Koudo Ikusei Senior High School is a leading school with state-of-the-art facilities. The students
there have the freedom to wear any hairstyle and bring any personal effects they desire. Koudo Ikusei
is like a utopia, but the truth is that only the most superior students receive favorable
treatment.
Kiyotaka Ayanokouji is a student of D-class, which is where the school dumps its "inferior" students
in order to ridicule them. For a certain reason, Kiyotaka was careless on his entrance examination,
and was put in D-class. After meeting Suzune Horikita and Kikyou Kushida, two other students in his
class, Kiyotaka's situation begins to change.
(Source: Anime News Network, edited)
If you gaze too far into the abyss and long enough into the abyss, then maybe you will become the abyss or something. If you are act like a monster, then you become the monster. Or something. My best friend [Friedrice Natzsche](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche) told me that one. He's a German philosopy who lived in the 1800s or something. He's a good guy. img440(https://i.imgur.com/ArpsFq2.jpg) _Pictured (???): Friedrice Natzsche._ Everybody quotes him. I don't know why. Like they haven't even read anything he's written, but they're just quoting him nonstop. "He's the [God is Dead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_is_dead) guy, WE HAVE TO QUOTE HIM." img440(https://i.imgur.com/jiHFwL1.png) "WE HAVE TO MAKE OUR SHOW OR SERIES LOOK SMARTER OR DEEPER THAN IT IS, PLEASE, WE HAVE TO INCLUDE A FRIEDRICE QUOTE. OTHERWISE, THEY WON'T GET HOW __UNBELIEVABLY DEEP__ WE'RE BEING." If you start a work of fiction with a Nietzsche quote without even having read the Nietzsche work the quote is actually from, then you're a hack. [Like this person.](https://anilist.co/user/TheGrumblingGoblin/) ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/QlpyHYf.jpg) img440(https://i.imgur.com/zUlHMkU.jpg)~~~ ___Whoops!___ ___ #Introduction# img440(https://i.imgur.com/kK6RXMf.png) All jokes ~~and self-depreciation~~ aside, I don't even really know where to begin with this one. I honestly don't. This adaptation of I'm assuming an [equally terrible novel series](https://anilist.co/manga/94970/YoukosoJitsuryokuShijouShuginoKyoushitsue) is brought to us by [Lerche](https://anilist.co/studio/456/Lerche). Who brought us things such as [Ranpo Kitan](https://anilist.co/anime/21189/RanpoKitanGameofLaplace) and [Kino 2017](https://anilist.co/anime/98448/KinonoTabitheBeautifulWorldtheAnimatedSeries)... and Classroom of Elite is even directed by the [same guy who directed Ranpo Kitan](https://anilist.co/staff/101909/SeijiKishi) ~~(actually, it's listed as having [two directors](https://anilist.co/staff/118960/HiroyukiHashimoto))~~. ...Which is kind of surprising, because at least Ranpo Kitan had a clearer and more logical plot, and things actually happened. But again, Classroom of Elite is an adaptation of a series of novels so whatever. ...I honestly have no fucking clue what genre I'd even call it. Looking at its Anilist page, it's under comedy, romance, and drama. Comedy...? No? Romance? Definitely no. Drama? Fuckin'... they WISH. I felt like most of the time this show had me [at knifepoint screaming at me like an insane person.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF0a6EZ_5v8) _You have to care!_ __YOU HAVE TO CARE!__ ___THIS IS DRAMATIC, THESE EVENTS THAT ARE HAPPENING RIGHT NOW, THEY ARE IMPORTANT AND YOU MUST FIND THEM IMPORTANT.___ Please care that this idiotic and completely and almost comically unlikable punk is about to get expelled from school! img440(https://i.imgur.com/GhJKYMb.png) But... but I don't. I just don't give a flying fuck about this character. Or any of the other characters, for that matter. There is nothing to cheer these characters on for, there are no stakes, and nothing that happens is interesting or entertaining in any way. As a matter of fact, it's honestly almost shocking how over the top this show is while simultaneously being full of nothing. But I'll get into that. There's gonna be a whole fucking section of this review that discusses that. __If you care about getting spoiled on this series, then I guess... this is the point where I warn you about that but... why would you care?__ Nobody cares. Like thinking about it now that I've completed it, there is absolutely nothing about this series I'm interested in. Like the "plot" or the point of the series was very much unresolved but there's just nothing? Why ever make a season two for this? Why even read the original series after watching the anime? Like you should actually want the viewer to be interested in seeing a continuation of the story whether it be through a possible season two or just getting them to look at the original. This show even ends like on a "OH SHIT WE'RE JUST GETTING STARTED" type of note but... img440(https://i.imgur.com/8CeAF8W.png) __NOTHING OF NOTE HAPPENED IN ALL TWELVE EPISODES.__ _YOU [GLASSLIP](https://anilist.co/anime/20645/Glasslip)'D ME, YOU ABSOLUTE SHITHEELS._ ___ #Characters# At least this section will be quick, because there's only one character that matters or is worth even discussing to any length beyond like a sentence or two. img300(https://i.imgur.com/KicD8lM.png) You have Main Girl, she is a loner and will repeatedly state that she is a loner and prefers being a loner despite showing signs that hint otherwise. Oh, and her only motivation is that she wants her brother's approval. That's it. img300(https://i.imgur.com/UUSpSyt.png) You have Other Girl 1, she is super nice to everyone and wishes to be friends with everyone on the planet and _there is definitely nothing at all wrong with her in any way shape or form despite the fact that she was placed in the worst class of the school._ img300(https://i.imgur.com/PtQvV5x.png) You have Other Girl 2, she is shy girl but she has a different side to her that she keeps secret and her purpose in this show is _to almost be raped by a creepy mall employee_ and then she shows at a trial a couple of photos I guess and then after that she's a character from that point on. img300(https://i.imgur.com/HDDs2n7.png) You have Delinquent Failure. He is a delinquent failure who gets into fights and arguments and he wishes to play the basketball but if he gets expelled he can no longer play the basketball but despite this he doesn't care about studying and keeping his position in school secure so he can play the basketball that he so dearly loves ~~and he is a REAL FULL FLEDGED CHARACTER THAT YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT.~~ img440(https://i.imgur.com/g9NHOse.png) You have the Teacher. She is harsh and at one point calls the failure class garbage, but then eventually at some point she apparently cares about or wants to get her class to the top of the garbage pyramid. It just sort of happens. She seemed like she could have cared less before then, but whatever, who needs clear motivations for characters anyways??? img440(https://i.imgur.com/f9BSHPi.png) Then we have the main male character, Kiyotaka Ayanokouji. I'm saying it right now, but Ayanokouji is the only character in this entire show, in this entire series that is worth anything at all. It was actually somewhat interesting or entertaining at how ridiculously far they took it. This character is absolutely completely emotionless the entire way through, and does not care about ANYTHING. And even at the end of the show when Main Girl ~!actually finally changes and starts showing emotions!~ for once, Ayanokouji is just staring at her and ~!she eventually gets tuned out by Ayanokouji's inner monologue about how he just does not give a fuck about anyone and all other human beings are just tools to be used. This was actually my favorite moment and one of the few scenes I actually liked out of the entire fucking show.!~ Like wow, I have to give them credit. They, or rather the original author I guess, set out to create one of the most unlikeable characters I've ever seen, and for at least what they adapted, they didn't flip flop on it. Ayanokouji's facial expression is basically entirely the same throughout all twelve episodes. He's never angry, he's never sad, he's never surprised, he never laughs, he is simply Ayanokouji. He has absolutely no problem from having someone smear mud into Main Girl's hair so she has to bathe to purposely intensify her sickness or even committing arson. Fuck it, who cares. He just wants to have an ordinary high school life but simultaneously he's going to win at all costs. Win at what, you may ask? I don't know man. _The universe._ Ayanokouji will win against _the entire universe because he is perfect and flawless in every single way._ ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/d1VUviQ.png) img440(https://i.imgur.com/TVrQFF7.png) img440(https://i.imgur.com/1zX7hTZ.png) img440(https://i.imgur.com/mAwKjaF.png)~~~ _But TGG, isn't being an emotionless husk that wants to only be perceived as an average guy by everyone else Ayanokouji's fla--_ ___ #Over the top drama# It's impossible not to make the comparison now that I've realized both shows aired in the exact same season (Summer 2017). Classroom of the Elite and [Kakegurui](https://anilist.co/anime/98314/Kakegurui) are both shows that are very over the top about schools that for a multitude of reasons, would never ever exist in real life. But there is a very key difference between these two shows. I mean hell, Kakegurui even has a never losing protagonist, just like Classroom of the Elite. ~~~img220(https://i.imgur.com/Gj8GZOu.png) img220(https://i.imgur.com/osiNg6Y.jpg)~~~ _~~I didn't watch Classroom of the Elite while it was airing because I was too busy watching Kakegurui.~~_ In Kakegurui, horrible things can happen as a result of the gambles. At the very least, you may go into debt and be forced to essentially be a boot licking slave to one of the other students or you may have the rest of your life beyond graduation basically decided by another. It's very, very over the top, but it is _rightfully_ and for that matter _enjoyably_ over the top. What are the stakes in Classroom of the Elite? You may not have a perfect choice of whatever college or job you wish to end up at. Oh. So why is everything presented so fucking dramatically and over the top? Like very early on, the show establishes that the monthly money given to students is determined by merit, and the bottom class which the show is focused on, Class D, very quickly ends up dropping down to earning zero points ~~because they're all failures~~. I was under the assumption that the points would matter. But the show makes a point of showing that the stores at least offer a couple of free items to students who have ran out of or wasted their points. Even later in the show, it's shown that there essentially is a free menu for the cafeteria. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/GSovS6f.png) img440(https://i.imgur.com/CxzG0TK.png)~~~ After all, _it IS still a school._ It wouldn't be ___realistic___ if the school was allowing students to starve as a result of their own poor choices or just generally because they're failures. _Meanwhile, in Kakegurui:_ img440(https://i.imgur.com/qiFZiuH.gif) Like honestly. It's treated so goddamned dramatically when the Delinquent Failure is about to be expelled as a result of failing the exam that he refused time and time again to study for but. Like the moment Ayanokouji got up and followed the Teacher out of the classroom, I immediately went: "Oh okay, so the delinquent isn't going to be expelled." And of course, he wasn't. img440(https://i.imgur.com/YiO5QRR.png) But like the way they save him from getting expelled is by selling the Teacher their points because the first thing she told them about this school was that anything could be bought. But... but the [points DON'T MATTER](https://youtu.be/9KAGwNtI26w?t=18s) AND NOTHING WAS FORCING HER TO SELL THEM THE TEST POINT. And Ayanokouji and Main Girl selling the Teacher their money points for the single test point Delinquent Failure needs so he isn't expelled doesn't matter either. In fact, it's like after that the points just completely cease mattering entirely. How is the majority of Class D faring as a result of having wasted most of their points and most likely getting no or very little points in the next month? Who cares! img440(https://i.imgur.com/jV6nmxH.png) Like when Other Girl 1 is suddenly revealed to be hiding a super dark personality beneath her smiley and friendly facade? That doesn't matter. Because even after that when she's alone with Ayanokouji, she just talks in the "nice girl" persona except for like two times when she actually drops it again. What was the point of threatening him that she'd blackmail him with _rape_ if he ever told anyone else? He basically didn't even care upon discovering it in the first place. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/ERcrRcg.png) img440(https://i.imgur.com/kTdtTFr.png)~~~ Or what about Other Girl 2. Her initial role or purpose in the show is basically to have been the witness to Delinquent Failure's innocence when some other students from Class C provoked a fight with him but... her testimony barely influences the result at all. And like they show like one of her modeling pictures off of her camera's SD card but... she didn't have to keep that photo on there when they would use it to show the actual relevant pictures. Then after that, she just almost gets raped by the creepy weird mall employee guy. But hey, Ayanokouji saves her. And then... and then she's just a character. A part of the main cast. _Whatever!_ Then like in the final arc of the show, where the school has all four classes go and stay at this deserted island for a week, there is like a fight scene between Main Girl and one of the other girls from one of the other classes and it... it literally came out of nowhere. But violence isn't allowed! But theft isn't allowed! The other character just outright says the rules don't matter as long as nobody sees. Oh... so... none of that mattered at all. Okay. img(https://i.imgur.com/Vh36GZQ.png) _Wait, isn't Other Girl 1's whole thing that she'll tell everyone that Ayanokouji raped her, but nobody was around to see nor was she recording her forcing him to grope her. But then in this instance, the show says it doesn't matter if nobody sees--oh just... nevermind. Fuck it!_ But like there was also an incident where somebody stole a girl's underwear and it causes a schism between the boys and the girls of Class D and like the boyfriend/leader character is all like, I'll accept possession of the stolen underwear because she's my girlfriend I guess and that'll lessen the impact? But I don't think they ever actually reveal that he's in possession of the missing underwear because that's when Ayanokouji says fuck this, I'm just going to set our SURVIVAL MANUAL ON FIRE BECAUSE REASONS AND I'M MANIPULATING A VERY CONVOLUTED SERIES OF EVENTS FROM BEHIND THE SCENES. The show ends with Class D, almost entirely as a result of Ayanokouji's capability of manipulation, beating all three other classes. And while they weren't purposely attacking Class B because they have an alliance with them, Ayanokouji's manipulations factored in Class B getting fucked over as well, just not directly by Class D. img440(https://i.imgur.com/ds3IAYp.png) So... Ayanokouji is basically perfect, and no other student is even close to matching him. There maybe actually is one, but in the context of what they adapted, she is on the screen maybe like three or four times and is purposely absent from the final arc of the show. ~~And I'm sure in the novels, Ayanokouji just beats her anyways.~~ And the show ends like it's ending on this grandiose note of a cliffhanger like... like you're supposed to be interested in seeing Class D continuing to rise against the higher classes to become the Classroom of the Elite. But... you just don't. Like I said at the start of this review, there's absolutely no motivation to ever actually want to see a continuation of this series. Whereas comparatively, I'm totally down for [Kakegurui 2](https://anilist.co/anime/100876/Kakegurui2) because while that protagonist also basically never loses, the show actually manages to be entertaining. Which is something this show repeatedly time and time again fails at. ___ #Filler, Fan service, and Garbage# I shouldn't even be wasting the time but I should at least address it. The Delinquent Failure should not have had four episodes revolving around him. Especially considering after that, he's essentially just nothing but a supporting character. And one of the most minor ones, at that. Like Other Girl 1 keeps going on and on about how Main Girl should not want Deliqnuent Guy to be expelled but... img440(https://i.imgur.com/xuA0xge.png) Main Girl was completely right? He's a fucking failure and none of them should have went anywhere near as far as they did to save him from getting expelled. If he wanted to play basketball and him playing basketball depended on him staying in the school, then maybe his brain should have worked and he would have realized that perhaps actually studying on his own volition would be a good idea. But even then after he is essentially dragged into caring about it and after they get the old test questions, he STILL fails. And then after that whole ordeal, they right away start up a new arc where Class C tries to frame Delinquent Failure for assaulting three people and the punishment is... ___BEING SUSPENDED FROM SCHOOL!___ And then when the student council president gets involved, he's like... img440(https://i.imgur.com/a1ps8Hx.png) "I'M PUTTING EXPULSION ON THE TABLE." _I could probably do an entire breakdown of all of the terrible logic or just everything just generally horribly wrong in that trial scene, but I just do __NOT__ care._ Who... who fucking cares? Again, that image of the show screaming and armed with a knife comes to mind because like... it really seems like they want the viewer to care. But I can't even comprehend caring about anything that happens in this series. How can I when like... img440(https://i.imgur.com/DQDYk9H.png) The very first episode ends with the shocking reveal that things aren't exactly like they seem at this school. The classes compete and if you're garbage, you don't get points that are essentially money but also simultaneously don't matter, and their Teacher outright tells them all this and that they're garbage ~~which I should note is very, very true~~. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/uIBJexn.png) img440(https://i.imgur.com/rgK6Mv3.png)~~~ But immediately, the second episode just opens with them in pool class. And for several minutes, they're just doing pool class things, but eventually like a switch was flipped, and then they start like having a strategy meeting and going over what their Teacher revealed to them in the prior episode. "Gosh, who knew there was gonna be a darker turn to this school!" ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/Y7zX5iR.png) img440(https://i.imgur.com/dxg0Fak.png)~~~ And the entirety of episode seven is just outright a pool episode. Which I mostly just skimmed through because at the time, I just was _not having any of that shit_. But the show sure showed me, because then the entirety of episode eight is just a __boat vacation__. Granted, the boat trip at least leads into the deserted island arc, but did the boat trip really need to be an entire episode? Or rather, did we need the pool episode when you could basically squeeze as much fan service (and they basically did) into a boat trip episode??? Did there need to be a blond guy character whose entire purpose was to be arrogant, annoying, and completely useless? Like he tags along with Ayanokouji and Other Girl 2 at some point in the Deserted Island arc and he's like swinging from trees and shit and then he gets too far ahead of them, and then the episode just ends with him going back to the boat therefore penalizing the entirety of Class D. I'm so glad that was the contribution his entire character gave to the show. img440(https://i.imgur.com/0C19cqZ.png) Like I just don't understand it. You have this over the top concept and idea, but like... for twelve episodes, basically nothing happens. I mean, I'm willing to believe that the original novel series is probably more or less the exact same. But like... why. Why create a series where absolutely nothing happens? Like it's maybe one thing if you're just throwing a bunch of chickens and metaphors around. But Glasslip isn't a novel series. This is. Based off of episode one, I imagined like the students were gonna have to start bartering or like trying to earn points. Then the whole angle of competing with the other classes was thrown out there, and I was like oh okay, then we're gonna go in that direction. But it's not like until the last five or so episodes of the show where they actually start competing with the other classes and even then, Ayanokouji just wins. He just wins. img(https://i.imgur.com/kGrF7vu.png) ___ #Conclusion# No stakes at all, basically no motivation at all, nothing of any note happens, and it's not entertaining. Classroom of the Elite? More like Classroom of the FAILURES! HA! Ha... ha... ~~I really wish I hadn't watched this show.~~ But uh yeah no, I give this show a __1.5 out of 10__ or a __15 out of 100__. I would never recommend anyone to seriously watch this show and I hope it doesn't get a second season because if it does I'll be forced to watch it because I actually genuinely like Ayanokouji for how absolutely absurdly unlikable he is. And even as far as masochism/watching bad shows for the sake of watching bad shows go, I'd say Glasslip is a way more interesting show in which also absolutely nothing of note happens. So yeah, go watch [Glasslip](https://anilist.co/anime/20645/Glasslip) instead. Or [Kakegurui](https://anilist.co/anime/98314/Kakegurui), I guess. Or anything. Just not _this._ img440(https://i.imgur.com/a1xKrxW.png)
Classroom of the Elite indeed took me by surprise with a first episode that grasped my attention. It takes place in a prestigious school where the good and the great are separated. Or in this case, the good and the bad. However, just as I feared, it started to fall off quite a bit. COTE started off quite strongly, with an intense atmosphere in the first couple of episodes. It supposedly grasped the attention of the viewers and it sure has grabbed mine. We see early the ambitions or goals of some of the people in Class D, which is to get to class A together. While some may strive to reach this goal, some others rather not care. Some of the problems that occurred in the series is the feeling of rushed pacing, although not quite. It’s not terribly rushed, but I feel like they wanted to get things done faster than usual. But one of my main concerns lie within the inconsistent storyline, where things are just clustered and messed up. In the beginning it was fine that the fact that the show was a narrative, but now I think that they tried just a little too hard to be a narrative focused show at this point. The “deep” and “meaningful” seeming dialogue felt a bit weak and felt like it had little impact for me to care at all about it. One of my main problems with COTE lies within the lack of any sort of character growth throughout the series. I feel like they tried to focus the anime too hard on our 2 main characters Ayanokoji and Suzune. Even with all that focus on those 2 I still didn't feel any significant development between the 2 besides becoming friends or something. Still regarding the characters, they like they had no significant role since most of the focus were on our main characters. Which is a shame because I would’ve loved to see more and learn more about some certain characters. Something that I didn't appreciate was how some character reveals something, but after that, it becomes irrelevant to the story whatsoever. It felt like they just threw it to the side and we see either little or none of those reveals anymore. Now to talk about the fan service. Listen, I am someone who does not mind fan service whatsoever. I will admit, the fan service in this series is good. The girls make you wanna bust a nut and the art quality when it comes to the service is tremendous I will give them that. However, I feel like it’s been used wrongly and just for the sake of fan service of course. I feel like they tried to somehow tie that into some sort of plot progression and I didn't like that. Now with the problems concerning Ayanokoji. Don’t get me wrong I did enjoy his character and how he was initially written. I feel as though they didn't bring out his true potential as a Main Character. I felt like more could’ve been done to give him a more fully developed type of character. The initial goal of reaching class A started to fade while the second half of the series played. Honestly, it felt like I was watching 2 seasons of a show into one 12 episode anime. They start leaving things that were probably critical plot and left it behind, later one there’s no real connection between the situations that were given to us. Overall this anime was a disappointment, although it had its moments and it was still kinda entertaining, it still failed in executing a proper written story that had a nice concept at the beginning. The only things I can praise about regarding this series is the beautiful art and animation as well as the soundtrack. Even if this anime fell off later one, they still kept the same uncomfortable atmosphere throughout the show, well executed or not. It is indeed a shame however that it was only 12 episodes. If Classroom of The Elite had more time and episodes to develop the story as well as the characters with a good written narrative, I truly believed that this could’ve been a fantastic anime. It is indeed very unfortunate.
As a little disclaimer, I haven't read the Light Novel as of writing this review, but I plan on getting around to it sometime soon, so this review will be based solely on the anime and the little that I've gathered about its deviations from the source material. Anyway, Classroom of the Elite. If you want to talk about a show with a lot of promise, Classroom of the Elite is one near the top of the list. It had so much going for it, a bad ass protagonist, an interesting setting, engaging motivations, a solid cast of girls to argue over who was best girl, etc... But it kind of lost me toward the end, unfortunately. I wasn't exactly sure why my attention was waning while I was watching, but it all became clearer as I kept thinking about it and I'll explain as we go on. I'm going to save talking about the characters until the Favorite Character section cause it's a nice section to do the discussion. Visually, I just want to express my love for the color palette of Classroom of the Elite, every color is so vivid and pops out to the viewer. The character's eyes are also something to be appreciated. It was a really cool approach to use tri-colored eyes for most characters, giving each one a somewhat exotic look, furthering the thought that they're in a school for the elite. Obviously, this was meant to kind of contrast the tone that they were trying to convey with the show, but more on that in a bit. In regards to the audio, nothing really stood out to me. Neither the opening or the ending were particularly good, none of the soundtrack made me notice it, and the SFX was just run of the mill. Maybe I wasn't paying the utmost attention to it all, but in that aspect, absolutely nothing stood out. Take that point as you will, I suppose. Now for the point I mentioned earlier, the tone. I believe this was probably why I lost so much interest after the halfway mark or so (It was episode 7, actually). The first half or so was pretty dark tonally, which fit the bill that Classroom of the Elite was trying to push. I was behind that tone until the end, but then the mandatory pool episode happens. Basically, from there on out, the tone is so much more inconsistent. And in addition, the story kind of takes a weird turn from its focus on the school life. Suddenly, a school-based anime goes on a cruise to a desert island, which turns into a survival competition arc. While, the explanation that's given makes sense, it's still a bizarre turn for a story that's set in an, essentially, a campus prison. I'm not _complaining_ about the island survival arc per se, I'm just saying that it kind of took me out of what the story was really about. Essentially, that arc was worth it to see Ayanokouji flex on the other classes in the last episode. __Favorite Character:__ Kiyotaka Ayanokouji ~~~img(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/45/02/85/450285c4d2e15136f403d0875b7228b2.jpg)~~~ Ayanokouji is pretty much the only reason to watch Classroom of the Elite. Seeing him outwit every problem that arises and successfully dodge the credit, is something of a joy to behold, at least to me, since I'm a big fan of overpowered protagonists. I don't know, maybe I just like to see my protagonists do something instead of being all whiny and such. I can definitely appreciate a doormat-to-powerhouse kind of protagonist, but only if it's done with extreme diligence to not make the said protagonist annoying as hell. Ayanokouji is something unique in that regard. We barely see him doing anything for the majority of the show, as that's his game. He just flies under the radar and only acts when he absolutely has to. And when he does act, it's epic to witness his cold, apathetic cunning. Now, I do have to say, he does wear a little thin in the island arc, where you're kinda just waiting for him to do something, which he doesn't until the _very_ end. It was kind of frustrating to watch all of Class D's struggles and see him just kinda chilling, doing absolutely nothing. As for the other characters, no one else is really worth talking about, especially since I've heard how much certain characters were shafted out of the story just to make Horikita more important than she is in the Light Novel. In fact, I've heard so much that she's kind of just a side character in the Light Novel instead of the main girl. That frustrates me a little bit, because the two girls who basically got their characters cut are way better than Horikita anyway. There's more changed than just the 'main girl' aspect, but that's the major infraction of Classroom of the Elite from what I've heard. It's just disappointing to see yet another adaptation fail to stay faithful to its source material, costing us potentially a good series. I really did like what Classroom of the Elite had to offer, but it just made too many errors with tone and focus to be a great show to me. With my disappointment expressed, I still enjoyed watching Classroom of the Elite. Even if I ended up disappointed, the premise and Ayanokouji really elevated the viewing experience for me. Those factors alone cause me to say that it was worth the watch.
_Disclaimer: I am not familiar at all with the source material for this show so I don't know if my criticisms of the work are more appropriate for the author or the director. I also don't know how many of these issues exist in the source material and how many could be due to poor adaptation._ I think the basic failing of Classroom of the Elite is its failure to obey one of the most important laws of sales: "under-promise, over-deliver." Instead, Classroom of the Boring over-promises again and again, while either under-delivering or just flat out forgetting to deliver at all. There were countless times while watching this show that I thought "oh, this character is promising," "I wonder if there's more to that person," "this is a cool concept, I wonder how it will play out in future episodes." Unfortunately, every time I got my hopes up, the story just bashed them down again. I decided to frame my review as a dialogue between myself and the "show" which would be either the writer or director. #__If you care about spoilers, now would be the time to stop reading.__ The first person I was intrigued by was Cheery Popular Girl who insists that she wants to be everyone's friend. In fact, the first scene in the show is her asking a kid to give up his seat on the bus for an old lady. How sweet! She definitely won't have a hidden side, right? __SHOW__: So actually, Cheery Girl is a terrible person. Our...hero?...will find out how much of a bitch she truly is. __ME__: Oh, this is starting to get interesting! This will surely be an integral plot point, right? A major aspect of this story will be Cheery Girl's duplicity and how our hero interacts with both sides of her, right? __SHOW__: Nahhh, her bitchy side might show up for a minute later on, but really, it doesn't matter, because for 99% of the story she is going to be Cheery Girl. __ME__: Okay, but her terrible side is going to something dramatic that will fuck her over, right? __SHOW__: Actually, her horrible side will never do anything of consequence to the story! Won't that be fun? People hate tension in their stories. ... __ME__: Okay, maybe there wasn't enough time to expand on that part of the story. But what about Loner Girl? She gets the second most screen time, surely we're going to learn about why she is afraid of getting close to others. __SHOW__: Of course! She wants her brother's approval! __ME__: Oh, cool, is her brother like some mega super genius who never talks to other people or something? __SHOW__: No, he's student council president so a lot of people like him. Also he will directly tell Loner Girl that not working with others is her main flaw. __ME__: So because she's so focused on earning her brother's approval, she does the exact opposite of his example and advice? __SHOW__: Now you're getting it! ... __ME__: Okay, forget about the characters for a second. This point system you dedicated like more than half your first episode explaining, this is gonna be super important, right? Because now these kids don't get any money for the second month, there will be some obvious consequences, right? __SHOW__: Yeah! We will show everyone's point totals in the credits at the end of each episode! __ME__: But...that's it? There are no...consequences? __SHOW__: Oh there are! The characters will feel bad that they don't have points. __ME__: Okay, let's gloss over that nonsense for a minute...after the midterms, they go up in points, so they'll get some money. That will definitely have an impact on the characters! __SHOW__: Actually there was an issue with the system and they don't get their points. __ME__: Are you ever gonna address what that was all about? __SHOW__: Nahhh. Repeat ad nausea for every character and narrative device in this show. Classroom of the Elite is nothing more than an barrel of empty promises utterly devoid of any tension or momentum. I kept watching hoping it would deliver on some of its setups, but found myself halfway through episode 10 thinking "jeez, how are they gonna wrap up all these threads in just 2 more episodes?" Surprise! They hardly wrap up anything. The production was competent and the narrative was comprehensible so it gets a 2/10. Do not recommend.
Okay, to start off I would like to say that I talk a lot about the main character so just be prepared. We meet the main character of the anime Kiyotaka Ayanokōji. When you meet him you can tell that he doesn't really interact with people around him and comes off as "emotionless" Now, I really like those types of main characters who don't seem to care about others or what's happening around them but this was different in a sense. Ayanokōji is an outsider and a loner much like Suzune Horikita who we meet at the beginning of the show. In my opinion, Horikita's personality is the worst. She comes off as very rude and has a hot temper. When I learned later that she had a split personality when it came to her brother I was kind of shocked and angry at the same time. She purposefully isolated herself from others and is rude to them because she thinks she can go on without them when in reality her only strong suit is her smarts. Despite her personality, Ayanokōji helps her throughout the series. Ayanokōji, put in danganronpa terms, is a high school level average student. He always scores a 50 on every test but despite that, he can solve mostly anything that comes his way in the anime. Also, something funny I wanted to point out is the fact that so many girls fell in love with him during the time at school. He picked up so many chicks without even trying. Anyway back on topic, since Ayanokōji is "emotionless" he isn't very good at carrying out his plans so he uses people and lets them take the credit. When I saw that whenever he did something amazing then let Horikita take the credit was frustrating at first but I assumed he didn't want attention at all. Another important point I want to bring up is Ayanokōji's past. I looked it up and it said that it wasn't talked about in the manga but was slightly showcased in the anime. Looking back at those scenes you can tell that he was held somewhere (maybe he was forced to go there or maybe he was born there). You can tell that he has always never cared for other people so here is a theory I have. SO, I think that they were held there because they were special or to become "special children" I think they may have run tests on them because you can see one of the kids getting sick but also for another reason. My other reason is Ayanokōji's natural fighting skills. Early in the season, you can tell that Ayanokōji is a good fighter when he doges attacks from Horikita's brother (student council president) He claims to only have done piano and calligraphy but maybe it's something more. Horikita points out early in the season that Ayanokōji is very careful about what he says to others and that he hides many secrets about himself. Then, at the end of the season, we see that Ayanokōji is the bad guy. Horikita reveals that she thinks of him as an ally/friend but he monologues that he never once thought the same way. He reveals that he was actually using everyone to climb his way to the top which I found really surprising. I found it so surprising because he came off as a character who just doesn't care. Anyway, those are my thoughts, I hope you enjoyed it!
#~~~**Classroom of the Elite - How a Highschool-Drama Should be Done**~~~ ~~~img300(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c9/0c/d9/c90cd90e6802920799340925e679e971.jpg)~~~ #~~~**BACKGROUND**~~~ If you've been in the anime community for quite a while now I'm sure you are familiar with Classroom of the Elite. Classroom of the Elite or how the fanbase call it, You-zitsu is a very well known light novel series that has attracted many people's attention. COTE is usually known for it's very respected protagonist - Kiyotaka Ayanokouji. Whether you like Psychology or Slice of Life, this might be your next favorite show. This show might require high understanding but if you think you're suited for it then it's a must watch anime. This show became a high school-drama classic so quickly and received many titles and praises. It's not your typical high school drama, this show uses many great elements and knows how to make a progressive and creative story that is also refreshing. So, what is so great about Ayanokouji and about this show in general? Why is this series so popular? If you want to get a clear answer for those questions, proceed with caution. #~~~**THE SHOW ITSELF**~~~ ~~~img300(https://64.media.tumblr.com/79887136665a40d55e2069562f5d89dd/tumblr_ov5g7rtNGR1u8jf8bo3_640.gifv)~~~ Classroom of the Elite takes place in Koudo Ikusei Senior High School, Japan which is known for it's high scores, graduation stats and quality education. Each year 100% of the students who have graduated this school go on to university and find employment, you could say they are always on the top of the top. This school is not your typical formal school. Koudo Ikusei is isolated, it is like a little country that contains everything the students need in their lives, even entertainment such as mall and cinema. The students spend their entire schooling life in this school. They get their own apartments, they are free wear whatever they want, have whatever haircut they want, they can bring any personal effects they desire and basically live their lives quietly and comfortably while the school funds them - the ideal school, the dream of every student. It's like a literal heaven for students. But what they don't know is that only the most superior of students receive this favorable treatment. For some reason our protagonist, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka underestimated his entrance examinations when he got to school, thus he was careless and naïve when he got to school and got exactly 50 on every subject. 50, exactly the half of 100, remember this because it's quite a plot point later on in the show. As a result of that Ayanokouji was put in D-class, the worst class there is in school. In episode one, the very start of the show, we see a bus full of people. Most of the people in the bus are students of Koudo Ikusei. The situation in the first scene is this: an old woman gets in the bus, but there's no place for her to sit. It seems that nobody is willing give her priority sitting even thought they are young and well aware of the woman's old age. Only one girl wills to let the old lady sit without hesitating or making the old lady ask for her to do it. The girl asks for the other students to give their sit to their old lady, we see a shot of Ayanokouji thinking, but before he decides some other random girl gets off her sit. The girl that helped the old woman is no other than Kikyou Kushida, who later on reveals to be in the same class as our protagonist, Ayanokouji. This act comes to shows us Kushida's humbleness and kindness in order to put her in the spotlight and make her look good. On the other hand, Ayanokouji doesn't seem like he's doing very well. While Kushida looks cheerful Ayanokouji looks gloomy and he fails to introduce himself to the class. Those scenes are made in a way that is supposed to make us think of Ayanokouji as sloppy and as someone who has absolutely zero social skills, thus putting him in the black light while on the other hand making Kushida seem successful and shine in the white light. The 2 of the characters are complete opposites. While Kushida tries her best to make as many friends as possible, Ayanokouji lacks interest in these kind of staff. Later on in the story we get to see what Kushida's objective really is - to bring the whole class to her side for her personal benefits and our perspective as the watchers completely changes. This small twist is done splendidly. So good that you might not even be able to tell before you get attached to the story. Every little detail in the plot is important and thought about in advance, that's how you write a good drama. It gets more interesting and even more thrilling with every single episode. Our point of view as completely change and our sides overturn entirely. Kushida seduces many people and tries to make Ayanokouji fail, be hated and even even expelled by any means necessary as long as she gets what she wants. When Ayanokouji finds out about her twisted, mixed personality things get spiced up... ~~~img300(https://i0.wp.com/drunkenanimeblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/classroom-of-the-elite.gif?fit=600%2C338&ssl=1)~~~ Ayanokouji chooses to stick with his class and he does that by siding with Horikita Suzune, a girl in his class. He helps her in her personal life and together they aim for bringing their class at the top. Both Aya and Suzune are inelegant and not so friendly of people. Ayanokouji pushes Suzune to aim higher and helps her gain confidence. At this point it becomes kind of like a mind game between Aya and Suzune and between Kushida. Ayanokouji says some controversial things through the show but it doesn't prevent him for stealling the show. This show is very variant and very colorful. It brought a lot more aspects to it rather than just high school drama and this way refresh so many things and give us, the viewers more flavor to enjoy. The story set isn't only in school and it is beautiful to see it's twists and plot hooks and even the small ones get their screen time. We get to see some interesting flashbacks of Aya's past but they are not really clear and leave us with even more questions than from where we started with. The ending of the season is also genius, it leaves us with taste for more and so much question but at the same time it's dramatic and good. At the ending Suzune and Aya's relationship has come a long way and they are as close as a brother and sister. I won't spoil the ending but each one Aya seems to have soften Suzune's cold heart and make her fully trust him and even thank him (a huge anime achievement - make a tsundere be loyal to you). Also I'll just remind you that at the start she tried to ditch him and distance him away. What happens romance wise? Why did Ayanokouji get 50s in every single test at his enterance exams? Who is he really? What is his true purpose? and more. If you want to find out you'll just have to watch the anime and figure out for yourselves. #~~~**BEST ANIME PROTAGONIST EVER**~~~ ~~~img300(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/947330279855950456/8A2906F9AA894B01E11E91A3BFBDF8D92B620A44/)~~~ So, I'm sure you've heard the name Kiyotaka Ayanokouji somewhere around. Aya is known for being one of the 4 loners of the romance/SoL anime among with Sakuta (Bunny Girl Senpai), Hachiman (OreGairu) and Oreki (Hyouka). But why does everyone hype up Ayanokouji? Well the answer to that is obvious, he's a goddamn well written character. Ayanokouji is one of the best characters there are out there and the #1 for me. He's my favorite out of the 4 and in anime in general. Now, you may say "Ayanokouji isn't the kind of character you get related to", but think about it, does being a good character has to do with feeling related to it? Ayanokouji isn't the kinda person you get emotionally attached to (at least in the anime but the light novels are a different case). In fact, it seems like Aya is emotionless and that's exactly what is so great about him. **Aya isn't the person you relate to, he is the person that you want to be.** He is a very wise and interesting character. He does have emotions, he just doesn't really show them to anyone n the anime. Each time there are sticky situations or trouble Ayanokouji finds a solution and finds his way out wisely depending on his improvisation, quick thinking, intelligence and some other skills. Even with his "perfect attitude" Ayanokouji is a very well written character that refreshes many things unlike characters such as Lelouch or Light who are in my eyes boring and bland, sure, they are badass but they have no class, all of them are known for their intelligence. However, Ayanokouji isn't annoying and isn't bland, even he struggles sometimes, let's not forget that even he, the most successful and lucky man in the show is a human being. This guy is a beast, it is like he is the mastermind behind everything that happens, every scene of him is so intense that it makes me want to jump while watching it in the middle of the night, he always thinks ahead and how to benefit from the things for his class and mainly for himself. Ayanokouji is mysterious but when we do get to know a little about him things become even more complicated. He is smart, thinks before he acts and takes risks even if it's not always the best decision, he does what he loves and lives his life on his own, such simple thing and yet amazing. In most anime they usually forget to include that part but in COTE Ayanokouji lives by his own rules. He has a vision and he is very sure of himself. If he has a goal he is very serious about it and knows clearly how to act. He could be really caring and responsible, it just depends on his mood. He is quite spontaneous but he is a very decisive and independence person who knows how to get things done quick and thoroughly. Aya has an amazing background and the anime is a great build up to that. It is a huge cliff hanger so I recommend you check out the light novel afterwards, after all the anime was created in order to boost it and it does that great. The anime is so interesting and thrilling even thought it isn't that easy to understand. The plot is genius and the psychology part is so thrilling that even with the amount of dialogues this anime has it still can and does draw attention. Despite his dead eyes, menacing look and bad social skills of his, Aya does his best in order to get his class to the A spot. Ayanokouji isn't interested in glory, he is offered to be the vice chairman of the Student Council but he refuses, not once but twice. He gambles big time and finally wins but he still keeps it a secret and throws the credit on Suzune even through she never asked for it either. Ayanokouji sees being popular as a burden and thinks it's a good thing to make Suzune compete Kushida, thus helping her character develop. As you've probably already understand, my guy literally carries the whole plot and makes the most simple dilemmas and situations look insanely deep and significant. #~~~**CONCLUSION**~~~ ~~~img300(https://64.media.tumblr.com/81e06b58181948633e0d4a5d21829b9b/tumblr_ousougLH3O1qa94xto3_500.gif)~~~ Classroom of the elite is without a doubt one of the best anime I've ever watched. A show full of amazing characters. Each one of them with their own screentime and aspects. Some of them are somewhat simple and easy to get attached to and to empathize/identify with them. This show truly is a masterpiece, the writing is amazing, the character designs match them so much and the coloration work is insane. Studio Lerche did an amazing job, very accurate character designs and such a beautiful animation. The art style is incredible and the coloration work on the eyes alone is crazy and it's worth so much more love and praises because that nobody really talks about it. The eyes of the characters are gorgeous and also the different backgrounds sure are variant and beautiful. It is so consistent and the animation doesn't fail to stand the expectations in every episode anew. The OSTs match the theme of the show and it's genres so good. The main OST is so good, it makes you consecrate on the dialogue and makes you really feel a part of the show. This music is super dramatic and hype that every time it plays you know something is about to go down and it adds to the watching experience so much. One of the few shows that succeeds in every term and every new element it brings to it. A really really fun watch, I once recommended this show to a friend, he finished it in one day and right after that bought all of the novels that were available at the time. **And yes, it's that good.** ~~~img300(https://animeshelter.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/tumblr_ouspdhn3sd1vjcm8po1_500.gif)~~~ #~~~**HOPE YOU ENJOY!**~~~
As a fan of cut throat environments I was excited to see an anime set in this sort of atmosphere. Story (7) - Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing School, dedicated to instruct the future generation of people that will support the country in the future. Allowing students to get what job they want and what university they want to go to. The story follows the perspective of Kiyotaka Ayanokoji who enrols the school and is placed in 1-D to find that he is the class of the 'scums' of the school. The story then escalates to 1-D completing tests not only on academic skills so that they can be 1-A. As I said the plot was the selling point for me, I enjoy cut throat environments. My own problem is how it fails to adapt the light chronologically. There was an episode (8) inspired by beginning of volume 4 from the light novel. When the whole season goes up to volume 3. img220(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/735900/ss_d3ace521c98f5b2fa683a612893927d3afdeadee.jpg) Art (8) - As expected of the a renounced studio (LERCHE). The animation is pretty mesmerising to see. Shots of the scenery, characters shots are executed well and higher than standard. I like how the character designs are pretty unique especially their distinct eye colours. That really stood out to me, watching it made me lucid dream and escape reality. The background is truly exquisite to me, I love shots of scenery as it was highly detailed and the architecture was done will full of passion. Sound (8) - I will forever not stop saying this but COTE has one of my favourite osts of all time. I really like how diverse the ost is, my personal favourites being tracks in disk 1. Rock, jazz, dreamlike, synth-heavy the list goes on. As how diverse the genre is, the instruments are varied too; going from piano, organ, saxophone, guitar and violin. Personally I wasn't expecting much from a school, slice of life anime ost but COTE never fails to wows me. I've never heard a piece from an organ piece in a school ost. Hats off to you, sound director! youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAEUPJEpTG4) Character (7) - Another disappointment with the anime adaption is that they didn't give Ayanokoji the personalities he had. They made him socially awkward, boring then at the end he's now cold and calculating. In the light novel he's more interesting as his monologues is amusing to read and that he is a human, not some cold character. As for the other characters they did a good job adapting them correctly if only they did that to the main character, which should've been the obvious and right answer to since he's the main character. img220(https://cdn.christianpost.com/files/cache/image/11/74/117445_w_450_254.jpg) img220(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/af/68/9c/af689c48188ca4320e1eee9939a520a1.gif) Enjoyment (7) - As much as I love the OST and animation, if they make Ayanokoji bland, my enjoyment will drop. The only thing that's pulling it together is the tests they do, I like the unique concepts like the S-points system and the tests of course. It was fun seeing the tests being done and the character's ways of trying many techniques of surviving. As well as that seeing Ayanokoji's dead pan face replying makes some moments enjoyable. Overall (7/10) If Lerche followed the original source and made Ayanokoji less boring and how originally he should've been, COTE in terms of popularity would've been in the same level as Oregairu or Hyouka. Personally it isn't the worst adaption I've seen but it has improvements to make. If there was a reboot first thing is first is don't chronologically mess up the timeline and adapt Ayanokoji fully. For now I'll be listening to 'Luxury', one of my favourite pieces in the OST.
_Note: The following contains spoilers for the anime and a few references to moments in the Light Novel_ Let me preface this review by saying one thing: Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e is my second favourite light novel of all time. Is this anime a good adaptation of the Novel I love so much? No, not in the slightest. The protagonist of You-Zitsu is one Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, a student whose only wish is to live an average high school life yet is dragged into numerous conflicts in the competitive environment of Koudo Ikusei Senior High School. Watching the anime, Kiyotaka seems like the most uninteresting human being to ever live. 80% of his scenes he is stood around like a jackass doing absolutely nothing while the plot happens around him, the other 20% he is asspulling random complicated solutions to issues. In the novels Kiyotaka is barely even the same character, he's somewhat socially awkward but still tried making friends at the school. And most certainly does not stand around doing absolutely nothing. In the novel Kiyotaka has emotions and expressions and we constantly get to witness his thought process and his struggles at being in an environment completely unfamiliar to him. Everyone knows how infamous Kiyotaka is for being a completely overpowered protagonist in almost every regard, but does the anime do a good job of portraying why and how Kiyotaka is like this? No. We see a few glimpses of his past in the white room but never anything concrete or useful. He's just a guy, who stands around doing nothing and occasionally pulls out big brain 4000 IQ plays nobody could of realistically just made up on the spot. Regardless, I'll stop chatting about the novel now and focus on the anime. What does the anime adapt? Well, just about the most __UNINTERESTING AND STRAIGHT UP BORING__ part of the entire story. Whatever godforsaken entity compelled Lerche to adapt only up until the end of the third volume deserves eternal damnation. Because You-Zitsu's first three volumes are boring as hell and ultimately fail to be anything other than setup for the following story. It's only __AFTER__ the reveal that Kiyotaka was only using those around him that the plot of You-Zitsu really starts to take off. And where is this scene placed in the anime? Literally the final scene of the final episode. There's also something inherently __infuriating__ about the Director or whoever the hell's decision it was to completely shoehorn Horikita Suzune into every scene possible. She's probably the least likeable character in the entire cast, and has nowhere near as large a role in the Novels as she does in the anime. Several scenes were edited from the novels, for example the scene of Suzune confronting Sudo's would be attackers after placing a fake security camera to trick them into thinking evidence was recorded against them in the incident. img(https://cutewallpaper.org/21/school-of-the-elite-anime/Classroom-of-the-Elite-Episode-6-Anime-Preview-Stills-and-.jpg) Well, in the source material. Suzune doesn't even play a __ROLE__ in this sequence, never mind being it's main focus. The plan is the same, but it was concocted by Kiyotaka and Ichinose Honami, another character handled poorly by the adaptation. This happens several times with small changes that seemingly make no sense and would inhibit any chance of a continuation due to there being callbacks to these scenes later on in the novels that would make literally zero sense with the new context. For example, episode 7 of the series RANDOMLY decides to take a sequence of events from _VOLUME 4.5_ and shove it in there without any context, despite the current story being at the end of _VOLUME 2_. This episode feels so disjointed and unfitting with the themes of the show so far, and that's because Volume 4.5 is a side story that is disconnected from the overall narrative. Anyway, I digress. On a technical level, You-Zitsu is appealing. The animation is nice and the character designs are nicely adapted by Lerche into anime form. The sound design is good and the soundtrack works nicely. youtube(https://youtu.be/VAN1fumejao) Aside from a few questionable directorial and storyboarding choices that I've mentioned previously. The actual minute by minute shots and animation looks professional, with especially unique and visually appealing eyes for the characters. img(https://c.tenor.com/OnI4rZbF3DYAAAAC/kiyotaka-ayanokoji-you-zitsu.gif) I'm going to stop ranting now. Should you watch You-Zitsu? If you really want to I guess. But do me a favor regardless. Read the Light Novel. It's vastly superior in every regard and you will have a better time than watching the anime.
[I'll mostly compare the Anime to the Light Novel. I'll put spoiler brackets around comparisons of scenes though.] Classroom of The Elite was undoubtedly an enjoyable watch but compared to its source material. It falters. I finished re-watching the series recently. After I watched Classroom of The Elite for the first time, my first impression was an 8/10. It was enjoyable, but there was clearly something missing. Therefore, I read the Light Novel afterward, which is much more fleshed out and every scene doesn’t scream over-excessive drama. The Light Novel is so much better and I'd highly recommend it. The first three volumes, that the anime adapted, are more of a prologue. That introduces the setting and what you might expect for the future. Hence, why it is a source material seller, and why there was such a huge cliff-hanger at the ending. Also, it adopts three volumes out of over twenty volumes and is still ongoing, so if you are expecting major progress from watching the anime, then I am sorry to say that there won’t be major progress towards their goal. A lot of the things in the anime that might seem out of place or actions that seem weird are first explained in later volumes, so I’d certainly recommend the Light Novel as it has so much more to offer. If you don’t read Light Novels, then remember everything has a beginning, so why not give Classroom of The Elite a go? Let it be your beginning. Go read the Light Novel, it's better is quite easy to say. Though I would still recommend it even to people who don't read novels. The high rating of the LN is not just for show. It is that good. There is a reason that it has an 87-88% rating. Classroom of The Elite was also my first Light Novel, and I enjoyed reading it. It is certainly not a good adaptation by any means. They skipped important stuff here and there. Left things out that explained why people take the actions that they do, but it is not too terrible. Classroom of The Elite is hard to adapt as an anime and is why I believe I'd always prefer the novel. It is hard to transfer Ayanokouji's monologues into anime format. They're extremely long and it is a first-person perspective novel, but overall they do it well enough. The anime makes him colder, ignoring and cutting a lot of his monologues. It works and then it also doesn't. The anime changes characters many times. Putting on Horikita instead of other characters. Giving her all the spotlight. A lot of Ayanokouji's dialogue is straight-up cut to give her spotlight when it isn't needed. Plot Let's for a second forget about the Light Novel and purely talk about the plot in the anime. We're introduced with a monologue from our protagonist, "Ayanokouji Kiyotaka" talking about equality and it sets expectations for the rest of the anime, with one of its heavier themes nurture versus nature. Ayanokouji is intelligent and knows his stuff. He got 50 points in every subject on his entrance exam, which in itself is harder compared to that of getting 100 points, and itself it is contradictory to him wanting "peace" and "a quite high-school life." Horikita is "nature," good genetics. Her brother is the student council president and, through Ayanokouji, pushes her to take more of a leader role. She develops, given "nature". The school focuses heavily on "merit" and awards the best students, which actually is something that is a current problem within Japan. Bad Egalitarianismand low focus on "merit." The story heavily focuses on the "merit" part in particular and takes a stance on what needs to change in Japan. Koenji is also a prime example of this when he within the first episode, refuses to give up his set to an elderly woman because the youngsters will drive the economy in the future. This in particular makes the "merit" part much more interesting and puts stakes on the board when the classes fight for the top, Class A. The end of Episode 1 also instantly shows how merit plays a role within the school, where students are valued based on how much the school determines they are worth. It again sets expectations for the rest of the story, and how it will play out. The following episodes focus on this as well, with Sudou almost being expelled from the school because of a failing score. Though Ayanokouji instantly tries to buy a point from Chabashira and it shows how observant he is, as well as Horikita. In the next couple of episodes, there is the Sudou trial, which builds up the antagonist, as well as shows how the school functions with violence being prohibited. The trial in itself shows how cunning Ayanokouji is. Especially with his plan, since he never outright mentions the plan. He says things that lead Horikita to a conclusion. In other words, he manipulates her, which she also confirms to herself. The last arc, the exam, introduces how the students fight against each other for the top spot, with decision-making, intelligence, etc. In the afterword of Volume 1, Kinugasa talked about how academics mattered a lot, while sports and other things mattered less, and that is what this exam shows. It isn't just about academics, etc, and this is how their "worth" is valued." Finally, the ending. The turning point, where Ayanokouji shows his inner thoughts and is a big cliff-hanger. A lot of things were introduced within the story. Even smaller details, mostly gone unnoticed, first-serve a point later in the story. Overall, the plot is really great, even if Volume 1-3 is the weaker part. It sets and builds up a lot of things that will first be relevant in the next seasons, while also giving an outline of its plot and themes. Classroom of The Elite, certainty, does not lack in the character department. And Ayanokouji is by far the most interesting character. The mysterious tone makes Classroom of The Elite so good. You never know what he might plan. The end of an episode is always really mind-blowing since you didn’t expect that to happen. The Main OST is also superb. It is so good and makes the sudden revelations so much better. The visuals are absolutely stunning, especially the character design. They did a good job of transferring the characters from the light novel into the anime. Though, it seems like it rushes toward plot twists in order to play the OST, as the first episode ended at chapter seven of volume one. (7/12) It makes the plot twist feel a lot more underwhelming than in the Light Novel. It does this pretty often in fact.
Classroom of the elite initially presents itself as a "system" anime; the system being the rules revolving around the school and how it affects the lives of the students. The title promises elite students, but the anime brings some of the least interesting kids I've ever had the displeasure of watching. The first issue a viewer would likely notice is the very, very high amount of fanservice given to the viewer. While fanservice isn't really a hindrance, and is probably the least bad issue with this series, the amount of it is just distracting and gross. Pretty much every girl in this series has the most luxurious, huge, _back-breaking_ tits that are deserving of their own sound effect at all times. considering the high-school setting in this anime, it's pretty gross to constantly see them moving around immediately when the plot takes a break. ---- ____Positives____ I guess the soundtrack is alright. It isn't a masterpiece but it doesn't get in the way of any enjoyment unlike the rest of the content found in this series. ---- __Character Negatives__ Starting off with the characters, it always feels like every single character is constantly fighting to be the worst one on screen. Our main girl, initially giving the typical tsundere dialogue blurbs that put her in this category of girl that isn't really anything special but has enough of a personality to be on a couple of niche tier lists. After probably episode 1, Horikita just becomes this bitchy figure that is always in disagreement with our MC. She's probably my favorite for this reason. The MC isn't really smart, and is honestly a complete asshole for the entire runtime of the show, and the amount of people that either try to be like this guy or look up to this character has atleast a partial effect on why so many anime fans lack a secure friend group. There isn't really much to say about this character, because whenever there's a mystery in this show it's like the writer personally tells him the solution before it can begin. Please, don't make characters like this MC. The worst character aspect probably has to be this one short haired girl, Karuizawa, who, after about 2-3 episodes breaks down and threatens to fake a rape accusation. This isn't brought up again for any reason and her character is pretty much the same nice girl for the rest of the show afterward, so why even do this? It just makes her awful. --- **Plot Negatives** The plot is pretty much redundant. There's a system put into place but the anime loves to pretend its such a huge threat instead of fleshing it out and making us interested in it. The system originally makes itself out to be something detrimental but pretty much every student can easily live without it and just bitch and bitch and bitch about not having any spending money when they can't use it. It really takes the "Elite" aspect of the show and ruins it. If you don't like the school plot, I don't blame you. It just revolves around this asshole redhead kid who really has no reason to be there yet the characters decide he should be with 0 explaination. So what's the next arc? Some uninteresting island setting with a completely new system concept. Now, even the term "Classroom" is made redundant. The island arc drags on and has a pretty shitty conclusion that leads to a sort-of non-ending. --- When you take the term "Elite" and "Classroom" out of your own story just because of how your direction is, all you get for a name is "of the". Which, as boring and pointless as that sounds, perfectly describes the experience you'd have with this show. _Classroom of the Elite_ is meaningless, pretentious trash. 1/10
For those of you who are new to reading my reviews I typically incorporate a short summary about what brought me to the anime, manga, or light novel that I am reviewing. This will not be the case with Classroom of the Elite. I came into this series almost completely blind. The only thing I knew about Classroom of the Elite going into this watch through was that a season 2 and season 3 had just recently been announced and that fans were beyond excited! There is no way I could have known about the absolutely incredible experience I was about to embark on. Also to preface this review, I have yet to read the Light Novels for this series (which I plan to read very soon). I will be reviewing this anime as its own entity. My score for Classroom of the Elite will not be taking into account any of the source contents' material (which I hear is superior). I will be reviewing the strengths and weaknesses that Classroom of the Elite has from the standpoint of someone who has only experienced the anime. __As per usual with my reviews I will be keeping my review completely spoiler free. __ So without further rambling let me explain to you why I believe Classroom of the Elite is truly an elite anime. __Philosophy:__ Putting it quite simply, Classroom of the Elite had me hooked from the [opening monologue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZh-HFlMFdQ). In this monologue our main protagonist, [Kiyotaka Ayanokouji](https://anilist.co/character/123212/Kiyotaka-Ayanokouji), poses the question of whether or not we as humans are all truly equal? Are we intended to be equal or are we instead judged based on the merit of our character and our work? What this monologue does is immediately get the viewer engaged in this philosophical question. Should we base our society in a [meritocracy](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meritocracy) or instead should we instead strive to create a society where all people are truly equal? What I particularly enjoyed about Classroom of the Elite is that it never allowed for this philosophical question to leave the forefront of the story. Every aspect of the series related back to this question. __Furthermore, and more importantly, Classroom of the Elite never actually answers this question for you explicitly. __ Does it demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of a meritocracy throughout the series? Yes, 100%. However, it never once explicitly tells you what you should believe. Instead, it allows you to form your own opinion about the validity of this system. This, along with several other philosophical questions, are never answered for the viewer. The viewer is instead given constant reminders and situations that force the viewer to deliberate on what standpoint to take regarding a topic. It is through its story telling that Classroom of the Elite poses philosophical questions and engages viewers in a philosophical debate. Quite frankly, it's an incredibly well thought out and engaging way to encourage viewers in self reflection and philosophical questioning. __Setting: __ Building off of what I already mentioned about the philosophy of the series, what this series does so well is creates a setting in which the viewer gets to see how a meritocracy would operate. Classroom of the Elite is set in the school Koudo Ikusei Senior High School, a high school that has a 100% college acceptance rate and a 100% employment rate for graduates. Koudo Ikusei Senior High School is structured in a tier system. Each school year has class rankings based on academic merit. This is split up from the A class to the D class for each academic school year. Classes are allowed to progress up and or drop down based on the merit of their class. Classes can progress up or down, however a class can be greatly hindered from progressing up when the merit of its entire class is not high. Similarly, a class can be dropped down in rank if some of its members merit is not high enough. Each students in each class are given points based on their merit as well. These points are used as currency in the school because students are not allowed to leave the school. What this does is dramatically encourages good merit among students who attend the school. What this school setting does is demonstrate for the viewer a tangible representation of the meritocracy system at work. It shows the viewer the strengths and weaknesses of this system through the interactions between students, teachers, and classes. Furthermore, it demonstrates whether or not this system is one that holds validity. I will not be going into detailed examples of how the school operates through this system or my own opinion of this system based on this series because that would involve mentioning spoilers. More importantly, in order to fully appreciate Classroom of the Elite and the brilliance of the way the creators used this school setting it is something you should go into blind and form your own opinions on. One of my few issues with this series came in episode 7 of the series. It is in this episode that we go away from the traditional classroom setting and instead head towards a different location. While the rules of the school and the emphasis on individual merit are still strongly emphasized in this new setting, it is not as well done as it was in the school setting. That being said, this setting did not end up bothering much at all towards the end it just simply wasn't as brilliantly thought out as the school setting was. __Monologues: __ I already touched on this briefly but I want to touch on it again. The monologues of Ayanokouji are an integral part of this series overall impact. These monologues give us a glimpse not only into Ayanokouji's brilliant mind, but also into the way people think in a meritocracy. His monologues constantly give insight into what Ayanokouji believes is in his best interest in this system and why. I have heard from multiple sources that this is where the anime falters in comparison to the light novel as apparently the light novels give even greater detail to these monologues. That being said, I still found majority of Ayanokouji's monologues incredibly impactful! Two monologues in particular stick out in my mind. The first of these is the opening monologue I linked earlier. The second monologue I am referring to comes at the very close of Classroom of the Elite. This monologue is arguably one of the greatest moments I have seen in anime. When I say this scene hits, I mean that it HITS HARD! The build up to this scene in particular and the overall impact it has on Ayanokouji's character is profound to say the least. I have linked the video of this final scene/monologue as a spoiler but I would HIGHLY encourage you not to watch this prior to completing the anime as it contains a massive spoiler and out of context it is not nearly as impactful!~!youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_TYW2tXPDs)!~ __Animation & Soundtrack: __ I'm only briefly going to talk about these portions of Classroom of the Elite because it truly isn't anything to write home about. The animation is extremely solid and the characters are very well animated. Along with that, the soundtrack of Classroom of the Elite is fairly pedestrian with the only true standout moments coming during monologues. __Fanservice: __ Without a doubt this is my greatest complaint about Classroom of the Elite. I want to preface this by saying that I am far from someone who complains about the occasional fanservice. I'd even go as far as to say that there are situations in which fan service is justified in an anime. Classroom of the Elite 100% has these situations and during these situations it is justifiable for the sake of furthering particular characters' agendas. That being said, Classroom of the Elite borders on excessive fanservice throughout the entire series. Episode 7 in particular has an absurd amount of fanservice. As I previously stated, when this fanservice is justifiable I have no issue with it but episode 7 in particular is simply presenting the fanservice for not legitimate reason. Some series need to rely on the crutch of fanservice to help their series more enjoyable however Classroom of the Elite is not one of those series. It is a series that is brilliantly thought out and presents so many thought provoking questions. The fanservice in Classroom of the Elite truly only takes away from the overall quality of the series outside of a handful of particular instances. __Characters:__ I won't be going particularly in depth with the characters of Classroom of the Elite either due to me believing that overall the cast of characters is fairly average outside of Ayanokouji and [Suzune Horikita](https://anilist.co/character/123213/Suzune-Horikita). Realistically, Ayanokouji has broken into my top 5 anime characters of all time. He's an extremely well developed and thought out character. Horikita is just the right mixture of mysterious and intelligent that I found her very fun to watch as well. What I am going to touch on about the characters, rather than discussing each character in depth, is the character interactions as I feel it is without a doubt one of Classroom of the Elite's greatest strengths. What I am talking about when I mention character interactions is not necessarily the interactions they have with one another when holding conversation. While those are very well done, I am more specifically talking about the motivations characters have for interacting with one another. Put quite simply, you almost never know what a character's motivations are in Classroom of the Elite. There were more than a handful of times where I was blown away by a character's motivation behind why they interacted with another character. I was left with my jaw wide open during two interactions in particular. Those two instances being the end of episode 3 and the end of episode 12. Overall, what I would say made the characters of Classroom of the Elite so strong in my eyes was not actually the substance of the characters (though there were a couple of characters who I can say that for), but instead the fact that you truly never knew the motivations of the characters! __Final Verdict:__ Classroom of the Elite is an absolutely brilliant anime! It has an incredibly well done cast of characters whose motivations you never truly understand. It poses extremely thought provoking philosophical questions through both its story and its setting. It also has an extremely well done main protagonist in Ayanokouji who has easily entered into my favorite anime characters of all time list. Furthermore, Ayanokouji's monologues only further emphasize the tone, message, and philosophical debate of the series while also giving you additional perspective. It has jaw dropping moments such as the end of episode 3 and episode 12 that stick out among all of the anime medium. The only thing truly holding back Classroom of the Elite from being a masterpiece in my mind is the excessive fanservice (especially in episode 7) and the switching of the setting that can be a bit jarring for those who feel in love with the school setting. Overall, Classroom of the Elite is a fantastic anime regardless of the quality of the light novel. It has pushed me to purchase the light novels for this series (a task not easily achieved) and has forced me to contemplate some difficult philosophical questions as well. To say I am excited for season 2 and season 3 after watching season 1 would be a massive understatement. __Now to answer the question you all have been waiting for me to answer. Should I give Classroom of the Elite a chance? In my honest opinion, this anime isn't for everyone. If you want to shut your brain off and relax to anime after a long day then this may not be for you. If you don't like an anime that is thought provoking then this one honestly may not be for you either. That being said, if any of the major topics I discussed interest you in any way then I would absolutely encourage you to give Classroom of the Elite a watch!__
~~~SPOILERS THROUGHOUT I have not read the light novel so I can only talk about S1 of the anime.~~~ I believe Classroom of the Elite is an anime that desperately wants to be seen as intelligent, but ultimately is both terrible in quality and has nothing interesting to say. Needless to say, I was intrigued when I found out that this show is pretty highly regarded by many. I believe those who consider this show intelligent simply have no idea what this show is. Simply put, this show is both bad and dumb. I'll start by talking about the quality, then I'll talk about the narrative of this show being "intellectual". --- ~~~__QUALITY__ Classroom of the Elite has a terrible story and weak character motivations.~~~ Why are the characters so obsessed with reaching class A? Just for the prestige? The show says graduates are guaranteed a job but that's a weak reason to stay at the school and no reason to care about class placements. The show dropped the ball in setting up the stakes of the class placements. As it stands the viewer should have no reason to care about this. Ayanokoji says for most of the show that he does not care about reaching class A yet eventually starts to try more and more to do so. So why did he decline the offer to join the student council which would surely elevate him? Why does he hide his skills from others? Why does the show suggest he was engineered from birth in some way? Why were these students even put in the classes they were to begin with? Why does any of this even matter? It doesn't and the shows hoping you don't realize that. As of season 1, the show has no answers for any of the above questions and hopes you'll consider it smart because it's "vague". It's not vague it's just failing to tell an interesting story. I liked Ayanokoji early on. I liked that he was calm and collected and intelligent. But his soulless attempt to reach class A feels like a terrible direction to take the story in. --- ~~~__INTELLIGENCE__ Classroom of the Elite is a pseudo-intellectual show with nothing to offer.~~~ >"Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another." ― Adam Smith Classroom of the Elite attempts to seem intellectual for 3 reasons: - The quotes at the beginning of each episode - The plot line essentially is about "elites" trying to outsmart each other - Ayanokoji is being played off as the "big brain 200 IQ" guy who is outplaying everyone in this "game" I didn't really believe this show was pretentious until the very end when Ayanokoji is revealed to be actually secretly trying to climb classes. Combined with the other reasons, I feel that was the moment this show tipped its hand as not just being about "intellectual" subject matter in the form of an elite school, but also attempting to be intellectual itself. I think it's pretty obvious that this show wants to be seen as a high-end show. So is it? No, it's not. It's bad as I previously mentioned but it also just doesn't make sense. The show has a lot of quotes, both from the characters and from the openings. I think the quotes and intellectual musings could have worked and actually added to the intellectualism but there's only one problem; they have no relevance to the show. There are only vague gestures of meaning that are not brought up in the show and definitely are not themes in the show. What did Adam Smith have to do with kids in arbitrary hierarchies playing stupid games to win stupid prizes? ~~I couldn't figure it out.~~ __Nothing__ --- This show suffers from having every major plot point be extremely over-dramatized like it's an American drama tv show. This falls flat because the actual plot point that is being dramatized is ultimately stupid and contrived. I want to stress that this show being pretentious really hurts the show, as it goes from a standard bad anime to one that embarrassingly calls itself smart and fails. Some other issues I thought of: - Sudou was a useless character who should not have been as relevant as he was. - Kouenji was completely useless and annoying and only took away from the show. - Kushida having a fake personality was never explored or relevant. - Every plot point is extremely dramatic when none of them matter. The classes are never established to mean anything other than just representing a hierarchy. The school's only purpose is stated that it "finds students jobs" but like any school does that. Why are they running these over-the-top "tests" for such a simple reason? The school is cringe. - Ayanokoji's cryptic backstory means nothing (yet at least). - Why was an entire episode devoted to the boys sneaking a camera into the girl's locker room? - If the show is about finding the "elite", why can students be held back by members of their own class? --- This is a show I wanted to like at first but realized all it had to offer was vague gestures at being intelligent. I didn't have anything interesting to say and definitely wasn't well made. It would have been better if from the beginning it was blatantly a show about characters trying to outsmart each other rather than this on-the-nose attempt at being "smart" while the plot makes the characters engage in pointless "tests". This show as it stands is a worse version of Kakegurui, a show that is able to properly contextualize the "elites" from the "failures" while also showing characters outsmart each other in various games. Kakegurui knew that the premise was unrealistic, and leaned into that to its success. CotE didn't realize the premise was stupid and tried to legitimize children competing against each other over stupid games and stupid prizes. Maybe the light novel is better, but the anime is a waste of time and offers nothing to its viewer. --- To quote a friend of mine: >The island arc of Classroom of the Elite is the worst television ever made. I'm pretentious af so I should be the target audience right? If I found this show empty, then that should be a pretty bad sign. Really curious though why anyone likes this? There's nothing here. Classroom of the Elite doesn't mean anything and has nothing to say. ~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~img425(https://files.catbox.moe/1fclbx.png)~~~ Classroom of the Elite is a __dumpster fire of a story strung along by a compelling premise and executed with the same motivation as a dog with diarrhoea shits__. The story progression is aimless, with characters being either poorly handled tropes or the equivalent of NPCs. ~~~一~~~ # __| Story__ ~~~img550(https://files.catbox.moe/pvsaki.png)~~~ The story overall suffers from an indecision of where to head or what it even wants to be. Even if we ignore that, though, the parts of the story with a semi coherent structure, are just outright awful. ___// cake... lots of cake...___ · Overall, the story doesn't know where to go because it wants to have its cake and eat it to. There's an engaging thriller setting where we have a specially created school for the smartest students accross the whole country of Japan, these kids are supposed to be the top of the top. There's even a point based system for every student rewarding and pushing performance, creating a direct hirearchy between students, who very easily abuse of it (as is expected). You expect almost a psychological thriller where our characters will have to outwit those in classes above them. Yet, midway throught the show, we have a full episode dedicated to three characters attempting to plant a camera in the girl's bathroom to get nudes. For the smartest students in the whole country, who are supposed to have the potential to push humanity forward be it technologically or geopolitically, that was some of the most pathetic awkward attempt at deceiving peers I've ever seen. And that's the cake the show wants to eat, it wants to have typical awkward high school drama elements where the boys are awkwardly horny, and the girls are nothing more than pretty candy to look at. It's executed like one too, the tone is in severe contrast to the moody tense scenes it had literally the prior episode. Another example of the aforementioned is the moment when Kanji Ike “confesses” to Kikyou Kushida, but instead he asks if they can refer to each other by their first names. ~~~× ×~~~ ___// “thriller”___ ~~~img500(https://files.catbox.moe/13m76n.png)~~~ _1 / Sudou getting expelled_ The prior would be excusable if it wasn't for how utterly disappointing and outright awful the “thriller” scenes are. For instance, one of the first major plot beats relating to the “thriller” side of the show, is the scene were characters have to prevent Ken Sudou from getting expelled. · The reason as to why, is actually not a bad one. This school has consequences and rules which are not all given to the students, and risking punishment for something they could've prevented, is a good reason for them not to just throw away Sudou. The initiation of the stakes is also fine, as it makes sense for Kakeru Ryuuen to start causing problems to other classes. The Airi Sakura subplot is also just fine, makes sense she would take a picture but doesn't want to talk given her very intense social awkwardness. However, the whole events following are increasingly mentally deranged. Firstly, why didn't Sakura remove her personal pictures from the SD card? It makes zero sense she would allow that, given she is terrified of even talking to people, let alone showing lewd pictures of herself when they know it's actually her. I am aware how retarded that sounds, but we'll get to that later. One could make the argument that maybe she didn't want to move files to prevent the accusation of faking them, but the piece in question is the picture, not the SD card. Class C, even before looking at the picture, accused the photo of being fake, but seeing Sakura on the photo was reason enough to shot down the argument. The reason as to why they were kept in, giving no explanation to the viewer and blatantly ignoring and contradicting Sakura's character, is because we want to project them on a massive screen for the viewers to get horny. This is the type of fan service which rots this medium. The anime studio doesn't give a flying fuck about the story or characters, they are too blinded by their incessant horniness to shove in more boobs more asses more boobs more boobs into the screen. And of course, people just eat it up without a care of how detrimental it is for the story. Fan service isn't bad, fan service without reason is the problem. Secondly, how the evidence is treated. They show the [picture](https://files.catbox.moe/cuxlxb.png), where you can very clearly see that the three C class students, with no injuries, are surrounding Sudou. Two of them are holding Sudou's arms, with the third holding Sudou by his collar. Sudou is clearly positioned trying to defend himself, as the C class students are quite literary “jumping him”. Now, the brilliant counterargument from the opposition is: > “But we still don't know who instigated it. It doesn't prove that you saw everything that went down, either. (...) Despite the pictures, you have no definite proof” — Episode 5, 17:33 MOTHERFUCKER WHAT? NO PROOF? It is clearly shown that the three jumped Sudou. If they claim it's not self-defence, then this school isn't for the brightest, but a mental asylum for the mentally retarded, and I'm right there with them. The only thing left for the opposition to continue fighting for is the disproportionate level of injuries, not the instigation of the event. Thirdly, what a way to make Suzune Horikita look like her brain is paralytically disabled. She literally made a claim that they set up Sudou, announcing it with total confidence, yet she had zero evidence to present. LMAO fuck me, this show. Of course, the student council president gives more time to get evidence, because we need to give our protagonists an out, and it's not like we had days to do that. Fourthly, we can throw all of my previous arguments out the window because all of this in the first place is just hot garbage from the start. The scene obviously is trying to behave similarly to a realistic court case where you have “lawyers” representing the “victim” and “accused”, and where you bring in witnesses and evidence. But there's this problem with law case shows where, to build up tension and surprise, either side hide incriminating evidence and only show it when they are on the back foot. This just isn't how law works, you can't just show up to court without having presented evidence prior. Why the fuck didn't they start the whole discussion with Sakura's evidence? Why did we wait until it appeared like Sudou was going to be expelled, with no consequence for class C, for that to happen? If Horikita was so confident Sudou was set up, why wasn't getting that evidence priority number 1 before going to the meeting? Why did we waste so much time letting Class D's side look like they're going to lose before the “set-up” accusation was made? Oh right, wait, we don't care, just show Sakura lewds. ~~~img500(https://files.catbox.moe/xpkmqb.png)~~~ _2 / Island special test_ · Getting bored with watching 4 FULL EPISODES on this one Sudou guy no one gives a fuck about and want to start seeing more drama between classes in school? Well, you're in bad luck because it's time to put these students... on a private island?... Oh, ok. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad necessarily, it's just another reason to stack on the pile of: _“The author has no idea where the fuck this story is going”_. The whole shtick was the school setting, so the best thing he could come up with was moving the story away from the school? Either way, the introduction, and premise of the arc is quite good (huh, sounds familiar). The school, by all intents and purposes, is infinitely rich, plus we are told that it's extremely hard to get into the school (even if the characters stand contrary to that), so it's not completely out of left-field that they could rent a private island as a vacation spot for the students. The only thing that would indicate to the viewer that not all is what it seems to be, is that Class D is also going. You could imagine this type of event would be awarded to Class A and maybe B, as a reward for good academic performance. Regardless, we are told the twist soon after some disappointing character interactions on the boat – this is a special test for the 4 classes. They will compete to see who can gather more points by playing the equivalent of Domination from FPS games, where you capture specific areas scattered around the map. They are given a set of very few survival resources like flashlights and box matches, with the possibility of getting more by sacrificing said points. The expectations can't be better. A survival challenge to students who most likely have never gone out camping. We are also shown a deal between classes, with Ryuuen of all people. It opens the possibilities for the arc tremendously, how will classes compete with each other? How will they manipulate and steal resources without breaking the rules? Or even breaking rules, but in a way the teachers don't notice? How will Class D unite to address this challenge? Will there be some back deals with teachers on the background? You can buy anything with points, after all. How does our protagonist play into this whole dynamic? Will we learn more about him and his past? Okay! We get right into it. Horikita and Kiyotaka Ayanokouji are going to spy on the other classes. Okay, okay, it's time for what we've been waiting for... Huh? They are just going to, walk up? Um, okay. Not sure how effective that's going to be... Oh, they just left. Nothing happened. It's fine, it's surely an initial scout. Hm? Sorry what? A panty's been stolen? Okay, okay, small issue. We'll get back to the exciting part, right? Surely they'll move on from this, right? Oh, the girl from class C that they took in, who they thought wouldn't betray them because they're nice, betrayed them. Oh, Horikita is being brain-dead, again. Oh... that's it. __How. Fucking. Disappointing.__ No wonder Ayanokouji has the expression he has, he knows this story is just as entertaining as watching paint dry. This arc did absolutely nothing, all the conflict between characters was fucking pointless, none of them were impacted or changed from it, staying paper thin. The conflict between classes was essentially composed of empty threats that amounted to jack shit. And worst of fucking all, we don't even get the chance of watching Ayanokouji manipulate things in the background, eventually making Class D win. The only interesting aspect of the arc, which can help us learn more about Ayanokouji and let us see how he manipulates people and situations, is not shown. I honestly don't know why these are the story beats we got. At the beginning of the show, and this arc, it looks like the story is setting up very intriguing dynamics and potential for characters to play into. But, every, single, time, we pivot into the most boring possible story beats imaginable. And it truly looks like the author had only these ideas. We have so many moments with dramatic music and shots, where characters are staring at each other. Yet, you take a second to realize what they are saying, and they're the most inconsequential statements ever. For instance, when Horikita and Ayanokouji visit Class C's spot meeting with Ryuuen, there's a moment where the camera closes into Ryuuen with dramatic music playing in the background, only for him to say: > “Who's the fool here? Is it me? Or you?” — Episode 10, 08:19 You wait for Ryuuen to make the call to capture Horikita and Ayanokouji or something, possibly Ayanokouji bailing Horikita and himself out of the situation, anticipating Ryuuen. Yet, nothing happens. They just leave. An empty threat. The cherry on top of the massive pile of shit comes at the end, where the show slaps you in the face for even thinking that there was a chance for Class D to lose. The rule Ayanokouji manipulated, the way no other class had even considered, was changing leader, last, minute. Huh? __THEN WHAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT??__ Holy shit, this is most definitely the kind of shit Ryuuen would love, grab someone, beat the shit out of them and change leader last minute. Everyone would do it, it would create a whole new dynamic. Also, he just, gets Class C's leader correct? Because Ryuuen and Mio Ibuki were talking, he is logically the leader? This is a retard's version of making a narrative twist. “Uhh, how do we make Ayanokouji know the leader of Class C? Let's put a walkie-talkie when he goes to watch Class C and another when he sees Ibuki's bag”, because there is definitely no other explanation possible. While I would've preferred Class C to win in the end (more on that later), the idea of Class D winning out of nowhere would be completely fine if it weren't for the retarded “outwitting”. Ayanokouji subverting everyone and making Class D win, is fine, allowing the show to not only brood more conflict and dynamics between classes, but also focus more on Ayanokouji. Why did Ayanokouji feel it necessary to have Class D win in this case? Does he know important aspects of special tests we aren't privy to yet? Or is he gambling it on being significant? If it's the latter, did he make a bad play? How will Horikita feel when she's given the credit for more and more “wins” for Class D? How will this impact their dynamic? Will anyone from different classes take note of Ayanokouji? These are all very surface level questions that can be expanded into exciting character dynamics and story beats. Pity this show doesn't give jack shit about any meaningful exploration, surely you care more about that panty that's been stolen. ~~~× ×~~~ · Looking back on specifically the story aspect of Classroom of the Elite, you realize quickly how pretty much nothing happened. We were introduced to the school and some characters, saw some conflict between Class D and C, and had an island arc. All amounting to pretty much nothing. There were no consequences for the “trial”, as the C class students who were sent to beat up Sudou got beat up a bit more... and that's about it. The school, like the anime studio, doesn't care that there were three students with broken arms and bruises all over their bodies. Show and ignore, move on, we need more opportunities to throw boobs on screen. In the island arc, you don't even get the luxury of watching Ayanokouji manipulate people and circumstances to win in the end. No, fuck you, you surely are more interested watching the seventeenth scene of characters walking through the forest. As for the episodic quotes, I've given them as much attention as they are important to the show. On the matter, though, I would like to quote [TheGruesomeGoblin](https://anilist.co/user/TheGruesomeGoblin/) in their Classroom of the Elite [review](https://anilist.co/review/2407): *“If you gaze too far into the abyss and long enough into the abyss, then maybe you will become the abyss or something. If you are act like a monster, then you become the monster. Or something. My best friend Friedrice Natzsche told me that one. He's a German philosopy who lived in the 1800s or something. He's a good guy.* *Everybody quotes him. I don't know why. Like they haven't even read anything he's written, but they're just quoting him nonstop. “He's the God is Dead guy, WE HAVE TO QUOTE HIM.”* *“WE HAVE TO MAKE OUR SHOW OR SERIES LOOK SMARTER OR DEEPER THAN IT IS, PLEASE, WE HAVE TO INCLUDE A FRIEDRICE QUOTE. OTHERWISE, THEY WON'T GET HOW **UNBELIEVABLY DEEP** WE'RE BEING.””* ~~~一~~~ # __| Character__ ~~~img550(https://files.catbox.moe/ibu3ev.png)~~~ For a show who's central shtick is the characters, what a lump of wet dirty noodles it is. Yeah, that's right, the author was preparing instant noodles, and he knocked them over when he tried to grab them. He probably stood there, looking at freshly prepared noodles on the ground, dirty, sad. Bet that's how he came up with this show. Factual events aside, characters in this show are either poorly handled tropes or the equivalent of NPCs. If I don't address a character here, it's because I would be engaging in cognitive dissonance by referring to them as “characters”. ___// the three copy paste idiots: Ken Sudou, Kanji Ike, Haruki Yamauchi___ ~~~img500(https://files.catbox.moe/zykokt.png)~~~ The only reason I'm addressing these three disappointments, is because of how ironically important they are to the story. Of all the characters in the show, ignoring Horikita and Ayanokouji, we spend most of our screen time on these three baboons. Why? Why the fuck? These are the typical characters in anime who are the least viewed and often in the background doing stupid shit. But in this show, no, no, no. We spend 4 full episodes on Sudou set-up for expulsion, then the pool episode on the 3 being the reflection of the anime studio's director, then the ride towards the island on Ike fucking trying to call Kushida by her name, then Yamauchi trying to be a creepy fuck to Sakura on the island. We really had no other ideas to play with? It's these three who bring the whole tone of the series down. All my gripes with the show, “wanting its cake and eat it too”, centres around how these three characters act. I cannot fathom how these are the three least smart students in the entire country of Japan. Really, these three. I get Sudou because he supposedly excels at basketball, not like we get to see it anyway, but the other two? Their highlight is definitely the aforementioned pool episode. The major aspects of it I've already addressed, but an aspect I didn't get to mention in the story side was the utter disrespect the author has for his characters. Firstly, ignoring the obvious dog shit fan service a pool episode is, in episode 7 around minute 09:10 we just straight up, no fucking effort put in, have the full screen covered with Sakura's boobs as she talks. Even worse, we have a conversation between the girls and every time one speaks it switches to their breasts just bouncing around as they talk. The show doesn't even show one of the idiots googling at them, no, there's no reason given, just boobs on the screen. What a way to make your female characters the equivalent of a porn magazine. Secondly, the way the three idiots behave to prevent anyone from going to look for whichever one is missing, is just outright depressing. One that is specially annoying is the “monologuing” moment. It's actually relatively common in anime, characters look like they suddenly ignore the world and start talking to themselves without acknowledging anything around them. We get one of these moments with Ike as he talks with Kushida, like he literally just 180's and starts talking about the meta-situation. I think people think this is funny or quirky? To show how these type of characters have the same brain functionality as a disabled giraffe? ~~~× ×~~~ ___// Airi Sakura___ ~~~img500(https://files.catbox.moe/uisdl0.png)~~~ Ah yes, the walking boner creator. If nothing else, she is a great example of how utterly pathetic “characters” are regarded in this show. Due to her involvement in the Sudou case, we get to learn the three bullet points the author had for her character; she is normally extremely shy, referring to herself as “wearing a mask” symbolized through her wearing fake glasses. Yet, she finds comfort through sharing lewd pictures of herself online and reading the positive comments about her. This wouldn't be as bad if it weren't for the unironic brain haemorrhage the author displays with Sakura's way of hiding her identity: tie her hair up to have twin tails and put some fake glasses on. _She has pink hair_. I- I don't know what to say. This really is a mental asylum, it can't be real. Worst of fucking all is how her character is “resolved”. Ayanokouji tells her some shit, she falls for him like all girls do in this show, and she tries to be less shy. The best thing is, this is neatly symbolized with her taking off her fake glasses, removing her “mask” per se. Yet, in the very next fucking scene, she still has them on. Just, lmao. ~~~× ×~~~ ___// Kikyou Kushida___ ~~~img500(https://files.catbox.moe/pup2yo.png)~~~ The original walking boner creator! The studio absolutely loved focusing on certain parts of her for absolutely no narrative reason. That aside, Kushida unironically looked to be an interesting character. The idea of her having a darker, creepier side, was a refreshing spin on the archetype she pretends to be. However, due to the lack of anything involving her, that more intriguing side is completely useless, nothing more than bait for the future. She became what she was meant to subvert, the annoying girl that acts as if she has 3 braincells. We get a little more on her near the end of the show, getting to learn that she hates how people don't have a hidden self...? What the fuck does that even mean? How, what, where, why? I'm not going to criticize this decision completely since I've only watched season one, so there could be more on her later on attempting to explain what the fuck that even means. The only question remaining is, why, then, was the reveal of her “true” self so soon? It would have added so much more to the show having slow drips of her true identity slip out as the series goes on, then have a reveal similar to the one we got. Shame, we'll only get it when the author decides to take his eyes off her boobs, which won't be any time soon. To me, this adds to the idea of the author having a very interesting initial concept, but nothing else to add. Why did we focus on Sudou so much? Why do we waste time showing events that do nothing to advance the characters? Why did we move away from the school and go to an island? Why did we focus so much time on a fucking panty? Honestly, because I think that's all the author could come up with. Why reveal Kushida's “true side” so soon, when there is nothing relevant to her? Because even the author knows he has to show something else to interest the viewers. This show is hollow. ~~~× ×~~~ ___// Kakeru Ryuuen___ ~~~img500(https://files.catbox.moe/eru00y.png)~~~ It's honestly impressive how this show spends so much screen time on characters yet nothing is done. Every scene with this character, except the last one where he reveals his plan during the island arc, is literally just: “oh my gooood... he's eeeeeviiiiillll”. Like yeah, we know since he was presented he is a dick and the bad guy, we don't need 403 more moments proving this point over and over again. It's a shame because the twist with his character at the end of the island arc was pretty cool. Initially, him blowing up all their points was pretty smart in its own right. They decided that the pain and effort of going through the island arc wasn't worth the points, so they abused the system and not only had a blast vacation but lose nothing along the way. It's also great to have the twist he stays on the island collecting information. Like he says himself, finally someone with the balls to skirt the line and put effort in winning. Even better, he got the best deal possible with Class A, earning a ton of points for some days of pain. This was the kind of shit I was starving for. It's a shame he lost in the end, it would've been nice to have him win with Class D coming in second. It would make Ryuuen would be set-up as a legitimate challenge and someone to watch out for. ~~~× ×~~~ ___// Suzune Horikita___ ~~~img500(https://files.catbox.moe/0efosy.png)~~~ Horikita, our local loner with the same brain capacity as a stone brick, is a loner and hates everyone. She is also a loner, and she will make sure you remember she is a loner because she's mentioned being a loner as a reminder she's a loner. She totally likes being a loner and hates everyone else, because she said it herself, after all, loner behaviour. Jokes aside, she's a pain in the ass. She's supposed to be the other protagonist, rivalling Ayanokouji in intelligence and wit, yet she almost looks like the down syndrome sister of the three idiots. I've already mentioned plenty of moments of her operating without a brain, but there are a couple of moments where an attempt at character development was made, and of course, I can't not cover how utterly disappointing it is. The “character progression” attempted with Horikita is every other edgy anime's arc: due to [insert generic sad backstory here] the character hates everyone and thinks they can only rely on themselves. But then, they realize they can rely on everyone else, and it's even better! Then they become another hollow character for people to get horny at. She starts as your average mass-produced tsundere and ends just like any another girl on the show that falls in love with Ayanokouji. Worst of all, similarly to Sakura, events that seem to change her are totally ignored the moment we change setting. During the Sudou arc, her character is challenged by Ayanokouji to stop being as self-centred and care about others. It looks like she gains some perspective or pause on the loner idea, since she helps Sudou with his exams. Yet, she cares jack shit about it all after the fact. We see no attempt of her to talk with anyone that isn't Ayanokouji, and anything she did for anyone else can just be thought of as a benefit to the Class. Not saying she should've completely changed into Kushida after a few lines a character said, but at least something. Maybe scenes where she pauses before doing an action she would've done without thinking before. Or possibly, if we didn't have so many hollow NPCs, we could've had a classmate Horikita could've tolerated talking to. The island arc is where her character is supposed to be challenged the most. There are two factors at play: How she interacts with Ryuuen's strategy, and the consequences of her feeling useless. Focusing on Horikita's comments on Ryuuen might seem like a waste of time, but extending a much-needed olive branch to the show, shows us that there was potentially good character exploration. When Horikita and Ayanokouji go to Class C's spot, they learn how Class C just blew all of their points and plan on dropping out after the first day. She comments how that abuse of the rules is “beyond comprehension”. We can infer from it that Horikita lacks a lot of perspective. From various scenes, like her posters seen around 38 seconds into episode 7, we know that Horikita has devoted her life to academics. Being in a gifted school where academic performance is everything, she expects her attitude to be the most efficient method of reaching the top, and something all other students should strive to do. So Ryuuen blatantly giving up points and not taking the opportunity baffles her. This is a great opportunity for Horikita to have an inner monologue where she tries to rationalize Ryuuen's actions, maybe she even stumbles on the possibility of it being an act. Or maybe she asks Ayanokouji's opinion, which would also contribute to their dynamic, rather than always having their conversations be purely for the sake of advancing the plot. But nah, that's effort, a foreign concept to the author and anime studio, let's have the eleventh moment where we reiterate how creepy Ryuuen is. Horikita looking down on that kind of behaviour could've also contributed to her feelings of uselessness, which propels her changing of attitude at the end of the show. Since the boat ride towards the island, Horikita was feeling unwell, but ignored it and tried to concentrate on the challenge. Her disregard for her condition, coupled with her straining herself physically, leads to her not only being unhelpful to Class D, but an active detriment which losses them points and the leader card. As a quick side note, I get that her being ill can lose points for Class D, but they over-dramatise it incredibly. Generally, it's insane how this show dramatizes the most inconsequential shit ever. She largely did nothing physically intensive and chilled on the camp most of the time. No one in Class D said anything about it, and it's not like the other classes will do anything, so she could've just done nothing and tried to recover. But noooo, this show is omega autistic, so they have to make you feel like everything is super important. However, watch your braincells, because after we have a discussion about how sick Horikita is, we proceed to see her physically working in the next scene. LMAO, hello? Are we all sharing a single neuron? This show has the attention span of 2 seconds. But don't worry dear viewer, there is a reason for her to be working, we need to have a reason for her sickness to intensify. Why, you ask, is that a good thing? Because then we can have an extended scene specially created by the director's rock hard boner of Horikita almost naked! Rejoice viewers, porn! She becomes sicker as the days go, culminating in the final day when she loses it all. She not only lets Ibuki escape, but also lets her leave with the leader card. Collapsing on the ground, she guarantees the loss of more points due to illness. She feels useless and a drag that others should throw away, as she almost did with Sudou. We have sombre music playing as Ayanokouji is consoling Horikita, telling her she can't fight by herself, so she needs to fight along with others... What a load of bullshit. The show very simply just doesn't deserve a moment like this. Firstly, no one knew the trip was not only going to be a special test, but a physically intense one at that. Her having a very intense fever is just bad luck. She didn't fuck up, the rest did, and she would be the first one to say it. Not only did none of the other students care to notice she was feeling ill, but they also made it worse, letting her strain herself and doing stupid shit like the retarded Ike clone putting mud on her. If nothing else, she tried to fix and help the class when everyone else was behaving like bipolar sloths. This is brain-dead character writing. Secondly, even if we all collectively had a craniotomy to pump in gallons of gasoline into our brains and pretended she did fuck up, low points for characters don't just come out of nowhere. When a character's previous actions and consequences lead to a defining moment where they're going to change the way they act, we need to see slight variations in their character leading up to said moment. We've only seen Horikita not act like a constant pain in the ass and consider other points of view, with her brother and in certain situations with Ayanokouji. You could make the argument that she wears a mask among others, but I'm not asking Horikita to turn into a Fairy Tail character and just describe her trauma in order to justify the later change, but slight changes. Like pausing before insulting someone, or pondering a bit longer than usual as she considers something she previously would've brushed off. But no, with this show, we have state A of a character, something happens, okay let's move to state B of the character. That isn't how humans work. It takes time, self-reflection, realizing other points of view, for a character to radically change not only their perspective but also actions they've been doing for years. Thirdly, let's address her motivation to reach Class A. To get someone's acknowledgement is a fine motivation, even if it's done ad nauseam in anime. However, you can't have that motivation when your character is fully self-aware of it. Like, Horikita just straight up says it: > Ayanokouji: “Why are you so obsessed with Class A?” > Horikita: “It's all to gain my brother's acknowledgement” > — Episode 12, 02:24 People who want to make someone else proud or get praise from them, don't think about it in such a literal way. If that was the case, with how smart she is supposed to be, she would just ignore him. As far as she knows, her brother is being irrational, why the fuck would he call her useless for not reaching Class A when you can't reach it individually? She needs to take care of a full class of children to reach Class A. And from the tests scores we see, she's a brilliant student. I am very aware of why his brother behaves this way as I read some parts of the wiki, but not only is that explanation simply just retarded, but Horikita doesn't know it. As far as she is concerned, her brother behaving like this is normal. Are we supposed to pretend she loses all brain functionality when thinking about her brother? ~~~× ×~~~ ___// Kiyotaka Ayanokouji___ ~~~img500(https://files.catbox.moe/zcqmwt.png)~~~ Finally, the protagonist. I actually don't have that many negative things to say about Ayanokouji himself as a character. Largely, my issues with Ayanokouji are the narrative choices he is employed to execute, and how characters behave around him. The stoic, no emotion, 15-year-old edginess, while cringe, looks to be justified through him being experimented on from a very young age. Further, with the ending scene from episode 12, we can assume it was kept consistent throughout the show. Scenes which look to stand contrary to it, if extended an early enough olive branch, can actually reveal more about his character than break it. In contrast to other edgy protagonists, Ayanokouji can have a normal conversation, if one ignores his unchanging stoic expression. It almost looks like he knows exactly what to say to the right person at the right time to obtain whatever information he wants. There is a moment where he claims his goal to be: “live a normal student life”. This is obviously a bluff, as if he really wanted a “normal life” coming to the unique school probably in the world, doesn't achieve that particularly effectively. This, in addition to the scene with the teacher, we get a healthy amount of leading mysteries. This was the kind of thing that I wanted for Kushida, easy to write and viewers eat it like candy thinking it's deeper than it actually is, lol. Not like they did that right every time, holy fuck no. Remember when we ended one of the episodes with Ayanokouji almost breaking character and raising his voice to Horikita saying: “Don't pry into my life”. Remember how ready you were to see Horikita's reaction, the ongoing conversation, and learn more about both characters? Well, fuck you, enjoy boobs on your screen. “Sir, we love the moment with Ayanokouji, but it's too early to reveal his true character, even though it's plainly obvious with the small scenes we add!” “Don't worry young horny animator, I have the perfect solution! We will just move on with other scenes.” “B-but, ignoring it just like that... they'll notice, sir!” “No they won't, we'll distract them! With boobs!” “OMG, you're a genius!” I'm honestly impressed how little the studio cared. Stuff like this just indicates so much laziness when it came time to produce the show. Following the complete disregard for characterization or story, characters in this show just randomly monologue with no explanation and when it makes no sense. They're like trained Thailandese monks, self-aware of themselves to the extent they describe themselves as “wearing a mask”. How fucking cringe. The worst offender is Sakura, who at the end of episode 4 and some point during episode 5, says: > “My mask... I don't want anyone to know about it. I don't want to reveal my true self, my mask! It can't fall!” — Episode 04, 22:19 It's just so uncomfortably direct, it doesn't feel real. No one talks like this. The author and studio also don't care about previous scenes because in that same episode the philosophical quote which opens it, talks about how people lie to themselves, LMAO. Also, at the beginning of episode 5, Ayanokouji... how do I put this... starts fucking monologuing about philosophical concepts about reality...??? Like, he is straight up is reading a fucking book: > “Anthropologist Edward Hall divided person space into four zones...” — Episode 05, 00:20 I am very aware of its relation to Sakura, but holy shit the subtlety is non-existing. It's not an observation, it's not said to someone else, it's just straight up copy and paste the quote in. It's not even a quirky bit from the show, as it's the first and last time it happens. No one thinks like this. Finally, because of fucking course, anime will be anime, so a protagonist that even remotely can't court a single walking double X chromosome piece of flesh isn't allowed. It's impressive the cognitive dissonance the author and studio expects from its viewers to pretend like it's normal that any character in the vicinity of Ayanokouji becomes unbearably horny for him. Why did Horikita, when she's supposed to be a loner, having no friends for years, suddenly talk with Ayanokouji on a regular basis? Oh, it's Ayanokouji, so they just do. Why did Kushida reveal herself so quickly? She could've tried to learn what Ayanokouji heard first, then if he heard anything bad, go on the attack. And it's not like anyone will believe Ayanokouji over Kushida anyway. So why does she reveal her whole identity so fast? Oh, it's Ayanokouji, so they just do. Why does the Class B whore, Honami Ichinose, press her boobs on Ayanokouji out of nowhere when she hasn't done that with anyone else, and she isn't public with “her deeds”? Oh, it's Ayanokouji, so they just do. Why did Sakura fall for Ayanokouji? Was it only because he was nice to her and told the creep to fuck off? Because she told her to do things for herself? Is that the first time she's heard that? Does that mean every single boy that tried to go out with her were creepy fucks? Oh, it's Ayanokouji, so they just do. Why do the three idiots depend on Ayanokouji instead of any other boy in the classroom? Oh, it's Ayanokouji, so they just do. Why is it that when anyone else says they trust Ibuki she gets mad and insults them, but when Ayanokouji tells her, she blushes like crazy? Oh, it's Ayanokouji, so they just do. Mighty convenient, Ayanokouji ran into Class A learning their leader. Pretty wild to make the connection that because Ryuuen and Ibuki have walkie-talkies, they have to have a secret plan. Oh, it's Ayanokouji, so he just does. Why is it that Ayanokouji is the only one from the four classes to realize you can abuse the leader rule at the very end of the challenge? Oh, it's Ayanokouji, so he just does. Why is it that Horikita, out of nowhere, with the guy she's had no personal conversations with, because all of them were to purely advance the plot, falls for Ayanokouji? Oh, it's Ayanokouji, so they just do. They just do. He just does. I don't get why people don't get tired of watching a God do whatever he wants. Is it fun to constantly watch the anime studio's incessant boner shove into your screen the worst, most annoying tropes anime has? It's depressing it's expected for the protagonist to have the supernatural power of making all girls in their vicinity instantly become automatic fountains of cum for them. ~~~○~~~ All in all, fuck this show, those noodles deserved better. ... Written by: @Reoken