It’s been a while since I watched a romance anime and I gotta say. . . what a comeback! School Days manages to give good amounts of romance, drama, fanservice, and blood. . . enough to keep you hooked until the end.

Based on the fully animated game by 0verflow, this 12 episode anime was first aired in July 2007. The producers of the anime are Marvelous Entertainment, Lantis, Avex, and TNK.

The genres would be: School life, Romance, and Nice Boat.

STORY

The story revolves around Makoto Ito, an average guy attending high school. As an interesting fact, this guy isn’t the clichéd loser guy who is bullied in class; this guy could be a pretty standard neutral character but here he is, being so pimp and all. Did I mention this was a harem anime? Well, the thing is, being a harem show situated at a high school, it tries to give us a lesson on how we should NOT manage our relationships with other people we like! I mean, look at this guy; he has a girl, and then tries to hit on another at the same time? Sure, I know it happens but I think that it’s just being a dick.

Then come the girls. . .well, there’s a ton of girls, this anime being based on an h-game and all but the main girls who will make the now legendary love-triangle are named Setsuna and Sekai.

Well, returning to the plot. . .It so happens that Makoto likes Setsuna but doesn’t have the courage to ask her out so Sekai makes the role of love cupid to unite this couple. All goes well until Sekai starts to be more explicit in her feelings towards Makoto, who already has Setsuna. . . then it all crumbles in an awesome manner which just makes you ask for more DRAMA (with caps) after each cliffhanging episode!

The one on the right with the girl on the left’s hairstyle and we can come up with something. . .

GRAPHICS

Graphics are standard. A lot of times the animators get lazy when drawing eyes and often tend to get some QUALITY stares. On the other hand, when doing fanservice shots and scenes, they really go all out! Shading here, doing this kind of bounce over there, well. . . all kinds of animation techniques to keep you hooked (Well. . . not all; I still need to watch some EIKEN physics in my anime. . .)

Character design is pretty standard for any generic anime or h-game, although I really liked that the main guy’s friend doesn’t have a very pronounced nose curve, like everyone else. I’m starting to hate that, you know? Drawing different styles of facial and body features gives more quality to the series and more personality to the characters.

Thumbs up, mah man! This would be an excellent young Dan Hibiki, don’t you think?

SOUND & MUSIC

Oh man, I don’t know how they managed to do so many ending songs! almost every episode had a different one! It might be that, or maybe the ED is a very long song with different styles, tempos and singers?

OP song is called “Innocent Blue” be DeviceHigh, and there are a total of 7 ED songs, the most popular being “Anata ga. . .Inai” by Kirika. I’ll just say that these songs go ok with the drama genre. Nothing to be amused of.

About the BGM. . .oh man the drama and thriller scenes have an excellent atmosphere thanks to the music! Although cliché now, the use of constant string glissandi and crescendos help build up a lot of tension around those. . .well. . .tense scenes, and it really works wonders. Also, they really made an excellent job in the sound FX department. It’s like you could FEEL it. Feel what? watch the anime! Congratulations on that.

Oh man, non-glossy eyes! They stare into your body’s blackest holes (metaphorically I suppose).

OVERALL

Even though harem is part of the genre, it’s just because it’s based on an h-game and h-games have a shitload of women for you to hump, it’s just a side dish for the main story: the Love triangle.

About the story development: I think the anime gave us a “what if. . .” scenario that gives you a hint at what your normally irresponsible decisions on your first try at an h-game would result if it were real life itself, like accepting to sleep with whichever girl that asks you to, or asking them to do it, etc.

I think it’s an excellent way of making the people (otakus for that matter) snap out of it and stop being that irresponsible when dating someone, without coming with the excuse “Hey, I could do it in the game, why not here?”.

The creators managed to create something awesome from something oh so common and they did it greatly. It’s like the Seto no Hanayome for school romances and I must say, this is one of the very very few animes I’d love to watch again!

Oh and if you’ve ever heard of the internet saying “Nice Boat”, it’s because of this anime. Just Wiki it: Nice Boat.

Although not the source of the meme. . .Nice Boat!

STORY (with ending as a factor) 10

GRAPHICS 8

SOUND & MUSIC 9

OVERALL  9 Diamonds.

If you’re in school and have “funny feelings” for a girl or if you just want to be YOU WA SCHOKED!, watch this and ENJOY THE RIDE!