REVIEW: School Days: The Anime (2007)

If there's one thing that I honestly can't get over about most anime, it's that while the show itself may be good, the show's conclusion would often leave me with a sour feeling. What's the point of having developed characters and these characters having feelings for one another (romantic or not) and then ending the show on something that's just not right (Angel Beats! and Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo come to mind immediately), or at least something I don't agree with. Today's anime is literally the opposite of what i just said. It's got an absolutely crap plot, but it's ending is just amazing.

The anime adaptation of the Adult VN School Days, animated by TNK.

The basic plot to School Days is pretty much the same as the Visual Novel. Itou Makoto (not Makoto Itou as I previously had thought) is an ordinary high-school student who has a crush on Kotonoha Katsura, a shy, timid and mentally insane girl who takes the same train as Makoto to school. In Makoto's class, all the students' seats have been re-arranged. Makoto ends up sitting beside Sekai Saionji, a bubbly and cheery girl. Makoto has heard rumours recently that if you snap a picture of a girl you like, and set it as your phone wallpaper for three weeks without anyone noticing, you will end up dating her. However, Makoto accidentally shows his phone (with a picture of Kotonoha) to Sekai. What makes the anime different from the Visual Novel is that in the Visual Novel, you made choices that impacted the plot and ending. Since the anime is something you watch rather than play, the writers decided to takes bits from each route of the Visual Novel and try to tie it together in a cohesive story. What we ended up with was one of the all time worst anime plots...and one of the all time greatest endings to any anime ever. Seriously, I'm going to have to just spoil how amazing this thing is, so be warned:

Spoilers for the Shows ending lie in the next paragraph, following the picture.

To give you a bit of context to why the characters do what they do, let me give a quick summary of the lead in to Episode 12. Sekai is "pregnant" with Makoto's child (I'll explain the quote marks in a minute.). Makoto feels conflicted about his love between Sekai and Kotonoha, and decides to ditch Sekai on Christmas and go for a walk around town. Sekai obviously get's pissed and wrecks shit and throws her handmade dinner for them into the bin. Makoto bumps into a slightly disturbing Kotonoha on the streets (by slightly disturbing I mean she's been talking to herself for days now), and she manages to seduce him. They have dinner at a fancy restaurant and take the train to Makoto's house. Sekai, on her way home from Makoto's house. At the train station, she sees Makoto and Kotonoha hugging on the train. To make sure her eyes aren't playing tricks on her, she goes to Makoto's house and see's Kotonoha and Makoto having tea. Sekai begs Makoto to stop, but he just kisses Kotonoha in front of Sekai BECAUSE HE'S A MASSIVE DICK (but more on that later). Anyways, the next day after School, Sekai visits Makoto to get him to explain what's going on.

Here's where things get....Interesting.

Makoto leaves the room to get his phone. He quickly checks to see if he got any texts recently. He did. From Sekai. And it confuses the hell out of Makoto.

"Sorry

 >

 >

 >

 >

 >

 >

 >

 >

 >

 >

GOODBYE"

Sekai then runs into the room and - get this - STABS MAKOTO TO DEATH. After she's done, she leaves and goes back home. Kotonoha meanwhile, comes to Makoto's house to see how her boyfriend is doing. She sees the mess that Sekai left behind her, and actually knows it was Sekai who murdered Makoto. Kotonoha texts Sekai to meet up on the roof of the high school (from Makoto's phone). They meet on the roof. Kotonoha has a bag with her, and she asks Sekai to look inside the bag.

Makoto's head is in the bag.

Sekai is then stabbed to death by Kotonoha, who brings Makoto's head out onto a nice boat (I HAD TO MAKE THAT JOKE SOMEWHERE) and holds it to her chest, saying that she can now be with him forever. It also turns out that Sekai wasn't pregnant and it was all just a lie to make Makoto stay with her. Now, while the context isn't great, what actually happens is pretty damn shocking the first time through, mainly because of the voice acting and well, it just comes out of nowhere. It's probably the best thing about the anime to be honest.

Oh the irony here is stunning.

Let's be honest here guys: The characters in School Days were at best, okay in the original visual novel, but they were never anything special. In the anime, they are the most unbelieveably stupid people alive...

Itou Makoto

...And none come more stupid and come off as much of a dickhead as our main character ladies and gentlemen. What the FUCK was this guy thinking when he thought he could have a relationship with nearly SIX DIFFERENT WOMEN? Sure, in some of the endings of the original he did get with - at most - three girls and he lived a happy life, but the way the writers dealt with the source material here is just absolutely bonkers. He likes Kotonoha, then he likes Sekai, then he likes his middle school crush (can't remember her name. Well Done Dillon) Then he likes Sekai again, then he likes Kotonoha and THEN HE DIES. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WAS GOING ON IN THIS GUY'S MIND. 

I'm not even going to bother picking a favourite character. how could you when they're all a bunch of idiots filling in a generic anime role? Except maybe Kotonoha who goes bonkers at then end, but that's her only decent moment. Everything else is just horrible when it comes to this animes characters.

I've never seen any of TNK's other shows, so I wouldn't be able to really compare School Days to any other anime out there in regards to it's animation quality. I'll just take it for what it is then. Although the lighting isn't as good as the original Visual Novel's (which by the way, was also an animated VN), I think that it's more fluid than the VN and has more structure to it and it looks less awkward. So it's an improvement in some places, even if it loses it's pretty good lighting effects. The expressions are good too, making me laugh and be freaked out when the time is right.

In the audio department, I actually really enjoyed the soundtrack and thought it was an improvement over the originals soundtrack. However, it's not perfect. First of all, how could you make a School Days anime and NOT include the original games main theme, "Still I Love You" or it's piano remix? It's one of the only good songs in the VN and it's a shame it didn't return for the anime. The only song that returns from the Visual Novel is the ending theme, which is a really good theme song too. The opening is lackluster, but it's serviceable and there's a lot of ending themes. so diversity is high in the soundtrack.

Overall....this show is quite the show. For all the wrong reasons. Characters are fucked up and the story doesn't really go anywhere until then end. Now, it's not as bad as let's say, Sword Art Online (haters gonna hate) but it's still a bad anime and I'd only recommend it if you're curious about the ending or if you're a fan of the Visual Novel.

Story: 7
Characters: 0.5
Animation: 6
Sound: 9.5
Personal enjoyment: 5

FINAL SCORE FOR SCHOOL DAYS: 5.6/10