You know why I never mentioned being part of this earlier? The other two times, Jon Spencer and crew picked shows I’ve already watched – in fact, I finished round 1’s Seki-kun for a watching challenge a few months before JS floated the idea with Seki-kun as the pilot anime.
Anyhoo, I’ll run this similarly to my Konobi collab with Yomu – some reactions (basically my simulcast commentary, but obviously done for this show instead) and maybe some other longer-form content if I can manage it and think of something interesting enough to work with…If you have no idea what #AniTwitWatches is, check Jon’s post here.
Note AniTwitWatches may end up going out on my Tuesday (for instance, this post went out early on my Tuesday) because it’s my busiest day…well, part of it is busy simply because Monday is an Amazing Race day and it happens to have this hilarious show after it that I end up sticking around for, even if I don’t intend to in the first place. For those paying attention to AniTwitWatches, said show will be gone after week 2 and the Race itself will be gone from Mondays after week 3 so these posts should progressively be more timely and have more effort put into them after those points. I’m enough of a Race fan at this point that I wouldn’t wanna miss it and have to resort to streaming it via the related legal streaming service (I know I have that option, but most of the TV shows on that service are overdramatised things – or things I find boring – I don’t want to have access to via a streaming account), so the other show (an hour long with ads, just like the Race) is collateral damage…in a sense.
Reactions
- I’m kind of nervous to watch this, to be honest…all I know is that there’s a nice boat in this show, and there might be a yandere or two.
- LOL, there’s no effort put into the background characters at all!
- Boob jiggle…can we not.
- I think this business about hair might be from Akiko Yosano’s Midaregami. Update: It’s actually Yotsuya Kaidan. According to discussion about the other snippet of text the teacher discusses (see K’s tweet in anothr update below), there seems to be a theme of betrayal running through the show.
- Ah, Potato-kun (Makoto). How dense you are…
- Seriously, why does she (Saionji) have a roof key…? Update: Well, we’ll find out in a few seconds.
- Saionji’s a frickin’ blackmailer! Yikes! Candidate for potential yandere right here!
- Sekai = world, but Makoto = sincerity, so I think both are pretty big concepts.
- (Update: “Red bean dumplings” are shiratama zenzai, which is actually a soup with a type of red bean mochi in it…it seems it’s roughly analogous to the Chinese tang yuan and I like those, so…I’m hungry now…)
- If it weren’t for Sekai’s ahoge and shorter hair to Katsura’s long hair (plus Setsuna’s ribbon), I would be so confused right now…
- (Update: K mentions the possible significance of the Qing dynasty spy here.)
- If I were Makoto, I’d wonder what Sekai told Katsura…
- This art style’s kinda offputting, but hey, that’s the artstyle from a mid-level 1990s/2000s anime.
- Nobil = Mobil. There used to be that kind of petrol station in my region, but they’ve been mostly phased out in 2019.
- The line is yellow in my region, so I wonder why it’s white in this show…?
- Butt shot, can we not…?
- I keep imagining a faint blush on Katsura’s cheeks…is it just me or does she really have that…? Update: Okay, I didn’t imagine it just a few seconds after this reaction.
- Why is this shot (during Katsura and Sekai’s discussion of Makoto) focussed on Katsura’s boobs, anyway…?
- “In school life, three persons were always together. Our relation was broken on that day. The past never recover no longer.” – That’s the English under the anime’s title (without correcting it, otherwise I would’ve gone “sic” at least once).
- I like how the next-ep preview is typing on a cell phone (the same kind Makoto uses for the urban legend).
Overall: It’s not wowing me and I clearly do not like the male gaze, but I’m keeping on my guard…just in case. I mean, Sekai had the audacity to steal Makoto’s first kiss of the show (which is probably his first kiss overall, as harem protagonists normally have it). Katsura is quite the enigma at this point still, despite being one of the first characters to show up and being ostensibly the main love interest, so I wonder how her character will develop…
School Days can be watched via Crunchyroll. I was planning to use Viewster to watch this anime eventually, but then Viewster rebranded and doesn’t seem to have School Days anymore.
You’re going to be on the lookout for a yandere from ep1? Haha. School Days gets a lot of flak but I remember enjoying it in the end. Definitely gets slow at times though, if I remember correctly.
Yup, let’s call it Yanderewatch (partially joking).
How long ago did you finish SD? (I get the feeling you finished it a few years ago since you tacked an “IIRC” on there.)
I think it was back around 2015.
I might rewatch it at some point, but maybe not for a while still.
I wanted to reply to your other comment but couldn’t I guess. Weird. Anyway, we’d love to have you on if you wanted to rewatch with us now 😉 No shame in playing catch up later if you are too busy at the moment.
My internet cut out when I sent that other message, I was surprised to see it even appear, so maybe that’s why.
Appreciate the offer, maybe I’ll tune in later on. 🙂
Ah, that could certainly do it.
Awesome, I hope you do because it would be really fun to have more folks in on the watch 🙂 So far the discussion has been excellent!
I think it’s interesting that you brought up the male gaze, It’s too early to call but I don’t know if it’s intentionally leaning into those troupes. That this is how the idyllic romantic fantasies are portrayed which is odd because already it’s giving off that it’s sort of a farce. It’s very muted and desaturated in terms of color, everyone has black hair instead of colorful anime hair, maybe the names are references that we are in for a more “sincere view of the world”.
It’s also interesting how you kind of got the significance of the first kiss, I initially thought that it was just a really dramatic confession but I think you’re on to something. That’s supposed to be a huge moment in this genre and maybe to some extent life but it is sort of tarnished by this abrupt twist of fate.
Maybe more poisoning of the fantasy with harsh realities are coming, intrigued to see where it goes but I’m glad that you’ll also be providing some insight on this series.
SD is clearly from Makoto’s POV so I don’t find the male gaze particularly surprising, although with only one ep. I can’t peg down if it’s intentional yet. Katsura’s first name can be read as “kotoba” (language, word) and another meaning for Makoto is “faith”, by the way, (although the latter is rather questionable, considering this is a harem anime)…
I was thinking the bland colours and one face syndrome were a budget/age thing, but you do have a point. Normally the show would at least bother with making the girls more conventionally attractive than what we’ve got, so maybe that’s another clue something is amiss…
I’m just guessing here, but maybe it’s because Makoto and Katsura eventually start going out that Sekai will snap…? I get the feeling Sekai set them up because she probably has some kind of ulterior motive for it. Normally there’s a “matchmaker” character/plot around (I guess these days it’s the “ships people IRL” character or something) so I didn’t question it at first, but exactly what Sekai’s motive is…I have no clue so far.
I really like the things both of you picked up on here. I don’t want to go into any real detail on it, but you guys are certainly on the right track with how you are thinking. It’s really cool to read your thoughts and theories on this show 🙂
Thanks for joining in, this will be pretty rewarding for you I think, at least from an academic/writing perspective.