Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e

Please note this review assumes that you have already finished watching Youkoso and while care has been taken to minimize story spoilers there may be spoilers in character analysis

In Society are humans really treated equally or are they treated according to the standards in society

Based off a well-known light novel series of the same name Youkoso gives us the opportunity to ask one of the fundamental questions that most teenagers would ask as they enter High school. In society are all human beings treated equally and does this by introducing us to a prestigious high school that has an impressive record ... of providing excellent students for society. The first episode itself made a pretty good impression on me and looking back at it im glad that I decided to stick with it to the very end.

Taking place in near future Japan the anime is centered on Koudo Ikusei senior high school a well-known and prestigious high school that was created by the government to help nurture and develop the next generation into skilled adults that will benefit the country. Having both state of the art facilities and freedom unknown to high school students the school can be said to be a paradise but this is far from the truth. But while having the best of facilities at their disposal the pressure that the school puts on its students that it sees as its lifeblood is intense and far more than what one would expect in a normal school. For the students that are lucky enough to get admitted into this prestigious school they must work twice as hard as their grades while also defining them also affect the amount of points that they get each month. In this school, full of elite student’s competition, subtle plans and mind games are rife where every mistake can cost you points or worst cause the whole class to be punished. In this environment where classes see each other as mortal enemies only those with conviction, creativity and adaptability can hope to survive and prosper.

The overall story for Youkoso follows the life of Kiyotaka Ayanokouji a high school freshman that upon the start of the school year finds himself assigned to the schools Class D the lowest class of the school’s class system and widely regarded as the worst class and seen as a dumping ground where the school sends people that it has believed that it cannot control but cannot expel without good reason. Here he is joined by an intense and quiet girl named Suzune Horikita an ice queen that aspires to join the prestigious class A and Kikyou Kushida a popular and cheerful girl that’s widely seen as the class idol. Together these three and the class must do what they can to survive in the intrigue’s that take place between the classes.

Kiyotaka

Kiyotaka Ayanokouji voiced by new voice actor Shouya Chiba is one of the main characters of the series and is the main protagonist of the series. A high school freshman that in the beginning of the series was assigned to Class D Kiyotaka from initial appearances was a person that was quiet, laid back and indifferent and is someone that seems to be prefer to remain in the background and not draw attention to himself. Despite his moody and rather indifferent nature Kiyotaka is shown to be someone that can be responsible and kind and is shown to care a great deal about his friends and allies. Though not someone that has a sense of justice in him Kiyotaka is someone that hates seeing people that he knows being out in danger and would try to help them when that happens. While seemingly laid back and indifferent towards others it is noted that Kiyotaka when he becomes serious and motivated can come up with some really interesting and smart ideas that make use of his good perception skills and showcase one of his more prominent traits which is his cunning. Despite his averse to getting involved in troublesome situations Kiyotaka is shown to be very good at dealing with and managing various difficult situations which is an interesting trait about him that hints at his true personality.

As the series goes on and as Kiyotaka and the members of his class deal with one crisis after another it becomes clear that beneath his normal self Kiyotaka also has a personality that he hides and conceals from the others including his friends. In this personality which is perhaps his true one Kiyotaka’s personality is drastically different from the one that he normally exhibits. In this personality Kiyotaka is shown to be a calculating and manipulative person and also a smart one that is not above using people for his own ends. In this personality Kiyotaka’s strong intelligence and observational skills that he had to keep hidden in his default personality is now much more visible and more readily used when Kiyotaka gets serious. As a character, I felt that Kiyotaka was an interesting character whose dual nature in the form of his two different personalities are what actually define him. The contrast between the two different personalities I felt were well done and while some of the traits of the two do pass between the two personalities from time to time like his fast thinking nature it’s when we see Kiyotaka in his true personality that his character truly shines. While Kiyotaka may have villainous tendencies due to his manipulative personality it’s important to note that this is a result of having an in-depth knowledge and understanding of how the real world actually works. Overall the character of Kiyotaka I felt was a well-designed one that showed that careful observation and rational decisions along with a little manipulation can ensure that what they all hold dear can be protected. I felt that Shouya Chiba actually did an excellent job in his first main roles for me.

Suzune

Suzune Horikita voiced by new seiyuu Akari Kito is one of the main characters of the series and is the main heroine of the series. A 16-year-old high school freshman and a member of class D Suzune is a quiet, well-mannered but distant person at the start of the series. In the beginning Suzune exhibited the classic ice queen type personality that’s commonly seen in animes. In addition to exhibiting the quiet and unapproachable nature that’s the key point of the ice queen persona Suzune in the beginning was also a thorny person that preferred to act using her own judgement than rely on others showing that she was also someone that did not trust others easily. In the beginning Suzune also had a rather curious view on friendship in that she did not see a need for it in the beginning. As a result of her ice queen like personality Suzune in the beginning was seen by many within the class as something akin to an oddball and not widely trusted by her classmates. Indeed, at this point in time she was also the same as well as she regarded friendship and bonds with something akin to disdain. As the series goes on though thanks largely to the efforts of Kiyotaka and Kikyou Suzune’s personality gradually starts to change as the class begins to suffer from assaults from other classes. Though reluctant at first Suzune gradually becomes friendlier to others but still keeps a certain distance from others. Though still dismissive about friendships Suzune begins to understand that friendship and unity within the class will be important if they were to endure within the school and starts to care more about her classmates advising and helping them when needed until she is satisfied that they are safe. In this we can see that Suzune’s starting ice queen personality gradually starts to be thawed out as she begins warming to several of her classmates and trusting them the most prominent of them being Kiyotaka.

As Suzune’s ice queen personality thaws her true personality eventually is gradually revealed to us. While still quiet and preferring to stay logical Suzune is shown to be a very determined person that also has great conviction and is not the type of person that will back down from arguments especially when engaged in arguments with others. Suzune is also shown to have very good decision making and analytic skills that when combined with her excellent perception skills make her formidable in defending the class in meetings. Suzune’s most prominent trait without a doubt is her truthful and direct nature in that she is someone that hates being dishonest and unlike Kiyotaka can be relied upon to state the cold hard facts of something quite readily. Despite being a very determined and strong person from initial appearances beneath that mask it can be said that Suzune is actually the opposite in that she’s lonely and vulnerable and wants to rely on someone that she can trust. Within the series this acts as the main focus for the relationship that Suzune has with Kiyotaka which is also one of the main parts of the shows story. Though their relationship started off rather poorly over the course of the series their relationship gradually improved and Kiyotaka become one of the few people that Suzune trusted. As a character, I felt that Suzune was a well-designed character that showed some excellent character development as the series went on and in the process becoming one of my favourite characters. The gradual change from an ice queen to someone that stood as one of the best defenders of Class D I thought was a change that was well designed. I felt that her seiyuu Akari Kito really did an excellent job portraying the character of Suzune in one of her first main roles.

Kikyou

Kikyou Kushida played by veteran seiyuu Yurika Kubo of High School Fleet and Urara Meirochou fame is one of the main characters of the series and is a classmate of Suzune and Kiyotaka. A 16-year-old girl and a high school freshman Kikyou is a kind, positive and well-mannered girl that’s kind to everyone that she meets and is widely regarded by many to be the class idol within the class. A considerate and understanding person Kikyou has a very direct personality and seems to be someone that values friendship and bonds quite highly as she cares a great deal about each one of her friends deeply. However, while she appears to be a simple-minded girl that’s not well versed in manipulation beneath his mask of hers is a different personality that Kikyou hides from the others. Underneath the angle like personality that she presents to outsiders Kikyou surprisingly has another personality that is radically different to her surface one.

In this Kikyou’s personality though still direct is very rude and is not afraid of voicing her true feelings about other people directly. She’s also shown to be quite manipulative and quite capable of using blackmail and lies to force people to obey her. Despite this radical change in personality it’s interesting to note that this side of her isn’t exactly evil by nature but rather seems to be a protective measure that was created to protect her from harm. Perhaps more so than in her default personality Kikyou seems to be in great fear of being isolated and being lonely. The character of Kikyou Kushida I felt was an interesting character that while supportive of the main characters and to the class emphasized one of the main themes of this anime quite well. The theme being that everyone wears a mask in society. The contrast in her personality I felt was interesting as was her relationship with Kiyotaka. I felt that her seiyuu Yurika Kubo did an excellent job in portraying her.

Honami

Honami Ichinose played by veteran seiyuu singer Nao Touyama of Asterisk Wars and In a world God only knows fame is one of the main support characters and is one of Kiyotaka and Suzune’s main allies in the series. A 16-year-old girl and high school freshman Honami differs from the two in that she’s actually a member of one of the classes that actually form the school class B in particular. Despite being from another class though Honami bears none of the malice and hatred that other students in the school have towards class D and instead treats them equally and with respect. A cheerful, positive and honest person Honami can be said to be Class B’s version of Kikyou as their personalities are very similar to each other. Kind, caring Honami is someone that seems to wear her heart on her sleeve being kind and caring towards everyone that she meets regardless of whether they belong to her class or to others. Her kind and caring personality ensures that within her own class to which she acts as leader that there are no fights between classmates and that everyone treats each other with respect thus also ensuring that they won’t start fights with other classes. Though a rule bound person by nature Honami is also shown to be flexible with rules and will happily bend them if it means that she can help someone in need. Though kind and caring in normal mode she’s shown to be stern and unforgiving to people that threaten her fellow students and openly despises people that do so. Honami I felt was an interesting character in that unlike the rest of the cast she did not seem to have a mask and her base personality appears to be genuine. Her attempts to help the members of class D with their plans I felt was a good indication of cooperation that can take place between classes. Nao Touyama I felt did an excellent job in her portrayal of Honami.

Airi

Airi Sakura voiced by veteran seiyuu Mao Ichimichi of Digimon Adventure Tri and Aoki Hagane No Arpeggio Ars Nova Cadenza fame is one of the main support characters of the series and is a classmate of Kiyotaka. A 16-year-old high school freshman Airi is a kind, quiet and timid girl that in the beginning of the series preferred to remain in the background and avoid getting involved in other people’s affairs. Though kind and well-mannered in the beginning of the series Airi wrestled with the distinct problem of having low self-esteem which made her jittery and prone to becoming nervous when people talk to her which manifested in her attempts to defend her personal space rather determinedly. As the series goes on it becomes clear that Airi like many other characters on the show actually has another side to her that’s just as unexpected as the others in that she was a model of some renown within her world. This mask of hers which is similar to Kikyou’s I felt was interesting as it grew out of her desire to avoid being lonely while at the same time being able to help those that may be in similar states to her. After a particular drastic event in the series Airi’s personality gradually starts to change becoming more open with herself while also trying to be more confidant in herself and more importantly trying to get to know people that helped her.

As a character I felt that Airi was an interesting one in that her struggle for equality was on a more personal level than other characters and was based on Airi’s innate personality traits notably her quiet and timid nature. The decision to use a model as an alternate side to her personality I felt was a good move as models in addition to showcasing products can also serve to help other people by their modelling as well. I felt that Mao Ichimichi did an excellent job in portraying the character of Airi.

AMV (Animation &Arts/Music and Voice)
In terms of art I felt that the design of the school and its attendant facilities was done pretty well and indeed the school did give the feel of being similar to a small town or outlet rather than a high school. The uniform designs for the school I felt were also well designed and looked pretty smart as well. Character design I felt was also pretty good with each character being unique and well designed. In terms of animation I felt that animation was clear and beautifully detailed. In terms of music I felt that the series had a pretty good opening and ending themes with the ending being particularly strong. Voice acting for the series I felt was superb with Kiyotaka’s voice actor Shouya Chiba and Suzune’s seiyuu Akari Kito deserving particular praise for their portrayal of their respective characters.

Overall conclusion

Overall Youkoso was an interesting anime that had as its main strengths an interesting premise, story, characters and the underlying themes of society that it tries to address. The main premise of this show is of course the prestigious high school that the main characters attend in the story. The school while seemingly perfect both in terms of facilities and reputation is only a facade for within it hides a very strict school system where a student’s performance in their studies and exams determine their worth to both the school and to society. To reinforce this system the anime makes use of an interesting system that serve to underline the central purpose of this school. The system is an interesting concept in itself in that it acts both as a central resource for the everyday needs of the students but also an objective for the students for failure to do well in the school will see the number of points that they gain every month lessen. The idea to make this system a combination of not just a currency that can be used but also an indication of how much worth the school see’s in both the class and the students within was an interesting move and tied in well with the school’s unique culture.

One of the series main themes is that of equality which is best shown in not just the division of students into classes but also in the number of masks that characters must adapt as part of their personalities to exist in society. When combined with the personalities of characters that appear to be kind and unassuming on the surface the masks aspect works well to add more depth to the characters. This aspect of the anime itself I felt was pretty interesting. While the struggles between the classes served to highlight the differences in status between the classes with lower letter ones being superior to the higher letter ones and best seen in the disdain that class A and C members have for class D. Whats interesting is that the this isn’t repeated in all areas as Honami and Class B shown in their interactions with Class D showing that in the end it’s the question of perception.

The overall story for the series also plays a part in dealing with the theme of equality in that it pits the members of class D widely regarded by the school as outcasts against a school who is determined to make things difficult for them. This struggle against great odds by a class of misfits that make use of a variety of tactics to even the field to give them a better chance of victory I felt only serves to make this anime that much interesting. Watching Kiyotaka and Suzune work together to counter the plans of the other classes and the school sure was fun to watch. Overall Youkoso was an interesting anime that had not just an interesting premise and a great story but also great characters that it used to tackle a number of interesting themes that are really relevant in society and in terms of final score I think it definitely deserves a 10 in my books. The only lament that I felt about this anime was that it was only a half season so we aren’t able to see more of what Kiyotaka’s true personality is like.

I'm not claiming to be a veteran when it comes to watching anime, but I've seen enough where viewing shows with a typical high school setting just doesn't cut it for me anymore. Of course a lot of the shows in this genre come with a twist or two, and Classroom of the Elite is no exception. However just because an anime uses the classic school life formula doesn't mean that it will be successful. While it's true that some shows are able to effectively pull off the school life setting, lesser anime, like Classroom of the Elite, fail right from the get go. ...

Episode one dives right into explaining the setting and sets up the general story of the anime. Viewers learn that the school in which the characters are attending is a special academy where students are divided into four classes based off of skill and other criteria that is never really discussed (you'll soon learn that the lack of a proper explanation for things is a reoccurring theme with this anime). Unsurprisingly, the two protagonists, Kiyotaka Ayanokouji and Suzune Horikita, are put in class D, the lowest ranking class. The story is supposed to be about their rise from the bottom to the top of the academy's hierarchy, but there's one major problem; They make relatively no progress toward achieving this goal throughout the course of the anime.

Before I go into more detail on this, let me explain an unique plot element that the author introduced for the anime: a point system. These points are given to students and represent multiple things, including currency and class ranking. The students lose points for bad grades, behavior, etcetera and earn them by achieving various things, many of which are unexplained. Points are allocated after each month, and one of the first twists in the anime is that class D failed to earn any points after their first month at school (pfft. What losers), thus throwing them into a state of turmoil. Now this system could have been used in so many ways that would have easily benefited the plot of the anime. However the distribution of these points is so convoluted and rarely touched upon that in the latter portion of the anime I felt like their importance completely vanished. Characters would just go up to a chart and say things like "Oh look, our class has X points and the others have Y points. Cool." and then move on. The few exceptions are when Ayanokouji actually uses the points in an inventive manner to do things like purchase old test answers and boost the grade of a classmate's exam. Unfortunately, the point system wasn't nearly as explored as it should have been, and it failed to reach its full potential.

Remember when I said that the goal in this anime (at least from what I could discern) was for the core cast to strive to become the best in the school? While its true that class D (with the exception of Ayanokouji at first) desperately want to rise to the top, we rarely see anything significant done by them in order to achieve this goal. At one point Horikita gave a commanding speech in which she warned the other classes to look out for class D. From my perspective, this was just an empty threat. In fact, more often then not, the anime showcases the members of class D struggling to simply earn any points at all much less hoping to compete against their rivals. The anime constantly presented us with many "tough" scenarios that were supposed to leave viewers impressed with the protagonists for finding creative solutions to them. The problem is that many of these situations were too lackluster for me to even care about them in the first place. These mediocre events ranged from trying to have everyone in the class pass an exam without failing miserably to finding a panty thief. There are literally no stakes, and this was deleterious to the anime's success.

On a positive note, I did sort of like Ayanokouji and Horikita at first. Ayanokouji's casual and disinterested attitude was sort of refreshing, and his along with Horikita's social ineptitude was interesting, especially when they were forced to interact with other characters. Now the primary issue that I had was that both of them have a similar personality. They're both social outcasts who have a hard time fitting in with the rest of the class. Granted, they each posses differing views on things like friendship and whatnot, but it sometimes got really boring hearing both of them talk to each other in their monotone voices all the time. Also, they each hardly interacted with the other characters (Horikita more than Ayanokouji) unless they were forced to, which left the rest of the cast terribly underdeveloped. To compensate for this, the producers would give the other characters (most notably Kikyou Kushida) random quirks in order to make them seem more interesting. This ultimately failed because I didn't really care for the characters too much in the first place.

The majority of the budget went into eyes and fanservice. The characters' eyes always seem to shine bright with vibrant splotches of color. While high in detail, the focus on irises makes everything else seem lazily designed in comparison. The only exception to this is when a character is used for fanservice appeal. During these sacred moments, the characters' bodies suddenly gain a ton of depth, shading, curves, and enlarged breasts (unless they're male, in which case they become overly muscular instead). Hallelujah for these ecchi scenes, am I right!? Seriously though, if the animation quality was consistently like the short and almost always unnecessary fanservice scenes, then I would have been really impressed with the show's visuals.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't despise Classroom of the Elite or anything. I was just disappointed by the show's laid back attitude. Everything felt anticlimactic or unnecessary and it seemed like the creators were too afraid to take any risks and instead chose the safe and easy path. And in doing so, Classroom of the Elite became yet another mediocre anime that will certainly be forgotten by most as time goes by.

When you think of the word ‘school’, the first words that come to mind might be textbooks, lecture, exams, and careers. Schools are designed to prepare for students for their future after all. However, that’s not entirely the case for Koudo Ikusei Senior High School, a school that tests their students beyond the academic level. Youkoso Jitsuroku Shinjou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e (also known as “Classroom of the Elite”) is an anime that explores how survival in the outside world depends much more than just your academic skills.

From my early impressions, this anime stood out from some light novel adaptations as it deconstructs the educational ... system. This especially earns my attention as Japan already has a tough educational system so deconstructing that idea felt like a unique idea. In essence, this anime explores how the fictional Koudo Ikusei Senior High School takes initiative at preparing its students to survive in the real world. Granted by the government, the school has a budget system and students are supplied with points (100,000 every month). These points essentially translates to money as students are advised to use them wisely. The catch is that classes will receive points only based on their performance. Get the idea now? It basically exposes the idea of responsibility for these young teens as they realize what they’re in for.

The first episode introduces some of the main cast including main male protagonist Kiyotaka Ayankoji. It won’t take long to realize that he has a rather dry outlook on life and often try to avoid being noticed. My impression of Kiyotaka reminds me of the main male protagonist from Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru as both him and Hachiman has similar personalities. His isolated personality doesn’t make him stand out as a character on the surface but it gets really interesting when you listen to his thoughts about others. It’s further evidenced by his poor social skills as he has difficulty making friends with others. As such, Kiyotaka’s role in this anime feels different than from the usual light novel stereotype. As the episode progresses, I feel like some people can relate to Kiyotaka as well. Then, there’s Suzune Horikita, the unfriendly cold beauty that gets involved with Kiyotaka from the same class. Similarly, she has a personality that also appears to be unsociable with others although she purposely tries to avoid making friends. In her mind, friends aren’t necessary and holds her back. On the other hand, there are also very social people in their class like Kikyou Kushida. She’s like the antithesis of both Kiyotaka and Horikita. Unlike them, Kushida is very good at communicating with others and has a friendly personality. Yet behind her bubbly appearance also lies a girl that masks her true image. Either way, it’s shown that the main characters in this series all have the same objectives and that’s to survive at their prestigious school.

From the cast of characters, Class D’s students are easily the most prominent compared to the others as most of the series revolves around them. It’s ironic since Class D is often looked down upon because of their grades and performance. Nonetheless, we get to see how they adapt with the school’s points system. Some characters like Kiyotaka and Horikita manages their resources well while others carelessly uses it to satisfy their own desires. Not to mention, Class D seems to always get involved in some sort of drama from the very beginning. These include the plot involving Airi Sakura, an inspiring photographer and a stalker. Ken Sudou (one of the 3 Fools of Class D) even gets into a complicated drama that almost had him expelled from the school. The anime showcases these drama as any of these events can be relatable and happen in real life. Later in the show, the school even tests their students with an actual survival test that really brings the reality of what it means to survive. To be honest, I think all these concepts brings the potential of this anime to light. It highlights what some of the main characters are capable of and how they influence others. Unfortunately, this anime is presented as a distilled adaptation so don’t expect a complete series. In other words, it leaves some important territories unexplored such as Kiyotaka’s mysterious past, Kushida’s darker personality, and among others.

Despite my interest of the main characters, the others in this series rarely stand out particularly those from Class B, C, and even A. The only ones that caught my attention occasionally are Mio Ibuki and Kakeru Ryuuen (Class C), Honami Ichinose (Class B), and Kouhei Katsuragi (Class A). Student council leader Manabu Horikita initially had my interest due to her relationship with Suzune. However, the anime doesn’t really capitalize on exploring their relationship. Most of Class A seems to stand out only by status as none of their key members gets important focus such as their leader, Alice Sakayanagi. There’s also not much focus on the school faculty except for Class D’s homeroom teacher Sae Chabashira. In essence, viewers coming into this anime will likely remember this anime’s characters mainly from Class D than any of the others. Background stories are vaguely delivered that holds characterization back as well.

With such a premise, expect this anime to really dive into drama often. If you’re not a fan of such genre, then it will likely make your heads turn. By drama, this anime explores social problems such as isolation, fear of anxiety, identity issues, and fear of rejection. Even the simple concept of trust is tested in later episodes. Not to mention, this anime seems to have hidden dark intentions from its character cast. In addition, do expect lighthearted comedy to pop up from here and there. Unfortunately, this show doesn’t escape from light novel pitfalls such as panty jokes, swimsuit fan service, and generic misunderstandings. As I mentioned before though, the humor of this anime can get distracting at times although it doesn’t hold the show back in general. Oh and don’t expect any actual romance like some gimmicky shoujo anime.

Adapted by studio Lerche, I must admit that the visual quality stood out compared to some of its other works. The characters look vibrant, colorful, and smooth with their appearances. This is especially true for Horikita as her character design matches those of a class beauty and Kiyotata’s stoic personality also matches perfectly with his face on most scenarios. Character expressions and body language is indeed important in this anime as it discreetly shows how characters behave. Luckily, the anime pulls that off. The setting also looks appealing as it looks visually impressive as an upper class community. However, the anime still relies on some fan service from the old book. Kushida and Honami are the guiltiest of these examples as the camera seems to focus on them suggestively at times. Oh and before you forget…swimsuits.

While it can be overlooked on occasions, character voice mannerism is an important part of the show especially with the main cast. Kiyotaka is perhaps the most noticeable as we observe his thoughts and words. The way he talks often lacks emotions but noticeable for the way he speaks. Similarly, Horikita’s cold personality is easily reflected by her tough voice and attitude. However, there are some character voices that I found annoying to the ears in particular with Kushida and occasionally the nicer guys in this anime. The theme songs has a J-pop style tune that while doesn’t stand out too much is stylish enough to carry themselves. OST of this show balances between its eerie and lighthearted tone depending on the circumstances.

To be honest, this anime can be a hit or miss for people. Some will enjoy it with the ideas it has to offer while others will discard it from their memories. However, I think this anime does do well to deconstruct the school system. Too often these days, our society relies on education to determine an individual’s social status. This show demonstrates that it’s not always about academic skills that matter in the real world. That being said, I think the story and main characters are what attracted me to this show. However, I can’t say that some of the other characters are noticeable for their roles. The story itself is also incomplete so it will feel like an advertisement of the light novel. However, I’d still give this show a try for this anime’s style and way of portraying its society. The fact that some characters can be such assholes and exploring social issues will wake up our minds to reality.

This is the 1st time for me to write a review for an airing anime....... So I'll try and keep it fresh.

I mean, it's a light novel adaptation. It'll be interesting, right? The concept built for students who aim high in a prestigious school. It's about to get bumpy as it doesn't go as well as expected.

Story:
The plot is really interesting. As a reader of the LN, I say that it's a combination of Oregairu and Ansatsu Kyoushitsu. But to be clear, wouldn't you find it entertaining as it really gives of a good vibe just from the 1st episode? A system which determines the ... fund and rankings depending on students' behavior. A large amount of points(cash) every month, students plotting to set things up.
Trying to reach something against people who you really want to help but yet to know how... Of course there will be something problematic for the main characters as story progresses. The high looks down on the low, plays with them and sells them out.

Art:
I like the eyes but for Kiyotaka Ayanokouji the main characters. His eyes kinda looks empty to me..

Animation/Visuals:
Well, it looks nice to me. Especially the shading.

Sound/Music/Voice Acting:
Why wouldn't the audio quality be at its best shape?
Liking the bgm. The OP is composed by ZAQ, it's so good and I like how she sings! The ED's main part is what shines brightest for its song.
Well, Kiyotaka Ayanokouji's monotone voice acting isn't really a problem to me...... The voice acting's good as for the others.

Characters:
Is this Hachiman Hikigaya and Yukino Yukinoshita?
Kiyotaka Ayanokouji seems mundane but he's interesting when it comes to intellectuals and people's action course.
There's still no actual development yet and there's no one I really dislike.. So let's just say I like them. They all have pasts that we yet to explore. It's quite obvious.
I just want things to be resolve so everyone will be happy. Every single quote they give off at the end of an episode is how it portraits character's upcoming setting.
The fact that Kiyotaka Ayanokouji knows "how to" piano and calligraphy like me, I'm just gonna continue and watch how he does...

Enjoyment:
Short and clear. Interesting, high-class art, why would you hate music? Reused characters' personalities; don't mind. I like where this is going. Why I really am interested in this was because of its setup. Who you are and where you'll take action at. It's an interesting setup to me. I like the main characters' will to surpass what they couldn't do before.

With no prior knowledge of the series, I only picked this anime up because I was seeing fairly glowing reviews and an impressively high score on this site. Unfortunately, I'm in the undesirable position of being one of the bearers of bad news: This show is dreadful.

Classroom of the elite starts off fairly weak, presenting some vapid quotes like, "Are humans really equal?" and an opening sequence that displays a general lack of care. It only took me a few minutes to decide to check if I was watching was yet another light novel adaptation (I was). The premise is almost entirely unoriginal, but I've ... always thought that it's not so much about originality of concept, but rather how one uses the ideas and inspiration they take from other stories to craft something unique or memorable of their own.

The problem, though, is that there is nothing of quality to speak of in this show. Not even remotely, and I'm really trying. The story is derived from countless battle school anime where kids in a given school fight for ranking and prestige. In this case, they prove their worth through academic standings. Ok, nothing groundbreaking but I'll go with it. To "spice things up" more, the kids have to live on campus and receive an allotted amount of funds each month that fluctuates depending on their performance. The class we follow starts out at the bottom rung of the hierarchy, class D, and we are to see their journey to class A. The execution of this concept is poorly handled, though, in part due to a simple lack of imagination and a pacing structure that would give Charlotte a run for its money. At this rate, I have my doubts the kids'll make it to Class C, as the show has quickly devolved into a sort of "adventures with Ayanokouji-kun and friends..."

Yes, everything about this is hacky, even down to the details of the kids having to live on campus, but again this wasn't even the upsetting part. The unfortunate truth is anyone looking for any sort of unique or inspired take on the already super saturated "highschool battle school" subgenre is going to be severely let down here.

All that's left worth talking about is our characters... I was hoping they could really carry the show, but they are all walking tropes. No attention to detail or complexity. no substance, no layers, just barebones cliche here.. You've got the hot-headed jock, apathetic student, the overly friendly chick, the perfect girl, the mysterious loli, the uninterested main character. And thats about as much depth you'll find. As I was watching I couldn't help but think, "Are these guys serious?" I'm failing to think of a show as egregious in its display of its cast, showing us, in earnest, how completely void of personality each and every one of them are. I was frankly embarrassed.

And let's talk about this terrible main character for a second. If one ever needed to know what not to do when creating a main character for a story, they'd need look no further than this. You may be inclined to believe he is a breathe of fresh air from the "whiny, spineless" main characters that we so often get from these adaptations. But it's just another variation of the same garbage, really. First off, to pull off the "uninterested main character" archetype to any degree of success, you have to be at least a competent writer (see oregairu). It's extremely difficult. The reason is because when you have a main character who doesn't give a damn about anything and has no goals whatsoever (or at least doesn't present them for the audience to know), you run the risk of the audience saying things like, "Why should I even care?" That's the one thing you don't want. Ever. Because if your audience doesn't care, they will stop watching.

Ayanokouji is bored in every scenario. Even in high tension situations where the mood of the scene calls for him to actually care about what's going on, he doesn't. And this is detrimental to the experience of the viewer. We're conflicted. What are we supposed to feel in situations where the scene is telling us we should be worried, anxious, mad etc. but our main character is looking into the distance with eyes half open, spacing out thinking about fuck all? This is what bad writing looks like. It's simply unbearable to watch if you've not turned off your brain.

There was one scene in the 4th episode that cemented to me the notion that this show, similar to Ayanokouji, just doesn't care at all. Our main character and a girl we had previously seen him personally interact with *zero* times had asked him to pretend to be her boyfriend so that she could let down her crush without them feeling as bad. The problem of this scene is blatantly apparent to anyone who made it to this episode. These two characters have built no prior relationship that merits her making this request of Ayanokouji. To our knowledge, they barely know each other. It was constructed solely to meet the demands of the plot, with no regard to upholding any standards of storytelling. It was kind of insulting to watch; I could picture the guys making this anime on their lunch break having a laugh going, "How unambiguously dumb can we make this show, and still get people eating out of the palm of our hands?"

It was at that moment that I truly realized this anime has gone nowhere and that it will never go anywhere. There is no passion anywhere to be found here. No feeling. No excitement. A grade schooler could tell just how little original thought and care went into the making of this story, its world, or characters. It's just another poor ripoff of something that is already dreadful. I could make this review much longer, criticizing everything in excruciating detail, but similarly to Ayanokouji, I just can't be bothered.

I'll get this right out there, this is without a doubt my most disliked show of the season and I believe it to be an objectively bad show. Here's why.

Before I start ragging on it, I'll say I don't mind either of the main characters too much (that said, I'll still tear them apart). Main characters referring to Ayanokouji, and Horikita. My problem lies with the pretentious attitude of the show, the frankly laughable story, and the down right cringy characters and character interactions. Due to the main characters being a carbon copy of the more famous Hachiman / Yukinoshita (which certainly were not ... the first couple of characters like themselves) and the awkward introductions with famous quotes, I get the feeling the show is trying do a few things. Be relatable to students, to be profound enough to spark critical thinking, and then the actual story itself is trying to be grandiose and dramatic to force a sense of excitement.

School settings are popular because everyone has been, or is a student. Everyone can relate to being in school. This anime has done nothing wrong with trying to use a school setting to be relatable. The problem is the pathetic drama, and the narcissistic attempt at philosophy. This show is far too melodramatic. It's trying to cram too many settings into one anime. I can't take anything the characters do or say seriously. The school setting itself isn't an issue. Nor are the unoriginal, less interesting (than others of their kind) main characters. The issue is the drama. It's trying to hard to force drama and some great big power struggle, which would never, ever happen in any kind of high school. It's that kid in the 8th grade trying to act like an adult. It's pretending to be serious, mature and edgy. The only settings you MIGHT seeing something even remotely close to this is in some American Ivy League college. Not in some Japanese private school. Sure you might get some pretty hard core bullying or rich kids throwing money around, but you'll never see some billion dollar completely self sustainable campus. That is because there is no return. If you're going to try and force this kinda conflict down our throats, at least have it be a college / university. This kinda thing doesn't fly in a modern day setting. No way in hell is any country, or business entity going to blow literal billions of american dollars on HIGH SCHOOL. Not to mention a high school with a bunch of luxuries for pretentious teenagers. Things like malls, pools, luxury cruise ships, fucking islands. If you're going to try and be relatable through something like a school, keep the setting realistic. Otherwise you get that contrast of putting a Picasso next to fucking Jimmy who's failed to get a engineering degree and is now trying for an Art degree in modern painting. It's laughable, and completely incompatible //Excuse the rhyme.

The next problem is the point system. There is literally zero risk involved in having zero points. The school gives out everything you need to survive for free at a no cost. Obviously it's not as nice as the higher priced things, but it's by no means inhumane or even of "bad" quality. The threats and repercussions of having zero points, and going against school rules seem to be non-existant. Everything that is a hard no in the school's rulebook get's brushed off by some bullshit teen logic or some all power Student Council. The only incentive to have higher points is for vanity and to ascend to 'A' class, which itself seems to have little incentive other than bragging rights and the aforementioned vanity.

As I said, the philosophy is down right pathetic and narcissistic. The first episodes opens up with the everlasting "Are humans truly equal" and then breaks into a poorly thought out monologue that the 14 year old high school kid posted on r/im14andthisisdeep. Each episode opens with some profound quote and then proceeds to have an episode completely unrelated to that quote. Every attempt this show makes at being profound, philosophical and mature breaks down to some poorly though out drama between 'D' class and their oppressors which has practically no relation to the quote at the beginning of the episode.

The characters are a travesty. And while I don't dislike them, this complaint encompasses each and every character in the show, including the main characters. All these characters, from class 'A' to class 'D' all fit some boring archetype or stereotypical image. They are completely flat in both dimension and character. They're boring to say the least. From having 6'10 pure muscle bald monks who act like Yakuza, to 5'3 big boobed redheaded airheads that are secretly evil back to 6'10 black men who only speak broken english. The characters are laughable. Everyone praising Ayanokouji as the second coming of Hachiman is wrong. The only relation they have is their intelligence. Ayanokouji is nothing more than your average self insert protagonist. Sure he's more enjoyable than your average lucky pervert harem protag, but he isn't any more complex or better written. Horikita on the otherhand is just a poor attempt at Yukinoshita. Her 'cold attitude' is actually a facade to cover up her incompetence regarding human relations, and her own emotions. Comparing Yukinoshita and 8man is like comparing a Porsche to a beetle. Yea they're both cars, but the difference is jaw dropping.

This story's pathetic attempt at stimulating intellect, refined philosophy, and exciting drama is down right insulting. This show started bad, got worse and ended horribly. It's a failure through and through.

Please don't even pay attention to reviews who votes this anime with a note below 3. I will resume some things why i consider this anime deserves more than a 4 note:

- No absurd or overused ecchi
- No oniii-sama baka chan retard and no-sense romance.
- The MC is at least far more original than 8 of 10 of Mc around the scene. Tired of the typical virgin/otaku who blushes like a kid when seeing girls ?
- Has an average/good plot.

What's good on the show : Characters 9/10 and story 9/10.

Though some characters are kinda cliche (not gonna name which ones), the important thing is that ... most of them play a role when the time comes, some of them do not show their real personality (won't spoil this) or their true intentions at all.

The story itself its simple, an elite school divided in 4 classes, each one with a range of points based on their behavior and test scores It also has some interesting plot twists and there is not really a clear objective of what's will be the road of the story, specially on the MC who doesn't seem to care for scoring/getting friends, girls money, helping others or anything at all.

Each character has different objectives: some want to get in class A, some other just want friends, some others just wanna kill time in school.

Overall its 8.5 but i rounded it to 9 because i think this show deserves a higher general score. I consider it to be slighty underrated.

EDIT: I've finished watching it.

My final score would be 8.5 because there were 2 episode fullfilled of fanservice and just a random story in both of them, which i consider something bad considering the whole season is just 12 episodes.

After being put off by many reviewers, it's clear that this anime is a hit or miss depending on how you view it. I've never written a review before, however, I'm attempting to in order to justify one of the most intriguing series I've watched to date.

The series' story revolves around Ayanokoji, who is placed in the worst class in the school due to his poor entrance exam grades. While many people trash the story for being too "slow" or "mundane", I feel like the story itself shouldn't be the main focus of the anime but it instead should be seen as something that supports ... what I will be discussing next.

If the story of the school isn't the main focus of this anime, what is? The answer to this is the characters. While many early reviewers see the characters as boring and unattractive, they are only considering what the anime has directly given to them in a blunt way. Nothing about the characters' personality and/or motives are shown directly at first. This should have been obvious by how at the end of the first episode, the viewer realizes they know absolutely nothing about any of the characters' pasts or motives, including the MC.

Youkoso is interesting because the viewer is led to wonder what each character's reasons for doing things are. Of course everyone is boring in this high school, you know why? It's because over half the characters wear masks to hide their true personalities. Actions and clues lead the viewer on a fascinating journey as pieces are put together in a way so that learning more and more about the main character and his classmates has a ton of impact. As more and more is revealed to the story letting the viewer understand the characters, the series becomes more fascinating and understandable, which creates the point that this series cannot be judged prematurely.

Although I won't go too much into the art and music, I can say that I really like both and think they pair well with the anime, being fitted in at right times. Youkoso's construction is slow, but boy is it one hell of a ride once you get into it.

To summarize this review, if you are able to think for yourself and lead yourself to wonder what each characters' true personality, then you will most likely enjoy this anime.

Such a horrible premise.
First the story is bland and generic, i don't really get why is there a Comedy tag in MAL when from 5 episodes i haven't seen any comedy bit, or maybe they are just trying too hard because i haven't noticed. The concepts of the series were good at the first episode, they fell apart in episode 2 and so on, there's barely an introduction and the characters are dreadful.

The art is the best this show has (And it is still bad). the character design is generic like your typical school anime, and no one stands out from the others. You get ... your typical "yandere" girl followed by your typical shounen protagonist, then your typical tsundere "female dog" then your typical bad guys and that's about it. It's nothing from the other world, but it is certaintly better than most anime.

Character development is just horrible, disappointing. The protagonist is cold and has somthing hidden, well, not that that's new. But him not having a real personality is the problem, it has been used for the last 2 years and and it's just of the same, can't they do something else for a protagonist with no personality? This is too much. The female protagonist is a tsundere with no development, we don't know anything from her as well as the whole cast. At least a bit from the past wouldn't be so bad, to have an actual plot at least.

The Story makes no sense, they are dragging the whole mystery thing with the case for at least 3 episodes, is that really necessary? I get it, with 2 episodes its ok, you get the mystery in the first episode and the second its solved, but no, they are slow as a crap river. That aside, they have the clues right there yet they don't use them, again, the creator of this is trying way to hard to do something that's not worth it by this time.

Overall: 2

People often think that because an idea seems uncommon on paper, it is already good.

No, it's not. A plot may seem to be as attractive as possible, a character may appear to be interesting for not following a common stereotype, but if those are not developed correctly, or at least, they are not well used in the universe that the same serie proposes, then can’t be said they are good. This is the case.


Two things to keep in mind before continue reading:
1. Minor spoilers ahead.
2. This is an ANIME ONLY review.


Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e, also known as "Classroom of the Elite", this ... name already summarizes what the series is about: a prestigious school where only "the best of the best" attends, students are separated by categories (classes) and a score system is managed according to the test results, which are necessary to literally survive on this island/school. Of course the best class usually has most of the points, while the worst, that is, the D class (where the series focuses) have few to none, so the goal of these students is to improve on their exams in order to get more points and survive, even thinking ambitiously and trying to get down the other classes. If we ignore the fact that no one in the D class except the protagonist group was so smart to not see the obvious working of this system that promotes competitiveness and instead they all believed they would earn 10.000 points at the end of the month just for their pretty faces (was not supposed to be a school of elites?), we have a plot that, on paper, sounds very good, and can lead to a story with an interesting development.

Among other positive aspects, animation is very good, has enough fluidity and is very colorful, character design is generic but well done (especially girls design). Soundtrack is not bad but it's very forgettable, and there were few times where it actually stood out, however, the serie has a good handling of audiovisual quality and a decent sound direction most of the time, they really knew how to make the few scenes where the sound is important (intrigue or "revelations" scenes) able to impress and engage the viewer.

And those are the only good things I can say about the serie...


Now, what's the problem with this show, having so much potential? Just the fact that they don't take advantage of that potential, and instead, the series focuses purely on exposure: they show MC analyzing and understanding how the school system works, and then acting when it's required; but not the reason of his acts. They show several background characters moving around and prowling, as if they had some evil plans (even with funeral background music included!); but in the end, little or nothing happens. They show how protagonists pretend to make their class climb ranges; but they are so rough and socially inept that they don't even bother to relate with their classmates, classmates who are shown as mere extras or victims, in order to make protagonists shine even more. This is not a story about "how the D class improves and climbs ranks", protagonists go on their own way, and the rest of the class have little to zero presence in the plot. Then, when the show tries to give them characterization or at least some screen time in the moments where they were meant to be important, it isn't even done well, just extra dialogues that mean nothing and call it a day (Sudo, Ichinose, Sakura, the sensei, etc.). Characters remain plain and dull all the plot.

Another aspect is that most arcs feel disconnected, add little to nothing to the plot, or are unnecessary. In some cases it's not even explained how things turned out like that (survival test arc, for example). It almost feels like most arcs were only introduced to force the plot and create artificial drama, because at this point it's hard to feel something for such a shallow character cast. With all this, the central issue in this serie is practically lost, it's unknown what is the point the serie tries to reach. Everything ends up being boring and disinterested.

The worst part is this: The serie pretends to be a serious and dark story, with discrimination and arrogance from high-ranked classes issues, people prowling in the shadows, and D class being victimized by being the lowest rank. But then, the series resorts to exposure of this arrogance and this "dark atmosphere" (the high-ranked classes bullying Sudo, Ryuuen punishing members of his "gang", the almost rape scene, the president plotting things, cane girl and bald guy talking cryptic nonsenses so they appear to be planning something "interesting", etc.), everything in a really exaggerated and nothing subtle way, to the point where the series ends up being immature, bordering on stupidity, instead of being serious and dark as they would have wanted. Inmature and stupid, for not knowing how to handle such issues with the seriousness they were meant, and instead, the serie just uses them to pretend to be intellectual and interesting, or in the worst case, to "shocking" the viewer and thus disguise the poor writing and development, even resorting to cliches and fanservice situations that just buries even more the serie's real pretentions.

It's not really bad to have cliches and fanservice, as long as you make use of them in a way that are acceptable to see, this is not the case. Hell, even the fanservice is explicit to the point it's just ridiculous! Other series show you subtle, fleeting or according to the situation scenes: falls, wind raising skirts, rays of light coming out of nowhere, etc. Here, they throw out tits in the whole screen just because, without conceal, without having nothing else to show in the scene, not even people talking, and with no other goal but to appeal otaku pandering. Yes, even fanservice in this serie is shallow and dull! The real issue is that this actually creates a contrast to what the series is trying to achieve, and instead of being serious and interesting, ends up being ridiculous. At this point, the serie is just pretending to be something that it will never be, resorting to exposure to hide its failures and showing exaggerated and unnecessarily explicit situations in an attempt to simulate maturity, which ends up being the opposite.

Pretentious, that's the perfect word that describes this trainwreck. Yes, this is a term often used as a "generic argument that people usually use to denigrate a job they do not like", regardless of if it really applies or if those who use it know what it really means, but personally, I wouldn't use it if in this particular case it doesn't apply, and DOES apply. With all the issues previously mentioned, the series insists that those points must be taken completely seriously; despite the big failures in development, despite their cliche characters and exaggerated situations, bordering on ridiculousness; all this creates a big contrast with the heavy atmosphere. If one tries to take the serie seriously, it's not possible, because the atmosphere is very forced and doesn't go according to everything that happens on the screen: complete arcs that contribute little or nothing, cliches in the middle of a plot that tries to be dark, irrelevant characters doing nonsense here and there and "serious" situations so anticlimactic and explicit that they end up being simply stupid, so the seriousness the show tries to transmit is not given. And if one tries not to take the serie seriously, it's not possible either, because the plot tries to convince you that EVERYTHING that goes on screen, including the most insignificant nonsense and the most exaggerated situations, is serious and dark, situations that obviously you can't take as such. They went to far to even try to put comedy, which was so dry, forced and simple that ended up being shameful and cringy. In more than one occasion I ended up banging my head on the keyboard, because I couldn't bear the cringe of those pathetic attempts to be "comic."


Another negative aspect is this series doesn't know the term "subtlety": every time something happens, it is shown in the most crude, explicit and anticlimatic possible way:

—Starting with the same plot. Being an elite school that seeks to mold highly skilled people, a fairly realistic goal, is the highly exagerated competitive environment that even people are talking about "destroying the other classes" so necessary ? Is discrimination so necessary ? Are the "evil" and complicated plans to only expel a single student so necessary? Is a Btooom! style Survival Test in a high school with relatively normal students so necessary? Things that have little or no place in the genres that the series handles, just to forcing the plot and generate dramatic situations that ultimately mean nothing, because arcs development is so random that they don't transmit what they want to show.

—Horikita's traumatic past and her inferiority complex towards her brother, the student council president. This character is so bad written that she changes from a strong willed person to a weakling waifu bait at script conveniences just because of him. Similary, the way they show her brother as an almighty guy whose presence is terrifying, and a sort of evil final boss who even went so far as to almost hurt his sister to "show her that she can never reach him". It's not necessary to exaggerate the situation to that point that it's so unbelievable.

—Kushida's revelation, where she went from a caring and friendly girl to a soulless bitch, and the way she showed it was so cringy: screaming, flailing and threatening MC with rape accusation if he reveal it... There're not enough words to express how stupid this was. If the intentions were to reveal a dark secret, at least, do it maturely, otherwise, it ends up being edgy and ridiculous.

—Constant fights with the other classes, which were portrayed as a kind of mafia that punishes its members when they don't fulfill their duties and always go for the most violent and problematic option possible, as if they were real criminals. Would not it be enough to portray the friction between classes without trying to make the whole situation looked as a yakuza war?

—Sakura's trauma with the potential stalkers, exaggerated to the point that they show a man like a sick and obsessive who almost raped her, which was not necessary to show his problem (just by making it clear that she was being harassed and then doing the pertinent report would've been enough), and shows how the serie handles a serious subject in a very immature way, because of course, all men are disgusting beings whose first thing they do when they see sexy photos of a girl is harass her to try to rape her... Also the fact that she is an excessively shy girl who shows her provocative photos both on the internet and in the middle of a serious trial, supposedly to increase her self-confidence, but then she implies she "doesn't like to show a lot of skin" and being looked in a "lustful way" makes her feel uncomfortable. Is not this a bit contradictory?


Now, let's talk about the other aspect that ends up completely burying this serie: characters. I would like to remind you what I said at the beginning: the fact something looks good on paper or looks different at first glance doesn't imply that it will be good. The fact the characters, mainly the MC, do not seem to be the stereotypes commonly seen in this kind of stories doesn't make them automatically good. Characters are by far the worst aspect of this serie, flat and completely artificial, but with "plot twist" added to make them look more interesting and complex, complexity that doesn't really exist:

—Ayanokouji,the main character. At first he looks like he doesn't care about anything, but actually he is someone analytical, who only observes what happens around him and then he draws conclusions about it, plus he does not want to highlight. In this sense he's very similar to Hachiman, which is the reason a lot of people consider him a good character (Hachiman is not that good to begin with), and in fact, this sounds like a good approach, but, SURPRISE! it turns out that the guy is super smart but he gets mediocre scores apparently on purpose, he is an expert in melee combat because why no? it's something cool for a high school student, and he ends up being surrounded by a lot of girls who "notice how special he is" just by being his boring and personality-less himself. Why is he so skilled? The most silly excuse: he was a laboratory rat created to be perfect; and no, showing a character flashback is NOT characterization or character development if they don't portray how he develops his way of being and thinking from this fact, which they never did, they simply said "MC is perfect because he was created as such, and he's cool!", that's all. Based on this, the main problem with this character is: he doesn't really have a background to make his actions coherent, and then it's evident that he is not boring or doesn't care about anything, he simply has no personality. But even so, the series doesn't waste any opportunity to make him shine, since everything he does turns out well, everyone talks about him, everything important involves him and he seems to be the only character who thinks and acts rationally, basically a perfect example of a self insert character and a Gary Stu. He is with the same face all the time, immutable to everything that happens around him, even his own actions, How can be portrayed that he is living a tense situation (when the president confronts him, for example) if he doesn't express it? Besides, because he doesn't have personality or characterization, it's hard to know what really drives him to act, his actions can't be taken seriously because what motivates him to act is basically non-existent. He only acts because the plot says so. He doesn't move the plot: the plot moves him. Even though his inexpressiveness makes it somewhat unpredictable (despite it's implied Almighty MC-kun will always be there to save the day), which plays to his advantage, that is not enough for make up for all the issues surrounded this character. And this needs to be cleared up once and for all: The fact a protagonist doesn't seem to be your typical dense MC does NOT automatically make him a good character, much less "the best MC of the season".

—Horikita is the typical edgy elitist bitch who believes herself better than the rest, looks down on the whole world because "making friends is unnecessary" and she's all the time with her arms crossed to show superiority over "scum". Currently she is the one that really wants to raise the class despite treating her classmates as trash. Why? SURPRISE! (again), she also possesses a typical traumatic past (which is never explained), an inferiority complex toward her brother, and a lamentable desire to show him that she can be at his level, all in a pathetic attempt to make her see her not so rude and viewer can feel empathy for her. Then, the rude and super serious elitist who tries to do everything for herself (although she knows she should collaborate with others, which she never does) becomes a passive weakling which the MC has to rescue, and a kind of tsundere badly made to justify his mood changes at script convenience. She is the the synonym of inconsistency... And speaking of script conveniences: it's funny how she doesn't trust anyone because she thinks everyone has a double face which can be dangerous, but she fully trusts Ayanokouji who obviously hides many things, just because "he saved her", when all he did was to be in the right place "by casuality" (that is, when the plot told him). Curiously, she was the only one to have something vaguely close to a development (yes, THE ONLY ONE) as we saw how little by little she began to trust and appreciate her classmates more (although she is still rough). Apparently, some of those scenes must have been from another character, and I saw a lot of people complaining and whining about that, but in fact this change was partly a success, mainly because the other character in question (Karuizawa) was never introduced correctly in this adaptation. Would not have been something out of place to give too much screen time suddenly to a character we barely know? Instead, they gave this screen time to a previously established character, so it was not a bad decision at all. As a side note: that Senjougahara-style compass scene was very pathetic, andthe tickle scene was even worse, a bad attempt to make it look more moe. Not to mention the bathroom scene in Chapter 11, because it was clearly important for this dark and serious plot, right?... right?!

—Kushida is the typical cheerful and caring girl, with more breasts than brains, who wants to be friends with everyone, but in such a obsessive way that it's just annoying to see, but SURPRISE! (again, again) it turns out that the girl actually hid a kind of second, darker and manipulative personality, all in a very pathetic attempt to give complexity to the character and to "shock" the audience that perhaps did not expect that. The worst par about this? That second personality was never explained, never showed the background and also had absolutely no impact on everything that happened in the rest of the show, so what was it all for? A cheap way to make a character look interesting and keep people to the expectation.

Now you see why did I say complexity in these characters doesn't exist? All of them are just cliches already seen with a plot twist that tries to fill the void of a real characterization.

The rest of the characters are not worth talking about. Sudo is the typical rude and troublesome boy, Ichinose is another less annoying Kushida, Sakura the typical excessively shy girl who is complexed by his past and/or actions, Hirata the popular, kind and helpful guy (SURPRISE! He also seems to have a "dark" personality), the president the typical evil boss "just because" who is even more elitist than his sister, Ryuuen the gang member, Ibuki the Rem— I mean, the passive dependent girl with no personality, Arisu the mysterious loli THAT DID NOTHING, etc. Do you see how all of them can be described in a single sentence? The worst thing is that no one was given some screen time to even know more about them, in fact, in their respective arcs they were treated more as victims or plot devices than actual characters... And do you pretend I take all your plot seriously with this cast of characters?


Dialogues and interaction between the characters are almost as bad as themselves. To name one of many examples: Chapter 4 was particularly stupid, another "friendly girl" of another class gets a love letter, but since she doesn't know what love is, she makes the only "logical" choice she has: Asks MC, with which she hasn't crossed more than 10 words before, that he pretends to be his boyfriend to reject the girl who sent her the letter... This was so contradictory and senseless in almost any way. How many cliches in such a forced situation, literally a beautiful girl with big tits fell from the sky to our personality-less MC and asked him to be her boyfriend "just because" so that in the end, he gave a her sermon where he was portrayed as a mature guy... a complete situation of self-insertion that also adds nothing to the plot (like almost everything else up to that point). Then in chapter 5 we have our Almighty MC advising a "shy girl" to be honest with herself and only with these simple words that anyone could say is enough to make her fall in love, from this point onward, this character (whose excessive shyness is FREAKING ANNOYING, "Best Girl" my balls) only was dedicated to be fanservice and otaku pandering material by trying romantic approaches with MC... Ah, and let's not forget about Chapter 11 when MC tells Ibuki that he trusts her and immediately she falls in love with these "pretty words" like any Rem— I mean, passive dependent girl with no personality... Of course he is not a self-insert! Similar situations happened throughout the series, which are summarized in boring, out of place and edgy dialogues that are just cringy, and relationships so forced that feel fake. Characters are not related naturally, but because the plot says.


Seriously, why does this serie get so much praise and high scores? At this point more than one may be thinking this review is written by an elitist that "don't enjoy watching anime", but if you look at my list you may notice that I'm someone of simple and irreverent tastes, and doesn't prevent me to enjoy series like this or any other series that even I may consider bad, but in this particular case, when the flaws are so notorious, the plot pretends to be taken so seriously by putting such ridiculous and stupid situations that it's impossible to do so, development is disastrous and characters are so horrible and poorly done, even with low standars (because it would be idiotic to expect a "Mushishi" or a "Rakugo" from series like these, right? The correct thing for these genres is to lower the expectations to have an at least enjoyable experience) the same mediocrity of the series prevents it from being enjoyable.


This BY FAR IS NOT AOTY. And no, it's not that "the show started good and became bad in its second part", the series already started bad and became worse with the passing of the chapters.


I will end with this phrase that summarizes this anime, again: the fact something looks good on paper or looks different at first glance, doesn't imply that it will be good.

The best way to describe this show to someone who watches a decent amount of anime is "baka and test that takes itself seriously".

As it turns out, baka and test does not work when it takes itself seriously.

For starters, the basic setting, while it seems interesting at first, makes no sense on anything but a surface level. For some shows, (slice of life and comedy) this is okay, as deep reflection on the setting is not an essential part of the experience. However, in a show that prides itself on its deep philosophical aspects, the fundamental flaws in the setting make ... engagement impossible.
The core plot of the first episode is simply that the students go to a prestigious school, where everything is provided for them, to be bought with points allotted at the beginning of each month. The loser class that the story follows spends their points frivolously, and is shocked when they discover that the amount of points they have is lowered by their bad behavior. Their teacher mocks them for not figuring this out, mentioning that she had said that their point allotments were based on merit in the beginning. The show brings to attention how obvious this was, to the point where I did not even realize that it wasn't supposed to be while watching. Yet, for some reason, nobody even considered it.
This starts the show's trend of lazy writing with selective idiocy on the parts of the characters, where despite being students at the nation's premier prep school, regularly fail to understand basic concepts, rather than coming up with a reasonable reason for the characters to fail and create conflict.
Furthermore, along with the forced conflict, the stakes riding on this conflict are equally nonsensical, with the big reveal that any character who fails a test will be permanently expelled. This is treated like the end of the world, and due to the structure of the series, from the viewer's perspective expulsion of a character would be equivalent to death, being their complete removal from the story. However, to the characters, if they were already failing with no hope of recovery, expulsion would be an actively good thing, so the only shocking part about this consequence is that anyone in danger of being expelled wouldn't have dropped out or transferred already.
The story then proceeds to use this faulty setting as a premise to try and explore deep and philosophical questions such as "does equality truly exist". However, this question's meaning is almost completely lost, because when the premise is this divorced from realism, we know that the plot will magically contort itself to drive home whatever moral the author feels like forcing on us. Characters will act absurdly, impossibly unlikely coincidences will occur, and certain key aspects of society and human behavior will be overlooked, just so that the main character, and by extension the author, can be proven right in his morals.
Fiction is an incredibly powerful tool for investigating philosophy, and a well crafted story can do very well as an example of a particular branch of philosophy. However, rather than doing this, classroom of the elite simply makes bold statements like "equality does not truly exist" and proceeds to simply showcase supposed examples of "inequality" while ignoring all factors that would contest its viewpoints.

Classroom of the Elite


Story: 2/5

- At first interesting idea of a school that is based on the idea of wealth and
money being determint through money(but this is barly touched upon)

- certain things feel extremly forced

... - There are a lot of plotholes

- Two episodes are complete fanservice, while one is more like a filler episode
rather than being in the actual plot

- The last arc is kinda interesting

- "Read the light novel for more"-type, cause the goal is too far out of reach

- the title of the show makes no sense.

Characters 2/5

- main character Ayanokoji is the center of the show. The story is mostly told
through his Point of View and most of the important characters talk a
lot about him in the story

- he is a self insert main character, that utilizes machiavelistic tactics to get what he
wants. Other than that he has a lot of elements of a Gary Stue. He is good at
martial arts and always seems to be ahead of things, which reduces the tension in
the story by quite the large margin.

- Kushidas charaacter also has issues cause there is no explanation to the way she
acts.

- Horikita starts of strong, but becomes more unlikable as the season goes on. Also
her motivation makes her look weak.

- On the other hand Sakura feels like a generic character that you can find in every
harem anime too.

- antagonist characters like Katsuragi or Ryuuen are cliched to the point of being
laughable, with no deeper motivation at all

- Characters like Kouenji completly miss the point of what a comedic character is
supposed to look like in a more serious setting.

- Sudou is a generic troublemaker that mainly serves as a plot device to get the story
going, however there is barly any explanation of who he got through the entrance
exams or what a character like him does in an "elite" school.

- other than those most of the side characters barly get any screentime and are not
worth mentioning, the group dynamic of the characters is ok, yet predictable in a
lot of ways.



Soundtrack: 3/5

- Songs for the Opening and Ending are quite catchy. Yet the visuals for both are
heavily lackluster.

- For the Opening we have mostly style over substance. A lot of random philosophic
quotes paired with characters standing around in a well shot scene.

- The Ending on the other hand is just lazy consisting of two images were one is an
empty Classroom

- The rest of the soundtrack is mostly forgettable, yet it still is in some scenes
overbearing. The only scene were that worked for me was on Episode 8.

Visuals 3.5/5

- uncreative character designs

- female characters have too much fanservice, while male characters look mostly
generic or overdesigned

- There a lot of different backrounds and most of them are pretty solid. The lightning
effects are mostly good too and the animation is fluent.

- Some scenes and have specially colored lightning effects and they put a lot of effort
into making the eyes of the characters stand out.


Overall 2/5

Ok now to sum up all the things that I said up and give a last insight. First this show is NOT like Oregairu, yet it TRIES to be like it. However in doing that it completly misunderstands the core elements of it. You can see this the most in the main character of Ayanokoji. He is more of a Tatsuya Shiba from The Irregular at Magic High School than a Hikkigaya Hachiman. The difference is here that Ayanokoji feels like someone that is above the entire cast so far. On the other hand Hikkigaya stood out through his alternitive view points, which made him different from the rest of the cast.
Also through the entire show all the characaters felt more like they would come from a show like Asterisk War rather than Oregairu.
In terms of storytelling I like the way the setting is meant to be a "survival of the fittest" type. Yet the comedy and the huge amount of fanservice ruin the serious nature of it. In the end I think Classroom of the Elite is a pseudo-intellectual bait show for people that do not understand the basics of storytelling or characterization. It can be a good time if you can identify yourself with the power fantasy which is the shows MC. If you don't you will have a hard time liking the show and I would not recommend it. In the end Classroom of the Elite is my disappointment of the season,
that, after a solid start, got worse with each passing weak.

There are Many reviews Saying that this anime is not very good/ waste of time. I'm usually a fan of more action anime and I tend to steer away from others. I started to give this one a try when after it had released about 4 episodes. To my surprise it became my favorite anime for this summer.
The story's main protagonist giving them personality making them unique and wanting to keep watching to learn more solely about them.
The plot takes place in a school as describe in many comments Focused ... on the elite. It has the D class (Defective class) which is for the main purpose of the higher rated classes to pick on and make fun of.

The only thing that has me worried is that it ends up being just another 12 episode series.

Basically, if anyone has seen Oregairu then you will probably see the parallels. in fact, as someone who has seen Oregairu, and liked it, I see more than parallels - I see a ripoff. Except it isn't a good ripoff - by making the protagonist hyper-competent he can't Hachiman (pretend not to care and play scapegoat at the same time) his way through the story, and that takes a lot away from the narrative. In fact, the protagonist Ayanokouji reminds me most of Kirito - a soul-less, personality-deprived screen for an anxious otaku to project themselves onto. the two main girls - Horikita and Kushida, ... play the roles of Yukino and Yui from Oregairu, respectively, and fail to varying degrees, but I cannot elaborate on why because that would be a spoiler (who cares though?).

Another show this reminds me of is Hyouka, where they also have detective work in school. except that there, it is done in a very classically Sherlockian fashion (with references to the works of Conan Doyle and other great detective authors) and it looks insane. here, it's just plain bullshit because they gloss over all the details that actually make a detective subplot fun and go straight to the artificial drama that this show is awfully fond of.

Another similar show to this one is this season's Kakegurui - both are set in an elite school, both have a cast of obnoxious and unnecessarily-dicky characters, both have red uniforms and both have fan service. except Kakegurui is a cock-tease with a gambling twist and it flaunts this shamelessly at every chance it gets, while this show aspires to being intelligent in the same way that the BBC version of Sherlock does. and it doesn't work. because telling the audience that the story is smart doesn't make it so - as an author, you have to show it.

this show's usage of pretentious quotes reminds of Call of Duty 4, except that they're a little less out-of-place here, but, of course, the series fails to make full use of the opinions of great historical thinkers.

As someone who has been to a boarding school I find the premise of this show just plain retarded. shutting people off from the outside world for THREE YEARS is a terrible idea - they will begin to view their artificial world as the real world, and you don't want that. what you would get in that case would be "elite" assholes who would know nothing about how the world really works, and hence be completely inept once they graduate. no meritorious university would want to touch these people with a 3 metre pole. and not giving them the rulebook? why? to create some contrived hoops for characters to jump through to increase the runtime? I must say I'm not hopeful.

I've seen 4 episodes so far and I don't like how bored I am of it, but I have recently found that I am more entertained by bad anime than I am by good anime, so I fully intend to finish this one. who knows, maybe this "elite" classroom can surprise me.

Is it dread; is it disappointment? No, it's even worse. It’s welcome to the classroom of the elite’s opening line: “If I may, I’d like to pose this question: Are human beings truly equal?” In a single moment, the writer has already shown that he is a talentless hack and has exemplified in a neat sentence why this show is awful. He began with this line thinking that it would make him look intelligent, but all it did was make him look edgy and stupid. Starting a story out with an obvious, rhetorical question shows that you ... want to show off how cool and smart you are touching on “deeper” theme like you ever even knew what that meant. And the way the show precedes every episode with a title card displaying a quote of a famous philosopher makes me want to take the author with me to the grave from how disappointing it is to see the names of people whose intelligence not just dwarfs, but annihilates the “intelligence” of this clueless writer of this light novel on his piece of shit that he cobbled together. Another thing this awful opening line tells me is that the author is not discrete at all - not one bit -, and he has to constantly shove everything down the audiences’ throats because not only is he not good enough to show instead of telling, he has to make sure that they don’t miss of spoonful of shit going down their throat. The final thing this line tells me is that this show will take itself to seriously and be even worse for it because the writer probably can’t write well enough to make serious scenes that are both well crafted, smart, and engaging.

Let’s talk about how this man knows nothing about writing characters.
It’s obvious that if you took a picture of the cast of My youth romantic comedy SNAFU and pit it against this shlock, you’d see the blatant “influences” (borderline theft) that come from that other, better show. He thought that he was fit enough to also write a smart, cool show. Little did he know that not knowing what makes a story work when trying to incorporate elements of it (or the whole thing) into your own show, doesn’t turn out very well. While the main cast of My youth romantic comedy SNAFU has some level of depth to them. Like Hachiman, the main character of the show, being both lazy, when it comes to what he wants to do in life, straight-forward, cutting to the chase when most people would fluff things up, and a loner, not working well with others and preferring to do things his own way and not really meshing well in groups. This show has none of that. All the characters can be boiled down to one thing. The main guy is “mysterious”; The main girl is “uptight”/“straight-forward”; the secondary girl is “cutesy”/”friendly”. The author seems to look over the fact that people are more complex than this. How many times do you find someone that when you get to know them really, that all they have for personality is one trait and one trait only. None. When every character only has one-character trait, they become boring and predictable because they only react one way to everything, they resemble a computer more than a human, and they’re not layered enough to be relatable and engaging to watch. Even the main character, who we follow around the whole time and are in his head constantly, has nothing more too him than a guy who doesn’t talk much whose “mysterious”. The author tries to write him as badass, intuitive, and analytical, but he’s none of those things. Even if there are a few scenes of him being kind of aggressive, he’s too passive most of the time for it to matter. He’s not intuitive because what the author passes off as smart is average or below average ideas. I’ll leave the last point for later. Another thing that gets on my nerves is how serious the tone tries to be. Every character takes things way and I mean wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too seriously. They’re all in high school, they act stupid, and they’re all boring and edgy as fuck and the author expects that I take this seriously and be engaged? Hell no. They act so serious and so gangster to the point where it’s not only fake but childishly fake. They might as well all be playing pretend. Actually. If they were all playing pretend, I’d be more engaged. At least then I’d know the characters weren’t taking this seriously which would lift off some of the disappointment.

The characters may act like rocks, but the crap that leaves their mouths… It’s all a big mesh of boring blah. I don’t know how else to describe it. Most of the show is boring, pseudo-intellectual dialogue that makes my brain go blank from all the stupid. Dumping piles and piles of information with no interesting visuals, scenes, facial expressions, body language, or anything of the sorts. Just really, really bad dialogue that is supposed to be deep, philosophical, and important. Too bad he can’t write anything resembling that if his life depended on it. About how I was talking about how the main character was “analytical” earlier, well I feel that it’s only fitting here. When we are treated to dialogue by our lord and savior, the great Ayame, our main character, it is… awful. Our author decided that stating the obvious passed for analytical. I don’t even think he understands what it means to analyze something because all that happens is the audience sees something and our main character states exactly what just happened because we're all mentally deficient… Whoops, I spelled the author wrong. The other thing our main character does beside stating the obvious is spouting vague crap about friendship, equality, innocence, life, and other topics as if they were valuable words of advice. HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA. Yeah right, try again next time when you can actually write worth a damn.

A little interjection here. I want to say how most to none of the logic adds up in the show when you think about it for more than a second. He doesn’t know how to write and he also has no grasp on the concept of logic.

I think it would only be fitting to close with the structure. The one that this show lacks. Scenes in this show just don’t mesh together. Not once scene. For instance, in the beginning of the show, there’s a bus scene, and it’s completely pointless. The scene is already stupid on its own, but it serves no purpose other than to show the authors point about people not being equal, I guess? I don’t know, but this goes for a lot of what happens in the show. It’s usually pointless and not only that but boring. Scenes are just hobbled together like nothing and were expected to just go along with it? Another thing is the pacing of this show. It’s horribly slow. Scenes go on for way too long. They get their point across, like in the first scene, but then they overstay their welcome. Once the audience gets the point, there’s no more reason to keep on going. Does he want the ideas to stir? Does he think after he gets his point across he can try and instill some emotion in the audience? I don’t know, but I think people are smart enough to get the point once it’s presented, yet I don’t think you're good enough to instill any other emotion than contempt, disappointment, boredom, and unintentional laughter.

So that concludes my taking a dump on this offensive, wasteful piece of media that should be burned in the flames of hell as to never come back. If you want to watch this, at least ditch it for My youth romantic comedy SNAFU. I may have problems with it, but it's still a trillion times better than whatever this writer shat out of his miniscule mind. So have an awful day and welcome to the classroom of the brain-dead.

I think that this anime isn't very newbie friendly. The story is pretty confusing, there is no the usual "OP character" or main stream background like magic,etc.

Story. I think they really miss this one. Usually the Story revolve around the MC, but they only scratch it. They tease about each MC backstory but give a full story about it. I hope they wait for enough material from the LN to make it a 25 episode/2 season. It's like watching the first SAO and end it at Aincrad Arc.

Art. Tomose Shunsaku, if you play some VN or eromanga you might know this person. I got to ... say the art is very good.

Sound. There is really nothing worth mentioning.

Character. Each of the MC have pretty interesting history, and some...twist.

Enjoyment. You should probably watch it in one go. The story is pretty slow and there is no interesting episode. Most of them relied of next episode explanation about what the hell happen in the last episode.

Overall it should be a good anime but they rushed it and just destroyed potentially a very good anime. If you're haven't watch it, I recommended to hold it and wait the 2nd season.

I dont know why nowadays so many anime is overrated? Is it because there are many pretty hot chicks in the anime? Or is it just because "everybody said that this anime is good" bullshit?

So here is our main character ayanokoji... this typical silent and weak looking guy but turns out to be he is a badass guy who excel at everything including fighting and ends up saving the day for all of his hot chicks friends...

The school in this anime is one of the best school in the country, it have the best facillities, the best school rules which is no rules for the ... students, and of course the finest hot chicks with their bitchy attitude and some typical plot twist. The odd thing is the school looks like a cheap school that have deliquents,gang,stupid kid and bad bitch that clearly isnt SMART but idk why they can enter such a great school like that, even some of them failed at their first test.

Im interested on this anime because of its psychological genre and im expecting a deep meaning story,some mystery and a LOGICAL story.
It feels like sometimes the anime is trying too hard to make the characters looks cool,slick,smart people that can solve everything, i dont want to spoil the beans for you but this anime is on different league with other school themed psychological anime like angel beats,little buster or even charlotte. I cant even call this anime psychological at all and dont deserve a 7.9 score at all, the only things that good with this anime is its art especially many of the girls have a big boobs and thats the only good thing you got from this crap.

It started good at episode 1. It started good. But that's all it was. It all came downhill fast as soon as the story actually progressed, or tried to anyway.

Characters doing something for no reason except because it was convenient for the story, characters that are too over the top so much that I found them too annoying (I'm looking at you Kushida), and a story that's trying to go everywhere only to end up breaking its foot.

The opening song was nice but it was given a accompaniment of animation sequences that's below average of an effort. The OST's were decent though.

The idea of elite students going to one school is an interesting idea, the way this was adapted ruined the idea. It continuously drags on the boring plot of the main character being the strong silent type. After a few episodes the rest just felt like fillers and it became boring to watch. I didn’t like a lot of the characters because of how basic they were, none of the touched on traits were really added to. The characters were annoying, predictable, and boring. Overall there was just so much more they could’ve added to make it a way better series.

let me start by saying I am caught up to the anime and this is also my first review.
truly I have seen a lot of mixed opinions on this anime, mainly concerning the characters(however I will get to that later).
I will try to keep it spoiler free however just take my adivice and give atleast episodes 1-5 a watch....
Trust me.
Anywho,

I'll begin with Art(9):
The art in Youkoso Jitsuryoku is great it does an especially great job on the colors it uses to portray its school setting and especially the way it decides to draw eyes. However, this is not really where in my opinion the show ... stands out.

Sound(7):
I have nothing to say but meh, to be honest, it is nothing more than decent.

Character(10):
The show begins in an odd way each character fulfills all tropes of the genre at first glance and purposefully does not suit the mood of the show overall, a darker vibe is always present in Youkoso Jitsuryoku and all characters are not what they seem to be. innocent characters have deeply rooted split personalities and the quiet type always seemingly has a more heart warming emotional side and to top it all of the main character seems to be the fakest and least genuine person in the whole series, however, we do not see his past rather we experience everything he does but with his pragmatic and philosophical twist on things.they are all genuinely interesting characters whose true personalities only unravel with time,

Story(8):
As of this time, i do not know how long Youkoso Jitsuryoku will be, however,
So far it is strangely philosophical for an anime of its genre every episode starts off with a proverb maxim or a strange quote which seemingly makes no sense until you find out more about the characters, all of which are odd in their own right.not only by design but also due to the fact that they do not fit the rules this prestigious school has set out for them. Class D is meant to be broken toys or defects (and in reality, they are in terms of personality) however the mc purposefully tries to act a fool and the silent type is really someone who screwed up the entrance exam and is nothing short of a nerd in all honesty.
The story so far has focussed on how the economics of the school works.
Saying that you are only given money to live based on "merit" and if u slack off u effectively have to eat raw veg and can't enjoy your life(As you have no money).Additionally, if u get below 50% of your classes grade you are expelled and this must be prevented at all costs as one of the main characters plans on getting into class A and can not do this without the whole of the class getting behind her.

Enjoyment(9):
This animes diverse and twisted characters keep you on the edge of your seat through and through. additionally, the faint uneasiness that follows only adds to the comedy the side characters add to the story.
This is truly a rollercoaster of well...
f3£k knows its just a mix of dark and quirky which has so much potential and gives a truly fresh take on the comedy/romance/school/drama genre.