School Days - Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating

[SJCrew]

Awful anime series, one of the worst I've ever seen. Archon Wing had the right idea when he said that this series was basically hentai without any explicit content...which leaves us with a barely coherent plot and cardboard characters in a completely twisted world with almost zero moral basis and excessive fanservice.

I mean, this series did evoke emotion from me, but the wrong ones. Almost every character in this show is detestable and their actions barely make sense.

Spoiler:

I outright wanted to Alt+F4 at the beginning of episode 11 and give up when I saw Sekai's best friend sleeping with Makoto. She didn't really have any reason to do it, she knew Sekai was "pregnant" with Makoto's child, and she was aware that Sekai wasn't showing up to school because of her emotional breakdown. So why did she do it? Even if she was just getting over her rejection from that one dude, she could have picked anyone, and I mean anyone besides her best friend's cheating ass boyfriend and baby's daddy. On top of that, she pretended to be concerned for Sekai after the fact. Give me a fucking break.

Then we get episode 12. Oh my god, lol. What the hell was the point of that? Is anyone supposed to know about what happened or get a chance to react to it? Would there be any consequences to her actions? Where are the parents (or even the adults, for that matter) in all this? Why the hell did I sit through six hours of softcore porn just to be subjected to some random, shitty ending? The world may never know!

I'd outright give this series a 0 for the time I wasted watching it never paying off in the slightest, after I expected so much good from it in the first episode. But nonetheless, they made Setsuna, who is adorable, sensible, and flawed within reason, so I'm going to settle for a 1.

EDIT: Oh wait, there's a -1 option on the poll. Nevermind!

[BetoJR]

You did realize that Setsuna was the one originally in love with Makoto, and that was the reason why Sekai approached him in the first place? There's your reason for her behavior (plus her concern for Sekai, although I'd wager that played a significantly smaller part in her decision) in episode 11.

As for the "not making sense" bit... c'mon, don't you see how the world is, today? Kids do even worse stuff, on a regular basis, and have been doing for a long time - parental guidance or not.

[DragoZERO]

Originally Posted by SJCrew

Where are the parents (or even the adults, for that matter) in all this?

If there were parents, this series would have ended much sooner. Parents are often left out of the story, whether it's explained or not.

Originally Posted by BetoJR

As for the "not making sense" bit... c'mon, don't you see how the world is, today? Kids do even worse stuff, on a regular basis, and have been doing for a long time - parental guidance or not.

Yeah, except for the murderous ending, everything is plausible in real life.

[xDCx]

Hate to just jump in, but I will.

My impression of the beginning and middle of this harem anime is just decent. That being, a 5/10.

The reason its not low is because it has some plot.

Reason not too high: Not that great of plot either.
_____
!!SPOILER!!

The ending made me a little angry/depressed.As I get to episode 8-12, I see Makoto getting stupider and making less logical decisions. I pressed on regardless of the stupidity of Makoto anyway. But then, a follow-up abrupt decision made in episode 12 made me go . As this anime had a little potential, it's then decided by Sekai to actually kill Makoto. Even though Makoto was portrayed as an idiot, I do not think that however much hatred you have, you wouldn't kill the one you love, or really like for that matter. And Kotonoha cutting up Sekai to see if there was a baby in her? What?!? That's just insane. I would never see Kotonoha ever doing that no matter how crazy she is. While I do like twists in anime, this is not a twist. Its simply ripping it apart.

The main theme of the anime changed dramatically and abruptly. That's the main reason rating this down is so popular. And I do agree, as my 5/10 is now a 2.5/10.

At the end, I could see the writer got bored of this anime, or wanted to end it. It is clearly obvious he made Makoto look like a real jerk. He did a poor job of hiding this. I can't really say more on this issue...

But here is the way I would've ended it.

Alternate Ending:

I think the dramatic moment is necessary, but it was too much. I think, it would've been better that Sekai badly injured Mokoto instead of killing mercilessly. And Kotonoha killing Sekai was WAY too much also, so I think she would've just cut her face, just barely missing the neck. Then something would have to happen to split the two relationships with Makoto up. It's really not that hard, it could have been that Sekai falls in love with someone else (or is cheating on Mokoto, since she already is the grand bitch apparently ). Or maybe even Kotonoha simply hating Makoto for his treachery. Creativeness would be awesome ^_^.
-----------

But I can see why the deaths were here. It would've been (since the writer made the thinking of Makoto that way) Makoto switching from Sekai to Kotonoha frivolously forever. It's sad to say, but a rewrite of the last few episodes to fit the original intent would satisfy people. Although it would look sketchy, its better that way since as from posts and friends, the final episodes were clearly just put together sloppily and with no care or creativity.

Nothing more I can say. 2.5/10. Not the worse, not the best either.

P.S Setsuna was really the only one who had a solid reason to love Makoto, and at first she was the bitch and Sekai seems to replace her O.o

[BetoJR]

How do you know the original intent of the anime series wasn't to end exactly the way it did?

[xDCx]

Miswording sorry, I meant to say original mood. Like at the beginning of the story, how it was all actual haremy. I meant to end in the mood the anime started.

[BetoJR]

Oh, that would have been... well, more of the same, wouldn't it?

[SJCrew]

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

If there were parents, this series would have ended much sooner. Parents are often left out of the story, whether it's explained or not.

This is the first romantic comedy anime I've seen where parents are omitted entirely, especially when their roles could have played an integral part in the plot.

Yeah, except for the murderous ending, everything is plausible in real life.

Ha ha, right. Let me clue you in on the real world: a lot of the actions portrayed in this anime, while plausible to some degree actually have consequences. Each and every traumatic event that occurred in this anime yielded almost no consequences. Even when Makoto's behavior and attitude started catching up with him, there's no real satisfaction on the viewer's part because:

A) Every girl had different, somewhat eschewed reasons to break contact with him, and most of them seemed to totally disregard the fact that he was a complete manwhore.

B) It takes forever. Otome knew he was sleeping around and was involved one or two other girls, yet for some reason, she decided to start a relationship with him. Smart girl. Kotonoha is so in love with him/insane that she disregards his infidelity and indifference toward her. Sekai keeps ignoring the fact that he hasn't broken up with Kotonoha and flaunts him in front of everyone like they're some sort of normal couple. As if this doesn't sound stupid enough on paper, imagine what I had to go through watching it.

I know this is an anime and we're entitled to some suspension of disbelief, but it's really hard to omit a lot of the things that happened here. Even if we could just take a random guy in the US, highlight his high school life, and about half of this stuff would actually occur (though I very much doubt it because this shit is not normal), that still doesn't mean it would make a good anime. That just means the writer is very adept at making ineffective social commentary.

I saw a decent romantic comedy at the beginning, watched the deconstruction toward the middle, and felt cheated by the end. It came and went by almost as if it were just a really bad dream I woke up from and can't seem to forget.

[BetoJR]

You seem to live in a better world than me, then. It's all I'm saying.
I've seen and done somewhat similar and (in some cases) even worse things than Makoto, in my day - some did have dire consequences, while others... not so much. People are more resilient than you give them credit for.

And they do bad things.

[DragoZERO]

Originally Posted by SJCrew

This is the first romantic comedy anime I've seen where parents are omitted entirely, especially when their roles could have played an integral part in the plot.

You need to watch more series then. There are better ones, with much happier endings out there. Some of parents that are like children most of the time, neglect the child, there is a legit reason for there being no parents or are just MIA like in this series. Would you like some recommendations?

Originally Posted by BetoJR

You seem to live in a better world than me, then. It's all I'm saying.
I've seen and done somewhat similar and (in some cases) even worse things than Makoto, in my day - some did have dire consequences, while others... not so much. People are more resilient than you give them credit for.

And they do bad things.

Indeed, you have seen a lot more than us. Humans are capable of many, many things.

[DeX-kun]

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

Indeed, you have seen a lot more than us. Humans are capable of many, many things.

Beto, you've just been called old in an indiscreet manner

Nothing in this series was really all that unbelievable (except for the fact that there were no parents in this series but that's the case for other animes as well.) I've seen girls go back to the same guy after being cheated on various times, it's just the truth of the matter.

Even so, this series was disappointing to say the least

[BetoJR]

Originally Posted by DeX-kun

Beto, you've just been called old in an indiscreet manner

Yeah, I noticed. But, alas, it is the truth.

[Dr. Casey]

Originally Posted by SJCrew

A) Every girl had different, somewhat eschewed reasons to break contact with him, and most of them seemed to totally disregard the fact that he was a complete manwhore.

B) It takes forever. Otome knew he was sleeping around and was involved one or two other girls, yet for some reason, she decided to start a relationship with him. Smart girl. Kotonoha is so in love with him/insane that she disregards his infidelity and indifference toward her. Sekai keeps ignoring the fact that he hasn't broken up with Kotonoha and flaunts him in front of everyone like they're some sort of normal couple. As if this doesn't sound stupid enough on paper, imagine what I had to go through watching it.

I think that Kotonoha's obstination is perfectly logical and consistent with her character, she's just a lonely, friendless girl that got overly attached to someone she thought cared about her, and since she's a very gentle pushover without much self-respect, she cares more about continuing to get that attention she became dependent on than being treated completely fairly or right. As for Sekai, she does try to keep their relationship hidden at first. She doesn't begin to relax and her guilt doesn't begin to dissolve until the confrontation with Katsura outside Makoto's apartment (The last time she shows any kind of guilt being her talk with Setsuna at the beginning of episode 8). She doesn't begin to act open with their relationship until episode 9, if I remember right, which is probably a combination of the fact that Kotonoha is now aware of the situation and free to respond, and that since Makoto has given both girls a pretty equal amount of his time and attention by that point, they're on more equal footing and Sekai considers herself to have a claim as well, she's not just the 'other girl' anymore.

[StealthyGhost]

I just registered in there for some reasons, first is to look for some good animes, and the second is simply that I really wanted to give my opinion on School Days.

So here it is. At the beginning of this anime, I thought it would be a really nice romance anime, I was almost in love with this anime. But when i finally found that Mokoto was just a jerk looking for sex and didn't even care about the pain he was causing, i just started to think "Oh crap, it's no more a romance anime, it's just a freaking anime, where there's sex and is going to turn to drama..." and so, at the end, it was evident that it would turn to drama, Sekai killed Mokoto and was killed by Kotonoha.

So in average of this anime, i gave a 5/10 because, it's true that I totally hated the second half of this anime but, I really loved the beginning, so I gave half the greatest note, because half the anime was perfect and the second half was just a failure in my mind^^

So it was my opinion on this anime.

[StealthyGhost]

Oh and I forgot to tell you, I hope I don't have a too poor english, and if so, I'm sorry, english isn't my main language so I still don't master it^^

[kobun]

i just watched this because it was mentioned somewhere.. and sounded interesting..

in the end this worst pos i have ever seen... -1 is not enough as some have mentioned... wow.. i had to sit through comericals for this shit too...

[coderlan]

ahh more than a year has passed since i watch it,, i miss it, so I am re-watching it again... so nostalgic.

[kobun]

Originally Posted by coderlan

ahh more than a year has passed since i watch it,, i miss it, so I am re-watching it again... so nostalgic.

are you a masochist? must be because their is no reason to ever see this pos ever again...

i need a eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, mind purge so i can forget this shit...

[Mr. Wang]

I wouldn't say masochistic. I mean, School Days tells a very, very dramatic story and turns of events that seem to sometimes corrupt people in real life. A sort of dark underbelly to high school romances, if you will. Though I myself felt horrified at the ending, I thought it to be a very tragic story, especially considering how at the beginning of the story, Makoto was simply just a normal guy. Hell, I thought there were a couple parts where he acted very much like myself early on. And yet, something as simple as a phone wallpaper and a crush unleashed all this future chaos. I ended up playing the visual novel, just so I could get a happy ending and a clearer conscious...

I might be something of a romanticist, but if this story is any indication of anything, it's that... "love" or the illusion of love (often tossed around with lust), can bring out the best, and worst in all of us...

[coderlan]

Originally Posted by kobun

are you a masochist? must be because their is no reason to ever see this pos ever again...

i need a eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, mind purge so i can forget this shit...

i actually missed everything... and I just realized that Makoto is more dumber than last time... and of course the other characters are as shit as him too.