inability to decide on his own. Setsuna barged in next, harassing him to keep Kotonoha away, especially in a time when she needed his support. She always argued it was to help out Sekai, but was it really? She had her own little secret that gave her confidence to act without feeling guilty, thinking it wouldn't make a difference if nobody became aware of it. Or at least she thought so until she watched the school play and opened her eyes. Still, she secretly visited him one more time before leaving Japan, putting her precious friendship on the line. It turned out she wasn't as loyal as everybody believed, although deep in her heart Sekai was more important to her.

The rest of the girls Makoto was involved with were the worst. Hikari betrayed Sekai without giving it much thought then quietly withdrew to avoid being part of the problem. Kumi, Natsumi and the other girl that bullied Kotonoha lost respect for Otome and did their own thing with him. Let's remember these girls even talked about giving it a go with Kumi's boyfriend when Makoto was no longer an ideal candidate. It all proves the lack of principles many of these students had, placing their own interests on top of others, and taking no responsibility.

Makoto's mistakes can be summed up in a single term: passiveness. He was stupid and careless to think his problems weren't such a big deal and would eventually disappear as a result. He was shunned for it at the same time he created a thick layer of tension around himself. Then, just before he was about to collapse, something meaningful happened: Fate. The cellphone charm had been at last fulfilled. Only the image of a mentally deteriorated Kotonoha was strong enough to make him understand what he had done, allowing Kotonoha to come back to her senses in the process. They had saved each other.

Unfortunately, saving Kotonoha was equal to abandoning Sekai, who had also taken a large amount of psychological abuse up to this point. The night she saw her dinner piled up in the garbage was the last straw, she realized she had been defeated and that there was nothing she could possibly do to change it. A simple issue left unresolved quickly snowballed into a relentless problem that claimed his life when it became unbearable for Sekai.

It is clear that Makoto was the main culprit in all of this, but it wouldn't be fair to pour all the hatred on him when everybody else took a hand in. I don't agree with the people who say "he got what he deserved" since he wasn't fully aware of his actions, unlike a womanizer who is just waiting for his next chance to score. His conduct was rebukable, I cannot argue with that, but by no means did it justify someone to slaughter him like an pig.

Fair or not, that was the outcome and it didn't stop Kotonoha from being reunited with Makoto. So, were they really meant to be? That's a question left open for the viewer to decide, but I would like to believe so. Maybe if they had met under different circumstances the would've had a brighter future together, but it would not have changed the fact that they were bound to be together. (Please note my opinion is based on the anime and has nothing to do with the PC game.)

I wish to share with all of you how I will remember this young couple:





And they lived happily ever after.