Subculture Anime Blog

School Days.

Summary:

While a boy named Morishita is browsing through message boards, he comes across some bullying type claims. Seeing some kids use a boy’s school bag as a garbage can for the class later at school, he realizes that these types of people exist in his own school as well. Elsewhere, Fumika makes a man extremely happy after he reads the Shigofumi she presents to him. While she talks with Kanaka about this, she describes Shigofumi only as honest. Kanaka describes humans as the only ones who are dishonest, and when Fumika asks why Kanaka wishes to be human, she replies by saying that it is because humans can lie. Fumika pauses at this statement, before looking down to see many puppies feeding on a mother’s milk.

At home, Tatsumi again reminds his son that it was impossible for him to have seen Mikawa. Kaname wants to know why Mikawa has become the way she has, but guesses that his father will not tell him because of being a detective. He still asks one thing, however - if Mikawa really shot her father. Tatsumi confirms this, putting Kaname in a bit of shock. At school, the teacher calls on two students to answer questions on the board. He calls on the student that was bullied earlier, Kikugawa, but finds that he will not attempt the problem. Morishita wonders why a girl next to him is laughing, but he looks behind him to see that Kikugawa is not wearing any pants.

At home, Morishita makes a connection between what he is reading online and what he has seen at school. The next day, he confirms that Kikugawa is the one who has been bullied on the message boards. Kikugawa quickly begins begging Morishita to help him, denying that it is his own fault for being bullied. Morishita escapes, but runs into the bullies while walking inside the school building. The bullies instantly begin associating Morishita with Kikugawa, but Morishita denies the claims. The bullies state that the school needs a person to relieve stress on, threatening to shift the role to Morishita. When Morishita continues to deny any relation to Kikugawa, the bullies ask for him to prove it.

Kikugawa receives a phone call from Morishita that night, who claims that he will help him. Kikugawa hesitantly follows Morishita’s request to meet him on the school rooftop, but he only finds a strange set up and the three bullies when he gets there. They suggest a game for Kikugawa, when Morishita shows up as well to explain that Kikugawa is to walk across the beam that has been set up across two ledges. Now fearing for his life, Kikugawa begs the group for an alternative. A security guard arrives just in time to question the boys’ actions, even though the boys explain that they were preforming club activities. Morishita arrives home relieved and exhausted, hoping that Kikugawa will do his best on his own the next day.

The next day at school, Morishita and the rest of the class discovers that Kikugawa has passed away. Morishita does not believe Kikugawa’s decision to die was normal, as news casters begin arriving at the school the next day. He is stabbed in the back by a protractor the next day by one of the bullies, however, putting him in horror. Kaname and Chiaki discuss the ridiculousness of the event awhile after it has happened, though Chiaki does not believe that it is so simple. Later, Morishita begins posting on the message board about how he has become bullied. Recalling the horrifying events that have been happening to him, he describes that he feels as if the world is against him. He begins receiving support from some of the members, and decides that he must kill his heart.

He continues to be bullied at school, but he decides that he will now be half dead. Finding that he has become boring, the bullies take Morishita to the roof one night to play the previous game with him. Morishita is unable to fight his horror, but he is saved by Fumika who arrives on the roof. After Fumika takes out all three of the bullies, she simply hands Morishita a Shigofumi. Morishita is surprised to find that it is from Kikugawa, but he is horrified when the letter puts the blame on him. He looks up to find that Fumika is gone, and the bullies have revived to chase after him. Morishita is thrown to the ground, but he finds a savior in the form of a screw driver in arm’s reach. Picking this up, he swiftly murders one of the three bullies. As the other two run away in fear, Morishita lets out a maddened scream. Above, Fumika and Kanaka realize humans’ relation to animals. At home, a bullied girl reads the message boards as well. Making a decision, she picks up her phone to call someone.

Preview: At least there was a “boku” in the preview.

Impression:

This episode needed less jerks and more boku. I kid, I kid. I can see that many would probably label this as the weakest of the episodes so far, however, and this has already proved to be true. I would probably agree, but I’m willing to give more leeway. Maybe I’m just too absorbed by the boku power. I definitely drew a lot of Jigoku Shoujo parallels with this episode, because yes, it was practically the same as one of the earlier episodes of that show. I also drew some School Days themes because of Hirakawa Daisuke’s voice, but that’s pretty random (Hey, Kikugawa…come to the roof…Kotonoha has something for you). The message board support reminded me of NHK ni Youkosou! and the bullying reminded me of one of my favorite episodes of Touka Gettan. I’d like to throw away the anime comparisons for a second though, and just appreciate this episode for what it was. Shigofumi has been set up to be episodic since the beginning, so I’d like to treat each episode as its own story for the most part.

I think we’ve all been exposed to the troubled child and bully set up before, so I think I’ll skim through those details. I do believe that the case presented in this episode was a bit extreme, but I wouldn’t say it’s the most unrealistic thing in the world. I remember there being bullies back in High School, but they would leave you alone if you just made it clear that you weren’t going to put up with their crap. This issue was brought up in this episode too, but I guess Kikugawa was pretty insistent on believing that it was not his fault at all. The inner thoughts of Morishita’s fears were quite believable, and I loved the line where he described that he felt like the world was against him. It only takes a bit of looking around to see that such isolated kids do exist, and many seem as “half dead” as the characters in this episode.

Human nature was brought up in this episode as well, which is a theme that I really love. Kanaka’s line about humans’ ability to lie was quite simple, but very powerful. I was kind of thrown off by the comparison with the dog struggling for milk at first, but it’s basically a metaphor about survival. In his most desperate state, Morishita could only save himself by doing one thing. Though, it was pretty convenient for the screwdriver to just be sitting there. Like I said, I can agree that flaws showed up in this episode. The ending was very predictable, and it seemed like only Morishita was the only one who did not see himself as one to blame. His question about people usually killing themselves over such things was very ignorant, though I have noticing that the inability to understand such actions is common. It was even discussed in an earlier episode. Some of the events in this episode and the preview reminded us that this show will not be completely episodic, however, and it looks like the mystery of Mikawa will continue to be slowly revealed.

Oh, but sorry about the serious business. Macindows was hilarious. It hurt my stomach a little bit though.