School Days (TV)

Overall: 7.7/10

School Days is an interesting anime. Some people praise it, some people hate it. For me, it sits right in the middle of the tree somewhere. I both love it and hate it at the same time. I love it because of the emotional reaction it was able to get out of me, and I hate it for the exact same reason. Mind you, this is not an innocent high-school romance show. This is everything but an innocent high-school romance. If you are easily angered and/or overly sympathetical, you will hate this show.

Setting: 7.5/10

The show revolves around Makoto Itou, a high-school dude who takes the train to school everyday. On the train he sees Kotonoha Katsura, a girl in which he takes interest in. At school, he is seated next to Sekai Saionji, who notices that Makoto is interested in Kotonoha, and sets the two up. However, Sekai actually starts having feelings towards Makoto herself.

That is the basic premise of the show.

The show is in a regular high-school setting, which is not exactly original, but hey, at least it isn’t boring. I, myself, watched the entire series in a day, because I was always eager to find out what would happen next. The series is based on a visual novel (hentai game) by the same name, and

Characters: 7/10

Some people say the characters are complete shit, but that’s not true. It’s actually the exact opposite. If it weren’t for the extraordinary character-execution, the anime wouldn’t be as infamous as it is. Some characters you’ll hate, and others you’ll feel sorry for, as dan7828 said in his short-lived review. This, alone, is proof that the characters are well executed. They might be shitty people, but shitty people is not the same as shitty characters.

The majority of people who hate it, do so because of one reason in particular: the main character, Makoto.

This guy. You can’t write a review of School Days without mentioning

I gave the characters a rating of 7/10 because even though they are well executed, they are still very regular character archetypes. Look at Makoto’s friend, for example. His only purpose in the anime is to be that typical “comic relief friend”, like you see in many other high-school anime. You also have “Setsuna”, the short, serious girl who knows her shit. That’s also been done to death. You have Sekai, the main character’s female friend, who is (you guessed it) very outgoing. You have Kotonoha, the shy, big-breasted girl. Also been done to death.

Even though this might not seem very original, it’s the choices that the characters make that makes this such a unique anime.

Visuals and Animation: 6.5/10

The animation is not exactly great, but it’s not bad either. It’s exactly what you would expect from a high-school anime from 2007. It still doesn’t reach up to the likes of Kanon 2006, though, but that’s not to be expected.

What I liked about this anime’s visuals was the grey-ish colouring that really set the mood. That originated in the VN, though, but it was well adapted into the series, and gives the series a special “aura”.

Sound: 8/10

The soundwork was really good in my opinion. The opening song contributed to the “aura” I was talking about earlier in the way that it’s really light-hearted. That’s not exactly to be expected from such a serious anime. The series seemed to have a different ending song every episode, and I didn’t actually take the time to listen to them.

The voice-actors also did a very good job.

The feeling it left me with: 10/10

Watching this series made me progressively more and more angry. The fact that it was able to do that is what I like so much about it.