| It gets so much hate, but honestly you know it's the best romance of all time |
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| OP is more detestable than Makoto. |
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| bad choices make for good stories |
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| ikr. |
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| Of course it is. Simple plebs cannot understand its perfection. |
   I envy your delusion; I wish I could live in it  |
romagia said: bad choices make for good stories |
 All credit goes to Sacred. |
| I've never watched it because some asshole spoiled the ending for me. |
| The majority if not all characters are so unintelligent that if you somehow care about them at all, you'll be screaming at your TV. Better than being boring I guess. Very entertaining regardless. |
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Chelizzle said: Zergneedsfood said: TLDR I think if the characters would act a LIL BIT more realistic,then it would be a great deconstruction. I think sleep with anyone who want to sleep with you is the most realistic choice. |
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Zergneedsfood said:  |
I envy your delusion; I wish I could live in it |
Zergneedsfood said: JD2411 said: yea it's like the show stabbed them in the gut or somethingI don't love school days but I honestly don't understand why people get so butthurt about it It got people out of their comfort zone, and people didn't like that. |
I envy your delusion; I wish I could live in it |
JD2411 said: I don't love school days but I honestly don't understand why people get so butthurt about it Probably because some of the characters are so unlikable, especially Makoto. School Days isn't that bad, but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece either. |
tr1ckst3r said: nah what highschool guy would be that shallow?Chelizzle said: TLDR I think if the characters would act a LIL BIT more realistic,then it would be a great deconstruction. I think sleep with anyone who want to sleep with you is the most realistic choice. |
| Let me type up a counter argument. First of all, why didn't Makoto break up with Kotonoha? Easy, because she needed to be available later on to piss off Sekai into killing Makoto, nothing else. No logic in that, it was just forced in order to get the worst ending possible. Every character was detestable besides Kotonoha, and she was a flat 2 dimensional girl. She's shy, she's cute, etc. Though her reaction estranges her from the viewer. She's not a normal person, so how can they understand her? Pity, yes, but understandable? No. We were suppose to sympathize with Sekai, but I didn't. This anime series done it job when it made me realize people who enter affairs are ASSHOLES. Case closed. If you don't break up your current marriage and decide to cheat, you're a douche bag. Sorry, but that's the truth unless you have a viable reason. (Which Makoto didn't.) The characters were one dimensional, which was sort of expected, given the small role each were suppose to do. Honestly, this series could've been half the length like Monster which would've made it better. I get no satisfaction out of the ending, because I put up with 11 episodes of him cheating and got tired of it. Yes, we get it is a tragedy, now fast forward to the ending! The ending was so forced, as I said before. The characters act stupid, but that's okay, because teenagers are mentally handicapped when it comes to this sort of thing. And then, there was Sekai humming after Makoto rejected her and her supposedly fake baby. I mean WTF? WHY ARE YOU HUMMING? WHY? You don't hum after being rejected, that doesn't make any goddamn sense. |
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Killaclown said: tr1ckst3r said: nah what highschool guy would be that shallow?I think sleep with anyone who want to sleep with you is the most realistic choice. Every highschool guy? |
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tr1ckst3r said: Killaclown said: nah what highschool guy would be that shallow? Every highschool guy? What world do you live in? |
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PeripheralVision said: Real world dude..tr1ckst3r said: Every highschool guy? What world do you live in? |
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tr1ckst3r said: being sarcastic, and no not every guy.... a lot thoughKillaclown said: nah what highschool guy would be that shallow? Every highschool guy? |
Killaclown said: Every highschool guy is like that, anyone else is just tsundere about it.tr1ckst3r said: being sarcastic, and no not every guy.... a lot thoughEvery highschool guy? |
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| OP didn't even try! Come on man, my grandma can thnk of better baits than this! |
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tr1ckst3r said: not if they are in a relationship I mean (or religious or something)Killaclown said: Every highschool guy is like that, anyone else is just tsundere about it.being sarcastic, and no not every guy.... a lot though |
| Not a masterpiece but a good show. I will debate anyone who says the show is poorly written. |
tr1ckst3r said: Killaclown said: Every highschool guy is like that, anyone else is just tsundere about it.being sarcastic, and no not every guy.... a lot though Actually, no, and it's extremely ageist that you say so. |
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| i lkrd it win i saw it when i was little but i don't rerry remember much give it a 11 for shits and gigs Muahahahahaha |
| The visual novel is very good but the anime looks dark depressive tragic and Makoto is an outright asshole. I have'nt seen the anime and nor will i. Im thinking about doing a YouTube review of the VN, will you guys watch then? If you have any questions you want me to take up in the video send them here |
Killaclown said: You just never face the temptation that you able to say this man...tr1ckst3r said: not if they are in a relationship I mean (or religious or something)Every highschool guy is like that, anyone else is just tsundere about it. |
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tr1ckst3r said: Killaclown said: You just never face the temptation that you able to say this man...not if they are in a relationship I mean (or religious or something) Play the visual novel, where Makoto actually has the choice of holding it in. Saying every man will cheat is to generalize. |
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| Most people that watch the show just don't understand the development path it was trying to take. |
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| I'd argue so, but it just gets exhausting when nobody can identify the little symbolism and metaphors the show creates. |
Zergneedsfood said: You're probably my favourite poster on MAL. |
| Now you're wondering if there's white text in any of my other posts. Over there, I'm everywhere. I know that. |
| It has been a while now since I watched the series, but I was thinking about it recently. Maybe it is time to watch it again. Zergneedsfood posted a great analysis (unfortunately, a rarity here on MAL) near the beginning of this thread; I can agree with practically everything and therefore don't need to repeat the points presented in that post. I will expand on the points about the interactions between this series and the harem genre. Harems are typically unrealistic and over-the-top. For the most part, the ones I have seen serve two purposes. Pandering to male fantasies is clearly one purpose of the harem; many of these series take a guy who isn't particularly remarkable and throw a bunch of women at him. This guy has to be enough of an everyman to appeal to a wide audience, but especially to young men who may feel the insecurity in romance that naturally accompanies the teenage years. I'm sure many normal high school boys would love to trade places with the typical harem protagonist and enjoy all of the attention heaped upon him by a number of gorgeous girls. The second purpose of the typical harem is often comedy. Of course, not all of these series are comedies, but I find that the idea naturally lends itself to comedy. It is absurd; in real life, girls seldom act the way they do in harem series, and ordinary guys seldom find themselves the objects of such fierce competition. Successful comedic harem series poke lighthearted fun at the male fantasy aspect by exploring the absurdity that would result if the situation actually played itself out. School Days, like the more usual comedy harems, explores the absurdity of the concept, but it does so in an entirely different fashion. Perhaps this is why I find it so refreshing. (Refreshing? You may ask what drug I'm on, if I would apply that term to School Days.) Like the comedies, School Days exaggerates the situation, but exaggeration in this series serves a dark purpose. It certainly can be interpreted as a dark satire of the harem genre. Additionally, as others have argued, it is a deconstruction of the harem genre. By exploring (in exaggerated fashion) what could happen in real life if the harem scenario played itself out, it exposes the tropes and conventions of the genre to higher scrutiny. However, this is only one way in which the series operates; depending on the viewer's background and on how the viewer interprets the series and its characters, it can be viewed in many ways, and it certainly can interfere with an anime viewer's expectations and sensibilities to the point that it elicits a very strong reaction. All of this brings me to my main point, and possibly to some explanations for the negative reactions many people have to this series. I find it useful to view this series through the lens of reader response theory, and specifically the ideas of Stanley Fish, in his article "Interpreting the Variorum." (I strongly recommend this article. If you have access to a university library, you should be able to find it.) He argues for the existence of an interpretive community, which includes the readers (or viewers, in the case of anime) and authors, who all rely on a set of cultural assumptions to guide their interpretations of texts. Anime viewers and creators certainly constitute an interpretive community, and the creators of harems and the devoted fans of harems constitute a specific group within this community. They share a common language, including a variety of tropes and stock characters. This creates expectations in the viewers, and the creators are conscious of these expectations and usually work to fulfill them. School Days is clearly conscious of the common language of its interpretive community, and in the first few episodes, it plays to the viewer's expectations, but after a while, everything goes spectacularly wrong. The inevitable result is a harsh dissonance in the viewer's mind. The "everyman" harem lead turns out to be an unforgivable jerk, and the cute girls turn out to be either demented sex maniacs or violently insane. The harem is not supposed to turn out this way, but a little dose of reality, combined with satirical exaggeration, logically leads to this conclusion. In real life, a harem situation would never - ever - happen the way it does in the typical anime. The culmination of School Days, although it is extreme, is a believable result of this situation. The expectations of the audience are dashed. They hate the characters. They hate the show. The delightful bubble of the typical harem has exploded. Some viewers, however, are willing and able to look beneath the surface and come up with new interpretive language to understand this series. Viewing it as a dark satire of the harem genre is certainly a reasonable approach. Stepping back emotionally also helps; the characters may be among the nastiest in anime, but they have been carefully constructed to be this way. For example, if the creators wanted the viewers to despise Makoto, they have succeeded. It is easy to hate him precisely because he has been so well constructed. Yes, I hate him, as practically any reasonable person would, but he is a good character. Finally, viewing the series as a deconstruction is useful. In a typical harem series, the underlying language of the interpretive is buried. It is there, but the viewer seldom consciously engages with it. School Days exposes it by subverting it. The common tropes of the genre are made clear. It is easy to see how people would hate this series. It features a wide array of nasty characters and then proceeds to exaggerate their negative traits. It explores some very uncomfortable issues that are, unfortunately, commonplace in real life, although seldom as extreme as the portrayals in the series. It forces audiences to confront the dark side of a situation - the harem - that is usually used as a vehicle for lighthearted, escapist entertainment, and it does so without any hint of subtlety or restraint. I will not pretend that watching this series is a pleasant experience. However, I find it useful and enlightening. In that sense, it is "refreshing," because it brings many of the underlying conventions of anime (and manga and visual novels) to the surface and then proceeds to explode those conventions. It is one of the most memorable anime series I have seen, and I would agree with the title of the post that it is something of a misunderstood masterpiece. Characters don't have to be likable to be good, and a series that is unpleasant to watch can still have great value. |
| It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue. |
WeirdHeather said: I'm sure many normal high school boys would love to trade places with the typical harem protagonist and enjoy all of the attention heaped upon him by a number of gorgeous girls. All males, regardless of age, want to be in Makoto's position. ALL MALES. Not just HS males. ITS ALL MALES. Whether its at their neighborhood, workplace, other places, etc., all males want to be as lucky as Makoto. Of course, minus the surprise pregnancy and boat ending >__> The only time that a male does not want tons of chicks its if he is in love with one chick. If he is not in love, than we males want chicks. |
oooo3333Mar 29, 2015 1:16 PM
PeripheralVision said: Let me type up a counter argument. First of all, why didn't Makoto break up with Kotonoha? Easy, because she needed to be available later on to piss off Sekai into killing Makoto, nothing else. No logic in that, it was just forced in order to get the worst ending possible. Because hes a teenager who wants to escape the responsibility of raising a family. He was a coward from the get go. Whether he would have become faithful unknown to Kotonoha if he wasn't killed is unknown. PeripheralVision said: That's your opinion. People are self centered and selfish, but if you hate people for acting in their own interests, you are going to hate alot of people in the real world.Every character was detestable besides Kotonoha. PeripheralVision said: I found all characters had their faults yet I don't hate any of them. All of their lines of reasoning and motives are spelled out in the anime and it is up to you to choose.We were suppose to sympathize with Sekai, but I didn't. PeripheralVision said: This anime series done it job when it made me realize people who enter affairs are ASSHOLES. Case closed. If you don't break up your current marriage and decide to cheat, you're a douche bag. Sorry, but that's the truth unless you have a viable reason. (Which Makoto didn't.) Yes, people who cheat are douchebags, but is that really enough reason to demonize them? It is clearly shown throughout the first few episodes that Makoto does not intend to hurt people's feelings. Sekai also didn't want to see Katonoha get hurt. Yes, they are selfish but they don't get pleasure from hurting others. Is it really justifiable to hate someone because they put their happiness above others? All Makoto did was say "yes". It isn't like he plotted to destroy their lives. Perhaps he even thought he was doing a good deed by pleasuring women. PeripheralVision said: Yeah, the show kind of jabs at teenage love a bit.The characters act stupid, but that's okay, because teenagers are mentally handicapped when it comes to this sort of thing. PeripheralVision said: If i remember correctly she was humming while she was cooking right? That was before Makoto stood her up and before he revealed that he would settle down with Katonoha.And then, there was Sekai humming after Makoto rejected her and her supposedly fake baby. I mean WTF? WHY ARE YOU HUMMING? WHY? You don't hum after being rejected, that doesn't make any goddamn sense. |
| The only way someone would think this is a deconstruction is out of ignorance. It's not good, let alone a masterpiece, so many unintentional things, that it's fans grasp at. |
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tsudecimo said: The only way someone would think this is a deconstruction is out of ignorance. It's not good, let alone a masterpiece, so many unintentional things, that it's fans grasp at. Its a Shakespearean Tragedy but replaced the ideals of gaining power with gaining a harem in a modern setting. Although I don't think it is a deconstruction, it does go the opposite direction of typical harems, making it special. It challenge norms about harem anime, particularly how we are supposed to root for seemingly average gary stu type characters(lots of harem anime) or stupid dense characters and the stereotypical pure high school girl and guy image. |
| No, to all of that. I really hope your first line is just sarcasm. http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1351063#msg38009603 |
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tsudecimo said: No, to all of that. I really hope your first line is just sarcasm. http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1351063#msg38009603 When I watched it a few years ago, the structure jumped out to me that it is pretty similar to one. Made the image 2 weeks ago, points 4-5 are a bit out of order, but Sekai's announcement is definitely the crisis. |
| I don't really dislike it because I thought it was bad, just because I found it boring. I remember my only motivation to keep watching 'till the end was the ending everyone was talking about, but when I got to the end, I was kind of disappointed because I was expecting more than what I got. |
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| If the episodes before the ending weren't boring, then sure. School Days is too heavily dependent on the ending, while neglecting almost every other aspect. Besides being really bored, I also couldn't feel any sympathy for any of the characters, which shouldn't be a problem if they handled the characters better. |
| @Rouzhan and Rikku You guys didn't feel the tense atmosphere? The slow month of emotional abuse and torture that culminated in the demise of the two female leads. I guess different strokes for different folks |
| Not sure about masterpiece, but it is misunderstood. The fact that it depicted a main character so despicable means that it is worth something (ie. the character isn't bland) |
| My Reviews and Rants: http://bunny1ov3r.wordpress.com/ 痛就是爱 |
| it's good shit |
| I really can't understand the hate for this series. It's very similar to the great tragedies of old with a modern setting, it deconstructs the harem/romance genre in an unexpected way, and it keeps it's realism. These events happen do happen, a lot more than some people are willing to admit. The fact that they even worked in fanservice, a little bit of comedy, and even satire just made it all the better. The characters were all very realistic, I've known a great many men/boys like Itou and it was actually quite common when I was in high school for boys to act that way. Bed as many women as possible to up your score in the locker-room, or boost your self-esteem, or just because you're a horny douchebag. Girls like Kotonoha were quite real as well, I only had to deal with one once in my life and it was long after high school but they do exist. Girls like Katou and her harlot trio are actually pretty average high school students, they exist everwhere en masse. Events like the friend who helped you hook up with your girlfriend suddenly trying to break you up and keep you for herself, I've witnessed them through the eyes of nieces and nephews during their high school days. Considering I've witness those particular events in some shape, form, or fashion in my decades of life- well, how rare or far-fetched can they be? Yeah, events like what happened with Hikari sleeping with him to get him to stop cheating, or Setsuna sleeping with him while trying to get him to be faithful to her best friend, I've not really seen those but have heard stories of cases like Setsuna's. So, those are kind of far-fetched or unrealistic. The video thing with the girl's basketball club is unrealistic, the closest thing I know of that is even the least bit similar happened at a prom in my area. It was long after my school days were over, but I met the victim of it. Some photos she'd been dared by her closest and most trusted friends to take, embarrassing and intimate photos of herself, were "accidentally" shown during the video package at her prom. The violence and murder is rare, and the concept of it playing out like that is far-fetched, but it's not completely unheard of for people to kill their lovers, ex lovers, or the people their lovers cheated with. I won't call this series one of the best ever made, or anything like that, but the way it tackles realism in the harem setting is unconventional and brilliant, the way the story unfolds is packed with ups and downs, emotional highs and lows as it were. Characters make you love them one minute and hate them the next, except for Itou who you just hate. I originally thought this series deserved no more than a 4 around episode 4 or 5, at episode 8 I thought a 6 at best, but by the end of episode 12 as I sat there with my "what the fucking fuck!?" look on my face, I could not help but give it a 10. I believe all of the hate comes from the fact that this series takes people out of their comfort zone, presents them with real life scenarios, and doesn't use the characters the way a traditional harem or rom-com would. It's human nature to hate things that are different, which is exactly why racism, sexism, and other prejudices exist to begin with. |
| Odds are I'm not going to find my way back to a thread after my first post, it happens on occasion but not often. So, if I say something that offends you and you feel the need to force your opinion on me because obviously everyone should have your opinion or none at all, feel free to post it in the thread that I'll probably never see again. However, if you are interested in intelligent discourse, feel free to message me. |
| It have moral value at least.... If you have a girlfriend don't cheat on them, or they will kill you. |
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| yes: it is. one day I’ll write an analysis on it |
| Absolutely. The weighted score is farcical, and reception that is in all likelihood more the offspring of bandwagon culture and squeamish viewership than it is an analysis of all the components that constitute a great series. |
  ｲ乇刀乇乃尺ﾑ乇 ㊎   ㊰☽ Shaded Horizon ☾ |
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