It’s a week all about School Days this time around. Welcome back to Don’t @ Me where, like the flash of a knife. I step up to swing around some of my opinions on everything related to anime, manga and the like. My post on School Days comes out tomorrow, but I wanted to take this chance to go over some things that won’t be in the post, as it is talking more big picture. So join me after the cut as I give you eight of my opinions on the anime School Days.
1. I do not believe that Makoto is the bad-guy. Oh don’t get me wrong, he’s the king asshole, he does some really scummy shit, and he’s indecisive as all fuck, but the villain of the story? No..I don’t think so, he’s a much a victim as the rest of the cast.
2. Just think about it for a second. Your a teenage boy, your body is a whirlwind hurricane of emotions and sexual urges. Your in the throes of puberty. You suddenly land the hottest girl in the school, but find out she’s boring, sheltered and completely unwilling to engage in anything remotely sexual. You have no parental guidance, no wise man to tell you what’s right from wrong. You don’t have the emotional maturity to know that sex isn’t the be all, end all of a relationship. All of a sudden you have one of your other friends and several other girls starting to throw themselves at you, willing to spread em just because they want to, with no strings attached.
You fucking look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn’t go down the exact same path Makoto did. Go on, i’ll wait.
3. That being said. The jump from episode 10 Makoto to episode 11 Makoto is a bit of a stretch. It makes sense with where the story was going, but it feels, even that late into the story, way too fast. There needed to be another episode or two of development for that to fully land.
4. On the other side, Kotonoha is probably the biggest victim of the series, a girl who didn’t know to properly communicate her feelings or deal with the realities (fair or not) of being in a relationship. Her decent into madness is sad, but my sympathy goes out the window when she decides to ‘settle’ matters.
5. Otome however is probably the ONLY one out of the series who actually walks away a better person, or at least the most guilt free. When shit starts hitting the fan with Sekai, she realizes what Makoto and the others are, and promptly kicks him to the curb. It’s a powerful moment considering how much she wanted to be with him. Oh she’s still an asshole for her attitude to Kotonoha, but she realizes when it’s time to jump ship.
6. The fact that Taisuke rapes Kotonoha and the series NEVER fully addresses that fact, really pisses me off. That’s a huge moment, and it’s pretty much brushed off as a ‘nothing event.” It really fucking shouldn’t have. I know it’s suppose to show that Kotonoha has gone to the loony bin, but still..
7. Setsuna really…REALLY fucked things up. I mean she probably took things from a 9 and cranked it up to 19. She means well, but fuck are her actions dumb as shit. Again, the theme of “an inability to communicate” is so fucking paramount to this series.
8. Sekai’s final actions in the series almost..ALMOST make you feel sorry for her, but she’s just as much a scumbag as Makoto is, worse in some regards.
9. School Days is probably the closest harem anime will ever..EVER get to a ReZero like deconstruction. If there is any series on this planet that needs a full on remake ala Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, it is School Days. God knows what “the discourse” would think of a series like this. This is an important piece of harem anime history, and it deserves respect.
10. And hey…nice boat.
Shallow Dives in Anime 
I’ll still say it jumps the shark on episode 10, but I agree with the rest of your points.
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