School Days 11 – Does Makoto Have a Conscience?

YEAH RIGHT

Answer: nah. I totally underestimated how much more repulsive and conscience-free the writers could make Makoto. Just when I thought they couldn’t make him any bigger of a jerk, they do…you know you are a cold bastard when it’s one of your fifth or sixth groupies who has to tell you to go see and comfort your second girlfriend–the one you betrayed your first one for. And STILL they keep on coming, until…


Yes. Sekai speaks the three words most dreaded by any playa, the only recorded words spoken by Bathsheba when King David slept with her: “I AM PREGNANT.

BEST PROOF EVAR

In front of the whole class, within all the earshot of the girls. This should have been a delicious moment, and it does have a wonderful soap operatic melodramatic quality to it–complete with tears and declarations of “he’s YOUR child!” And, indeed, it marks the end of Makoto’s days as the all purpose girl magnet, a status that is unfathomable and patently ridiculous at this point. What the hell do they see in him? He even gets an entire set of anonymous groupies, the bullies of Kotonoha no less!

The harem is complete. He’s slept with pretty much everyone now.

It takes the pregnancy to finally wake the girls up, and no time before. Is he good in bed? That would go a ways in explaining all this, but we’re not told even that. We’re told instead that he failed to use protection with Sekai because “he wasn’t used to this“–implying that Sekai was among his first sexual experiences. What in the Sekai is that all about? I’ve stated elsewhere that Makoto is at best a playa by accident, and more likely just very, very lucky (ie, the protagonist of an H-game).

I’m curious–did she REALLY support Kotonoha like Kotonoha claims…

I’m also surprised someone like Sekai, who strikes me as having more things straight in her head than a lot of the characters (not a lot: just more than everyone else) would actually feel even somewhat happy about having Makoto’s child. Does she actually think a guy like this will do the right thing and take care of her? Doesn’t she realize teenage pregnancy pretty much ruins most young women and forces the majority into poverty without the father around?

But the most galling thing must be Makoto’s reaction to all this heartbreak and pain around him: self-pity. I became an anime fan in large part because I could not only stand, but understood, why Evangelion’s Shinji would want to run away and why he felt no one was nice to him. It still makes my blood boil to hear Makoto whining, with sad sympathetic music underneath: “what did I do? why has this happened to me?”After he has called like 4-5 girls who now won’t pick up. You want the answer? TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR CELL PHONE RECORD, YOU CAD.

[Feels urge to SLAP HIM LIKE A FISH]

And take a look at his first and most badly damaged, victim. No number of flaws within Kotonoha, and she had some, justifies this outcome of her life: a totally destroyed soul. She looks like a war survivor and considering she was raped, that makes some sense. Looking at her and hearing her words is heartbreaking, just heartbreaking.

For those who inflict this kind of pain, “it would be better for a millstone to be hung around his neck”

And yet…it is this, this hollow shell of a girl, who finally unfreezes one small part of Makoto’s heart. I can’t believe it, really. For one, it’s too little, too late of course; and it’s just as likely Makoto is actually desiring the domestic bliss Kotonoha imagines and he realizes, “this is what I’ve been missing all along! Why didn’t I think of that?!” Kotonoha’s actions are consistent with her previous character. Makoto’s tearful repentance is not. If pregnancy didn’t do it–if the tears of both Sekai and Kotonoha before didn’t do it–I really doubt even the traumatized form of Kotonoha could do it either.

Please don’t tell me this is a prelude to a happy ending. There’s still a good chance it isn’t–Kotonoha still doesn’t know about the baby. That would definitely be enough to bring out the knives. But, I’ll be honest, my heart began to sink when the color returned to Kotonoha’s eyes as Makoto embraced her. They are not going to cop out after all this rank stupidity and horrific heartbreak. Are they? Please tell me they’re not.

Well, one more episode to go. This will be a fun series review to write, whatever happens. If they give us the ending we’ve been salivating for…a meditation on the wages of sin. If they cop out…it will be delicious writing my evisceration. Oh baby.

Author: gendomike

Michael lives in the Los Angeles area, and has been into anime since he saw Neon Genesis Evangelion in 1999. Some of his favorite shows include Full Metal Alchemist, Honey and Clover, and Welcome to the NHK!. Since 2003 he has gone to at least one anime convention every year. A public radio junkie, which naturally led to podcasting, he now holds a seminary degree and is looking to become Dr. Rev. Otaku Bible Man any day now. Michael can be reached at mike.huang@animediet.net. You can also find his Twitter account at @gendomike.

4 thoughts on “School Days 11 – Does Makoto Have a Conscience?

  1. Freezes his heart? Repentance?

    Sorry, I don’t see it. After he was cock-blocked from all other girls, he still didn’t for a mere second sit down to reconsider. “What’s with all of them? Everything went so smooth lately”, to quote him. In the end, he happens to come to the very last one on his list (Kotonoha), and suddenly he’s supposed to develop remorse?

    *lol*

    Whatever he says has no relevance, he’s proven this much in the past. And the fact that he obviously told her that he loved her (!) – after this day and trying all other girls before her first – just proves what a despicable piece of sh*t he is.

  2. To me the Kotonoha thing was a small fix and possibly made her snap out of her insanity a bit, but the underlying issues are still there. I don’t think the anime team meant to show that he was really truly sorry and in love with her. I mean seconds before he was flipping through all the numbers in his cellphone. I hope they are going for a twist end and having someone other then Kotonoha snap. Sekai still shows promise of it (and I won’t even get into how stupid they portrayed a young teenage girl all alone and pregnant with a father who refuses to even talk to her… ). The only thing that can save this show is some violence.

  3. true that…

    The only thing that can calm my disgusted soul for the dystopian world of School Days is for Makoto to get a violent death.

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