Josh’s Anime Blog

It’s School Days episode 10, and we go several levels deeper into the depths as hell as Makoto increases his jackassedness, Taisuke confirms his jackassedness, Setsuna is willing to do anything for Sekai, Sekai views some a wholesome family footage from the lounge, and is that a knife that Kotonoha is looking at?

This is a pretty action (of the drama type) filled episode, so this is a very long episode writeup, with a lot of pictures (there was no way I was going to be able to cut it to just 24 or 26 this week) with a really long review of the episode and what I think will come next at the end. In short, it’s a really long post this time, and I have a feeling it’s going to be like this the rest of the way. However, I hope that doesn’t stop you from getting your fill of Makoto, Sekai, and Kotonoha this week.

Episode 10 starts off with Taisuke finishing up taking advantage of a still in-shock Kotonoha as Makoto and Sekai continue to dance in the folk dance. A disheveled Kotonoha exits the classroom only to see the pair dancing and then kiss, causing Kotonoha to break down even more. The next day, a very depressed Kotonoha runs into Makoto on the train to school. Makoto apologizes about not being able to go to the dance, and that he waited in front of the lounge for her, which appears to comfort Kotonoha.

Meanwhile, Taisuke is acting very chipper that morning in the classroom and tries to ask Kotonoha out once again. However, Kotonoha once again rebuffs him, saying she’s dating Makoto. Taisuke immediately runs to Makoto to ask, once again, if he and Kotonoha are really still dating and whether he’s two-timing Sekai. Makoto emphatically denies that he is still dating Kotonoha and that there is nothing between them anymore.

Then, while he’s dumping trash at a trash pile, Makoto suddenly gets a text message from someone saying to meet at the gym storeroom, when Setsuna suddenly shows up and surprises him by putting the head of one of the mascots on him, causing him to drop his phone. Setsuna looks at the message as she picks up Makoto’s cellphone for him, and asks him if he’s still mailing, dating, or even still likes Kotonoha. Makoto, getting agitated about everyone asking him about Kotonoha, insists that there is nothing between them anymore and that he broke up with her by not going to the dance with her.

Setsuna demands that Makoto properly break up with her and asks Makoto to promise her to look only after Sekai. She tells Makoto that she’s leaving for Paris the next day, but that she hasn’t told Sekai about it yet. Makoto tells her that it’s bad that she hasn’t told her yet, but Setsuna says that she won’t tell Sekai until Makoto promises to only be with Sekai. Suddenly, Kotonoha shows up carrying a pile of trash. Makoto goes over to help her carry the trash to the pile, and afterwards Makoto tries to casually walk away like he was just being helpful and nothing more. However, Kotonoha invites Makoto over to her yacht the following day, but Setsuna says that he has an appointment with her.

Not to be denied, Kotonoha then tries to invite him over the following week. This is when Makoto finally tells Kotonoha that he doesn’t think that the two of them should see each other anymore. Kotonoha tries to pass it off as Makoto kidding around, and accuses Setsuna of conspiring with Sekai to force Makoto into breaking up with her. Setsuna says that Sekai has nothing to do with it, but Kotonoha then threatens to tell Sekai about “the incident during the festival” between Setsuna and Makoto.

Makoto asks what’s up about that, and Kotonoha stresses that it would be problematic to Setsuna if Sekai found out about it. Just as Kotonoha is about to tell Makoto that Setsuna kissed him, Setsuna grabs him and kisses him again right there. Setsuna then pretends to be with Makoto and tells Kotonoha that she’s being a nuisance due to her insistence that she’s still dating Makoto. Kotonoha asks about Sekai, and Setsuna just tells her that what she and Sekai do is none of her business. Kotonoha tries one final appeal to Makoto, saying that he told her that he waited on her for the dance the night before, but Makoto just tells her he was just apologizing and nothing more. And then Makoto gives the final stake through Kotonoha’s heart: he tells her that he doesn’t love her anymore.

Back in class 2, Nanami invites Sekai to a basketball party (she’s on the basketball team) and invites Setsuna too. Setsuna just responds that she can’t go. Sekai wonders where Makoto is, but she has to go to work so she can’t look. Setsuna realizes that the note that Makoto got wasn’t from Sekai, and she says that she’ll find Makoto. Then, as Sekai leaves to go to work, Setsuna sadly says goodbye…

Meanwhile, in the gym equipment room, Makoto and Otome are finishing up a round. Otome wryly remarks about how much Makoto sleeps around, but says that she’s happy with getting to be with him secretly. The two then start on a second round while Setsuna stands outside the equipment room, listening in and realizes that Kotonoha isn’t the only girl she has to worry about with Makoto.

That night at Kotonoha’s house, Kokoro realizes that Kotonoha isn’t acting like herself, but Kotonoha doesn’t answer her, and stares at a knife set in her kitchen… Meanwhile, at Setsuna’s house, she wonders what she can do in the single day she has left in Japan to try to ensure that Makoto will only stay with Sekai. Setsuna then decides to go to Makoto’s house to talk to him.

Once at Makoto’s house, Setsuna asks Makoto what he was doing in the gym storage room after taking out the trash, but he just tells Setsuna that it’s none of her business. Setsuna repeats that it is because it deals with Sekai and that she pleaded with Makoto to only be with Sekai. Makoto says that he hasn’t lost interest in Sekai, but can’t really come up with an excuse with why he was with Otome. Setsuna then demands that Makoto break up with Otome as well, warning Makoto that it would be a problem if Sekai found out.

Makoto, realizing that Setsuna has been covering for him by not telling Sekai, asks Setsuna why she’s doing so much for him. Setsuna says it’s for Sekai, but Makoto realizes that it’s because Setsuna like him as well. Setsuna tries to deny it, but Makoto says that he could tell by the kiss earlier in the day that she likes him. Setsuna still disputes, but Makoto kisses her and pushes her down on the bed. Setsuna resists at first, but then relaxes and once again pleads with Makoto to break up with Otome, saying that as long as he promises to, she’ll let Makoto have his way with her.

The next day, Sekai and Nanami go into the computer room to attend the basketball party. Nanami asks Sekai if she could ever contact Makoto, and she said she couldn’t, but it should be fine since Setsuna was looking for him. Nanami jokes that Setsuna and Makoto were probably getting it on, which just breaks Sekai up because she could never see that happening. Suddenly Otome (who is also on the basketball team) arrives, and Nanami introduces her to Sekai.

The seniors on the team suddenly call for everybody’s attention and starts to play a video. Suddenly a clip of Nanami and her boyfriend in the sex lounge pops up, and the senior announces that they planted a hidden camera in the lounge. As the action on the screen progresses (which we can’t see), Nanami suddenly cries out, presumably as the entire basketball team watches her have sex with her boyfriend in the lounge. The senior continues to tease Nanami, saying that it must have been a happy school festival memory.

Suddenly the video switches to Otome seducing Makoto in the lounge, which causes Sekai to have a, err, negative reaction. Immediately afterwards, Sekai rides the train towards Makoto’s house, continually trying to call him. On the way, she sees Kotonoha, who is carrying a large purse, on a pedestrian bridge. Kotonoha asks Sekai if she knows where Setsuna is, mentioning that she should be with Makoto and that the two seem to have gone together somewhere. Kotonoha looks up and Sekai sees that the light has left Kotonoha’s eyes.

That night, Setsuna is at Narita International Airport to catch her plane to France. She suddenly sees Makoto there looking for her, but she walks away towards her gate. Setsuna suddenly remembers back to the start of the semester. Sekai asks Setsuna what seat she has, and when Setsuna tells her, Sekai realizes that Setsuna has been placed next to Makoto. Sekai begs Setsuna to switch with her, and Setsuna, realizing that Sekai likes Makoto,  agrees to switch seats…

Ok, this episode has more going on in it than some full length movies do. Let’s go through this character by character:

Makoto

I think this was confirmed last episode, but it is just reinforced that Makoto is willing to sleep with any girl who is even potentially willing to sleep with him (and perhaps not so willing). This time it’s with Setsuna, after he realizes that she likes him. Apparently Makoto feels that being liked by a girl is enough to justify trying to force himself onto her. On top of this, even after Setsuna basically offers to let him have sex with her in exchange for breaking up with Otome, it’s all but said that he goes ahead and does so.

So, in the end, Makoto has sex with three girls in this episode: Hikari remarks that he got it on with Sekai after the festival, he did it with Otome in the gym storage room, and with Setsuna, and Makoto not only appears to have no guilt two- and three-timing Sekai, but he even has the attitude that he shouldn’t have to answer for doing so when confronted about it by Setsuna. It’s his right to sleep with whomever he wants to, right? It’s hard to call what he did with Setsuna rape, but it’s pretty close as she only consented under certain conditions, and not because she wanted to (unless she secretly wanted to, and came up with the deal as a cover, but that doesn’t seem like her) and only after he started to force himself onto her to begin with.

Also, I find out that I’ve been misspelling Makoto’s name for the most part in the past (writing it as Matoko) so I’ve fixed that in past episodes. This is the second major character name I’ve had to go back and fix. Remind me to improve my quality checking for the fall…

Kotonoha

This episode was absolutely devastating for Kotonoha. Not only was she essentially raped by Taisuke, only to see Makoto and Sekai dancing and kissing right afterwards in the dance, but Makoto finally told her directly and in person that their relationship was over, which seemed to finally emotionally destroy her, as her now empty eyes indicate. Her looking at the knife was about the most blatant case of foreshadowing ever, and the camera pan on her purse when she met Sekai suggests that she is now carrying around those knives with her.

In a sense, this is partially her own fault by being so emotionally invested in being Makoto’s girlfriend, that she kept insisting to herself and others that Makoto was her boyfriend, even when all evidence pointed to the contrary, and when other people pointed this fact out. Even when Makoto told her, she thought it was some conspiracy by Sekai and Setsuna and not Makoto’s free will deciding to break it off. Once Makoto finally made it clear that he didn’t love her anymore, Kotonoha finally had a nervous breakdown.

Sekai

Sekai had a pretty rude awakening in this episode as well, as she learns that Makoto has been two-timing her with Otome. She’s obviously angry on her way to Makoto’s apartment, but I think she’s also desperate too. It’s hard to say exactly what she intends to do once she sees Makoto. In a sense, this episode had not much to do with Sekai, other than her finding out about Makoto and Otome and setting up her meeting with Kotonoha. She had very little screentime outside scenes settings those two situations up.

We also see, via Setsuna’s flashback, that Sekai has liked Makoto since even before the first episode.

Setsuna

Setsuna is clearly trying to help Sekai because she’s friends with her, but she’s also trying to cover for Makoto because she likes him, and the motivations for what she does is influenced by both of those factors.

For example, kissing and pretending to be with Makoto in front of Kotonoha both fulfilled her desire related to her liking Makoto plus she intended for it to drive Kotonoha away from Makoto once and for all so that he would be free to be with Sekai. This trend can be seen in quite a few places. Again, with Setsuna not telling Sekai about Otome and Makoto, she’s trying not to get Makoto in trouble but also realizes that, if she can get Makoto to stop fooling around, telling Sekai about Otome would be counterproductive to them getting together.

Also, I think Setsuna justifies sleeping with Makoto to herself by thinking that she’s going to France so she’s not going to be there to actually compete for Makoto. However, she also realizes that sex is one of the few languages that Makoto speaks, and tries to exchange his having sex with her with him having sex with Otome.

Taisuke

We can’t wrap things up without talking about Taisuke. It’s clear that he in fact went all the way with Kotonoha, but he doesn’t seem to see anything wrong with it, at least at first. Whether it’s because he’s clueless or just doesn’t care, it’s not entirely clear, though I’d tend to believe the former (not that it excuses what he did). It seems to be the old story of boys believing it’s OK as long as the girl doesn’t say “no” (and Kotonoha didn’t) and girls only seeing it as OK if they explicitly say “yes.”

He also seems to have the thought that Kotonoha liking Makoto and Kotonoha liking him are an either/or proposition, where either she likes Makoto or she likes him. One can see this when, after Makoto tells Taisuke that nothing is going on between him and Kotonoha, Taisuke then asks if that means Kotonoha might really like him, as if whether Kotonoha is dating Makoto or not determines whether she is interested in Taisuke.

The Camcorder

We also see the return of the video camera that we saw before. Instead of it being Otome’s friends behind it, it was the seniors on the basketball team. The senior on the team seems to be dementedly enjoying videotaping her team members getting it on in the lounge, and there doesn’t seem to be any explanation, as least as of yet, as to why she video taped the lounge. One possibility is that it was all arranged by Otome’s friends with the intent of letting known that Makoto slept with Otome, and that Nanami is just an innocent bystandard, but that doesn’t seem completely right. I hate to take up time in the last two episodes to explore why the basketball senior did this, but I think it is something that requires further explanation.

Now, onto the future. I noticed that the buildup at the end of this episode has two strong indicators that may be very bad news to Sekai: First, the fact that much of the episode was kind of spent as a “goodbye Sekai” episode. Yes, it was done from Setsuna’s point of view, but I couldn’t help but feel like it was being played in a larger context as well.

Second, the scene on the bridge with Sekai and Kotonoha near the end strongly resembles the scene in the game where Kotonoha kills Sekai, except that Makoto isn’t there. I think it is strongly indicated that Kotonoha has a knife with her, and she has the hollow eyes like she did in the game ending.

This is a lot of evidence pointing towards the idea that Sekai may not survive very long into the next episode. The primary thing that may ultimately save Sekai is that Kotonoha appears to be looking for Setsuna, not her, though this by no means gets Sekai out of the woods. Luckily for Setsuna, she’s at the airport ready to fly out, and only Makoto knows about it.

If Kotonoha doesn’t dispatch of Sekai off the bat in the next episode, it could result in the two basically ganging up against Makoto, which would seem to mean that Otome is the primary girl in danger, along with Makoto. However, I think this is the less likely of the two scenarios that I can come up with. Of course, it could go different than these as well.

One third, left field possibility is a harem ending where Sekai and Kotonoha come to an agreement to share Makoto. However, Sekai’s anger over Makoto getting with Otome along with Kotonoha’s nervous breakdown would seem to indicate that such an ending isn’t very likely.

In any case, I think the list of characters in grave danger now includes most of the cast: Makoto, Sekai, Taisuke, and Otome. Otome may get off if Kotonoha knifes Sekai before learning about Otome, though she could easily find out her via other means. The girls in her class who teased her could also be targeted by Kotonoha. If Makoto ends up sleeping with all the main girls - meaning he would hook up with Hikari - she could be added to the list as well.

I still think Makoto will ultimately sleep with Kotonoha someway, somehow. The best bet, to me, would seem to follow a scenario where Kotonoha kills Sekai, then aggressively goes after Makoto, trying to woo him again now that Sekai is out of the way. Given how Makoto is, I doubt he’d say no to a willing girl, but that doesn’t mean he’ll date her either, and when that becomes apparent, his life could be in peril at that point. Of course, Kotonoha may decide just to go after Makoto, but I think that’s too easy as this point. I think that if Sekai is killed, and if Makoto gravitates towards anyone, it might be towards Otome now that Setsuna has left, and that would give Kotonoha a good excuse to get rid of her as well.

Another unresolved item that may spare Sekai looking at it from the plot is the fact that she doesn’t know that Setsuna has left, and suddenly learning that Setsuna is gone (and that Makoto hid this fact from her as well as Setsuna) could be a strike against her. However, I don’t think this fact is enough to guarantee that Sekai will survive her confrontation with Kotonoha.

Perhaps the biggest strike against Sekai getting killed right away in the next episode is the fact that the situation is set up exactly to suggest that she will be. Kotonoha getting taken advantage of by Taisuke and then seeing Sekai and Makoto dance basically guarantees the Sekai death ending in the game, and I’ve already talked about how the meeting between Kotonoha and Sekai is similar to the Sekai death ending in the game.

If the creators of the game want to throw a curveball, they won’t make that the end of Sekai. Of course, if they choose to do so, there will still be the bulk of 2 episodes left for more havoc to occur, so either way the anime is looking to go beyond the game and I’m very interested to see where it ends up.