History VisualNovel / SchoolDays

* JerkAssWoobie: It's easy to feel sympathy for Sekai throughout the story. But considering that her actions were pretty much the reason the entire plot happened, YourMileageMayVary. [[spoiler: Not to mention that it's even worse in the manga]].

[[caption-width-right:300:[[ItGotWorse It got worse]]. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Much worse]]. Innocent Anime HaremSeries this is not.]]

''SchoolDays'' is, at first glance, a romantic comedy in which the male protagonist, [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Makoto Itou]], falls in love with [[TheOjou Kotonoha Katsura]], a girl at his high school who happens to travel with the same train he does. Since he is shy about approaching her, he [[PlayingCyrano gets help from Sekai Saionji]], a girl in his class who turns out to be in love with him herself. Naturally, a love triangle ensues, testing the limits of everyone's feelings.

There are also two OVA episodes, ''Valentine Days'' and ''Magical Heart Kokoro-chan'', that exist in [[AlternateContinuity Alternate Continuities]]. Especially in the latter's case, which turns most of the main females into {{Sentai}} and/or {{Magical Girl}}s with liberal amounts of randomness and SchoolDays-style {{fanservice}} and gore.

...and lulz, depending on how much you hated the character by the end. Ultimately, the anime is like watching the worst ending possible on a visual novel.

* NeverLiveItDown: The original visual novel has Makoto and Kotonoha as the OfficialCouple with Sekai as their friend being canon, but since the anime and the manga expands on the worst endings possible, anybody who knows of the series will always know Kotonoha and Sekai as [[{{Yandere}} a couple of psycho love-stricken bitches]] with Makoto as the idiot in between whose actions sparked the flames.

The game was followed by two sequels. The first, ''Summer Days'', is an AlternateTimeline prequel following [[EnsembleDarkhorse Sekai's friend]] Setsuna in a WhatIf relationship with Makoto the summer before. The second, ''Cross Days'', is a POVSequel which runs parallel to the events of the first game, following a new character, Yuuki Ashikaga, who also has feelings for Kotonoha and thus becomes involved in the infamous love triangle, unwittingly setting off one of his own.

* FridgeBrilliance: How come Otome's friends get away scot free? [[spoiler: [[MuggingTheMonster They don't.]] See KarmaHoudini or the WMG for the reason why.]]

* HoYay: Seems that the newly released [[http://asitagamienai.blog118.fc2.com/blog-entry-435.html Cross Days]] has quite a bit of it. [[spoiler: One of the sex scenes features Makoto and the ''male'' lead Yuuki, who's also a WholesomeCrossdresser. And in another, Yuuki is gang-banged by his male friends, one of them being Taisuke.]]

* XMeetsY: ''/Film/FatalAttraction'' The {{Anime}}.

* XMeetsY: ''FatalAttraction'' The {{Anime}}.

* {{Meido}}: Makoto's and Sekai's class ran a maid cafe during the SchoolFestival.

* [[spoiler:BaitAndSwitchCredits: In the beginning of the anime, the OP seems fitting. Later on, it becomes so nauseatingly happy in contrast to the story this troper (who always watches the [=OPs=]) was unable to watch them and had to skip them. The last episode didn't use the OP anymore, but just the "School Days"-Logo crashing like a destroyed sheet of glass.]]

** [[spoiler: The opening and ending themes for the {{Anime}} eventually become a big contrast to the GenreShift / MoodWhiplash]]. In the last episode, [[spoiler:the opening and its respective theme aren't even shown. It would've been too dissonant at that point.]]

* [[spoiler: WholesomeCrossdresser: Yuuki from ''Cross Days''.]]

Good news, the [[http://schooldays.us/ "remastered"]] edition of the game, School Days HQ, is being released in English sometime in 2012

[[quoteright:300:[[YandereLoveTriangle http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/schooldays1.png]]]]

* YandereLoveTriangle: TropeCodifier

** Anime: Sekai sending a message saying "Sorry... ... ... ...[[spoiler:goodbye]]" [[spoiler:just before killing him]].

* SwissMessenger: Sekai, [[spoiler: her seducing Makoto is what sets to motion all the events that transpires.]]

** Ironically, Makoto himself has standards by [[BullyHunter standing up for Kotonoha against Otome's GirlPosse]] in one game ending.

** Ironically, Makoto himself has standards by standing up for Kotonoha against Otome's GirlPosse in one game ending.

** Ironically, Makoto himself has standards by standing up for Kotonoha against Otome's GirlPosse.

* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: In the anime, after one of the girls tells Makoto she's pregnant, he pressures her to get an abortion simply because [[spoiler: all the other girls he's been sleeping with refuse to after they hear how he treated the girl he got preggers]]. In other words, the concept of an abortion is used to drive home what a total {{Jerkass}} he is.

* JerkAssWoobie: It's easy to feel sympathy for Sekai throughout the story. But considering that it was mostly her actions that casued everything to happen in the first place, YourMileageMayVary. [[spoiler: Not to mention that it's even worse in the manga]].
* KarmaHoudini: Otome's "friends" get away with [[spoiler: bullying Kotonoha, sexing up Makoto behind Otome and Sekai's backs ''and'' exhibiting a tape that shows Nanami and her boyfriend having sex, ruining her reputation at school]]. Makoto's best friend Taisuke also gets clean away with [[spoiler:raping Kotonoha at the school festival]].

** And in some of the bad endings [[spoiler:and Sekai, in the manga]], the girl who murders her rival and/or Makoto. Granted, it usually ends just after the deed is done.

* MeaningfulName: Makoto Itou literally translates to "Faith on a Thead."

* MemeticSexGod: Makoto. A rare ''in universe'' example at that, he proceeds to have sex with literally every girl in his class.

** Reversed in the manga [[spoiler:(where after Kotonoha fails to kill Sekai, ''Sekai'' is the one who kills her and even gloats about it in front of a despaired Makoto)]] and also in some new bad endings from the [=PS2=] version, which involve trains. [[spoiler: One of these endings shows Sekai pushing Kotonoha on the line, but getting hit by the train when Makoto is bailing Kotonoha out. The second features ''Makoto'' getting killed in front of the girls after he saves Sekai from her fall, and the third kills off ''both'' girls in front of Makoto ]]. NICE TRAIN, INDEED.

* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted, sorta. One of the reasons why Sekai thinks she's pregnant, aide of suddenly having vomit fits, is that her period hasn't come in time.

* PracticeKiss: Sekai uses this as a ruse to make Makoto fall for her, having grown jealous of Makoto's relationship with Kotonoha (who Sekai actually helped get together). It works in the anime,while in the game it's up to the player's choice.
* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler: Kotonoha's mental and emotional breakdown hits her fully few after she's raped by her StalkerWithACrush, Makoto's best friend Taisuke.]]