When did they say it was going to be the mousepad, anyway? I wouldn’t actually mind if it’s a regular mousepad, because I don’t have one at all and it would be nice to have one that’s VN related. But if it’s an oppai one, I’ll pass.
JastUSA confirmed it was an oppai one on their twitter.
Well, regular version for me, then. :lol:
Unless something else is announced, I’m going to have to agree unfortunately. I wanted to buy a LE to support School Days, but I don’t really want to pay extra for something I’m not interested in.
JastUSA twitter says they’re aiming for a June/July release though technical problems keep arising.
so very quiet 
It’s April, so time for a I’m-not-dead-yet update:
During last month all the scripts have been translated and edited, all 1823 files. At the moment subtitles for onscreen text are being added, however due to the limitations of the engine I have to be careful on what gets subbed. Game testing is still going with a weekly update turning into daily updates after the Easter weekend.
The first two chapters have been finalized, with the third chapter being finished up rather quickly. It’s a sprint to the end with the last half of the game.
Hmmm… I’m not sure about whether I’ll get the LE or not. TBH, I’d probably be more interested if it were a Kiyoura Setsuna mousepad, but I can get one of those elsewhere anyway.
You feel happy?
I couldn’t resist the temptation to watch School Days anime…
Good god, is there anyone in School Days who deserves any sort of sympathy except maybe Setsuna? It is a trainwreck alright.
Still buying the game though. Should be fun.
No.
Is that a joke about her being flat-chested? =P “Any mousepad is a Setsuna mousepad!”
I’d have preferred one featuring Setsuna as well… not a fan of Kotonoha >.> Still getting the LE to support the game, as I already told myself I was going to, but I wish there was something I’d like coming with the LE.
hope it is ready soon and the japanese company doesnt screw up or move or something to make the release take that much longer
Ummm… Trying to convince your friend’s de facto boyfriend not to cheat on her by offering him your own body is the act of a character somehow deserving of sympathy? More so than a perpetually-bullied girl who just recently stopped letting herself be treated as a doormat, only to have the very foundation of her confidence completely shattered? Were we watching the same series?
Strangely enough, a friend of mine sympathizes with Taisuke, of all people. I’m sorry, but emotionally crippling someone, then raping them while they’re still in a state of shock does not count as sympathetic behavior in my book…
I have to give Otome some credit: at least she realized that the Makoto she fell in love with and the “new” Makoto were two very, very different people, and she started feeling guilty about being a bully (notice how she hesitates when her posse resumes picking on Kotonoha).
Incidentally, Sekai is more my type, but I have to feel bad for all the shit Kotonoha suffered through. And all because her figure filled out too early… Yeesh.
You might want to read the manga version of events; it’s a completely different ending unrelated to the game or anime. Just be warned that the pacing is decidedly rushed.
Yes, very much more so.
Kokoro.
Nope. She’s my favourite character. 
It’s true that what Setsuna did wasn’t right. But she really did want the best for her friend, and I gotta give her credit for that. She just wants Sekai to be happy and have a loving boyfriend. It’s quite incredible that she does so much to help her friend.
As for Kotonoha, I’ll give her some sympathy. After all, she didn’t actually do anything wrong until the very end. Still, murder is unforgivable, even if she was basically insane by that time.
This, I can agree with. Both Kokoro, and her friend at the festival (is she an 0verflow cameo I don’t recognize?). I’ll add one more to the list: Nanami. She’s an otherwise well-meaning girl who happens to be a terrible judge of character. She only chews out Kotonoha because she honestly believes what Otome and the others are saying about her being a slut (completely misinterpreting Taisuke’s attempt to pick her up in light of that slander). You have to feel bad for her when she becomes painfully aware of what her “friends” are really like.
While that is certainly true, we have to remember that this is only one part of the story; Setsuna makes it abundantly clear,especially to Kotonoha (understatement), that she has taken more than just a liking to Makoto. Coupled with the fact that her name means “instant” (in a series with many, many meaningful names) and her own monologue that she wanted something for herself before moving away, the true motive behind her proposition and one-night stand are far from altruistic. “Protecting Sekai” is just her way of rationalizing it to herself as noble - to convince herself that she didn’t do anything wrong. The contradiction between her not wanting Makoto to cheat on Sekai and directly asking him to cheat on Sekai with herself (something she knows will devastate her; Setsuna knows how Sekai thinks better than anyone else) is irreconcilable. And she immediately ran away from the consequences of her actions instead of even telling her “best friend” goodbye.
Setsuna is one of my favorites, too, but I just can’t overlook something like that. I don’t want to think about what might happen if Setsuna returned to Japan…
Agreed. I pity her for everything that drove her that far. The only wrong she ever committed was trying to give Sekai a taste of her own medicine by making out with Makoto right in front of her (as Sekai had done many times before) - that’s her only purely malicious move in the entire series (I’ll credit her murder as part insanity, part vengeance, and part malice - mostly insanity).
You’re going to have to back that up without resorting to blame-the-victim mentality or contradicting yourself. Remember, Setsuna is directly responsible for Kotonoha’s mental breakdown (the double-whammy kiss/dumping after she was raped was the last straw that destroyed her sanity). Kotonoha’s only “crimes”, beside the two I already mentioned, were having faith in someone who didn’t deserve it and not standing up for herself for far too long. Someone who tries to rationalize having an affair with their best friend’s boyfriend is objectively more selfish and malevolent than one who is too trusting and weak-willed.
I’d have to back it up if it were an objective judgement of character, or if I were trying to pass it off for such. Those are my subjective feelings, I don’t have to back them up with anything, really. 
It’s my own sympathy we’re talking about, and Kotonoha gets none of it.
Your exact words were: “Good god, is there anyone in School Days who deserves any sort of sympathy except maybe Setsuna?”. You said “any sort of sympathy”, not “my sympathy”, so your statement was hardly subjective. You’ve just contradicted yourself there.
I’ve already backed up why I think Setsuna does not deserve as much of my sympathy as Kotonoha (or Kokoro, or Kokoro’s friend, or Nanami), and how her list of wrongdoings in the anime is demonstrably longer than Kotonoha’s. The show even lampshades how Setsuna knows what she’s doing is wrong even before she sleeps with Makoto, yet she continues to betray Sekai anyway. I asked you why you feel Setsuna is a more sympathetic than Kotonoha. If you’re playing favorites, just say so; don’t grin and say, in no uncertain terms, “I don’t have to tell you anything” - that kind of attitude paints you in a very unflattering light.
Sekai is probably the character I’d most hit it off with in real-life, but I’m not going to pretend that her not-so-subtle attempts to seduce Makoto (her “practice” sessions) were out of genuine concern for Makoto’s and Kotonoha’s relationship. Replace Sekai’s name with Setsuna’s and Kotonoha’s with Sekai’s and I’ll say the exact same thing; both are doing something incredibly selfish under the pretense that they’re helping a friend. That is not sympathetic behavior - not in my book, not in anyone’s. And, if it is in your book, I don’t think there’s any point in continuing this discussion.
Suffice to say, if you think a chronic victim of emotional abuse somehow isn’t deserving of sympathy (to say nothing of her being a rape victim as well)… Well, you’re free to think what you want, but don’t be surprised if people judge you accordingly.
No, I absolutely did not contradict myself. If my initial statement read “Nobody in School Days deserves any sort of sympathy except maybe Setsuna!”, then it would be a contradiction to what I said further. But that was a question. I couldn’t possibly ask if you or anyone else thinks that some characters deserve MY sympathy, because that would be simply ridiculous. I voiced my opinion and got other opinions going, which is a good thing, and it’s been quite an enjoyable read.
I see where you’re coming from in defence of Kotonoha, and I admit that what she had to endure was relatively hard, but I simply cannot feel sympathy for her, because the inability to face the real world and at least try to deal with your problems is something I feel very strongly about, and Kotonoha never really makes any attempt to do so, continuing to live in her own little dream world until the bitter end. This is not something I can get behind. Setsuna makes mistakes, acts somewhat selfishly and generally makes a poor judgment, but at least she DOES something. She tries. She falls and gets up. Kotonoha keeps on dreaming of knights on white horses.
Fair enough. I can agree with that.
I won’t deny that Kotonoha has serious issues accepting reality; this is symptomatic of her deteriorating mental state. However, saying that she doesn’t actually do anything is a disservice to her character; she was fully prepared to dump Makoto until Sekai convinced her to give him another chance, and she repeatedly tried to stand up to the bullies that had been tormenting her for years. The latter backfired horribly and only led to the bullying getting worse, but she tried to stand up for herself despite being grossly outnumbered. Let’s not forget that she confronted and slapped Sekai when she caught her leaving one of her and Makoto’s trysts, and she threatened to reveal Setsuna’s antics to Sekai (…Setsuna’s preemptive counterattack irreparably wounded Kotonoha’s psyche).
The only thing Kotonoha really should have done but didn’t was confront Makoto about his infidelity; even if she couldn’t convince him to change his ways, at least her mind would have been spared. That, again, was all because she had faith in someone who didn’t deserve it. Her delusions only began after her mental strength was giving out - note that idealization and fantasy are documented mental self-defense mechanisms and symptoms of mental disorders (link 1) (link 2).
I thought I told you not to resort to blame-the-victim tactics. We are shown throughout the series that both Kotonoha and Sekai are mentally ill; you’re blaming Kotonoha for a tell-tale symptom of her mental condition. Also, one of the reasons being bullied is so frustrating is that you feel helpless, like there’s nothing you can do about it (I speak from experience). Kotonoha tried to stand up to Otome’s gang, Sekai, and even Setsuna; most bullying victims would have simply given up and taken the abuse. That takes some serious guts, and I won’t let you claim otherwise.
On a tangentially-related note, I approve of the new “Nice Boat” ending specifically because it remained consistent with the deterioration of Kotonoha’s mental health; the producers could have easily gone for a source-material triple-whammy by having her commit suicide as she did in the game, but that wouldn’t have been consistent with her relative sanity at that point in the story. The anime-original ending is much more appropriate (denying both Sekai’s pregnancy and Makoto’s death, confirming that her idealization degraded into full-blown fantasy).
Also, to be fair, Setsuna and Sekai both have their own problems with accepting reality: Sekai hopes in vain that Makoto will remain faithful to her even after she sees him and Otome together on videotape, while Setsuna foolishly believes that offering her body to Makoto might actually convince him to keep it in his pants for Sekai’s sake, her lampshaded ulterior motives notwithstanding. Like I said before, I tip my hat to Otome for realizing that the nice guy she originally fell for and the philandering horndog she gave her virginity to are two very different people. I don’t like her for her antics throughout most of the series, but I have a small shred of respect for her for wising up in the end.