A School Days Rant

[Sarah's Knight]

(Spoiler alert of epic proportions ahead, but if you are smarter than I was, you won't want to see this anime, anyway ....)

... Forgive me, everyone, but, if after reading this sentence you are still feeling inclined to read on, then you are about to witness something that SK is usually quite reluctant to do - and that's go off on an angry rant. I like to be a more gentle-natured person in real life as well as on the forums, but I cannot deny that certain facts about how the real world may or may not work just really tick me off, and while I will do my best not to incessantly curse or anything, please listen for the moment (and all DA ladies present please also forgive me in advance ^_- ). In spite of the nature of this thread, I certainly do not harbor a purpose of encouraging a lot of inane debate back and forth between everyone to follow this post, but nevertheless please allow me to get this righteous indignant anger off of my chest that I have been accumulating against my will throughout my viewing of School Days. (That last statement was a bit exaggerated on purpose to lighten the mood I was put in upon watching this anime, naturally. ^_^ )

Now, all of the words to follow this paragraph are from a post I had made on this very same subject on another forums site I am a part of a few nights ago when I had actually been in the middle of watching the last hour or so of School Days, and since my thoughts or opinions have not changed since then, I will just copy and paste the original posting here to avoid a wasted hour of typing.

All right, so ... here goes.


*draws a deep breath*


... I never let myself get so much into movies or books or any other form of media to the point of being moved to real tears or anger or anything, but an anime I am finishing up at this very moment even as I type just reached the end of my fuse. If anyone has seen the anime series "School Days", then you should understand when I say without question that every last character in this anime is A TRULY AWFUL HUMAN BEING.


Basically, I became interested in checking it out because of images of the series' female characters that I have seen around the 'Net over the years, and, no, I am not embarrassed in the least to say the image of cute anime girls convinces me to use up four or five hours of my life in viewing the anime that they came from. ... I do, however, thoroughly regret doing so, this time. All of the perfectly innocent images of its two lead female characters led me to think that "School Days" was somewhere in the same realm as "Kanon" and "Air", which were both two of the best series out there, but there's nothing cute and innocent about it at all; in fact it's about as psychologically messed up as anything that, sadly, probably truly does happen out there in the real world. Geez, even the kids in "The Breakfast Club" did not have problems this outlandish.

So, my fragile little SK mind was completely deceived by the gravity of the first episode alone. The first twenty minutes or so all happened this way:
1. A high-schooler named Makoto began noticing this very cute girl named Katsura whom would always stand just a few yards away from him on the train ride they took to school together every morning.
2. Makoto develops sort of a crush, but always looks away just when Katsura would appear to catch him looking at her.
3. A girl that Makoto just recently begun hanging around at school, named Sekai, noticed that he took a picture of Katsura on his cell phone one morning, and began teasing him about his crush. Finally, Sekai offers to help Makoto win Katsura's heart, so basically I figure Sekai's role in the series is that of the lovable goon who just likes to see others' romantic dreams come true and all that mess. Everything's good so far, right?
4. ... Sure. Sekai secretly encourages both Makoto and Katsura in private to confess his or her feelings towards the other.
5. Makoto confesses to liking Katsura at last, and she accepts. So, now they begin the awkward steps towards developing a - what that one girl from To Heart would call it - "love-love" relationship.
6. The next day, when Makoto is about to leave on his train for home after school, he first thanks Sekai for helping him to win Katsura's heart. She says it is no problem, and that she will be happy to help him whenever he is in need of it, again.
So, that's the end of the first episode of twelve. Everything's all sweet and innocent and right with the world, right? .... RIGHT?

... WRONG. Over the course of the next few episodes, Makoto starts becoming more and more aggressive in his relationship with Katsura, and he's suddenly no longer that nice guy you thought he was (he should take a lesson from SK on being a gentleman, sometime .... *pretend smug emoticon*).

... That last part in parenthesis was just a joke, everyone, so chill.

... But I am saying that I would not dare do the same things that Makoto began trying to do at this point. Before even a month and two or three dates had gone by since his confession to Katsura, the man began trying to touch her in delicate places - that no man should ever in my opinion dare try to do without absolute consent - against Katsura's will. Katsura is the shy and slow type when it comes to these things, as she hasn't had experience with love in the past at all, and a lot of guys and girls alike would tease her for it. And you'd think that Makoto would be a lot more patient and understanding, but he isn't. Just because poor Katsura won't give it up to him after one lousy month, now he's all thinking about breaking up with her.

On top of all this, Sekai tries to help, but ends up going a bit too far by allowing Makoto to "practice doing perverted things" with Sekai herself. ... Okaaaaaaaaay, ... yuck. So, Makoto starts wanting Sekai now just because she'll let him touch her, which admittedly is kind of messed up in and of itself, but I really do think that at first Sekai just meant to let Makoto have a brief outlet from which she believed he would grow out of it quickly and start treating Katsura with more gentleness, because she honestly wanted to see their relationship continue on happily. 'Problem is, unwittingly Sekai has caught Makoto's full attention, and after just one "practice session" he starts trying to grope her against her will, too. Finally, by the end of episode five or six, Makoto says he now wants Sekai, even at the cost of betraying Katsura in such a terrible way. I even think that he took Sekai straight to bed ('guess Sekai's not so against the idea of betraying one of her friends - Katsura - with another one of her friends, now), judging from a few awkwardly-placed off-camera moments that occurred at the end of one of those episodes.

... Okay, now this series is just really starting to irritate me.

[Sarah's Knight]

(My rant has gone on longer than I imagined. Forgive my having to double-post, please.)


.... But it gets even better.

Beginning around episode six or seven, Sekai at least develops the decency to admonish Makoto to let Katsura know that he no longer loves her to her face, ... BUT MAKOTO WON'T EVEN DO THAT MUCH. He just continues to grope Sekai all over the school like the worst freaking horndog I have ever seen in movie history (complete with loads of fanservice shots for the average otaku! tm*), and lets Katsura continue to sit pretty on the rooftop of the school, thinking to herself that all is right with the world. Naturally, his fling with Sekai causes him to begin blatantly ignoring Katsura, cutting off her calls and constantly finding some excuse to not ride the train home from school with her and such, yet she is far-gone enough by now that she still believes he is being faithful to her.

... Amidst all this, there is the nosiest group of classmates that Makoto, Katsura, and Sekai all have, who are busy wasting their pathetic lives snooping around in the three's diseased love triangle, as if any of it concerns them at all. Most notable among them is Otome, a childhood friend of Makoto's who has had this crush on him herself all along (but I don't feel any pity or adoration for her through the TV screen, because she demonstrates from the very beginning that she is a total self-centered narcissist), and there is also Otome's three henchmen who follow her around and do everything she says at a moment's notice. Because of Otome's crush, she constantly has herself and her three damned henchmen verbally abuse Katsura and break her spirit with various chidings now that it is becoming obvious to everyone else at school that Makoto is no longer showing attention to Katsura in the manner that would imply they are a couple. The four basically do and say things to continue making Katsura feel as though she is a completely worthless human being and no man would ever have reason to love her. Even worse, there is another friend of Sekai's - a small-statured, underdeveloped, serious-looking girl named ... I forgot, and I really don't care that I did. We'll just call her "Short Stuff" for the duration of my rant. Anyway, "Short Stuff" notices that Makoto is groping Sekai all over the school, so naturally, since she is the childhood friend of Sekai, "Short Stuff" does whatever she can to help Makoto get along with Sekai by physically getting in Katsura's way in any way she can think of. ... That's about it. So, now we know that not only is Katsura being betrayed by someone of a such a slimy caliber as Makoto that she had had the most forgiving nature to consent to date, but at the same time the whole school is pretty much making her feel like scum over it all. Okay, case closed, done deal on that one.


.............. And yet it gets even better. When Katsura finally catches Sekai and Makoto making out herself one day, she merely slaps Sekai (I think it was nice of her to only do that much) and asks Sekai to please call off whatever feelings she has for Makoto so that he'll come back to her (Katsura). Katsura then rushes to Makoto and promises that, whatever it was she did wrong before that might have driven him to start getting the "wandering eye", she will do her best to be a better girlfriend for him, although Katsura clearly did nothing wrong at all in the first place. (This is where we start to see signs of growing depravity and senselessness in Katsura herself, as well as pretty much every other major and minor character in the series already has; Katsura is starting to go insane with obsessive love for a scumbag who clearly does not care about her or even anyone else but himself.)

Makoto just blows Katsura off, and around the time of episode nine or ten, during a school festival he starts cheating on Sekai as well with a third girl - Otome (the narcissist I mentioned from before). ... How does he do so? Well, you might be pleased to know that these days Makoto has no problem having unprotected and mindless - albeit visually implied - sex with a girl (in this case, Otome) just seconds after she simply confessed to liking him, right there on school property during a festivity in which probably hundreds of people are gathered in the immediate vicinity of his sickening display of immoral and selfish lewdness. Meanwhile, Otome's three magnificent henchmen trap Katsura elsewhere on the premises and chide her to the point of tears that if she is still Makoto's girlfriend, then why won't he come to her when she calls for him. ... And then when she tries to push by them in order to go cry by herself, one of them trips Katsura and makes her fall on her face. ... Wow, girls are mean. .... By this time I am just livid with unbelief at the immorality of pretty much every character here; I don't care if this is just typical high school bullcrap in most places or not.

.... And yet, it JUST GETS BETTER. By the beginning of episode eleven, any slew of random stuff happens: 1) Otome continues to have recurring three-minute bouts of unfulfilling sex with Makoto around the school in the next few days to follow the festival where she first slept with him, 2) in spite of discovering for certain that Makoto has now either had sex with or at least groped the chests of three different girls by now, "Short Stuff" charges into Makoto's house one night and is so desperate to ensure Sekai's happiness that she, "Short Stuff" - a much younger-looking girl, might I add - offers her own body to Makoto simply in return for his promise to continue just going out with Sekai alone, 3) another horndog from around school who is friends with Makoto makes a pass at Katsura just because he "thinks" that she is already broken up with Makoto, and 4) Makoto starts sleeping around WITH EVERYBODY, ... and I mean EVERYBODY: .... I'm not talking just Sekai, Otome, and now "Short Stuff", ... but all of Sekai's other friends, all of the upper-classmen who were a part of the same clubs that Katsura and Sekai and Otome were, and all three of Otome's henchmen (all three at once, might I add).
Really, I'm not making this up.

... I'd say by now Makoto's collective hormones are planning world or even galactic domination all on their own or something.

.... And finally (and this is the best part for me, personally, because it means the series is now coming to an end, however it does so leaving the bitter taste of bile in my throat), at the end of episode twelve Sekai realizes she is pregnant from Makoto, because he obviously slept with her at some point, too, although that in particular was never actually shown in confirmation. Sekai confronts him without hesitation before everyone at school, Makoto just brushes her off because even an expecting mother of his child isn't enough to make the jerk have any care by this point. Katsura's eyes have drawn such a creepy blank from her obsessive love for Makoto at this point that I think she is capable of going into serial-killer mode from the slightest stimuli. Sekai finally gets so fed up Makoto that she emails him a message on his phone telling him "goodbye" ... just seconds before she sneaks up from behind and stabs him to death. What I cannot fathom at this point is how on earth Makoto was able to whip up all of those tears in his eyes as he was having a large knife repeatedly thrust through his lungs, and somehow it all came together to form a look on his face that implied he was thinking the entire time: "Why is this happening to me? I've been made such a victim in this whole ridiculous series." ... Anyway, Katsura apparently finds Makoto's body in his home, later on after Sekai has broken down and ran out, and she takes his head, stuffs it in her bookbag, and takes it with her to the roof of the school building that night, ironically the same place where she, Sekai, and Makoto all used to have lunch together in the first episode when things weren't all screwed up. Sekai meets Katsura there, and they argue obscurely about something that I do not even care to go into by this point because I just did not retain enough remaining shreds of interest in order to listen carefully when it was happening. Finally, Sekai attacks, Katsura responds and stabs Sekai, and then the very last few seconds of this thankfully last episode showed something that Katsura was doing from the recently slaughtered Sekai's point-of-view in such a way as to imply that Katsura gutted Sekai open after killing her to see if an unborn child was sleeping in Sekai's belly. ..... Great.



... Wow. What a truly thoughtful masterpiece of an anime series, huh? Considering I could find more compelling and meaningful stories within one of those stupid soap operas that my mother used to be a fan of during my childhood, I don't think I could possibly tell anyone in person that I recommend this anime for watching and actually be able to keep a straight face as I say it.


You know what? Maybe this anime is quite realistic and therefore better written a series than I think, and I fail to appreciate it simply because of my personal and maybe rather naive view of how the world should really work, ... but man, everyone in this entire story was really messed up.

I have to just type out this one last thing in order to make my utter disgust at all of this crystal clear to every other forums-goer here, so please excuse me for just one more moment ->

................... UGHHHH!!!!






*breathes a heavy sigh after the great weight is lifted from shoulders from the endless rant* ...... Care to comment?


(EDIT -> Look, don't get me wrong. I am well aware that I knowingly kept watching to the end of this anime simply so that I would have an excuse to make an angry rant about it. ^_^ )

[Chapatim]

Interesting! I also watched School Days, but it was like an year ago, so I don't remember much of it, but reading your post/rant reminded me of the series and now I feel like watching it again!

Like you, I feel an enourmous hate towards Makoto for being such horndog, as you said, hate Katsura for having no self-respect, hate Otome and her friends for being such bitches and also hate Sekai for having no respect towards anyone, including herself. Still, when I watched SC I just felt that everything was Makoto's fault, and I still do, that's why I felt so happy when I found out that he was decapitated (Oh yeah, your forgot to mention that Katsura went on a creepy boat trip with Makoto's head!).

That's pretty much what I think, if it concerns anybody out there. But, if it makes you feel better, this series was based on a Bishoujo game (Like Kanon and Air, which, are to me as well, great masterpieces. My favorites too) and therefore has many alternative endings, so things could have been diferent in a diferent route.

School Days may suck, yeah, it does suck, but I would still like to enjoy Makoto's decapitation once again... I think I'll do it right now!

With nothing more to say, let me just add that you're an incredible writer. Really, I think this post was incredibly well-written, and all the adjectives were most fitting. Hope to see more ranting anytime soon!

[Longbowwing]

why dont you guys or gals go play the game and pick your own ending for Makoto and the rest of the characters

there are about many endings for you to pick.
so do whatever you want to him, such as

Be nice a guy
be gentleman
get him to get kill again
make everyone hate him and so on

[Usimyoc]

Well at least THAT's one anime I won't make the mistake of watching. Scratching it off my "to download/buy" list right...now.


But on a different note that comment about the "hero's" (and I use this term ironically) hormones planing global domination was so funny that I fell out of my chair.

[Sarah's Knight]

But on a different note that comment about the "hero's" (and I use this term ironically) hormones planing global domination was so funny that I fell out of my chair.

Thanks. My sense of humor is actually a bit smaller than the average person's, I think, so I am glad whenever someone happens to find something I said to be entertaining. ^_^

[Longbowwing]

this school days already have 2 sequel

Summer Days
Cross Days

[melvin612]

This one is the worst. I got all sick of it by episode 6 or 7, I forgot. Well but I pressed on since I didn't want to waste my 15bucks that was spent on buying the anime.

By the end of the series, I broke the disc.
I even made the effort to check out why the hell a supposed visual novel turned out like that. If you're interested, use wikipedia and look the game up. its like 9/10 endings are messed up.

[Syn74]

Well at least I know that I shouldnt bother watching this anime now. Thank you guys

[Jules]

I don't know what any of you are talking about...this just makes me want to see it more.

To feel such real disdain for a FICTIONAL character means the writers must be doing something right with him...This is even more true if you're SUPPOSED to hate him.

Wish I could say more, but until I watch school days myself (and I may just marathon it over the weekend), I'll just leave it at that.