School Days

So my first actual review of something on this blog. I actually feel a bit disappointed that it's about this title. School Days is a dark, psychological, romantic drama that shows one of the most twisted, sociopathic possibilities when an indecisive asshole (I actually wonder if he was sociopathic himself since he never really gave a crappy about anyone or anything and only showed some form of guilt near the end, I hated him) causes the girls in love with him to either mentally break or snap. In the anime's case it's both. It was a bit difficult for me to watch the last two episodes of the series since I have issues with dark psychological stories like this. But although it was twisted and at times I felt sick, I pushed through just to see what the author/screenwriter was trying to convey. I must, in all honesty, say that it was a very well written story and as such enjoyed it. So don't pick up this title by being mislead by the title, the sweet love-love opening credits or the bittersweet ending credits. There's 12 episodes and the first 6 are presented with the standard rom-dram run around, but after that is where the other areas come into play, and leaving a couple of wild and frightened twists in the final episode. Which, by the way, was only aired by a single channel in japan at a very very late time, whereas the other channels that were airing the series refused to show it at all. For more info on that, and a good laugh, find the wiki entry here or search for the phrase "Nice Boat".

The Visual Novel on the other hand I found but couldn't bring myself to play it after reading wikipedia's entry. It has a ton of endings with several heroines but out of the umpteen endings only like 5 were good. 2 harem ends and 3 regular good ends, and the kicker........the rest go beyond bad ends. Suicide, murder, accidents and so on. This game goes way into my uncharted territory where VNs are concerned. I like nice VNs where there's nothing but good ends and the bad ends are just about the protaginast being without a relationship. An example would be "Come See Me Tonight" (I'll post about it later).

I suggest any male anime watcher watch the anime of this. It shows just one possibility of "a woman scorned". Watch it, remember it, and always be honest and nice to the women who love you so I don't have to clean up the mess. LOL

If you want to buy it go here, choose "S" and then "Page 5". Currently it's the first entry on the page. Alternatively you can watch it on any number of online anime sites. I strongly advise that any viewers be 15 years or older. And if you REALLY want to see the sick end of the anime check this YouTube link or this one with subtitles that cuts off the final bit with Katsura but at least you know whats said. Remember, you've been warned.

*UPDATE* after playing around on the interwebs I found that they made more endings for the anime, post release. I'm not sure where to locate the originals but you can see several on YouTube. Only one good ending though, LOL. The rest are just as bad as the original except Makoto lives in these. So screwed up and twisted. The sad fact is this stuff happens in the real world too. That's why I have an appreciation for the author/screenwriter for not holding bad and expressing these views without warrant. After seeing them though it definitely poses a ton of questions in regards to the mentality and fragility of adolescence. At that point in most peoples lives, you start to really use your head and begin to understand truly complex matters. So something as traumatic as heartbreak or betrayal could easily lead to the breakdown of someones psyche, just like this anime has shown.

Ok. I really hope I don't watch anything like this again for a LOOOOONG time. My open mind where these shows and things are concered may just scar me for life if I'm not careful.