Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e

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.

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.

Ah, another LN adaptation with a name so long it's practically a story in and of itself? What could possibly go wrong?!

Now, YJSSK isn't exactly... bad? (I suppose). It's definitely not the worst basic LN adaptation I've seen, but that's not exactly a merit considering the standards. It suffers from pretty much the same issues any of these LNs suffer: it's set in high school. Now, I know that the target demographic are the teenagers, and this cheesy stuff is written for young boys & girls, but it always feels just... wrong, especially in terms of dialogue. How old is our MC? 14-15? And ... the very first time he speaks, he says "Is this world equal?". I mean...

Furthermore, another issue that shows of the similar nature share is that there is no story. There is no 'ultimate goal'. Now, that would be fine if it was SoL (that way I would have just skipped it), but it's not. It wants to have a narrative. It wants to have a narrative so bad it can't help but keep beating viewers over the head with pointless exposition, 'mysteries', and attempts at some profound, epic storytelling that just goes nowhere.

Besides the basic set-up, it doesn't have anything unique to offer (well, to be fair, even the set-up has been done before). It just feels like you're watching a bunch of pretentious kids live their daily lives in uninspiring fashion.

The drags of the story just keep on coming, as it tries to branch itself out far too much to the point that it all just loses meaning. What's MC's goal? Help MG get to class A? Look, if you're going to make it that bare bone, just don't have the ultimate goal in the first place. What's the MG's goal? To get into Class A. Why? 'Cause she's insecure, I suppose. There's no coherent narrative to glue all the things that are happening together, so it just feels like a bunch of events strung together in a somewhat chronological order.

While pace isn't absolutely atrocious, it is far too slow for the type of a show it wants to be. It wants to be a flimsy comedy. It wants to be a mystery. It wants to be a romance. Thing is, ALL of those genres thrive on thrills. Comedy requires constant movement. Mystery demands constant thrill of discovery that leads to more questions. Romance needs constant banter. Yet, this show has none of that. Comedy is rare, and it relies on your basic anime formula. Mysteries are thin and are left hanging for no reason (ex. 1 'mystery' is introduced in the 3rd episode, and it is referenced maybe 3-4 times until ep. 8. By that I mean that MC just reminds us it's there, but it moves nowhere; that's absolute garbage way to do it).

Suspense is lost, light mood is as rare as days when I don't hate people, romance is absolutely nowhere to be found (well, if we exclude like 2-3 cheap moments that ONLY viewers can witness and understand), absolutely nothing of importance happens. And then we get to ep. 7 and 8. Pointless fanservice episode followed by half an episode of fanservice and half an episode of something random that has NO tie in to whatever narrative they were going for. Going to the island to survive? Wtf? Where did this come from?!

In terms of characters... eh, I suppose it's not as bad as the story. Although no character has an actual, normal motive for doing anything (well, aside from 1 guy who wants to play basketball but can't 'cuz he's dumb; and the general motive of 'we gotta study cuz points). In the end, we're left with a bunch of holier-than-thou teens that keep shoving ideologies onto one another, and we're just asked to side with whatever character we see as 'right'.

MC is your basic edgy-teen that's as big of a hypocrite as you can find. He keeps saying "I just want to remain passive and pass these years", yet he keeps meddling into everyone's business like there's no tomorrow. Yeah, sure, he has that 'cool' factor about him (again, mysteries that go nowhere and are barely mentioned), but cool isn't = good character.

MG is just a girl with bro-complex. There you go; that's her 'thing'. Every character in this anime just has a 'thing'. MC is 'cool'. MG is 'insecure'. 2nd MG is... eh, that's kind of a spoiler. That basketball guy is loud. These aren't characters, just basic templates. At least, save for MC, most other characters stick to their template. Until... 'plot'... demands otherwise.

In terms of enjoyment, I guess the anime is passable. It's average, at best. I felt bored during some episodes, but for the most part it managed to keep me interested somewhat, which is why I managed to finish 8 episodes, and will most-likely finish the entire show. Can the last 4 episodes change my view of the show? Probably not. Without even seeing them, I can already imagine it'll play out similarly to the show's previous... arcs? Some classmate gets in trouble, MC swooshes in to save the day, everyone's like 'whoa, pay attention to MC, he's really, REALLY mysterious'.

It doesn't help that episodes 6-7-8 all feel like completely different shows. Absolutely NOTHING connects ep. 6 to 7 or 8. It's as if they just skipped an entire volume of LN and left the viewers to connect the dots themselves. Sure, whatever.

Thanks for reading.

STORY: The story takes place in an elite school where students who graduate are promised being accepted in equally elite universities and a successful career. The protagonist is one such student who attends the school for the first year and is placed in class D. In the school there are classes ranging from A to D, with A being the "most successful students" and D being "the least successful students". This is in essence what sets the scene for the series - the main character is depicted with "underdog circumstances" and along with another character, they resolve to rise the ranks and seize being class ... D and move up in the hierarchy.

CHARACTERS: In the first episode, the protagonist wasn't portrayed as "OP", but that is evidenced later on through the anime on numerous occasions. So at first it was hard to determine what course the anime will take. But as the story went on, it was obvious that many characters are just living epitomes of tropes - (granted, I don't know the names of all the anime archetypes, so I will use some and explain others in my own words) the protagonist gives off the impression of an absent minded, nihilistic, apathetic, just doing things for the sake of it, not really putting much effort in some aspects and yet things keep happening for him, then there is this girl who is a tsundere and acts all distant, with the classic line of "It's not like I care about you, I'm just using you" or something along those lines, there is another girl who is a yandere and acts all nice with everyone, but it's just a facade, then there is one who is a dandere and is too shy to interact with anyone. The other characters are more minor, but they are all built on tropes - one is a jock who can't keep his mouth shut and gets angry really fast, a few are perverted loners, there is one bald guy who looks like the epitome of stoicism, one guy guy who I can best describe as a "dandy", one who acts like a Yakuza boss and so forth. What I dislike about this is that characters are mostly one-dimensional and don't expand beyond their archetype, which makes many things in the story too predictable and repetitive. When you've seen 10-20-30 animes like this, you just start identifying templates and it greatly diminishes the fun that can be had with it.

ENJOYMENT: While I enjoyed the premise of underdogs trying to fight against odds, the whole school or academic competition, which can literally be replaced with the Shounen tournament trope and it still fits nicely, for the most part, there have been many and often moments where things felt forced or plot armor was at play. For example, when all the odds look like the situation will end quite badly for the main characters, there is an unexpected turnaround and things end not only well, but almost perfect for them. Some of the things I did not enjoy one bit was the two-tone hair of every character and their two-tone eyes, it made them look like they are way too special, I found it to be distracting and unnecessary. Another thing I severely disliked was the obscene amount of fanservice - there were so many shots of panties, asses, tits, arms or hands pressing on tits and so forth, for me it was unnecessary and annoying, because it brings nothing to the plot.

OVERALL: For me the anime can be best described as "mainstream and generic AF". Basically, the anime tries to tick as many checkboxes for as many things as possible - romance, romantic triangles (and probably other geometric shapes), threats of blackmailing, drama, slice-of-life, combat, tournament/competition events, lying and deceiving, plotting, secret past with possible trauma. If this was my first anime or one of my first 10-20, I would have probably enjoyed it a lot more, but having seen hundreds, it felt like Deja Vu - something I've seen numerous times before. As I was watching, I found out, it has a second season and a third one on the way, so I was mentally preparing for the first season to end in some amazing, mind-wrenching cliffhanger, but it didn't, it just finished with the protagonist and his class having an epic victory when they were slated for an epic defeat. It would have been more believable if they finished second from last at least. Then the season ends with the character's monologue about how other people are just means to an end and how he was using everyone as a tool, painting him in a sociopathic light. Maybe the people who enjoy watching only mainstream things or are 15 years old will find this very cool and badass, but for me it was very anticlimactic. I admit I had some enjoyment watching this anime, but I feel zero urge to watch the subsequent seasons. So if you want to watch it, you will have more fun if you are new to animes in general, if you've seen over 100-200, chances are you will be feeling a similar Deja Vu as I did.

RATING: 6/10

i can say that it is entertaining but the truth is that i expected them to put more brain to the other chracters 'cause most are only to contribute nothing, and it is not as if it is necessary that they are all geniuses of the matematic but that it is not only one who has to do everything, in the end i can say that te only good character of all this (obviously excluding the "villains") is only the main character to a certain extent, its good that he doesn't keep saying things like "i want to be alone" or go to a corner ... of the classroom and tell everyone to fuck off ( althoughhe ends up having a very edgy way of thinking).
another thing that I found very very very very very VERY VERY VERY VERY unnecessary was to focus so much on the tits of the girls, I think there was no chapter in which there was not an angle of an ass or boobs jumping around and 7 was the one I suffered the most, and it's not that I'm disgusted but I did not come to see that xD the truth is that I'm a little tired of that.

I first started watching this show because I had just randomly remembered it and the newest season started airing. I needed a new anime to watch that would fit in between my other weeklies and this was it. And I am kind of disappointed. The show isn't AWFUL at first anyways, it's a pretty standard "mind games" show about a bunch of kids in a super smart high school all using one another to get to the top.

However, I think the show for all its efforts really fails at this because the Main Character, while he is smart, only appears to be smart because ... the other characters are really, really stupid. The plans that the MC comes up with are not as impressive as I was hoping they'd be because it doesn't take a lot to outsmart the people he's around at all. I also find that the MC is a bit boring because while he does have a mysterious backstory, the anime drags out the mystery of him to focus on more mundane things that aren't really interesting.

There's fanservice in this and while it's not very egregious it is distracting because they keep flashing you with some highschool girls boobs while talking about important info in the plot every 5 seconds. And it's not as if the MC even really shows emotion or likes having all of this female attention anyways, so I really feel like the anime just did this so that the male viewers can live through him vicariously as some "chad" who doesn't care about girls or whatever lol. But it totally sucks and takes away from the actual show and just ruins the experience of watching it.

His other classmates outside of like 5 are very underdeveloped and are basically just background characters. This is touted as a special school meant to nurture the future of society, and while that is an interesting premise, nobody outside of the MC is really all that intriguing. All in all, it's not a bad show but it is quite boring.

Classroom of the Elite season 1 is the fast-food of anime. It's cheesy enough that you can munch through it enjoyably like a hamburger, but bad enough that you'd feel sick every time you finish an episode.

When characters converse in this anime, it almost always feels robotic and sub-human. They speak too perfectly, using few words and spewing out incoherent phrases, yet miraculously end up understanding each other. Ayanokoji is the main offender in these robotic discussions; he talks like a printer. Here's a typical Classroom of the Elite exchange:

"Did you steal the panties?" asks the blond guy.
"Nope," replies Ayanokoji.
"Okay, I trust you." says the ... blond guy.

Mhm, very genuine.

Not to mention how overly cliché the whole anime is. Ayanokoji is your "quiet" and "emotionless" sigma male who excels at everything. He has no depth or personality; he can't make mistakes. In fact, he's portrayed as an evolved sub-human being. Yet he's so mysterious, a selfish man who helps others for his own gain. Very cool, guys. He's the kind of character a 13-year-old Indian might put on their profile picture.

Likable characters are quite lacking. The only one that shows a degree of personality is Horikita; her motivation and slight character development towards the end are quite well executed. That leaves us with Sakura and Kikyou. Sakura is merely a weak and shy girl with an annoying voice. Shy characters must show their actions to become likable, yet she does basically nothing in the show. Kikyou is just your typical "mysterious" and childish girl with mental problems, and there's nothing likable about her. And let's not forget about the Ayanokoji harem, because of course, he's a sigma male, so naturally he'll attract every girl in the show. You can tell the girls have a degree of self-awareness about this dynamic.

But y'all don't worry, despite the utter failures at the basics of story-writing, this anime gives you the prize of FANSERVICE! Because we are all shut-ins who cannot enjoy a single thing if it doesn't contain double 2D spheres. I'm aware this anime is made for hormonal 14 year olds, but seriously, who thought this was a good idea?
It basically shot itself in the foot with fan service. You cannot take a character seriously if they are continuously objectified, and that's made even worse if the character is already badly written.

Conclusion:
This anime is cheesy; it demands that you switch off your brain in order to enjoy it. Despite that, it fails to deliver anything of quality and drags itself to the floor with its unnecessary fan-service.

No Spoilers, TLDR at the end of each section


Story (4/10)

Classroom of the Elite follows students of Class D, also known as the misfits and inferior student, as they struggle in the school and try to become Class A. Specifically, it follow the seemingly uninterested protagonist Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. The premise is amazing and I was expecting a serious, drama filled, version of Baka to Test. Instead, at episode seven the series completely changes. The first six episodes take place in a school setting with school problems. Even in the case of Sakura Airi’s problem, although it's not directly school related, the way the school functions and ... is set up plays an important part in how the issue is dealt with.

Episode seven is when there is a clear tone shift, from serious school drama you get lighthearted fanservice. While it was not what fans signed up for, it okay to have one filler episode, even if it is a twelve episode series. The problem with the pool episode was that the fanservice it accomplished would be provided in the following episodes. The students go to a cruise, and then an island, and the cruise presents time for bathing suit shenanigans. The pool episode was a waste of precious time that this series need. From episode eight onwards, the series focuses on one arc of the characters on the cruise and island. Some may argue that the five episodes used for this important arc were too few, but I would say that if they had paced themselves better the problem would be less severe. For the first part of this arc, you have the characters wandering around, doing nothing much in particular, at least nothing important to the plot. When the series finally seems to be aware of the fact that is is ending, it rushes through the second part, leaving it a jumbled mess. It becomes plainly incoherent. The last episode manages to wrap things up rather well considering the mess it followed. While it was by no means excellent, the last episode closed plot holes and baited viewers to a season two. My main issue with the episode was that it had too little time to accomplish everything it was after, rushing took away possible enjoyability of the story, and that it assumed that the viewers were dumb. Points that were made clear to the viewer just by watching the show were hammered into us like it was a revelation. It is hard to say exactly how without spoilers, but I’ll give you my best comparison. It acted as if it revealed the who committed the murder in a mystery while it actually was saying Light is actually Kira. It treats information we already know as a mystery.

TLDR; Premise was great, after episode six the story changed and it got worse.


Art (10/10)


The art in this show was amazing. Hands down, I got to give credit where it is due. The characters were incredibly easy to distinguish from one another. While the female character have mostly the same face structure, their eyes and expressions differ greatly. The males had more variety of facial structure as well as similar amounts of differences in their eyes and expressions. There were interesting design choices made for some characters, such as Sudou Ken, which allowed an escape from the usual character designs. The antagonistic characters would win my design award, they were completely different from each other and I wasn’t able to off the top of my head call out ten other characters that look like them.

Not only was the character design good, but the actual animation of characters and their motions. Ex. Kushida’s face. Enough said. The eyes in this series were incredibly expressive, sometimes just a look could tell you exactly what a character was thinking. The only character that this didn’t seem to apply to was Ayanokouji, which was done on purpose. Even with characters such as him, the series was able to convey his personality through the way he walked and stood. Overall, the series did a good job on its characters.

Of course, a series isn’t only made up of character art. The overall environment in the series well well drawn and visually appealing.

TLDR; I loved the art, characters unique, backgrounds nice.

Sound 10/10

The music used in the anime was really nice, it completed the scenes without distracting. Relied a lot on simple sounding piano music.

The voice actors in the series were quite good, all of them got into their characters perfectly. I would give my props to Ayanokouji and Kushida. Ayanokouji’s voice actor nailed the flat tone bored voice without making it boring to us. The lines that were executed sarcastically were also done with great timing and inflection. Kushida’s voice actor did a good transition between two different voices.

TLDR; great music, great voice acting

Character (5/10)

The characters, like their appearances, were quite unique. The basis of each character made you want to learn more about them, or let you identify them immediately. At the beginning of the series you see the foundation for the slow build in character development. You want to figure out what is behind Ayanokouji’s boredom as well as why he’s so strangely op, you want to know what is up with Horikita and her brother, about why Kushida acts the way she does, even the minor characters are so interesting that you want to learn about them. Unfortunately, like the story, any hope for good character development goes away at episode seven. Some characters at later episodes receive pushed developments that are so fake the character would be better off without them. Ayanokouji as well, the series tries to do a big reveal, but it really falls flat.

TLDR; Characters were promising, but development went to shit along with the story


Enjoyment (7/10)

The series started off really strong, and I was really enjoying it for half the season. The second half of the season was much weaker, and in terms of quality it suffered. Despite that, I kept watching the show. Some enjoyment was still there, but significantly less.

TLDR; Beginning was really enjoyable, second half not really, but I still kept watching it so points for that.


Overall (6/10)


I came to this show with high expectations, I thought that it would be my favorite of this season. While the show started off great, the decline in story, character development, and enjoyment from episode seven on really affected my perspective. The decline in in story and character might be due to difficulty dealing with the arc, which is why I had wished they hadn’t put in a filler episode. If there was a season 2, I would watch it, but I would also hope they would learn from their mistakes of season one and I would have lower expectations.

TLDR; Great potential, failed execution

Mean Score: 7

-- EDIT: I retract my statement, I think this is just an 8/10 after reading the Light Novels, and they screwed up the anime. Light Novels remain superior!

-- EDIT 2: I meant a 7/10 lol, it's fun and all, but the story and characters were nowhere near as good as in the light novel

-- EDIT 3: haha im so clumsy, 6/10

As of writing this, this is hands down, one of the most unique animes regarding the school genre. Your typical anime about school is probably a dramatic, romance, slice of life anime. But this, while being an anime with genres of drama and slice of ... life, isn't anything like those school animes with the same genres, Classroom of the Elite is on a whole new level.

For the main characters, you have your typical tsundere beauty, but she is sharp and has her moments where it's quite the opposite, as she confuses independence with self-isolation from other people and has a sharp-tongue, I, personally don't have a problem with that, but the only issue that can cause is the character not getting along with other characters in the anime, but she seems to follow her gut here and there. For example, she had a gut feeling that (most-likely) Kikyou hated her, and she was right on the money, but perhaps, it's actually instinct. Then for the other main character, Kiyotaka, an unbelievable sharp and somewhat cunning, he is apparently "average" as he only achieved 50 on all subjects on the entrance exams, I don't have much to say about him other than the fact that he feels people are just for achieving your victory, I hope by when the Light Novel or Anime ends, he has a change of heart somehow.

Story - 10/10

The story is unique, especially considering the fact this is an anime that takes place in a school. It isn't NOWHERE near your typical school anime, at first, it seemed like a school where the teacher doesn't punish you for wrongdoings in class and you get paid to purchase your very needs. I was baffled at first on how it seems so luxurious without any conditions, but then, the following month, they didn't receive their ¥100,000 monthly-payment, that's the part where it got my undivided attention and it made complete sense. In order to survive, you need to pay heed as a class, (possibly) get good grades, and follow the rules. The story itself is so unique, I cannot comprehend how anyone could've thought any of this up. The maker of the Light Novel (which the anime is based on) is truly creative and excels at storytelling.

Art - 10/10

The art is this anime is amazing, the reason I didn't give it the highest score (10), was due to the fact a few minor details. As when someone is far away, they don't put as many details on them as you'd expect. But besides that, the art is drawn in such a way that too many things look realistic and are far beyond your average anime art expectations. The small details in everything is such a nice touch, and that even metal objects have some white fragments due to the sun's glaze on them. The character's animation and lip-syncing are nearly perfect, the only issue is the voices for the characters' lip-syncing are [very rarely] off, here and there.

Sound - 9/10

The voice actors for every character was simply put, amazing. Simple sounds are put into account, and some sounds aren't perfect nor as realistic as in real life, but it's quite good.

Character - 9/10

Most of the characters are your average student's you'd expect in an anime, the laid-back one, the perverts, the sharp one, the tsundere, the shy one, the one-who-wants-to-be-friends-with-everyone, etc. As far as character developments go, it was really good for the first season (that is if they hopefully make another season), most of the characters were enjoyable and some weren't. Like you know who from Class C (Ryueen). Class B's characters are quite nice and enjoyable, while we seem to be a little in the dark about Sakayanagi and some others in Class A, we'd most likely find out next season.

Enjoyment - 10/10

This anime pulled me in, time to time in most animes, I pull out my phone and check stuff (not including when I am being called), but with this anime, I very rarely even took out my phone, and even when I did, I paid more heed to the anime rather than my phone. Which should show how I'd rather be watching the anime than whatever I was doing on my phone.

Overall - 9/10

This has to be on the top 3 animes I've watched. While more than 3 animes received a 10/10 and this one didn't, it brought me in and leave an impact on me and I just know for a fact, if/when more season(s) come out in the future, I'll enjoy them so much.

This concludes my review, thank you for reading all the way through.

I don't even particularly mind the random quotes without even a tangential relevance to the story. A bit of ostentatiousness, even the clueless sort, is acceptable in my book. However, as the show distinctly sets itself up to be judged by its intellectual merits, and I enjoy picking apart such cases, I'm not going to hold back in pointing out any failures behind that.

Indeed, you don't need to go any farther than the premise to realize that this show isn't going to be nearly as smart as the writer imagined. It is easily apparent that the inspiration comes from the various stories that build on ... a premise that is crafted from the start to create particularly strong motivations for the characters and set them up against each other. This way a writer can set themselves up to create very engaging conflicts even without having to extensively elaborate the personal motivations of each character, or the setting at large.

This type of a premise is, of course, a shortcut. It regularly leads to some big drawbacks in other areas of a story, namely that such a premise is usually severely lacking in believability, because of the drastic measures that need to be taken to set up that level of conflict with such little elaboration. This sacrifice can pay off well if you manage to capitalize on the strength gained through it, and even accept the lack of common sense as a part of the story's character.

Of course, the possibility of trying to make use of this strength while at the same time mitigating the drawbacks of the sacrifice isn't totally off the table either. That seems to be where this story's writer is coming from, apparently with a hope to bring some subtletely to where it is usually so lacking. I'm not against the idea, but the execution is not up to par in any manner.

Through introducing an apparent subtlety to the story, very little was gained and much more was lost in return. Through toning down the extreme elements typical to such a premise, the initial impact usually meant to catch the attention of the audience was simply absent. In return, there was practically no gain in believability, as the extra effort put in by the writer to established the setting simply failed in actually explaining the egregious elements still present. If anything, these weak attempts only served to draw attention to these weaknesses, rather than the usual route of distracting the audience so as to allow suspension of disbelief.

Going further, this same failure at the very basis of the show continuously presented itself in the form of an unengaging storyline and characters utterly lacking in defining characteristics and motivation. Indeed, the whole premise of the premise was so watered down as to have the exact opposite result of what is usually sought through this measure. Because the premise itself lacked the necessary force to create conflict, the lack of effort put into fleshing out the casts' backgrounds became even more apparent and there was none of the typical strong motivations left.

Ultimately, the whole story seems to be the result of the writer's failure to commit to the path they had chosen, even if that ultimately might have been what saved the show from total mediocrity. Despite the fact that the constant efforts to make the characters look intelligent only served to highlight the writer's own failure to think things through, all of this was presented so meekly as to make the thought process easy to follow and make the audience feel good about figuring it out without much handholding. Indeed, the few cases where the show was truly unpredictable was where it was at its weakest, cheaply forcing complete failure of consideration on the most, supposedly, intelligent parts of the cast.

Additionally, the technical aspects of the shows presentation were rather good, so as to leave me with no real reason to complain even as I didn't find any of it particularly dazzling. Where the story was at its strongest, the visuals and audio succeeded in backing it up.

I didn't hate the show. I wasn't even particular disappointed, because it was so obviously weak from the beginning, giving me no reason to get my hopes up. There was enough effort put into the show that even as its lack of bravery held it back, it rarely fell at the most obvious and easily avoided hurdles, making it a relatively enjoyable watch all the way through, while still giving me no reason to recommend it to anyone.

This series tries to give a strong message about competitivity in the modern society, using quotes from some big authors of western existentialism; but these messages get buried in every LN cliché known to human kind: lonely prideful long black haired tsundere, friendly rotten inside big boobed airhead, high class narcissistic jerk, somewhat smart socially awkward MC surrounded by helpless girls who need a man at their side, muscle head delinquent, overpowered 4 eyes student counsil president and a long etc.
All unreal roles playing under an unreal scenary, trying to look realistic and serious, and that's where it gets really bad. You can't take ... it serious because the ridiculousness of every character, the sad approach to women as helpless beings and the linear and predictable plot.
It's an eye candy to generic LN adaptations fans though, lots of fanservice, nice art and colors, decent animation.

Story (5): The story is pretty linear and predictable because of the poor development of the characters, (mild spoiler) but it gets interesting in the 2nd half of the last episode, wich is sad.

Art (8): I think the art is what kept me watching this show, as I said, it's an eye candy.

Sound (6): The voice acting is decent, not outstanding, the music is generic for a LN adaptation, the opening is not that good.

Characters (3): Ripoff of a lot of LN adaptations. Oregairu with simple cliché characters.

Enjoyment (6): Somewhat enjoyable because of the art and the last part of the season.

Overall: 6

This is my first time ever reviewing anything so excuse my writing, I just felt the urge to share my feelings of disappointment towards this anime.

I really liked the premise when it premiered, I thought the characters were interesting at first, the animation was decent, it immediately became my favorite among the shows of this season, I was really hyped about it, but with time the hype faded away and I became less interested every new episode.

My biggest problem with it is it's tone, it tried to be dark and edgy but it didn't fit the high school setting at all and it really bugged ... me, it was so over dramatic about ridiculous scenarios that could be considered a small problem in real life but in the series they treated it like some sort of tragedy or a life or death situation, if these scenarios were in JoJo's I would be laughing my ass off, but instead they took them seriously in this, which in return I couldn't.
"Someone got in a fight and now the case is taken to the court, if we don't do something he might get a death sentence". That's an exaggeration but that's how the tone set it out to be, it's like whoever made this forgot that it's set in a high school and the characters were only 16 year old students.

And what's up these episode titles, can it get any more pretentious than that? Inserting famous quotes doesn't make the show clever, just stuck-up

Also another problem is the characters, they suck, the MC speak in a robotic tone all the time and show no emotion whatsoever, I guess that's what he's supposed to be because I guess he used to be a lab rat or something but they didn't explore that side of him much so it's still hard to understand him or his motivation.
The main girls are also bad, one is supposed to be tsundere, which I don't mind if it was done right, but in this case, it wasn't, the other is a bubbly cheerful girl but it turns out that it's all an act and she's actually a bitch, but that was just for one episode, it was suddenly thrown in there just for the sake being shocking and edgy, only the characters in the background acted like students but they were out of the main focus of the story

Overall it was a very (meh) anime, it did nothing new and the premise of mysteries in high school is just a rip-off of much better anime like SNAFU and Hyouka, the characters traits are also a rip-off of the mentioned shows, it did keep me coming back until the end though without seeming like a chore to finish which means it may have done something right I'll give it props for that, but in the end it wasn't worth it. If it was more lighthearted maybe I would have liked it, but I guess I'll just stick with Hyouka and SNAFU

Overall - Ehh this one had so much potential. There was nice world building, characters had depth and animation was done right.. but it all fell apart when they rushed the ending. It feels like 12 episodes wasn't enough and it's 2020 with no sights of s2 coming any time soon. First seasons feels incomplete regardless of upcoming content.. This is one of those shows where ending ruins it because it was poorly executed 5/10

Story wasn't bad per se, but as i said 12 episodes wasn't enough, it's just too short for this type of story. MC has hidden motives, side characters have hidden ... motives, we touched on some of them but it wasn't enough. Last few episodes seem out of place.. it feels like the show had to go in different direction.. Story is done for obvious sequels because it ends with some sort of cliffhanger but oh well. We'll see what the future brings

VAs did good job overall.

Characters were the selling point for me. We meet so many different personalities (even too many for this short anime ) and each one of them has another one within themselves. Some are likable, some purposefully aren't. You'll even like characters that are portrayed as bad and hate 'good' ones because each one of them have their motives for the stuff they do. I really wish there were more episodes where we learn about them and why they do things but i guess it was meant for sequels and new seasons.

Before I say anything about this anime, I just want to clarify that I'm not writing this because I feel strongly one way or another about this anime. I'm writing this because I have too much to say that will fit into a tag. I feel as if I have a very love-hate relationship with this show, and its main character. Classroom of the elite feels like Baka and Test except it takes itself seriously and really tries hard to be cool. The whole idea of this school, the way its built, the point system, really every concept in this anime seems ... really intriguing to me, something i would really like if i enjoyed the characters and story a lot more.

Classroom of the elite seems to always set up cool ideas, and then fuck around with pointless or uninteresting stories. They could have done anything with the things they had introduced in the first half of this show, but instead they focus on the class making sure this generic ass thug character passes his class and isn't expelled. Later on they also bring the different classes to an island to survive on for a week, and they waste an episode on a god damn panty thief.

Now the main character is why I both hate and love this show. The side characters are meh, and i really despise the fan service. In fact I actually hated how big the boobs of like every girl are. I'm all for big anime tiddies, but they definitely over do it, and its clear the size of the titties on the girls (especially that bitch in glasses) is to make up for the lack of personality they have. Now back to the MC. He is this emotionless dude who just kinda stays out of things, despite always being secretly the one controlling everyone. Sometimes I like him for this, sometimes i hate it. The reason i hate it sometimes is because they are trying wayyy too hard to make this dude sound like some philosophical badass. Now sure, I love watching the MC secretly control everyone a lot but sometimes it feels like they are try harding it with the way they present him.

All in all, this anime seems really good on paper but I feel like they could have done a whole lot better. This anime also made me kinda hate boobs and fan service, so thanks for overdoing it. A quick note to all anime creators: IF YOU TAKE YOURSELF SERIOUSLY, INCLUDE LITTLE TO NO FAN SERVICE. I don't make the rules, that's just how it is guys, sorry. Anyways baka and test is better than this, so if you want a show about anime high school factions fighting watch that. Classroom of the Elite has some banger music though, and its enjoyable if you pretend like its satire I suppose.

all the pervy stuff only reminds me of how backwards Japan is with women/'s rights.

Operation: Peep on the Girls' Changing Room—"This will help alleviate our loneliness."—and then throw some scary evil music over this. wtf. this is the side-story of a basically FILLER EPISODE. IN A COMEDIC MANNER. (ye ik anime jokes about it a lot but this is madness)

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But that's not the point. I almost dropped this series. the pacing near the beginning was extremely slow and boring. and then 2~ episodes spent on resolving a fight between the delinquents of 2 classes—I could not take it seriously! it was hilarious, but in an ... unbelievable 'what on earth? why am I watching this' way.

I expected it to step its game up sometime soon (seeing the high rating) but I was super uninvested for most of the time. My fault for deciding to watch based on rating.

so MUCH FANSERVICE HOLY I know this is seinen but I don't remember the last time I watched a seinen that had that much. fs is fine but a lot of it just pisses me off in this series. I'm at a state where I can no longer tolerate anime that has women sexualised in a weak, inferior way (so like probably most anime)—chars like Sakura is an example. I love her but hate her.

the characters honestly bored me. an aloof, mysterious male mc paired with a cold, kuu/tsundere-ish female mc. side dishes include:
Super-friendly imouto with two faces! Socially-inept onee-san type who stutters every time she speaks! The tiny and sweet girl who's on top of the food chain! A couple of reckless delinquents that almost don't change! Horny boys with absolutely no purpose but to be horny!
And all with little to no character development.
I wish I knew all of this before watching because this is definitely the sort of anime I avoid.

I watched this in hopes of an intense, psychological to-the-death battle between students and got some plain-ish, fanservice-filled, hard-to-take-seriously, PATHETIC brawl of students trying to bring others down to go up the hierarchy . The concept is GREAT and if they used clever methods I might've been impressed but it was just sad. I got the message it was trying to bring across—inequality in society—and it excited me at first! but in the end it never really expands on it and just seems comical. got no feels at all.

I made a bad choice. and I have so many series on my watchlist. 4 hours I won't get back. T-T the synopsis and genres on mal sounded so exciting but I was fooled. I wanna cry. it's all fanservice! it's all fanservice. ah...

I really enjoyed the show when it started I thought that the concept seemed decent enough but it just did live up to the idea the two main characters are kinda annoying I mean if you watch the show you'll get what I mean.They try to create these characters as the smart ones,but it just really rubs me the wrong way.The art looks great and really makes this show stand out.The most interesting parts of the show are when the main characters aren't even involved. This show could easily just do "world" building and learning about different characters as SOME only some are ... interesting character.BUT my biggest problem with this show is their big "reveals" They're will be big moments in the show that will happen and this seems like a big turning point in someones characters but then nope they just forget it even happens or then bring it up a couple episodes later.This show may have many faults but it is enjoyable.

If I had stopped at episode 6, I would have given this anime a 9 or 10. It has such an alluring premise, the art is pretty spectacular, and it has some insanely smart and psychological concepts going on, despite feeling a bit forced at times. Though I didn't like the strange choice to add a harem feel with awkward fanservice to a story that could have stood well enough on its own, I still liked it.

Then I hit episode 7, and it just bombed from there. I mean, 7 is basically a horrific waste of space where the fanservice pumps up for no reason ... (I don't dislike fanservice, but it felt so contrived and stupid here, where they were taking it so seriously) and the comedy is like cardboard. Seriously, I didn't even break a smile. It was so dumb and overdone.

I thought it would go back to good from there, but the following episodes (though laden with cool concepts) went further into weird fanservice zones and gender roles/cliches that made me grind my teeth. It stopped being psychologically sound and started to just poke at social issues without giving a true perspective or realistic account of them. It was just a vehicle to show how "smart" the main character is and how he can manipulate everyone, without actually giving him or anyone else a true personality. ALSO, twice in this anime they mentioned grabbing fingerprints off of clothing items. That's SO hard to do, especially in a HIGH SCHOOL (however ritzy and weird). It made the scenes feel ridiculous. Also, it was pretty easy to guess how things were going in the second half, and tidbits you couldn't guess still didn't feel all that surprising or intriguing, just a repeat of the first half of the season in a different situation. There was absolutely no character growth, and barely any character reveal.

I only finished the last two episodes because I wanted to see if anything changed. They only got a tiny bit better, but the "big reveal" actually made me more upset than anything else. By the end, the intelligence of the main character just felt forced and disingenuous. I gave it a 7 because I enjoyed the first bit so much, and I know a lot of my anger comes from the ruined potential that it had.

Edit: I'm changing the score to a 5, because after all this time it just got worse and worse in my head. lol Distance doesn't always make the heart grow fonder.

PLOT:
This is NOT your typical high school! Survival of the fittest is one of the biggest themes that is focus on heavily on this anime. The government has created a school that first gives out free points (as currency) to the students. However; not a lot of students realizes that they have to find a way to earn it back... (At least they get to learn the value of a dollar). This anime also contains mystery and problem solving too!

CHARACTERS:
Ayanokouji - Monotone and alone -- but once he teams up with his classmates... he is involved more with helping his class out. He is ... very clever, but his true intentions are unknown until the end.
Horikita - Brutally honest and cold -- but is facing her own set of problems too. Her intentions of entering in this high school is explained in the anime, and she possesses leadership qualities too.

OVERALL:
This IS definitely one of the most interesting animes that I've ever watched. I understand that high school was horrible for some students... To be honest, I didn't think it would go as far as this anime... I've always wondered if the students can earn the points in the school by working as well? Plus, the anime needs to focus more on the other characters and their respective classes and the point system. (TO SUMMARIZE THIS: Good anime, but it needs more explanation!)

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e is...an interesting one. It poses an interesting question at the start of the anime: “Are human beings truly equal?”. The question sort of nabbed my attention, and started to lay down thoughts in my head of what was supposed to follow up in the coming episodes. The idea is interesting, having a school where test results and class behaviors are affecting a point system. And the more points, the higher your ranking are.

However, I feel like the anime doesn't take the story to it's full potential. It doesn't reach all the way. Trying to be psychological anime ... is very difficult when you constantly get scenes of fan service. Which brings me over to the characters. There's a few characters that are interesting, most of them are very stereotypical and just plain boring. And when you get hints that a person isn't who he/she says it is, the story just doesn't follow up enough. The background information on characters are just not there, except for maybe 2 main characters, and I still feel like they didn't get enough.

The art for characters and environment is nothing special really. I could have wished for more unique characters, instead you could probably find similar characters everywhere.

The anime's OP and ending gets some credit, especially the latter, for being some what unique, and not what you usually hear.

All and all: it's an anime that tries too hard aiming for psychological, and gets lost on the way. But if you wouldn't mind the fan service, give it a try and see if you like it.

A show that started off quite strong, but ultimately collapsed due to bad pacing and minimal character development.

The premise of the story is a little generic; there are too many "elite classroom" shows out there, but what made this one semi-interesting is the usage of "class points" as currency. The system is not exactly clear, but in general each class collectively earns points by doing well on exams etc., and can lose points if they sleep in class, fail exams. etc. "Class points" can buy basically anything in the school, including entrance into a higher class, which everyone below Class A is striving for. ...

You'll soon discover our generic, average MC is not so average after all. He reminds me a lot of the MC in Mahouka, so if you enjoy that type of character, you'll probably find this one interesting as well. As the show reveals more and more about the nature of our MC and what he's hiding, you'll soon discover many of the other characters have their own secrets as well. All of this happens in about the first half of the story (~6 eps).

Then the pacing began to slow down to an unbearable pace. The second half contained many fillers, or what at least felt like fillers. The show throws many questions into the story, but fails to answer any of them. Save for the MC, character development basically stops; we don't witness why these shady characters do the things they do, or what drove them to become this way. I will admit that the last episode was actually quite strong, and we get a deeper glimpse into the motivations behind the MC, but it came at the cost of learning nothing about the other characters for the latter half of the show.

Overall, the show started off with an interesting enough premise and cast, but lost itself along the way. The conclusion was still quite good, however, so it's still worth watching if you really enjoy this genre.