Story: In the far-off future where humanity has spread to every planet in the solar system (yes, even gas giants apparently), Classroom Crisis takes place on a Japanese settlement on Mars, where a company called the Kirishina corporation takes charge as the frontrunner in rocket engineering thanks to developments to some rather powerful rocket engines. Here, we have the specialty class known as A-TEC, a small class of incredibly smart high schoolers who are basically smaller, less mature engineers and business people who work for the large corporation . (Without pay, of course.) After a near impossible rescue attempt for the new transfer student of the class, A-TEC comes to terms with the fact that due to their wastefulness of their annual budget, that in about six months, their entire class will be disbanded. And that folks, is the crisis for this series.
The story of Classroom Crisis is a Crisis in and of itself; identity crisis, to be more precise. While the show starts out with a bunch of high schoolers fighting for their right to stay in class (even though it was CLEARLY their own fault for putting themselves into this mess by overspending), Classroom Crisis tries to drag the reader through a story involving the ins and outs of a corrupted business, covering up different schemes, politics (for some god unknown reason), and with just a hint of both romance and attempted murder. As a result of all of these factors going around, the show tosses the viewer around with the flow of the plot, sometimes dragging you to a place where you don't know what the hell is going on.
At the same time with all of these seemingly random plot points going on, Classroom Crisis tries to squeeze in character development which both feels rushed and sometimes completely unnecessary. Remember that romance bit I mentioned earlier? For some reason, they sprinkle that in at the end without any indication as how or why any of that came to be. In addition, the show really doesn't actually focus on its base storyline of A-TEC struggle for existence, mostly focusing on the characters that actually aren't part of A-TEC, aka the weird power struggle that created such a mess of a series.
In end end, Classroom Crisis's story was a horrendous piece to watch. Not only did it not follow to the letter on what it wanted to do, but it also pulled itself in directions that made not only made for a dreadful watching experience, but it also made character importance varied as to who was important and who wasn't, to the point that I personally could care less what was going on since there really isn't any way that you can get a sense as to what is really going on with the people in this series. Plus, that ending was kind of random, to be honest.
Overview:
- Generic base idea (High school show, really?)
- Shifting story that changed what it wanted to focus
- Random bits of unnecessary detail (Seriously, why is there any semblance of romance here?!)
- Artificial character development (just seemed kind of forced rather than natural)
- Random ending
Characters: Characters in Classroom Crisis aren't really characters, per say. Many of them are simply plot devices, or are completely forgotten halfway through because the story shifts in a way that those characters simply become irrelevant after a time. So, I will attempt to pick out the ones that I assume are the true main characters in the series.
First is Sera Kaito, the teacher of the class of A-TEC. As an employee of the Kirishina corporation, Kaito is a very smart person when it comes to engineering, but comes a bit short in every aspect. He's sort of the newbie in the whole scheme of business characters since he is very absent minded about how business practices work, and as such gets very flustered. Still though, he's a very motivated character that works towards his goal of "saving A-TEC", but in the end, there's not really much to his character. He doesn't change at all in this series and frankly, sort of just derps around half the time due to the various situations that pop up around the whole series.
And then we have Kiryu Nagisa. As the transfer student of A-TEC and the resident douchebag of the series, Nagisa is a very focused and slightly narcissistic individual who puts his mission first above anything else. His personality is one that you love to hate. Because he just barrels into the series and just well, does his job as someone who looks out for the company since A-TEC is really just a waste of time and money. He is gradually shown to be the "good guy" of the series but really, there's nothing substantial about him. As a character, he artificially changes to the point where he is considered to be a protagonist rather than an antagonist, but at that point, there's nothing about him to even care about.
Everyone else in this series are just plot devices. The entire group of A-TEC students barely get any role aside from supporting roles in the series, and since the entire show is devoted to the less than average story, any other character in the series really doesn't have much significance aside from this character playing this and having this role, and that character being that because he's this and his basic goal is this. No one is really past a cardboard cutout of a character and there's no point of knowing who they are because no one is really all that memorable.
Overview:
- Less than average cast
- Character development didn't make sense
- Entire cast were basically plot devices
Art: Contrary to the story and characters, the art for Classroom Crisis was decent. While the characters themselves weren't detailed to the extent of being gloriously animated, the backgrounds and the level of detail in certain things like the rockets were relatively well animated. But honestly, that's as much as I can say for the artwork. It was pretty standard all the way through and there really wasn't much to say about it.
Sound: As for the soundtrack, the OP and ED of the series really didn't have much to add to the series. Out of every track, the OP was probably the best with its heroic sounding tone to it, but it really wasn't all that memorable. Same thing goes for the rest of the track. Like the artwork, it's good, but not memorable.
Personal Enjoyment: When I first say Classroom Crisis, I thought that this might be quaint little series about a small group of kids or something, but I was dead wrong. OH, so wrong. It was to the point that I dreaded even watching the next episode and honestly didn't care about everything that was going on because everything felt so forced to the point I didn't give a crap whether or not the classroom was saved. Because even though the whole corporation was corrupted and hellbent on getting money wherever they wanted to, it's still YOUR goddamn fault that you put yourselves to the point of getting yourselves kicked out and/or out of a job.
Did I enjoy this anime?
No, not really. There wasn't anything to like about it because the show played itself out so horribly in numerous aspects. As it was made to be a story based anime due to its lack of focus on its characters, I expected the show to at least create a cohesive story, which it didn't.
What didn't I like about this anime?
If there's anything that I really don't like about this anime personally, it has to be the BS plot twists and romance in the show. I also don't like any of the characters at all, and I think that even thinking that any of them were half decent characters would be a mistake.
Would I recommend this show?
This show is a crisis in and of itself. There's nothing significant about it other than its mess of a plot and its inability to properly tell a story. Sure, you get some semblance as to what is going on, but not enough for you to know that is happening on an episode by episode basis. Hell, two characters fall in love for some reason even though you only see them alone with each other for a grand total of 3 scenes. I would not recommend this anime, at all.
