Now this is a story all about how reality turned fantasy upside down. School Days is an anime I didn't plan to watch. It's based on an H-game which is kind of notorious for having a couple of bad endings that are total shock-value splatter scenes. In the English-speaking community, all anybody knew about School Days was that it had these endings, so when it was made into an anime, a lot of fans jumped on the nice boat in eager anticipation of a slasher movie ending. Meanwhile, all reports ranged the actual show's quality from "typical" to "blows". Still, there was anticipation for the finale: everybody was hoping for a BAD END and with the protagonist's reckless manwhoring, the show was starting to go that way.
But tragedy struck! Real tragedy, not the bullshit cartoon kind: a policeman got his neck sliced by his teenage daughter. With an axe. Pretty grisly stuff, and out of respect, many stations chose not to air the School Days finale. Instead, when they tuned in, viewers were greeted with a bit of quiet sightseeing set to soothing classical music. Really nice places. Makes me want to take a European vacation. At about 5:30 the now-famous "nice boat" appears. There's no other word for that boat but nice. Even Japan thought so: "Nice boat" took off as a meme among English and Japanese-speakers alike, because, like it or not, fans were stuck with it. TV stations weren't airing School Days and they weren't airing Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, another, more straightforwardly violent otaku favorite. At this point, nobody knew what the hell the finale of School Days was, but we were all pretty sure it would end with a violent murder.
The satellite station AT-X finally aired the show some time later, and even I gave in to curiosity. After all the noise, the show really did kind of blow, but it blew in a completely insane, over-the-top way that I'd call ballsy if it wasn't exactly what everybody wanted and the only reason anybody was watching this show.
At the start of the episode we have Sekai, the girl our hero Makoto has knocked up and blown off, calling him up while he's at dinner with Kotonoha, the other girl. She's at his place, she's made him dinner, and he tells her to fuck off. Makoto takes the creepily blank-eyed Kotonoha home for some tea and sex, Sekai makes a surprise visit and she puts two and two together. Kotonoha tells her that, you know, dude's been fucking everybody and she don't really mind. In response, of course, Kotonoha and Makoto make out, wet and sloppy, in front of Sekai, who completely freaks out and retreats to the solace of the voices inside her now crazy-ass head.
Makoto, being sensitive, text messages her his solution to the problem: Kotonoha totally knows an awesome abortion clinic, so she should really get that done chop-chop, you know? So now it is on. Sekai invites him over, and figuring he definitely isn't the target of a premeditated killing or anything, Makoto walks right on in. Sekai makes him some tea.
Now here's the plan: while sucker Makoto sits on the couch, Sekai texts his cellphone from the kitchen. Makoto walks into his room to get the message: he's so busy scrolling down to "goodbye" that he doesn't notice when Sekai runs into the room and charges his punk ass with a butcher knife. All Makoto can do is bleed censored, oily black blood, cry like a bitch, and think of the times he was getting laid. His last act on this mortal coil is to grab Sekai's tit. I'm serious. And then the tea kettle whistles, but she doesn't scream, you know? Hitchcock you're not, guys.
So okay, we're safely in Bad End territory, but the School Days anime actually goes so far as to top itself and snap around like a boomerang for Double Bad End. Sekai gets called out by Kotonoha and they have a little rooftop confrontation. Kotonoha's stuffed ol' Makoto's remains into a duffel bag and figured the three of them could have a nice talk about Sekai's pregnancy. She doesn't really think it's true.
Only one way to find out: Kotonoha slits her throat with a machete, as seen in the game, and actually cuts her open to see if there's a fetus in there. The audience is treated to a lovely shot from the inside of Sekai's torn-open stomach, and Kotonoha-- apparently one hell of a doctor-- confirms that she was just lying for attention.
This shit is already pretty crazy, but the creators went another extra mile, going so far to actually have a Nice Boat Finale. Whether this is a tacked-on scene or a legitimate coincidence we may never know, but nevertheless, the show closes with Kotonoha lying on a boat, cradling Makoto's decapitated head. The show closes with a "this is fiction, dammit" disclaimer that was certainly added on after the crime. And the fansubbers give us this parting message: "Thank you for watching Makoto get wtfbbq pwned".I still think it was cheap and hackish shock value bullshit, but I'm not going to act like I wasn't amused. I do hope they make the hug pillow, though!
I would have dropped it at around the episode 6 mark, then I heard about the ending. After that I downloaded the rest and watched it all at once. Best comedy I've seen in years. I was laughing non-stop.
Posted by: wildarmsheero | October 10, 2007 at 09:35 PM
Man.... what i dont understand who is the guy who wrote this.. what happen to him? changing the way of this two character girls... so nice and cute at the beginning and in all the anime until episode 10 an 11 where kotonoha gets psycho and in 12 where both seem to love dismember people.. i mean the writer is nuts.
Posted by: Angel | November 11, 2007 at 09:00 PM
Maybe the boat was nicer...
Posted by: Oh my | January 23, 2009 at 01:00 PM
man that was the best anime ever made i'm not satisfed about it ending i wish tey could make more episode or another anime with more 13 episodes i think it ended 2 early man this anime is all i can think about now
Posted by: fernando | September 20, 2010 at 02:34 AM