School Days/YMMV


 * Adaptation Displacement: How many people even realise that that most of the game's endings are very conventional good endings? Including one ending where
 * A more basic version of this trope would be the notion that the anime came first, or that some fans don't know of the visual novel at all.
 * Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Makoto just a poor guy who got caught up in the thrill of having so many women willing to sleep with him, that he lost sight of what was really important? Or is he a Jerkass who cared for nothing but his own pleasure, and  The fact that his Manga Character is VASTLY different from his Anime Character doesn't help.
 * This troper's played the original visual novel. In the visual novel, he's MUCH nicer than in the anime, plus he has a different voice actor in the original visual novel so he sounds less like a jerk and more like a shy boy. But he's not a saint in the visual novel, either: the problem is that his character flaw is different in the game and in the anime. In the anime, his character flaw is that he's a jerk who really likes sex. In the GAME, on the other hand, his main problem is that he's too indecisive and can't make up his mind. And part of what made him so attractive to girls in the game (specifically that he's a really nice guy who once rescued Setsuna from bullies for example) actually works against him in situations where it would be better if he was blunt. So he ends up dating both girls mostly because he doesn't have the heart to break things off for good and hurt their feelings. Which is still a stupid move, but not for as evil reasons as his behavior in the anime.
 * Bile Fascination: This game/anime/manga is confusing, frightening, maddening and depressing. Not that it will stop you from playing/watching/reading.
 * Complete Monster:
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: "Kanashimi no Mukou e",.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending: Kotonoha and Sekai's happiest endings can be seen as this. Probably "Two Lovers" as well, where  The "earn" part of the Two Lovers happy ending comes into play because in order to achieve the "Two Lovers" ending, you have to play a path that causes Kotonoha and Sekai to corner Makoto on a rooftop and force him to pick a girl right then and there. And then you have to either let the timer run out on the choice or pick , because picking   at that particular point will get Makoto
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Yuki for numerous reasons. The main reason is that he's the Nice Guy to Makoto's Jerkass personality and probably the Only Sane Man that is Genre Savvy enough to realize what's going on. He can call Sekai out on everything she's done to Kotohana and punch Makoto for being a dick. Finally
 * Fan-Preferred Couple: Surprisingly, Yuki and Makoto. Yuki is the only person that stands up and calls him out for cheating on the girls where Taisuke and his friends praise him for getting multiple girls and "becoming a man". Since at this point of time, he's already in over his head and is out right annoyed that he of all people punched him. However, he falls for Yuki's counterpart Yu because she's different from the other girls he's dated. "She" is the only girl that outright cares that he is going out with multiple woman and because of Yu, he's able to think better and realize the error of his ways. His love for Yu gets to the point where he's willing to stand up to Taisuke for "her". And of course,
 * Fetish Retardant: The second half of the series kicks this into overdrive, like Kotonoha and Makoto french kissing in front of Sekai who starts to have a mental breakdown.
 * Fridge Brilliance: How come Otome's friends get away scot free?
 * Jerkass Woobie: It's easy to feel sympathy for Sekai throughout the story. But considering that her actions were pretty much the reason the entire plot happened, Your Mileage May Vary..
 * Just Here for Godzilla: The bloody bad endings are the main reason why people buy the game. Justifed in that that was intended from the start to be the series primary gimmick.
 * Harsher in Hindsight : Likely what the writers had felt when they heard a scene from the finale actually happened in real life before the episode aired. You know the one...
 * Nightmare Fuel: The finale of the anime and a bad ending of the game. The ending of the manga as well.
 * This anime/manga is one of the freakiest ones that doesn't involve monsters, and magic/tech gone wrong. It's just about human nature and how we can really go down the slippery slope into insanity.
 * Ho Yay: Seems that the newly released Cross Days has quite a bit of it.
 * Idiot Plot: Several of the decisions taken by the characters make the viewers wonder if they were dropped or kicked on their heads as children.
 * The manga seems to have everyone act a little more sanely. (Well, at first anyway.)
 * Memetic Mutation : "Nice boat." In fact, the meme was such a hit that the creators of the original game sold Nice Boat related merchandise at a past Comiket event.
 * There is a solid Shout-Out regarding this meme at the end of the Magical Heart Kokoro-chan OVA, where Kokoro.
 * The remake made a new meme out of one of the [PS2] endings. "Nice ".
 * Moral Event Horizon: Everyone!
 * Makoto: Pick your poison, but one good choice is
 * Sekai:, natch. While actions throughout the anime provide for her a Freudian Excuse that makes her action here more forgivable than those of others in the anime, in the manga she has no excuse whatsoever when she . Or in one of the new bad endings, where
 * YMMV on the sane part.
 * Kotonoha:, plus the contents of her bag.
 * And she also has a shocking one in the original visual novel:  Whether she gets away with it or not is up to the player's decisions.
 * Taisuke:
 * Natsumi, Kumi, and Minami: Taking advantage of a school tradition to . The victims include their supposed friend Otome, whose feelings they then ignore again by, and Sekai's friend Nanami,.
 * In one of the visual novel routes, we also have them  Again, depending on your actions,
 * Narm: For some reason people didn't take the seriousness of the drama and murders all too serious.
 * And neither did the creators, or so it seems.
 * The entire idea of will likely be completely laughable to those who don't find it completely disgusting.
 * High Octane Nausea Fuel: The anime's finale.  Wasn't like I was planning to eat...for the next few years or so...
 * Never Live It Down: The original visual novel has Makoto and Kotonoha as the Official Couple with Sekai as their friend being canon, but since the anime and the manga expands on the worst endings possible, anybody who knows of the series will always know Kotonoha and Sekai as a couple of psycho love-stricken bitches with Makoto as the idiot in between whose actions sparked the flames.
 * Rescued from the Scrappy Heap : Makoto's manga incarnation, as well as in the OVAs. He remains an idiot in these incarnation, but is also quite less of a Jerkass and does care for the girls.
 * Playing the original visual novel video game after having watched the anime may also contribute to the rescuing. He's not really a jerk in the original game either when compared to his anime self. (He has a slightly nicer voice in the game, too.)
 * Ron the Death Eater: While the hatred towards Makoto and Sekai may be understandable to a degree, it's really blown out of disturbing proportions, with Sekai having it worse. Yes, they both have their flaws that can in ways affect the story, but people very often ignore their positive and/or redeeming qualities. One common reason is that most fans have seen the anime first and immediately transfer those portrayals onto the visual novel counterparts, biasely treating them as horrible people from the very beginning while treating Kotonoha as a Purity Sue, forgetting her flaws that can make her just as horrible as the other two.
 * Also, Kotonoha herself. Some people seem to ignore Kotonoha's positive qualities and blow her Yandere traits out of proportion, ignoring the fact that she's constantly subjected to Break the Cutie and that she only shows her Yandere traits on the bad endings in School Days and Cross Days and the Anime/Manga adaptations.
 * The Scrappy: There's quite a few actually, but Makoto, Sekai, and Taisuke stand at the top of the heap. Makoto for being a manwhore, Sekai for seducing Makoto in the first place, and Taisuke for being a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and a Karma Houdini.
 * Ship-to-Ship Combat : Averted. It may actually be mocking shows that intentionally incite this.
 * Shocking Swerve: In the manga, the girls' emotional breakdowns, culminating in aren't as built up as in the anime.
 * Snark Bait : Ohohohoho...
 * Take That Scrappy!:, and how.
 * Tear Jerker:
 * In Cross Days, failing to get the true ending on Yuki's route results in
 * In the manga, the scene in which.
 * Wangst : Kotonoha's response to is perhaps a tad overdone..
 * What an Idiot! : So, so many instances. Watching the anime is potentially hazardous to your intelligence. And that's the point.
 * The Woobie : Sekai and Kotonoha. They were both victims of some really, really dicky moves.
 * Kotonoha still gets extra points for being fucked around with by her fellow upperclassmen.
 * Yuki too is a major woobie, because he is the' Nice Guy in the entire series and how sometimes the things he do to prevent the tragedy backfire on him.
 * Yuki too is a major woobie, because he is the' Nice Guy in the entire series and how sometimes the things he do to prevent the tragedy backfire on him.