School:

It's almost impossible to watch a SOL that doesn't feature highschoolers in school, so why not delve into the world of one of the most ignored places in anime history.


Pros:


Characters are actually good most of the time

The story is made by the characters and not the other way around

Antagonists will most likely be three-dimensional.


Cons:


A lot of minor plot holes

Any consistent plot is resolved too quickly without explanation

It feels like a list of trivial issues. (Sometimes)


Character are actually good most of the time: (This will be the current format when talking about each individual pro and con) Now, when we were talking about SOL as a whole, I said that the characters were bland, despite the show's focus on them, but this is drastically different when it comes to School SOL. I've always found student characters well thought out and complex to an enjoyable degree. Unfortunately, seeing as the overall score for SOL was "Bearable" any good outlier will be overshadowed by the bad ones we will be focusing on later.

The story is developed by the characters, and not the other way around: The one problem with characters developed by story is that that usually creates a need for lore, as to make the characters good, the story needs to be good, and to make a story good, it has to have lore. And, as we know, lore can lead to the destruction of many good concepts. It is the single cause of all ideological contradictions where the relatable main character is actually the most important being to ever walk foot on the earth. Oooh crap, forgot the main point of the actual pro, should've saved this for shounen. Anyway, the reason a character-developed story is better than a story-developed-character is that there are fewer creative boundaries as the show is basically a blank canvas, where the characters are the paints. Everytime a different set of characters interact, there is a new action and reaction that, if done well, as most school SOL do, can make an awesome story.

The Antagonists will most likely be three-dimensional: Nobody likes villains who are evil just because why not. (At least I don't think so) Even if people DO like 1-dimensional villains, any 1-D liker will definitely love a 3-D villain. When a villain is 3-D, it feels like they're actually a character with their own goals and tales of suffering. A relatable antagonist is almost, if not more, important than a relatable protagonist, especially if the protagonist simply reacts to the actions of the antagonist. How evil can a highschooler be anyway…(vietnam flashbacks)


Cons Analysis

A lot of minor plot holes: This doesn't apply much to Slice of Life, but when the main character goes looking for the missing character/depressed character for days on end, the school seems to just be okay with that. They don't give them work, nor do they punish them. Even better is that they somehow manage to graduate top of their class despite missing practically all of this. Now wait till you get to Shounen, ehe.

Any consistent plot is resolved too quickly without explanation: This is the direct opposite of the situation provided in the con above. While the MC might take days to find their friend without suffering any repercussions, sometimes, to avoid having to explain why they won't get repercussions, producers/mangaka will make the situation, no matter how serious it is, be resolved within the first few hours, yet span many episodes.

It feels like a list of trivial issues. (Sometimes): I'm really like how coherent these cons are to one another. Wait, that's not a thing I should be happy about, should I. Going back to the second con, sometimes, when writers can't flesh out a topic, they just make multiple different topics to hide that before making the last chore on the list so HUGE that it might as well be a shounen.


I'm not in the mood to rant, so I won't. Goodbye. Overall Score: 7/10