TOKYO–an anonymous source from TNK, the studio responsible for the animated high school drama School Days, revealed to believewhatyouhear.org that the replacing of the final episode with nature scenery was ordered by top TNK officials, rather than by the television stations as publicly reported, in order to prevent the true ending of the series from being shown.
“The public has been lead to believe that it was because of the girl axing her father,” the source, an animator, said by telephone. “Now, just to get it straight, we had nothing to do with the axing. That was a lucky accident. But the truth is, after seeing how fans have reacted to the show so far, we knew we couldn’t show the ending. Because…” Sounds of struggle followed, and then strangulation noises.
Numerous Internet fansites (“blogs”) have speculated that the anime series, based on a erotic computer game famous for its violent, unhappy endings and its caddish, promiscuous protagonist, Makoto Ito, was actually going to receive a happy ending. Calls for the violent demise of Makoto are nearly universal across the “blogosphere,” and one fan, “k0n4t4FTW” wrote vehemently on a blog, “MAKOTO THAT BITCH MUST DIE and they if he don’t Im gonna FLY TO JAPAN for some SAWIN TIME! STABBY FTW!” Others indicate his opinion is representative of that of many fans, to the point of protest in Yokohama this evening.
Shortly after the conclusion of the phone call with the animator, believewhatyouhear.org offices received an anonymous package, which contained a CD-ROM. The CD-ROM’s contents consisted of graphic files with filenames beginning with “e12_cel_finals” and they depict a smiling Makoto, arms around the shoulders of the two female leads, Kotonoha and Sekai. No further commentary or explanation was given on the CD-ROM or in the package, and the larger context of these files is unclear.
Further investigation into the “Nice Boat” that was shown in place of the final episode revealed that it is the yacht of the director of School Days, Keitaro Motonaga, and that the nature footage was taken during a TNK corporate retreat in 2005.
Neither Mr. Motonaga or any other official representative of TNK could be reached for further comment.
Raymond Hu also contributed to this story.