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School Days ep. 12 [END] + Review ~ 77/100

September 28th, 2007 | Category: Anime, Reviews | Tags: School Days

[ Episode 12: School Days ]

School Days has finally ended and Makoto is DEAD. I mean, holy shit, this ending transcends any of the game endings. This episode is so straight to the point that it hardly requires a detailed summary. The events basically play out like this: With Kotonoha now regaining her sanity she and Makoto get back together. Meanwhile, Sekai had finished cooking dinner for Makoto at his place only to find out that he was eating with Kotonoha at some expensive restaurant. Eventually the three meet, Sekai slaps Kotonoha and she tells Sekai about how she betrayed her first and reveals Setsuna’s feelings for Makoto as well. After a devastated Sekai leaves after seeing Kotonoha and Makoto make out everything spirals out of control from there. After receiving a message from Makoto to get an abortion for the baby Sekai goes to meet Makoto at his home. Much silence is present between the two and eventually Makoto gets a message on his cellphone. He’s surprised to see it’s from Sekai and as he turns around, he gets repeatedly stabbed by Sekai to death. I can only imagine how many people are celebrating that! XD

From there Kotonoha discovers the body and immediately goes to meet Sekai. After some words about who was Makoto’s girlfriend and Sekai puking after seeing Makoto’s severed head, the girls start to fight. Kotonoha pulls out her saw while Sekai tries to defend herself with the knife she killed Makoto with but gets it knocked away and Kotonoha ends it all by slices her neck. OH SHI-! Kotonoha then cuts Sekai open and basically says “Just as I thought! There wasn’t any baby in here!”. Best. Line. EVER. And yup, Kotonoha freaking lost it. Cut to a yacht sailing towards the sunset where Kotonoha is Makoto’s head and saying “We’re finally together Makoto-kun!”. Thus ends School Days after some monologue by the now deceased Makoto. Some seriously f*cked up shit, ya?!

So, with seeing this episode I can say that the stations were right in pulling this episode from their schedules. Why? It’s obvious, this episode was just too damn bloody and it would have been inappropriate to air it after the tragic incident last week. About Sekai’s death…I can’t really say she deserved that harsh of a punishment even if she did betray Kotonoha first but who am I to second guess Kotonoha-sama’s judgment? That aside I only have one thing to say for this episode: LOL MAKOTO IS DEAD!

[ Final Thoughts ]

School Days was a rather uncomfortable and, at times, hilarious series to sit down and watch. It did a great job at creating drama. That much is evident because all the characters had some sort of strain on their relationships with each other. Though they did that the majority of the characters weren’t really that likable nor where they developed as much. The only ones that really stood out were Setsuna, Kotonoha, Sekai, and Makoto. Well, it does make sense since they are the main characters of the show but things were only interesting when those four interacted with each other. The one other thing this show excelled at was making you hate the characters. Each person has a character they hate but I’m sure everyone who watched this has one in common. Yes, I’m talking about he who is scum: Makoto. Along with Setsuna, Kotonoha, and Sekai, he is one of the most realistic characters in the show. That is by no means a good thing necessarily. Why? There are many assholes like him in real life who treat girls just as bad if not worse. There are a lot of Kotonoha’s as well who let their friends and boyfriends walk all over them until it becomes too much to bear and eventually breaks down. The Sekai’s out there, while not usually setting up their friends with someone else and then sleeping with them, do betray their friends and while feeling guilty about it they eventually push it aside and fully indulge in their selfish desires. Setsuna…is a rather special case. She did grate on my nerves by interfering with Kotonoha and Makoto, not because I liked them together but really because she had no right in doing so whether it was for Sekai or not and came off as a bitch. Though the main reason is because I didn’t want her to get involved in that love triangle and, well, end up dead. That said, she was and still one of my favorite characters in this show. The other being Kotonoha.

In the end though, the charm of this show was most likely seeing how badly things would be messed up among the characters and anticipating who would finally put Makoto out of his misery. That chosen one was Sekai but the chosen one was immediately taken out by Kotonoha who, by the end of the final episode, had already lost her mind. Seriously, her hugging that head is creepy and the music just made it so even more. So, the question now is, would I recommend this to show to others? It depends really. I would if the person wants to see something new, have a good laugh, see the dark sides of humans, and learn to hate a character with a passion (read: Makoto), then yes I would. However, if they are looking for a school romance with relationships that don’t feel forced and with characters that have genuine feelings for each other then I wouldn’t. There are shows out there that are much better and more appropriate like KGNE or I”s Pure. School Days is in a genre of it’s own and, whether you love it or hate it, makes a mark in anime history as one of the most hyped series of its time. I wouldn’t call the series amazing or great but it was very entertaining. The rating I gave this probably wouldn’t have been so high if it wasn’t for Kotonoha delivering the best line anime history or using shunpo on Sekai. So for her sake I bumped it up a little. Honestly, if you take this show too seriously you may end up giving yourself a headache but it still teaches a valuable lesson even if you were like many others who had a good laugh each episode and that is to not f*ck around with more than one girl. Otherwise, karma will bite you in the ass in one way or another. Either way, I’m certainly not going to forget about School Days any time soon.

[Overall series review: 77/100]

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