Special A

Hikari Hanazono has always been able to do things that normal people cannot. As a child, she assumed no one could beat her—until she met Kei Takishima. Thinking she would win, Hikari challenged him to a match. But things didn’t go as planned; she lost not once but each time she rechallenged him. From that point on, she has sworn to best Kei at everything, ranging from academics to athletics.

To achieve her goal, Hikari enrolls in the same school as Kei—Hakusenkan, a prestigious institute for the wealthy. As a pair, they hold the top two rankings in school and are among seven of the academy's best students in a class known as Special A.

While Hikari treats Kei as a rival, she is completely oblivious that he harbors hidden feelings for her. Together, the members of Special A deal with competition, friendship, and just a bit of love.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Takishima, Kei Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Hanazono, Hikari Main

Gotou, Yuuko Japanese

Karino, Tadashi Main

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Tsuji, Ryuu Main

Horie, Kazuma Japanese

Yamamoto, Megumi Main

Takagaki, Ayahi Japanese

Toudou, Akira Main

Nabatame, Hitomi Japanese

Yamamoto, Jun Main

Yonaga, Tsubasa Japanese

Saiga, Yahiro Supporting

Taniyama, Kishou Japanese

Takishima, Sui Supporting

Shimizu, Kaori Japanese

Koupe Shuzette, Finn Supporting

Kawamura, Hiroshi Producer

Watanabe, Takashi Producer

Yamazaki, Fumiki Producer

Miyao, Yoshikazu Director, Episode Director

Reviews

Feb 10, 2023

armycat23

Recommended

This will always be the best comedy/romance high school anime to me.

Too often in a romance/comedy anime the side characters are pushed to the side as a mere after thought........and are just as significant to the story as minoru in boko no hero. THANKFULLY, that is not the case here. Each character in this anime has their own journey and it's fun to watch. Even certain characters who seem like an "antagonist" ends up being a character that is worth watching for his own growth.

I enjoy all the romantic couplings, and I'm going to say that my favorite of which isn't even ... the main guy/girl..........it's Akira and Tadishi.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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May 7, 2021

Shizukana_Sekai

Mixed Feelings

Special A came out in 2008 when I was first falling in love with anime, which is why I was rather surprised I had never heard of it before. Having watched it now, I realize that I hadn't missed much.

Story: Calling this a poor knockoff of Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama wouldn't exactly be fair, as this show came out two years prior, but it is difficult not to compare the two. Special A follows the now standard trope of a strong independent woman and her seemingly perfect male rival. While this trope is meant to signal female empowerment, that message falls flat when our female lead's ... "strong independence" always fails to surpass her male counterpart. Nearly every episode ends with the heroine being saved by the hero, even under circumstances where she had the situation under control and did not need saving.

Art: The art is as expected for 2008, and does nothing to help or harm the show.

Sound: The sound is about as bland as the art, but earns a slightly lower score due to a couple of glaring faults. The suspenseful music most often comes across as corny, and the voice actors have uncomfortably long pauses in between lines that is usually reserved for the dubbed community.

Character: The characters begin and end as boring tropes. In the first episode, I had hopes for real character growth on the part of the female lead, but that hope died quickly, and no other character came close to filling the gap.

Overall: This anime is a feel good that thought about making a statement and decided against it. To put it plainly, it was boring. Not bad enough to turn off, but never good enough to keep me watching at the cost of other things.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jan 14, 2025

MidniteAndBeyond

Not Recommended

Out of all the shows on my to-watch list, this one has been on there the absolute longest. Its been on there for so long, I honestly have no recollection as to why I put it on there in the first place. Did I like the art? Did I see the opening a million years ago and think it was good? Was it a recommendation from a friend? I have no idea! I've spent YEARS seeing this show as an absolute enigma because I've never heard anyone else talk about it, but it somehow made its way onto my to-watch list but would just NEVER. ... GET. WATCHED... UNTIL NOW, THAT IS! AND NOW, AT LONG LAST, I CAN FINALLY SAY..... this show is just fine.

The first half is very repetitive with your typical "will they or won't they" storyline between two characters who keep going back and forth between loving and hating each other. It does get a bit more interesting in the second half as the other cast members get more of a spotlight, but of course they all end up turning into forced romances between characters who have little to no chemistry with one another. It's also just a very... odd set up. The main cast is part of this elite group of students who are the smartest in their school, which gives them the privilege of.... sitting in a greenhouse in their school uniforms all day, instead of going to class? Uhhh.... sure. And also they're all super rich for seemingly no reason other than for being able to do whatever and go wherever they want every episode. Feels kinda anticlimactic to have this show that I've been meaning to watch for so long end on such a "whatever" note, but I really don't have much else to say. It was fine. I might've enjoyed it more if I had seen it back when I first discovered it. But at this point in time, I've seen these types of characters and storylines done 1000 times over, and often executed much better in many other shows. Special A? More like... Average... K... heh... heh... I'm so tired.

5/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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