Wow, that went by quickly. I think now would be the best time to write about this, since I’m still a bit shook up over the ending. Great ending, but most disturbing thing I’ve seen.
This starts out about the story of a boy, who falls in love with a girl, and gets help from his female classmate to hook up with said girl. He hits it off with her, and they are having a nice relationship.
Wait, something’s wrong here… The guy is in a happy stable relationship with the girl? Already? It’s only been three episodes… that’s weird… most series don’t get this far till at least half way through.
Well, actually, the first five episodes are the cutesy romantic comedy arc. At about the end of the fourth episode, the show shows its TRUE colors, as our lead character, Itou decides to pursue a relationship with his girlfriend, Katsura’s best friend, Saionji. After that point, things stop being so cutesy. This turns into a trail of betrayal, grief, and wonderful amounts of backstabbing. It’s ensickening, and if you wanted a cutesy harem, go somewhere else. If you want a morbid drama that doesn’t let go, watch this. Or better, tell your friend this is a cutesy shoujo, and that they should watch it with no idea what it’s about. It’ll be HILARIOUS.
Anyway, characters are okay; I never really got to care for them much. I kinda felt sorry for Katsura, and later Saionji. Itou winds up becoming a teenage Glen Quagmire (heh heh, Awright). Rest of the cast is kinda boring. None of them really do that much to the story. In essence, this is pretty much a three person show. This isn’t a problem, as you learn to love (and later hate) the characters as the series goes on.
Music is relatively solid throughout the series. The opening, however, only suits the series for about four episodes or so, because after that point, the series is no longer the sappy high school romance the opening is implying. Musical scores are nice and enhance the mood in this series quite well.
The best part of the series is the pacing. This one does not want you to watch just one episode. THAT would be forbidden with this series. Many anime decide to have an episode introduce a plot, have it climax toward the middle, and settle down towards the end. This one introduces a plot, plays around with it a bit and WHAM! Something happens that changes everything… and the credits roll, forcing you to watch the next episode. Half of the episodes end with something explosive happening, up to the last one, where it’s so explosive that there’s nowhere left to go.
The ending in this series is well… *shudders* I don’t want to talk about it really. It had tons of buildup, and everything came together in an emotionally intense climax. After the last episode was over, I kinda sat there slack-jawed for about 20 seconds, then my stomach started hurting, and I really wanted to think about something else. Not a happy ending, but a memorable ending. I had it spoiled for me, but seeing it actually happen was not something some spoilers could ruin. It was just awe inspiring.
The main purpose of this anime was obviously a deconstruction of the harem genre as a whole. Rather than some silly ending where everybody is happy for some reason, people actually get hurt by the main characters actions. In the end, you can’t even decide who to root for, due to all of the utter depravity of the situations. If you’re looking for something that decides to invert all of the usual romantic comedy rules, you should pick this up from Netflix (Sorry, DVD’s are kinda rare, so I can’t vouch for them much) or something. I can honestly recommend this series to anybody looking for something deliciously twisted, or just looking for a change of pace.
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1 comment:
Nobody talks about how School days rips on the harem genera! I salute you sir and/or madam and/or androgynous being!
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