Anime: Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e

Review
Japan is known to be a place that pushes competition in school environment, we know that simply from watching their animations. They put your test scores where everyone can see, their school clubs are constantly going into tournaments, and there's even those festivals where classes try to outdo one another with their events. Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e is a somewhat exaggerated version of that. Of course, with such a ridiculous long name we had to shorten it, so it became Classroom of the Elite.

The short version of this is a tale about a insane school where students are free to do whatever they like in order to raise in the ranks, gather points, and be the typical jerks and badasses we know them to be from other shows. Classroom D is where the spotlight is on though, the lowest ranked class where our protagonist, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, attends.

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1. The idea?
   Well, the show is quite keen in telling you this school is the best of Japan, a place capable of giving anyone a perfect chance to enter whichever university they want or roll out from graduation right into the competitive market with a solid job. This school, however, is far from typical: it is an isolated island where students must live throughout their high-school years, where money is worthless and instead they are given points based on their performance. It is a wild place where only the best of the best enter, yet...
   
   Half the students are as dumb as donkeys
   Yup. That's it. The best school in Japan somehow allows half of its students to be complete sh*theads. Many of them are just mindless bullies provoking one another through physical strength, many others are carefree pricks with zero responsibility and sense of commitment, and there are those who seem to be simply dumb planks with some typical character design attached to it. ANy kind of intelligence in this school seems left to our godly-smart protagonist and a few other selected students.
   
   And the rules are a mess
   This high-caste school operates under its own agenda with a system based on points, yet any rules regarding that are simply unknown. Teachers aren't allowed to talk it seems, so it falls to students to figure out how the system work, which could be interesting, but know what? That's bullsh*t. This lack of explanation simply happens so the author can ass-pull stuff without any kind of restriction while the classrooms fight among themselves with their armies of assholes students punching or tricking each other randomly. Sometimes the school gives the students a book with all the minutia of part of these rules, at others is just a game of guessing. There's no consistency here, just some annoying laziness hiding the fact that this setting is simply a random teenage-gasm for creating out-of-nowhere conflicts and completely ass-pulled resolutions.
   
   And our protagonist
   Gods. Fuc*kn gods. Save me. Ayanokouji is a terrible mess of a lead. It starts with its lazy voice-work that is not simply cartoon-like, but slow and emotionless in a way it becomes impossible to care for him. He also is yet another pathetic attempt at portrait a guy who wants to spend no effort yet is helping everyone one second later and is swarmed by girls. Fortunately he is not a dick though, or at least that on the outside. That's because every insane student on this goddamn school is a secret keeper with some sort of dual personality or second social life.
   
   And they all suck too
   The most friendly girl is secretly a bitch, the shy girl takes sexy selfies for internet fans, the bishounen leader is a mafia ring-master, and so on. Every student is a combination of two everyday templates, where one of these are kept hidden from others. From there most of the show develops, picking our annoying lead as he gives a helping hand to the girls around him and learns about their secrets while keeping his own safe. Bullying, bitching, stalking, everything common to the most villainous teenage world is here to be explored.
   
   And it's slightly fun while it lasts
   Watching angry teenagers fighting each other and seeing ass-pulled resolutions to some problems that would never arise from an elite school can be fun for a while, but that's where Classroom of the Elite teaches us what Sword Art Online did a few years ago: It can get worse.
   
   After a few episodes trying to give development to the annoying protagonist and the tyrannical-hime template, the show randomly picks a beach episode followed by a cruise episode and than smashed into a "test" where students must survive in an stranded island. Yeah. So much for classes and academics, right. This new situation could even be interesting, but goddamn, no. The show makes a change of focus and pace, the dialogues grow more and more annoying, random changes of scene occur and problems arise from the most stupid reasons like girls wanting a toto-washlet in the wilderness to a muscle-guy quitting without much of an explanation. There's no complexity there, no link to the personality of the cast or whatever, simply some random ideas for problems to be solved by our smartass protagonist.
   
   It's also superbly generic
   I can't even begin to say how absurdly generic are our lazy protagonist and his two major girls: the tyrannical hime, Horikita; and Sakura Card Captor's copy & paste, Kushida. This uninspired character design spreads towards every other student, who ends up being just one-line characters with a look identical to every other show feature high-school. It doesn't help that Lerche also delivers a mediocre work where many scenes are lifeless, the scenery lacks a sense of depth, and animation is pretty much the basic stuff. The coloring can save from time to time, as well as some random improvements to detail during a few selected fanservice scenes, but that's hardly enough to make Classroom of the Elite stand.
   

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Comments
Classroom of the Elite was somewhat okay for its first half. It was a show about shallow teenagers bitching against each other in a fictional school that was completely nonsense. I could understand that. I could enjoy that. In this day and age I am accepting that all male protagonists within a school environment are shitty assholes of uninspired ideas, so he wouldn't freak me out of the tale alone.

The second half, however, is a complete mess. The two fanservice episodes are simply stupid, an affront to the intelligence of its viewers and what follows is the randomness taken to extremes. Survival with THESE FUC*KN STUDENTS? Seriously? Gods. It doesn't help that the narrative is stalled, conversations become random, and the problems tackled by the show change from bullying to people arguing about toilets and a point system that until then was just a mystery yet now it was fully and completely detailed. Oh, and our blasted protagonist is only basically explored right at the end. yeah...

Seriously. This is a goddamn mess.

Excuse the formatting, this is a script for a this video https://vid.me/KwIpq

Cons:
- Reflecting on main character at the literal last minute
- Opens up a ton of mysteries and plot lines it never addresses
-Most adaptations have the decency to cut that out until the knowledge is usable (Rokka no Yuusha)
- Flaws with placing system and rankings
- Ayanokoji is unstoppable

Pros:
-Promising Premise
-Strong first arc
-strong character dynamic between Ayanokoji and Horikita
-Ominous atmosphere

Summer 2017 may have been the worst summer season in anime history only producing 1 well regarded show and a bunch of fun but easily forgettable cannon-fodder. Obviously you can't get a much better summer last year's with Re:Zero, Mob Pyscho 100, Battery, Orange, Taboo Tattoo, and Kono Bijutsubu all coming out in the same season but...shit you can do better than Boku no Hero, A SHOW CALLED NTR AND THE FUCKING REFLECTION. At least 2015 had Rokka no Yuusha, Durarara x2 Ten, Gatchaman Crowds Insight, and the first half of Charlotte...yeah been a while since you've heard of that show huh?

Since my summer was soooo busy cause I haaaave a liiiiiife, I didn't actually finish a single show. I was enjoying Kakegurui but it just kind of went over my head as the weeks progressed. Additionally, I'm on the last episode of Koi to Uso and Gamers but forgot about both shows and just never finished them. There was however additional show on that list just before this week, but I finally got around to finishing it, and that show is...Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e...OR Classroom of the Elite IN ENGLISH!

LETS TALK ABOUT IT!

I'm not going to give you a plot summary like every reviewer on this fucking site does since ya know, you have EYES and can READ. Take a minute to read it and come back. The only thing I'll add to the synposis is that the first episode reveals that the academy is a meritocracy meaning students move up in rank and receive monthly salaries based on their merits and accomplishments. That's all you need to know for context, so lets get into the show.

You're probably wondering why the hell I even bothered to watch this show, and I'll be honest...I heard it was OreGairu Lite. The Pepsi Zero of realistic and masterful school slice of life shows but uh...I was lied to.

-Classroom of the Elite is not OreGairu, and it wasn't trying to be OreGairu in the first place.
- Hikigaya Hachiman, the protagonist of OreGairu, is a loner with severe insecurity issues and feelings of self-loating. Despite his ability to solve issues and get what he wants, he's a human and his flaws are commented on throughout the story. Ayanokoji, Classroom of the Elite's protagonist has no flaws despite his "average" test grades that we know are doctored by himself due to implication from the show so he doesn't direct attention to himself. Now that I think about it, I don't know if I should be calling a 50/100 on any test average. That's failing, but whatever, you get the point.

-Furthermore OreGairu is about not only its conflicts, but what the implications of the conflicts are on each of its characters. Every event in OreGairu develops or reveals something about the main trio. Everything the characters do have consequences. While Hikigaya is indeed incredibly smart and skilled at manipulating situations, he is always humane in his methods, and said methods have consequences, negative and positive, that affect him and the service club. Hachiman sacrifices himself for the sake of an artificial friendship of some alien group, and 7 episodes later, that decision still affects the characters of the story, every single one of them. OreGairu is extremely philosophical, psychological, and analytical.

Classroom of the Elite couldn't be any more different as the show is all about the physical battles as evidenced by its refusal to address the implications of its conflicts even the immediate episode after they're resolved. The methods used to create and resolve conflict are all extremely inhumane and manipulative, and unlike OreGairu which comments on such a thing, Classroom proceeds on as if this is simply to be expected. Now here's the thing. That's actually fine. I don't mind it being the antithesis of OreGairu because the show made no hints that it was aiming to do the same thing aside from the insanely pretentious and irrelevant quotes that appear at the beginning of each episode. The story is not supposed to be thought-provoking but to be interpreted at a surface level, which is ok; however, it also means the conflicts themselves have to be interesting or have some sort of twist, else the show becomes stale and lacks tension. This is where many of the problems with Classroom of the Elite stem from. Sure, class D is often in a disadvantageous state, but this pressure is never felt with Ayanokoji, the main character. If the protagonist is never worried about a situation, why should I be? If the mastermind behind Class D's rise to power cares so little about battery to his classmates, pnuemonia, and living in poverty for the rest of his life, why should I? Well...I shouldn't. He obviously has something planned, and his actions have never resulted in negative consequences for his peers, so there's no reason to be worried about these characters despite the immediate consequences of each situation. They have no long term impact and the main character isn't worried, thus there's no tension, and the show becomes stale.

-Despite all that, I did finish the show so there has to be something that kept me interested, right? Well of course. There were actually 2 reasons I kept watching week after week.
-1.The show is absurd so almost every conflict evolved to something far too grand but the immediate consequences of everything were unpredictable at the very least. It's the same reason you push through Mirai Nikki despite knowing it isn't going to get any better.
-2. As stated earlier, there are so many interesting plot points that are introduced that have immense potential to evolve into something special. Kushida's personality in particular was extremely intriguing as despite her generally preppy, moe personality, she's actually your typical RAGING SOCIOPATHIC SCHIZOPHRENIC RAPIST ACCUSATOR THAT THREATENS THE SHOW AND MAIN CHARACTER'S INTEGRITY AS EARLY AS EPISODE 2. Those types of girls are nothing new, I see them all the time where I live... Want me to dox em? THE FIRST ONE'S NAME IS KACEYTR---

Classroom of the Elite introduces what could be an elite antagonist and possible rival to Ayanokoji which would completely rid the show of its issues stated earlier. If Kushida had control over the class, she'd prompt a back and forth struggle with Ayanokoji and the show would legitimately be unpredictable as it'd be a battle between two elite sociopaths manipulating situations for long term effects. This would result in more tension. Additionally, Ayanokoji's last minute revelation,[spoiler=Minor spoiler] that he's a sociopath[/spoiler], wouldn't be so appalling if the show was simply commenting on his nature and actions via the counteractions of a foil, but this simply isn't the case. Instead, only unsuccessful attempts of Kushida attempting to manipulate Ayanokoji to gain a means up the class ladder are seen which further solidify that Ayanokoji is unstoppable. But that's only the first plot point that vanishes.

The story never elaborates on Ayanokoji's experience in Seraph of the E--I mean the Stanford Prison Expe---I mean the generic white room of dying orphans despite it being...a white room with dying orphans. All we get is Ayanokoji staring at his little suffocating fellow orphan, suffering as he contemplates how to relieve his boredom. Aww poor Ayanokoji.

There are many more conflicts that are never addressed; however I think you get my point. These conflicts were all simply introduced to keep the populus watching, and after the show finished airing, the same conflicts were a motivation to get viewers to read the light novel. Now while I am definitely going to give the light novel a shot when it the translation catches up in 4000 years, I'm still going to accuse the show of being a poor adaptation for blue balling me like 6 times because a dying black guy is as funny dying oprhans in a white room. Most good novel adaptations like Rokka no Yuusha and Re:Zero cut out information that wouldn't be relevant to the material adapted which prevents the existence of unexplored plot lines. While I understand that Classroom of the Elite is not not as entertaining or nearly as good a series as either forementioned titles and needs to promote its novel, opening up a random plotlines every 3 episodes isn't very conducive to convincing people that the series doesn't suck donkey balls.

-Ranking System
Speaking of donkeys, I wonder what ass thought this ranking system was a smart idea. Now I have no issue with Classroom of the Elite's meritocracy premise because of how much potential dramatic tension and psychological insight it can provide. What I do have a problem with is how the ranking system actually works. The entire moving up the ranks by acting like good boys and girls is whatever, but the fact that students like Horikita and some others can even rank in Class D is beyond me. There is absolutely no sign given that Horikita and some others within the Class D are dumber, less athletic, or more socially inept than any other class in the school. Sure, they may be less deviant and cunning than those in classes above them, but I doubt that's a scoring category for a school's ranking system considering the place already corrupt and would probably be shutdown by the government. Further complicating this arbitrary heirarchy is, allegedly, students' actions outside of classes do have effects on their ranking and salary, but A-rank students just happen to be sneaky enough to never get caught manipulating the lower classes and situations to their advantage. You can't convince me that a school which can dead ass afford to move the school onto a yaht and televise a survival competition for a week doesn't have cameras and people monitoring the behaviors of its students from every crevice place imaginable around the clock. Thus, class A's ranking doesn't any sense.

Even if you dismiss extracurricular behaviour and results, the ranking system is still unquestionably flawed if Ayanokoji, a person who received 50/100's on every single category of his entrance exam, who doens't participate in extracurriculars despite his apparent knowledge of other subjects, and who doesn't take leadership opportunities when given to him if accepted into this school. This ranking system is so absurdly inconsistent that it cripples its premise and the show's ability to do something interesting with its ideas of superiority complexes in the story as the rankings are entirely artificial and seem to have just been paid off as far as the audience can see. In short, Classroom of the Elite's ranking system is like Boku no Hero getting a 3rd season, it makes no fucking sense.

Conclusion: SO IN THE END, WHAT DO WE KNOW? We know Classroom of the Elite has a great premise that leaves room for insanely intense psychological battles...that it doesn't deliver. The show's ranking system is as effective as cutting meat with a baked potato, and that if you're trying to simply advertise your light novel, MAYBE YOU SHOULD WAIT TILL IT'S OUT IN THE WEST! Classroom of the Elite boasts a strong character dynamic between its two main characters alongside strong first arc; however its refusal to do virtually anything with the plot points and conflicts it opens up results in the show becoming to stale for its mysteries to be worth solving.

tl;dr Classroom of the Elite is aight...but you'd be better off watching the other show that came out during the exact same season that ranks people off of their abilities and is the drama it sets out to be (Kakegurui)...*ahem*fuck Mother's Basement *ahem*.