Classroom of the Elite is a story about reaching the top, to be blunt. The series takes place at the Advanced Nurturing High School. This school is extremely prestigious and is said to have a high college and employment rate. In reality, this sounds like the absolute dream. Or on the surface, that is. It is later revealed that the school has a cruel system where your grades determine which class you end up in. Enter Class D. Class D is where the school dumps the students with low grades. These students are considered inferior compared to classes of higher grades and status like Class A, for example. Class D is a class treated like less than dirt by the hierarchy while classes like Class A are praised by many. In order to climb up to this level, Class D works to get higher up to the point of overthrowing Class A, via getting higher grades. Class D is ALSO the class that houses out main protagonist. His name is Kiyotaka Ayanokoji, a boy interested in making friends who doesn't like to stand out and would rather be one who blends in with the crowd. While this story may seem cool to others, I didn't really see the appeal. It was alright but not the best, plus the thought of a hierarchical school system had already been used, as seen in Assassination Classroom. Therefore the story overall is a 6, especially considering that I didn't come for the story.
On the other hand, this series was animated by none other than studio Lerche. Known for works like Assassination Classroom. Monster Musume, Danganronpa : The Animation, Carnival Phantasm, and so on. (These are the titles I think of when I hear Lerche, anyway) Lerche really outdid themselves with this series, though. The colours mix together pretty well and the character designs are beautiful. I also couldn't help but admire how the colours on the characters become gradient. For example, Horikita's hair is black but fades into white at the end. It's something about this that makes the character's designs so satisfying. The settings are also drawn well too. The dorms of the students to the cafes all feel so strangely refreshing to look at to me. Nothing is over-saturated and is easy on the eyes.
As for the sound, it wasn't that impressive to me. The opening and ending themes honestly sounded pretty bad...
The only reason why I didn't give it a lower score was because the voice acting. While the voice acting isn't the best of all time, it's pretty on point and the voices match the characters.
The characters were the strongest link in the series for me. Ultimately, the characters were so entertaining to watch that they carried the show for me. Since the anime doesn't cover the source material fully and does not give all of the students fleshed out backstories and such, I can't say ALL of the students were the best, but for the most part, they were still rather enjoyable. Let's take Ayanokoji as an example. If you were to look at my profile, you'd see that he is in my favourites, so this may sound a bit biased here. When I had went in, I thought this was going to be another Seishun Buta Yarou or OreGairu where there's a loner MC who's witty and always gets the girls. Or in short, another Sakuta or Hachiman, so I didn't care for him at first. When the story went on, though he slowly grew into a favourite of mine.
(Quick rundown of Ayanokoji's personality)
Ayanokoji is described as an average person who just want friends. Seems simple, right? Normally, in LNs (Light Novels) the main character seems like an asshole but is secretly nice. Ayanokoji differs from this trope. On the outside, yes he can be kind. If you were to watch his first interaction with Horikita, then you'd see that he's just a kind fellow trying to make friends. It is later revealed that he is a rather twisted person beneath this exterior and is willing to manipulate others for his own benefit and sees people as nothing more than tools. This includes Horikita, his classmate that he tries to be friendly with. Crazy, right? Given his mentality, it makes you question who he really considers friends and who he's just put to manipulate and gets your cogs turning. And even better, he doesn't fall in love with the dark haired kuudere--
Another good example is Horikita, Ayanokoji's classmate who sits next to him. Horikita has a cold demeanor and dislikes the idea of making friends. She is cynical and blunt. Deep down though, she feels inferior to her older brother, who's in Class A and strives to stand on the same ground as him. While this has been done before, it does build some sympathy for her and gets you rooting for her all the way through.
The likeable things about these characters are that on the outside, they are one thing but on the inside, they're completely different. It makes you think and reflect on the other characters to think if they are putting up a front as well.
Overall, I personally loved this show for its ability to get you thinking and questioning everything given how fronts are always put up for...well everything. From characters being cold on the outside but insecure on the inside to a school that seems perfect but is highly a hierarchical system not afraid to look down upon those with worse performance than others. There are always twists and turns willing to make me gasp and keep my eyes glued to the screen waiting for what happens next. It's a pretty good series that seems bland at first but will get you to want more in the end.
