Welcome to School Days! This is the first episode of a series based off, both a famous and infamous dating sim game. It’s famous because it is the first dating sim that included actual animated scenes within the game. However, it is also infamous due to some of the “bad” endings in the game, which included things such as murder and suicide. The creators of the anime have to know that this is partly what the game is famous for, so we’ll see how or whether they’ll include any of those story lines in this show. School Days is supposed to run for 13 episodes, so it’s a half season.
Also, starting with this series, if you want to see larger versions of the large images, just click on the images and you’ll get a full size shot. In any case, enjoy!
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School Days begins when a boy, Makoto Itou, starts a normal day by getting on the train on his way to his school, Sakakino Academy. Suddenly, the girl he likes, Kotonoha Katsura, jumps on the train just as the doors are about to close. As Kotonoha sits on the train and reads, Makoto takes a picture of her with his cell phone.
To go along with this, there is a rumor around the school about a charm: if you take a picture of the person you like and put it on your cell phone, and no one finds out, then your love will be realized. Makoto doesn’t really believe it, but he goes with the flow anyway. However, upon coming to school, the picture on his cell is immediately noticed by the girl who sits next to Makoto in class, Sekai Saionji.
Because she said she’s sorry for breaking Makoto’s charm in the first day, Sekai decides to become friends with Kotonoha in order to help get her and Makoto together. Kotonoha appreciates this even more so because she doesn’t get along well with her classmates and doesn’t have many friends.
The next day Sekai invites Kotonoha to lunch with Makoto and herself. After much struggling and convincing, Sekai gets Makoto to come eat lunch with her. After eating Kotonoha’s not-so-tasty lunch, Sekai bails with the excuse that she’s going to the restroom, but nothing much happens due to Makoto’s hesitation.
The next morning, however, Makoto decides to confess, and does so just as he and Kotonoha are about to get on the train. During gym, Kotonoha tells Sekai that Makoto confessed to her and that she accepted. She also tells Sekai that she’s always been interested in Makoto.
That evening after school, Sekai meets up with Makoto at the train station near the school. Makoto mentions that he didn’t know Sekai rode the same train. Sekai tells him that she rides in the opposite direction from Makoto. They discuss Sekai getting Makoto together with Kotonoha, and Makoto says he feels like he owes Sakai a big debt for helping. Sekai suddenly kisses Makoto on the lips, and then says that that’s his repayment, before getting on the train to go home.
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School Days looks promising, if for no other reason than the story could go in any number of directions, and there doesn’t appear to be an obvious path that it will take. Some harem series aren’t really harem much at all, because the male lead already knows what he wants. People may try to cause him to deviate, but he always knows what he wants. This one doesn’t give off that feeling at all, and as a result, has a great potential to get messy.
On top of the two girls already involved, Sekai’s friend Setsuna may also join the fray. I have no direct evidence to support it, but it’s clear that she is going to play a role given how her character has been set up. Also, there is Taisuke, Makoto’s friend, who looks like he is mainly there for comedic relief in his despair that Makoto has all the girls to himself.
The biggest question after the first episode for me is what was Sekai’s motivation? If she liked Makoto, why did she go through the trouble of setting him up with Kotonoha, or did she not realize until Kotonoha and Makoto were imminently about to become a couple?
Makoto has already revealed himself to be indecisive, and that can just add more fuel to a fire which already has plenty of fuel, even if it hasn’t lit into a blaze just yet. This has the potential to get very interesting, and despite being based off a dating sim, the series doesn’t look like it’s going to be fan-service filled, allowing it to focus on the story instead of pandering to fans who want a few panty shots.
Here are some screen shots of the ending credits. Assuming next week we get the full opening credits, I’ll post those next week. You can see larger versions of all 4 images by clicking on them:
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