I honestly agree with most of the things you said. To be fair, I’d be more willing to sympathize with Kotonoha if she were previously homeschooled, sheltered and/or otherwise disconnected from the harsh realities of life up until the beginning of the game. I may have missed something, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
The comparison of Setsuna and Kotonoha is especially interesting in the context of bullying. Setsuna developed feelings for Makoto after he protected her from bullying and encouraged her to be strong. Kotonoha did not have that “luxury”, but whether she’d be able to learn and grow stronger in similar situation is anyone’s guess.
We know for a fact that Kotonoha is a sheltered rich girl - her family is loaded, their house is huge and they even have their own a private yacht - and that her body is frail (she can’t take part in phys. ed. for this exact reason). We also know that, because her figure filled out early, her male classmates teased her relentlessly and her female classmates scorned her; she never had any friends. Otome and her posse pick on her specifically because they’re jealous of her looks and resent the “good girl” image she presents, thinking it to be a facade to attract guys. Because she actually is a good girl and because she’s naive enough to believe the excuses they make for pushing their work onto her, she endures the abuse. Every time she tries to assert herself - for instance, when she asks for help organizing their class project for the festival - everyone refuses to lend her a hand, citing that she’s the Class President and it’s her responsibility (I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that she’s been forced into accepting that role time and time again).
We also know that Kotonoha owns quite the collection of romance novels; her only exposure to men is the leers of her classmates and the idealized nice guys in her novels (and her father, who we strangely don’t know a thing about in the anime). Sekai’s meddling somehow manages to convince her that Makoto deserves to be placed in the latter camp, which Kotonoha might have believed specifically because she wanted someone to be there to support her (the exact reason why Setsuna and Otome fall for him). Note that her confidence gets a substantial boost once she and Makoto become an item, prompting her to start to fight back against the bullying. That confidence sharply wanes as it becomes more and more clear that Makoto doesn’t respect her.
This is one of the reasons why I’d really like to see the original version of events (or, rather, the original possible outcomes). The anime specifically follows the path to the more “interesting” plot points and endings. We’ve only seen how Kotonoha develops when she is betrayed by the people she trusts and that betrayal actually feeds the bullying; we don’t see what would happen if she actually had the support she desperately needed (on that note, I’d like to point out that we never see any adults in the School Days anime - at most, we hear a teacher’s disembodied voice yelling at Makoto and Sekai for acting up in class). We do know that Kotonoha realizes she needs to become stronger - Summer Days shows us that she has taken up swordsmanship at some point (which, given the form with which she reacts to Sekai’s “surprise” attack, is canon in the anime as well) - but we don’t know any more than that…
I know people have been waiting for details on the special Collector’s Edition of School Days. The formal announcement will have to wait until we have physical samples of all the items, but here’s a preview.
The first bonus item will be an original Kotonoha oppai mousepad with art drawn by School Days character designer Goto Junji. Here’s the art, cut for the mousepad.
The second will be an original rubber keychain. The design has yet to be finalized, but we are confident that fans of the School Days anime will appreciate it.
These two items will come together with the DVD case in a Collector’s Edition box. The final price of the set is still to be determined. If you have any questions or comments, post them here and I’ll do my best to answer.
Given that School Days HQ can, like its predecessor Cross Days, interface with SOMCON, are there any plans to make these appliances available (e.g. through jlist) if there is sufficient demand? I’m sure any fan will agree that SOMCON is instrumental to enjoying the True School Days Experience.
Also, have 0verflow given any indication of whether their company has survived releasing Shiny Days after disappointing sales of their 3 DVD monstrosity that probably cost an awful lot more to make than many of the games that outsold it last month?
Reread the announcement- it was conditional on how well Shiny Days sold. Given that it didn’t sell super well (from what I can tell- getchu isn’t always representative) I just want to know if that clinches it for 0verflow.
I’m playing Pure Mail at the moment and it really is sad to see how far 0verflow have fallen since 2004 or whenever SD first came out. The production values of their games may have skyrocketed, but everything else…
SOMCON units are probably too expensive and too heavy for us to carry, but we’ll look into it. Thanks for the suggestion. Is there one particular unit you would recommend for the true School Days experience?
I’m afraid I can’t speak to 0verflow’s financial situation.
The recent posts on the Twitter feed say that they’re assembled the golden master, and all that’s left is to double check to make sure something hasn’t gone horribly, horribly wrong. I see no reason they shouldn’t make the AX release at this point.
While that’s going on, what are your opinions on having a choice routemap as a walkthrough for a bonus? I was drafting these for testing, but stopped at chapter 01/episode 2 because my pen literally ran out of ink along with my sanity partway through. If the response is favourable I’ll try to finish it in time for release.
