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.
