This Week in Anime

The Wasted Potential of Classroom of the Elite

Nicky
That's just the future when tech corporations eventually take over schools. But other than having my grades and livelihood tied to digital fun bucks, the only thing I'm not looking forward to having to re-learn is math. After all, why should I know how to do algebra when the only subject that matters in life is anime? With that said, we better start crammin' because this week we're being tested on Classroom of the Elite season one!

And other philosophers too! A little Nietzsche, a little John Locke. Some of them even presented in the OP's flashy typography like an emo lyrics YouTube video. Now, this is an optimistic interpretation, but maybe it's just a signal to light novel fans to start reading other books?

But what's an anime if you're not gonna be pretentious as all hell? The point of anime is to make everything sound smarter and cooler than it is while still having monkey-brained level clichés about all the girls falling for the one Potato-kun. Classroom of the Elite definitely fits that bill. At least ZAQ was there. Her singing is always nice.

We also open on a scene that shows how pretty much all of these kids are extremely selfish dicks and none of them would even give up their seat to help a lil' old lady. Our protagonist would rather not go through the effort to get involved while he contemplates the meaning of equality within society.

I can't hate the comedic narcissistic anime men archetype. It's too goofy for me to dislike! But it's a good example because he's basically saying the quiet part loud for everyone else: People who want to succeed don't believe in altruism.

I'll take my time giving my own fuller interpretation over the course of this. For starters, I don't think the show is as cold or "Randian" as its opening wants you to believe. Secondly, I also don't think any of the solutions the show presents really work because it still hinges on having faith in a system that's extremely broken and crummy. One of the first things we learn about the school is that it's purported to have a 100% job and college acceptance rate, which everyone attributes to high academic success. Though, despite this, we never quite learn the rates for drop-outs and expulsions. Like yeah, it's easy to say that everyone wins if you force out anyone with a chance of failing from ever trying.

To boot, the kids were given a large point-money allowance to spend for the month, but giving a teenager free money to spend is the equivalent of giving a toddler a jar of candy. Most of them end up spending it while assuming they would get the same amount with no effort on their part. However, when the next month rolls around, nobody in Class D receives any points. Without their knowledge, they were being scored on their behavior and performance and so the entire class gets a big fat zero. As expected of a class full of students considered "defective."

That's right! Even before class began, these kids were already set-up for failure. You can't have a school full of winners if you don't have any losers.

What I find interesting is that, unlike most meritocracies, they're being judged as a group rather than solely the achievements of specific individuals. Since they don't exactly know all the rules of the S-system, none of them are certain what penalties they could eventually face. No matter what, they're being judged by the weakest of them. So you can be like tsundere girl Horikita and get all the best grades and try to do everything by yourself and it wouldn't make a goddamn difference if you don't do anything about the problem children.

I'd also hesitate to call it truly altruistic because they have something at stake. It's part of why it's not a great reflection of capitalist society, because even if all of society is judged by its ills, most people privileged enough will never feel the effect to take any action. Class D is already in threat of failing so of course they feel more urgency to help those in need. It's great that this conflict drives our resident loners and Potato-kuns to come out of their shell, but the show's argument is that a system of hardship actually "works" by forcing them to be kinder people.

I mean they did have that whole elaborate set-up to peek on the girls' pool changing room for the one episode, which was unfunny and disgusting given how many creepshots the show has on a normal basis. But for a super-school, it could honestly go WAY more ham. I expected a lot more BIG personalities or ploys, but it's also not as boring as I expected either.

Like maybe it's just that I consider light novels to be largely a Dearth of Quality that my bar is low, but as far as Potato-kun's go, I actually somewhat respect Ayanokoji for purposefully being a bit dour and underhanded to cover a more humane heart. Regardless, he'll still gets tons of praise and attention from cute girls just for showing the barest amount of decency.

I think for the most part the animation doesn't look amazing but it's very clean, at least at the beginning. Kishi is a definitely a workman, so even some of his better work doesn't stand-out except for maybe a few cuts. I wouldn't call it incompetent because nothing looks quite as bad as anything from the Danganronpa anime, a folder buried on my old laptop for whenever I want to feel pain. Every character having a weird hair gradient is a bit of an eyesore though, and the most effort is always put into the T&A shots, like this backbreaking pose.

Ow, my spine!

There's some jokes, but most of it's deadpan serious and the few moments of true trashiness are Too Edgy 4 Me to enjoy. Most of the show is spent working with the cool and intelligent beauty Suzune Horikita who prefers to be alone or the warm and bubbly Kikyou Kushida who desperately wants to be everyone's friend, but then you have shit like Kushida having a sudden personality shift and threatening Ayanokoji with false rape charges if he tells anyone about her little outrage. Man, she's got nothing on Najimi.

Yeah, I was curious what her real motives for wanting to "befriend" everybody was because she seems a little obsessive about it, but it isn't resolved. Similarly, there's some characters from the other classes that should have an ulterior motive or an "in" with the system. It's implied the student council, helmed by Suzune's garbage older brother, definitely knows stuff. But, it wastes a lot of time dawdling and doesn't scrutinize that people could be gaming the system. For characters that want to move from the bottom caste to the top one, something that hasn't been done before, Suzune and Ayanokoji spend a lot of time gambling without really gaining.

In the midst of trying to save the class delinquent's ass from a bad trial, I might add.

Sakura generally being anxious and skeptical to help someone who has done bad things in the past would have been an interesting conflict on its own. I like the conversation where Ayanokoji tells her that it's enough to want to tell the truth.

But instead we get an extremely uncomfortable extended scene of her getting assaulted by her stalker just before Ayanokoji swoops in to save her using the same bluff he used on the members of Class C.

The Pool Episode is the show's attempt at light-hearted comedy and it fails completely on every level.

The Guys™, try desperately to place cameras inside the girls' locker room but keep running into snags in their plan, including the other classes squabbling with each other. Still, the the viewers get their own shots of the girls in their undies and swimsuits. The best part was probably the other classes squabbling with each other and the little focus we get on Suzune. It helps that the plan doesn't actually succeed because Ayanokoji blew the whistle and took out the SD cards but it's still extremely indulgent.

Also, I mentioned the set-up being a bit weak earlier partially because these antagonist don't offer a whole lot of perspective.

And all class prez does is kabedon. Though, he did try to punch his sister before Ayanokoji stopped him. Not exactly the high-minded behavior you'd expect from a genius school.

He's the type that acts mediocre on purpose to avoid standing out, but then why someone like that would still apply to genius school? How did get even get in? Suzune gets told to look out for him by their teacher, and later it compares his plight to that of Icarus where either shooting too high or too low can land him straight into the ocean.

Once again the test is based on points, with each class getting 300 to spend on supplies over the next seven days and then added to their class score when the test is over. They can also earn bonus points by capturing certain areas or undermining other groups' leaders. Points can be deducted for injury, illness, or if their own leader gets found out. They cannot spend bonus points. The goal is simply to not spend any points and enjoy your miserable time roughing it in the woods for like four episodes.

It also somehow continues to double down on sexism, as all the girls are proven as too weak to shit in a cardboard box or freak out when a girl gets her panties stolen. These are seen as hinderances to the whole class.

No, I agree with you. When my extremely suburban middle school went camping we were told to squat like a bear and look out for poison ivy if we had to go during hikes . So it was baffling to me that the show notions that women are too delicate to survive without a real toilet.

And once again, I'm disappointed by how little we learn about the other classes when it's supposed to be a competition. Class B gets along by working harmoniously, Class A guards themselves heavily, and Class C simply opts not to play by using all their points to party so they don't get a real penalty when they get tired and give up. As Ryuen plainly states, "This is how I roll."

Class D also picks up a straggler from Class C after she was beat-up and cast out by Ryuen.

It's also just unfun to watch people bicker for several episodes and the guys don't want to really out anyone in front of the girls, even though if they did it'd be easier to figure out the truth.

They also appoint Hirokita as their "leader" and cardholder as she's less likely to be found out by the other classes, but we don't see her for a while and when we do it turns out she's actually been sick this whole time. This is made worse when one of the guys decides to tease her by putting mud on her head. Which gets him almost killed with a judo throw right on top of Ayanokoji for his troubles. She has to go shower under a cold waterfall so we get to look at her soaked undies and also have a reason for the important card to get stolen.

The camping stuff is also absolutely the ugliest and dullest looking part of the show btw, you definitely feel the production falling apart.

It's not really a great way to set up trust if you don't involve them at all, my dude. The other two girls also basically do jack shit so there's very little character interaction overall.

It just becomes another thing where the whole cast gets carried by the one guy without them having to do anything. There's a bit of noblesse oblige in Ayanokoji's backstory and that's kind of the least interesting way they could go if the true aim is to have class mobility for the defectives. Especially when it's revealed that he doesn't actually care about them and is only in it to win. Honestly I'm wondering more how some of them got labeled defective in the first place or why they wouldn't just go to a normal school. The only other one who has a real reason for being there is Suzune who wants to impress her brother.

And by any means, it certainly doesn't deserve the title of "Elite". Maybe the following seasons will pick up the slack and focus back in on the crazier parts of the premise, so I wouldn't fail it yet, but it's not flashy or smart enough to really make me think that this is something that deserves to be top class.