|
|
||||||||||
| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rent | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 7 |
 Ggultra2764
|
[series:3396#1552] |
|
Classroom of the Elite follows in the footsteps of anime like My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU and Assassination Classroom that offer a more jaded perspective on high school life. For this anime, school life for the students runs on a merit-based system where students earn points to cover everyday living expenses based on their grades and behavior on the campus. The main character of focus in this series is Kiyotaka Ayanokouji, a seemingly ordinary student who is part of the first year D class where the school's inferior students are placed. Classroom of the Elite's jaded approach on high school life is that equality's a sham and it's showing the students that life is completely unfair. The school system within the series is deliberately set up to weed out students oblivious to the manipulative and deceitful nature of many of the staff and students, valuing only those with the intelligence and abilities to see through them. Much of the anime's focus is on Class D overcoming the school's adversity to improve their academic performance and behavior, as the points they earn for their livelihood is dependent on everyone working together cohesively as a class. An interesting element to relevant characters introduced within Class D is that each student has some sort of personal flaw that led to them being entered within said class, such as Horikita's inability to trust others and Kushida's genki gal personality being a facade. There is gradual growth from some of these characters to overcome their personal flaws, though not to a sufficient degree due to the anime having an inconclusive ending. Another entertaining element to the series are the games of strategy that the classes have against one another. Classroom of the Elite runs on a few episodes arcs where the members of Class D often have to plan and sort out how to overcome a specific crisis facing their class. Each arc devotes enough time to explore how the characters are thinking through developments and the plans they have in mind to either avert the situation, swing events in their favor, or allow more to be revealed about the circumstances of the current situation. For the most part, the series did a great job dropping hints, and offering concise logic and motive with the actions performed by the characters within each arc. These solid story elements aside, Classroom of the Elite does have its fair share of hiccups. The series does usually get derailed by some fan pandering that detracts from its more cerebral focus, in particular an episode ran in the middle of its run that is mostly an excuse to feature fan service from showing the characters in bathing suits for a pool episode. Kiyotaka's very character is also a bit of a double-edged sword. While shown to have hidden intellectual talents that he's obviously hiding from the class and hints dropped of having an ulterior motive for being at the school, the series doesn't dabble too much into his character's backstory and never really has a chance to develop due to the anime's inconclusive ending, an obvious dilemma due to its light novel source material still being ongoing as of this review. The very premise of the series could also prove to be a barrier for some viewers, as many characters in the series can be quite unlikeable at many points to go along with the anime's more cynical perspective of high school life. Overall in spite of its mixed reception, I actually found Classroom of the Elite to be rather solid in the execution of its premise exploring the struggles of Class D and showing some solid psychological focus on some of the characters thoughts and machinations. While having its flaws, its premise is still unique enough where I'd at least recommend checking it out at least once. Last updated Saturday, January 19 2019. Created Saturday, January 19 2019. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
|
[series:3396#628] | ||||||
|
(Eight episodes watched): This was one of the last new Summer 2017 anime that I watched the first episode of (because I was more-or-less watching them in alphabetical order), but I'm glad I gave a look to every title, because this one initially struck me as pretty good. Early on, I was wondering how serious it would be, because the character designs are pretty simple, which usually indicates comedy. But the show turned out to be a drama, and an intriguing one. Basically, these students were made to think that they would always be treated like kings and queens, but in fact they were undergoing a sort of test of their virtues, and most of them have come up lacking. It turns out that there was a price to be paid for admission to this posh school. They are in a bind now, but there's no indication that their lives are in danger or anything like that. Complete humiliation might be the worst thing that will happen to them, which, in a way, makes the show more interesting than the countless ones that trade in violence. Topics like greed and selfishness are often more fun than who lives and who dies. This is a situation which, while unlikely, really could happen. After watching episode one I had little idea where the story would go, but was confident that it would be entertaining. Protagonist Ayanokoji was one of the few who didn't spend his credits recklessly and classmate Morikita seems to have suspected that something funny was going on. I concluded that this would almost certainly be a show which I would watch to the end. But episode two was not as much fun as episode one had been. I had been left with the feeling that something big must be just around the corner; surely the students just running out of money can't be worst thing that happens to them. But no, that seems to have been about it. Nobody (with one possible exception) is undergoing intense psychological stress, or at least if they are, we aren't being told about it. I wished I understood the criteria by which students are assigned to various classes, the high prestige, average, and low prestige ones (why does such an elite academy maintain a class D at all?). And the whole notion that you are arbitrarily assigned to one of four classes based on how you performed in an initial test, and cannot climb any higher in the status quo unless everybody else in your class does so as well, makes little sense. It's unfair and it's hard to see what purpose it serves. It would make far more sense if new classes were formed after each set of tests, and the one-fourth of students who did best got to be in the new Class A, etc. Perhaps if the administration came out and said 'Yeah, this system is unfair, but we just like fucking you over' things would be more fun. So, while not completely uninteresting, this show has been a disappointment. At least the tricks that Ayanokoji and Morikita use to persuade their teacher to bend the rules were fun. As the show progressed I found myself somewhat underwhelmed by it. It isn't nearly as 'psychological' as I had hoped--that is, we don't delve much into the feelings of the characters. Each episode begins with a fancy philosophical quote about human nature, but the show itself doesn't meet the high standard which they imply. And since the threat of violence is distinctly limited, we need psychological sophistication instead. We see what the characters do to stave off a number of attempts to get them expelled, but not what they think, which could have been somewhat more intriguing (and who wants them expelled, anyway?). A certain girl is still secretly spiteful and bitchy, right? I wish we had gotten more surprises like that, but we haven't and this one seems to have been largely forgotten. But I didn't sense that any explanation was forthcoming. The premise of winding up in a low status class isn't exactly mind blowing or earth shattering. This show seems to be trying to make a big deal out of an actually pretty modest premise. Shady machinations are underway behind the scenes--but why should I care? Being expelled from such a screwed up school as this might actually be a blessing. The premise had originally seemed to open a door; surely the psychological stress on the characters would build and intrigue us. But the characters haven't really gotten all that deep. Ayanokoji is still a man of mystery, but my patience has limits and I don't sense that when we presumably learn what his secret is it will be all that shocking. As I watched episode eight the thought occurred to me that maybe this show never would come together as a compelling, intriguing one, and therefore I should drop it. I had high hopes for this show at one time, but reluctantly decided that I was wasting my precious time here. Last updated Thursday, September 28 2017. Created Wednesday, August 02 2017. | ||||||||
