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.
