Summary:
Sekai finishes making a meal for Makoto, but he’s at an expensive restaurant having dinner with Kotonoha. He coldly tells Sekai to stop acting like his gf and to GTFO of his house, so she smashes all the food on the ground and storms out. As she’s going home, however, Sekai catches Makoto and Kotonoha on the train, and so U-turns back to Makoto’s place.
Sekai then slaps Kotonoha, but Kotonoha stands her ground. Kotonoha calmly relates how Sekai seduced Makoto away, and even mentions how Setsuna loved Makoto, too. Sekai can only watch as Kotonoha and Makoto make out in front of her, and later that night Makoto sends Sekai a text message referring her to an abortion doctor that Kotonoha has suggested.
Makoto apologizes to Kotonoha for all the pain he’s caused her, and then agrees to meet Sekai at his place. She sends him a text mail saying “Sorry, [billion line breaks] Sayonara” and when he turns around, she stabs him repeatedly. Kotonoha comes over to make Makoto dinner, only to find his dead body. Sekai goes back home, but is shocked to find a text from Makoto telling her to meet him on the roof.
When Sekai gets there, she finds a blue bag waiting for her. Inside is Makoto’s severed head, and Sekai vomits at the spectacle. While Sekai is distracted, Kotonoha pulls out her saw-machete-cleaver, and uses an effective defense when Sekai pulls the kitchen knife out of a pocket. Kotonoha is too fast, and slits Sekai’s carotid artery, before opening up Sekai’s stomach to check for a baby. When we next see Kotonoha, she is cradling Makoto’s head on her yacht, and sailing into the sunset.
Reaction:
OMFG that was an amazing last episode, but not because I wanted to see Makoto die. What I liked best about this episode was how they managed to (in only 12 episodes!) structure material based on an eroge into something that almost qualifies as a Greek tragedy. If Makoto weren’t such a stupid ass, it would have been. It was amazing that they even had a nice boat in the last shot.
I really felt at the end Makoto saw what he had done, and was very slowly starting to try to make things right (even if he was unnecessarily cruel to Sekai). Makoto was not in a huge rush to fondle Kotonoha, and he was finally admitting that he had done something wrong. I guess it’s hard to know if he would have stuck with it, but it was more than Makoto had shown all season long. I couldn’t help but wonder if Sekai really was to blame for everything that happened to Makoto.
At first I liked Sekai, but after the revelation of how she was originally helping Setsuna find out information about Makoto, I really turned against her. Who the hell would steal her best friend’s crush like that? I felt of all the characters in this show, Sekai was the only one who really hid who she was; everyone in the school knew Makoto was a manwhore, and I felt like Sekai really started him down that slippery slope (even if he is also to blame). Sekai never really accepted blame, and towards the end she wasn’t even feeling guilty. Also, as much as Makoto was a jerk, he did not deserve to be brutally murdered like that, and Sekai wasn’t even crazy the way Kotonoha was.
I actually did not at all enjoy the Makoto stabbing scene, and I was angry at Sekai when she did it. Instead, I was really cheering for Kotonoha at the end. She knew a lot more than she let on, and with no one to help her, she still put up with a lot of crap. While Sekai murdered Makoto for wounding her emotionally, Kotonoha murdered the person who caused her emotional pain and murdered the love of her life. Plus, Kotonoha was clearly crazy at this point, so it seems a bit more forgivable.
The rooftop scene was pretty much completely awesome, with the OMGWTFBBQ nature of head-in-a-bag, and with the final showdown. The way Kotonoha brought out her weapon (which looked more like a machete than a saw) was really cool, and I was squealing with delight when Kotonoha correctly defended against Sekai’s stab, using her secondary hand to strike Sekai’s knife hand, leaving Kotonoha’s weapon hand open to strike. Had the knife not been knocked out of Sekai’s hand, this initial block would have given Kotonoha time to use her right hand to pass the knife strike past her right side, freeing her left hand to strike to Sekai’s face. I was also impressed with Kotonoha’s speed in closing the distance. Of course nothing can beat Kotonoha’s chilling line:
As I suspected, you were lying. There’s no one inside you.
What a brilliant way to combine two of the three bad endings from the eroge (especially with Kotonoha likely to die out at sea with Makoto’s head in her arms). Also, props to Shirukii for pointing out the tasteless but hilarious similarities to Clare cradling Teresa’s head. The only thing part that made no sense to me was how Sekai knew about the weird play that Setsuna watched. No one else went to see that wacky play!
Towards the end, I started to think that maybe Sekai made up the whole pregnancy story. However, I don’t find Kotonoha’s analysis to be that convincing; it hadn’t even been a month I think, so what would have showed up? Plus with all that BLACK INK, how could Kotonoha even see what she was looking at? Oh yeah, and after seeing Kotonoha in action, there is no way Taisuke is alive. Kotonoha definitely killed his dumb ass and ditched the body somewhere. I guess you could say that that love manual was a failure and/or cursed.
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Finally, after almost seventeen hours since I came across with the first screenshot that confirmed Makoto’s dead and a bad end; I was able to saw the episode. Holy God, I don’t know why, but after so long I have desired his dead, when that fact was registered by my mind, I felt pity for him, most likely because that drove Kotonoha to her edge and then… well, she finished off Sekai. Now I agree it was a smart move to remove the episode last week, regardless of whatever the media in Japan could have said about anime becoming a bad influence for the young people. Come on, this world is rotten everywhere, anything could be a bad example to encourage someone to do bad things. This decision was more for dignity than anything else.
Analyzing the episode block by block; I found out very odd how they showed us at the end how everything went without them like nothing. Sure, you can mound dead people for that long, but come on, three people gone missing; two dead for sure and one more surely died (Kotonoha) in the deeps of the ocean. For me that’s signal of how everyone who were involved with those three their relationship were; almost like nothingness. At least five girls slept with Makoto, his friend raped Kotonoha and was behind her; and finally if you knew their background, you could guess something had happened between them. I guess with this the producers showed us how trivial Makoto, Sekai and Kotonoha’s existence were for the people around them. At least Otome was in love with Makoto, but the other girls only went after carnal desires. Then Takeshi only lusted after Kotonoha, nothing more and nothing else. In the end, each and every character in the series only looked after themselves, only Setsuna tried to fight for her friend, suppressing her own emotions in the process. I’m starting to feel how this can be reflected on today’s society. Remember Columbus, Virginia, they were people who lost their path in this life, much like Sekai and Kotonoha in this last episode. The human being can be a fearsome existence to itself.
In the end, the one affected the most was Kotonoha. She really loved Makoto since the beginning; I know Sekai loved him the same way, but she did a bit mistake for letting her inability to express her feelings overcome Makoto’s pleading when he asked her for help with Kotonoha. Do you know, this reminds me of Shuffle, on how ASA used KAEDE to approach RIN; eventually RIN fall in love with her, but that was a cheap trick. The same could be said about KIMI GA NOZOMU EIEN, when everything ended in tragedy when those feelings weren’t said; and Sakura had to pay the price for that. Sekai was guilty, but then Kotonoha was navy for not making a move right away after catching Makoto cheating on her with Sekai. I don’t blame her, she was still too innocent; she putted her entire trust on him, and then when he started to think with his pants, Kotonoha lost her innocence forever, in many ways. The only one who didn’t deserve a sad end was her, and only her.
Seriously, when we get involved so deep within something, is hard to draw the line between reality and fantasy. I guess that’s one of the main reasons why an anime can be banned in such cases like was School Days finale. I had to stop watching the RAWs for episodes nine, ten and eleven, because after episode eight; I spend the entire week thinking about it, even when I was doing something I like it very much; my mind was somewhere else, thinking, guessing, hopping, longing. Is not a bad thing, but states clear certain pattern that you have to observe with concern. As I said before, not only anime can drive you to this situation, everything can be a cataclysm for good or bad things.
With this I close one of the weirdest and pleasant experiences on my entire life.
Sarabata School Days…
Sarabata Kotonoha, the innocent lamb
Sarabata Sekai, the careless shipper
Sarabata Makoto, the brainless wolf
All’s fair in love and war. :P Soooo I take it that you’re not a Mitsuki Hayase fan either?
I would like to point out, that the last ending song is the main theme song of the game. I was really wondering when they would finally use it, and guess they knew enough about the audience to save it for the last. This is a game, and anime series, that had potential to be better. I remember getting the goose bumps when I heard the ‘Plastic Lies’ song as Sekai kissed him for the first time. It was one of those moments that had me hoping for literary exploration of intense emotions brought out by love triangle, but Makoto’s bad genes and stupidity brought the whole thing into epic ending of the sort I did not expect at that time.
Since I was hoping for Makoto’s death as soon as I heard that this anime series will be made, I can’t say I’m disappointed. I know that plots and Makoto’s behavior could have been better, but then, we wouldn’t have the ‘Nice Boat’ in the end, so I can’t complain. More objectively, only thing that could be considered good about the whole series is various songs they have used in the series, all deserving B level mark from me( that is within top 15~20% of the song I heard ).
I have no idea what the OVA will bring, and even wonder if it will contain pr0n level materials, as most of the other endings are very ’sensual’, including the famed Harem ending(s). I already marked the OVA series as rent but not buy, unless they really do something very original and good.
It’s funny you mention that Zyl, cause actually I am a Mitsuki fan. But Mitsuki did it while Haruka was in a coma, whereas Sekai did it to Setsuna right to her face. She then made Setsuna switch seats, and Setsuna could only justify the defeat by trying to ensure that Makoto only had eyes for Sekai.
In retrospect, Setsuna should be glad she moved to France…
I’m still not over the deaths of Teresa and Flora T_T Why did the awesome ones have to die.
The more I think about it, the more I think that Sekai was really pregnant. I don’t see any reason why she would fake morning sickness to herself a couple episodes back. And at such an early stage in pregnancy, the fetus would probably be only a couple cm in length. Added to that, Katsura’s method of dissection probably wasn’t the best, she’d make a crappy coroner.
>> actually I am a Mitsuki fan
Yessss! Mitsuki ftw.
So Makoto and Sekai were actually Myu? It’s interesting that Sekai actually opted for abortion but instead of aborting the child, she aborts the father.
There’s no doubt anymore that Kotonoha is really from a mafia (or yakuzza) family considering that she can sever a head. Confusious said “When bag not comes to head, head must come to bag”. Indeed, it was quite sexist that there was no male equivalent for the “loli in a bag” so far.
I sort of expected a line from “Die Hard” at the end but Kotonoha even topped it with an original. After all it seems for Kotonoha “a head is fine too”.
I said it before but I never developed hate towards Makoto simply because I find it difficult to hate a tool even if it’s an utterly egoistic one. Except for Kotonoha he was in good company with that attitude. Of course, the way he treated Sekai was far from acceptable but especially since episode 11 it had already become completely unrealistic anyway, so I wasn’t upset by that either.
So why I didn’t look forward to see him stabbed, overall this was for me one of the greatest and most entertaining end of series in quite a while, not because Makoto got stabbed but the following events. One funny thing is also that they virtually went through many of the game endings but instead of stopping there, they just picked the next ending, so they could have ended it several times before at many scenes making it a bit of an open end.
This reminds me of when I read news on bizarre killings…
What do you mean he wasn’t in a rush to fondle Kotonoha. They clearly did it like multiple times and made out in front of Sekai lol
I guess it’s literary license and just a TV show, but Sekai made dinner and was waiting for him. When did he give her a key to his place? How did Sekai see Makoto and Kotonoha on the train as it was speeding by so fast? Finally, how did Kotonoha get to the school roof first? Only Sekai had a key as she was in the astronomy club.
Anyway, that should have been the Claymore ending.
Some thoughts regarding the final episode (and the series in general):
- Where were the parents when all of this was happening?
- My only qualm about the conclusion is this: if “School Days” is a morality play, not enough people got their comeuppance. I would have liked to see something about Taisuke, the bullies, Setsuna, etc. in the epilogue. Maybe that’ll be a DVD extra…
- About a decade ago, there was a fanfiction challenge where authors were tasked to find a worse father than Genma Saotome (in the fics, other people would raise Ranma from age 6 upwards). I think an interesting exercise along the same lines would be to replace Makoto Itou with another similarly-aged anime character and see if it’s even remotely possible to come up with a worse/bloodier/f-ed up ending.
OF COURSE, Katsura IS right when you think about it. After being cut up like that, Sekai certainly can’t be “pregnant” anymore!
ending was awsome
cant write good haha XD
it was fun watching this show.
everyone was thinking about the ending and boy it paid off
still it could have been better i just hate fake black blood
that was all my concern katsura finally got some action and was the victor!!!
boy i wanted katsura to win since seki was bitch and all of what katsura said to her is true(yes i also believe that the pregnancy thing was a lie to get makoto back). allas this show is ending. but never was better than the original game. had alot of possibilities and i like that.
Hoping for a summer days anime!! (loved the OP btw)
thank you and have a good bad ending!
P.S. Nice Boat Katsura =D
Wait a second, just had a revelation…
If Sekai wasn’t pregnant… then who was holding the camera?!
Nobody and Sekai wasn’t pregnant either:
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Why does nobody think Sekai was pregnant?
Those who don’t think she’s pregnant are as retarded as Makoto and should probably get stabbed too lol :’D
Sekai could be suffering from Pseudocyesis. In this condition, a woman would have all the symptoms of a pregnancy, including morning sickness, without there being a fetus. It could happen in an extreme emotional state if Sekai really wanted his child or wanted to keep him with her.
After seeing how sneaky Sekai could be, it just seems like it could be a possibility that she isn’t pregnant (especially since she is clearly a little odd). However, I wouldn’t say I lean one way or the other.
Your definition of restraint is suspect Itou’s tongue was deep down in Katsura’s throat…
Also it was not murder it was a ritual slaying of an Itou sacrifice to Hera.
I think Katsura would have skull fucked Itou before perishing at sea in her nice boat.
Oh man I lol’d.
I’m actually with Hinano about the Sekai pregnancy thing. I’m not really sure why this is being discussed so much either xD.
For Makoto, that is major restraint. And I don’t know how that would work with Kotonoha and Makoto, nor do I want to…
I see everyone in the known anime universe blogging about this anime. Is it really that gooood..??
Some people may not think it’s “good” but School Days is definitely memorable.
oh man! I’m soooo late to the party! *eats leftover cheetos* As soon as I saw your post, I grabbed some Cheezits, chips and dip, popcorn, downloaded the sub, and went to see the epi… but I had so much hw that I only skimmed through some parts (especially the murder scene, hehe). Well, all I had to say is pretty much said in the comments, so theres not much to say, except that I’m part of the minority that didn’t want Makoto to die. I mean, hes an ass, but so are alot of people. That doesn’t mean we should kill them. I did enjoy the scene, lol, but he was starting to become a better person. Makoto, you playa pimp, you will be missed (by me at least)
Theres also one tiny thing I would like to mention and hope it hasn’t been mentioned before :). Anyone notice Sekai’s panty shot after she killed Makoto (its around 18 mins into the epi where shes stepping back and looks like shes doing some sort of dance) (I swear its her panties! My instincts don’t lie! XD) I thought to myself, how could they add fanservice to such a scene? Plus, its very distorted, so its not anything that would turn you on! What a waste -_-
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I wish they’d show what happened to Taisuke, but your prediction does seem pretty accurate! lol! Even though the Love Manuel doesn’t work, maybe thats the whole point! You know, so Taisuke will never get a girlfriend that could possibly stab him… or cut his head off and sail towards the sunset on a nice boat.
Seeing how Sekai has long sensed she was pregnant, I dont think it is fair to assume she was faking it. Plus that wouldnt blend in well with the original’s “To my Children Ending” either.
I wouldnt be so quick to jump to the conclusion that Sekai wasnt as much in love as Kotonoha. They are both freaks in a way. Sekai is a mental case with a severe melancholia, as was eloquently explained by her best friend. She just becomes to attached and dependant on someone else, and she cannot accept makoto that doesnt like her. Hey, love can hurt! Kotonoha, on the other hand, is very naive and inexperience. Not to take anything away from her, what a sweet and kind girl. But she is simply in denial and looks for other sources of her relationship failures when Makoto is in his pimp-a-ho mode. She escapes from the whole reality and does not have a mental capacity to handle his death. One girl loves a guy so much that she works against her guilty conscience. Another girl loved the same guy so much that she has no qualms with lashing it out on others. Is it really that Kotonoha loved him more? Maybe.
The TV ending was a bittersweet affair for me. On the outside, I totally agree with the parallel of Shuffle and kiminozo, those two shows flashed through my mind as I played the game as well. I was all for kiminozo the weekend soap opera up until the last episode which totally threw me off, and I wasnt even a big Haruka fan at that (Akane Maniax FTW!!!). If you truly love someone, you dont really let your object of affection go through all this drama, and just wish for their hapiness - is what I believe in.
Tables turn now, and I see one of my fav chars (others being Setsuna and Otome) being righteously punished and blamed posthumously. Somehow, I get a feeling of gratitude how they were able to stick to my principle, making it clear how this “cant help it when you are in love” shit doesnt flow.
But then again, I know I am Sekai fanboy deep down
C’mon, how could you hate on girls with a hair antenna! That being said, I must say with the anime version I have developed a newfound love in Otome. Kyon must have convinced me of the ponytail superiority. 30% more moe couldnt be a bad thing.
What is that music at makoto’s death? Somebody pleas help me about that!!! Arigato:D
I heard that it was the OP for the game.
thx
How very odd. I assumed I was alone when I developed the “hysterical pregnancy theory” for the last episode of School Days, but here someone has already added it to Wiki, for crying out loud! The question of Sekai’s pregnancy buzzed around in my head for 3 whole days before I sat down and postulated the following:
Theory #1 - Sekai really was pregnant with Makoto’s child (Sekai’s story)
This theory is certainly plausible. There are numerous scenes showing Sekai in different stages of realization of a pregnancy, including headaches, nausea, and the ever-popular knowing stomach rub. According to Sekai, she has missed 1 (or more ) of her periods. Also included as evidence was her observation that she has never had sex with anyone but Makoto (uncontested) and that she was Makoto’s first partner, during which time they “taught” each other. This lends credence to the thought that Makoto might not have been practicing safe sex practices. However, these statements cannot be fully trusted as Sekai is not fully trustworthy.
Theory #1a - Sekai was pregnant with someone else’s child
Dismissed as implausible. As Makoto’s loudmouth friend Taisuke is the only other viable male character, who had never shown any interest in Sekai, this complicates things unnecessarily and with no factual basis.
Theory #2 - Sekai was not pregnant and fabricated the story to bind Makoto to her (Kotonoha’s story)
To give this theory equal time, it must be said that Sekai’s pregnancy being a lie is plausible. Primary evidence for this theory comes from the doubtful source of a psychotic Kotonoha, who had just recently discovered the corpse of her lover, sawn off his head, and used it in a trap for his suspected murderer. She may have accused Sekai of lying to further push Sekai off-balance. However, Sekai herself is an accomplished liar, who is frequently untrue even to herself. As Kotonoha stands over the body of her slain opponent, she cuts Sekai open, to “find out for herself.” She claims to discover no pregnancy, but this too is put in doubt thanks to A. Kotonoha’s shaky mental state, B. her presumed lack of autopsy/anatomy skills, and C. dim lighting conditions. It is entirely possible that she either missed or didn’t know what to look for or where in the first place. Finally, for this theory to work, all instances of Sekai physically referring to pregnancy beforehand (such as nausea), whether observed by others or not, would have to have been an act, or attributed to some other illness, such as stress.
Theory #2a - Sekai was not pregnant, but believed herself to be, and underwent a hysterical pregnancy
I have to admit that this theory is attractive in that it marries the best and most likely details from both Sekai’s story and Kotonoha’s. In this version, the stress of dating Makoto secretly, followed by the betrayal of her best friend and the open infidelity of Makoto caused Sekai to believe that she has become pregnant. Her body followed suit, acting as if this was the case, even without conception. Given Sekai’s state of mind and frequent bouts of depression, this seems possible, if not likely. Although Kotonoha’s autopsy skills are still in question, this theory also stands when Kotonoha declares that she found no pregnancy.
The theme played when Makoto and Sekai were killed was ‘Kanashimi no Mukou’. It’s also the very same theme played in the PC game version when the player unlocks any of its infamous bad endings.
I decided to look back at the anime ending because I wanted to see how the School Days anime affects me as an anime fan in the long term. In other words, after like 10-20 years, will I look back at School Days and talk about it? We all know an anime series is often left forgotten after it ends to make way for new anime. As an anime fan for over 20 years, this isn’t the first time an anime ends in tragedy or something depressing. Eva had their ending where nearly everyone turned into LCL. Ideon ended with every character in that series as well as a portion of universe blown to bits by the Ideon Gun. Devilman ended with Earth turned into an apocalypse. And even Osamu Tezuka himself made short stories and some known series like Umi no Triton where it ended unhappily.
One thing I give credit to the School Days anime is that the events and the ending itself CAN happen in the real world one way or another. Somewhere out there, there are real life versions of Makoto, Kotonoha, and Sekai. So I can say that School Days is not just a tragic romance-story anime, but also a cautionary story of the consequences one gets thru infidelity, seduction, temptation, and deception. Nonetheless, time will tell if we and the next generation of anime fans will continue to talk of an anime like School Days.
I will however, complain if the next wave of anime titles decide to make copycats of School Days (there have been a huge number of titles making a copycat of Evangelion since that show’s success).
Indeed this anime surprises me..with so much Harem going on..i thought this was just the “ordinary” love triangle thing that most romance anime`s have, but as it goes on it totally freaks me out about how Itou-kun could be a “manwhore.” In my opinion, Itou-kun didn`t love both Sekai and Kotonoha but just fancied them and of course just want LUST more than “love”…he comes to realize it at the end but then, he never changed making out in front of Sekai =3
oh well…the gore effect was like Higurashi no Koro ni with the black blood thinggy ~
cool anime hehehe! i like the ending n_n! wtf guys would you mind helping me with my Gf’s bcoz im confused right now i don’t know who am i gonna choose both heheheh!
I’m really late on this so I apologize. However I would like to point out that Sekai was NOT pregnant. Everyone keeps saying that it had only been three weeks. She explicitly states to Makoto that she missed her period. This more than likely means that if she was pregnant, that she had conceived more than three weeks ago. Also, take note of the scenery. When she tells Makoto that she is pregnant, the weather is still sunny and snow free. By the time episode twelve happens it is cold out and snowing. People are wearing coats where they weren’t when she told Makoto that she was pregnant. Also, most women do not begin showing that they are pregnant until their 3rd to 4th month of being pregnant. However given the actual time frame of when Sekai was supposedly pregnant, a fetus would have definitely grown despite not being visually noticeable on the outside. We’re not looking at 3 weeks of being “pregnant” here people, we’re looking at more like maybe 2 months. Definitely enough time to have an abortion yet also create a fetus inside.
It’s not uncommon for a woman to mistake common health symptoms for being pregnancy symptoms. The “morning sickness” was most likely induced from being overly emotional, stressed and upset.
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