In defense of School Days
Posting this because I'm rather embarassed over my love for this series, and because I'm probably reading far too much into what is actually a very simple story. Regardless, I needed to organize my thoughts over this train-wreck and why I love it so.
At its heart, School Days is a love story. Makoto, a fairly normal teenage boy, becomes infatuated with Kotonoha, a shy, pretty girl who rides the same train as him to school. Believing the chances of actually dating her to be so low as to be impossible, Makoto resigns himself to merely watching from afar. This changes with the discovery of his crush by a classmate, Sekai, an energetic, attractive girl who promises Makoto that she will use all her power to get the two together. This proves fairly easy, since it seems Kotonoha also has a crush on Makoto, but was too timid to act upon it. It all seems nice and easy, except when it becomes rapidly apparent that Sekai harbors feelings for Makoto as well.
One does not need to have extensively watched anime to grasp the general outline of the rest of the story. Makoto is torn between choosing the two, eventually cheats, and there is general unpleasantness all around. What interested me was just how much unpleasantness there is, and how the lion's share seemed to fall upon one person, namely, Kotonoha.
As mentioned before, Kotonoha is timid and reserved, in addition to being rather naive about human relationships. Frequently bullied by several of her classmates, who use her as their personal doormat in order to shove off any school duties, she is often more melancholy than not, and too trusting by far. Her love for Makoto is true and unyielding, not to mention clingy, co-dependent, and more than a little masochistic. Out of all the characters, she is the least guilty for what occurs at the end, as the worst that could be said about her was that she was naive, which, while regrettable, is still not a crime.
Her break-up with Makoto is truly one of the most massive mindfucks I've ever seen, as he does not truly break it off with her until well near the end of the series. For the majority of the story, Kotonoha is left in perpetual limbo (though it's more like hell in some respects), convinced that she is still Makoto's girlfriend (which, technically, she is) and confused as to why her schoomates think Makoto is instead going out with Sekai. She is made out to be a liar, a delusional ex-girlfriend who's trying to break up Makoto's relationship with Sekai. Nevermind that it's actually the other way around and then some, she still becomes the school pariah and eventually catatonic because of it. Oh, and she also gets raped, though it's all in good fun, because it was by Makoto's best friend, Taisuke, who thinks it was consensual, and so therefore it is.
Really, words are not enough to describe how fucked-up and tragic the whole situation becomes. Makoto's indecison, which is really just cowardice, practically destroys Kotonoha's psyche and ruins Sekai's life. He himself is not bad to begin with, but being able to sleep with any girl he wants corrupts his personality so that where before he was merely tactless and over-agressive, now he is callous and cruel. To be fair, I think his reunion with Kotonoha was one of the most touching scenes I've ever seen, since I think it truly becomes apparent to him just how ugly his actions have been. That doesn't excuse what he does to Sekai later on, but I do think he would have stayed faithful to Kotonoha had he not died.
Sekai is another story entirely. While she can come across as two-faced, manipulative, and cruel at times, in reality, she's actually a very fragile, lonely person who needs love in order to function. She at least deserves some sympathy for the repercussions her actions cause. Makoto cheats her on her with almost every other female shown in the series, including her best friend, Setsuna, and to top it off, gets her pregnant and then abandons her because of it. In addition to this, she is forced to endure (not needless) anxiety about whether Makoto still has feelings for Kotonoha. Destructive as she may have been, at heart, Sekai just wanted her love to be reciprocal, which, while it does not excuse her actions, at least shows her to be as tragic a figure as Kotonoha.
School Days is fascinating to watch not only for the complicated drama that ensues, but also because of its atmosphere. On the surface it appears lighthearted, with moments that suggest it to be nothing more than a romantic comedy. In actuality, the School Days world is melancholy and bleak, peopled with lonely figures who suffer lonely days in order to find love. The story as a whole can be compared to a lake. When the sun shines upon it, the surface is so bright it's almost blinding. Beneath the water, however, the world is cold and dark. It is this, along with the painful romantic drama, that keeps me attached to the show.
Far too long, and rambling in parts, but at least it's semi-coherent. Maybe I should have mentioned it's based on an ero-game? Yeah, because fan-service anime based on hentai are chock-full of depth. So embarassing. But if it manages to convert anyone to the fandom, its purpose would have been more than served XD