Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e

On the surface, Koudo Ikusei Senior High School is a utopia. The students enjoy an unparalleled amount of freedom, and it is ranked highly in Japan. However, the reality is less than ideal. Four classes, A through D, are ranked in order of merit, and only the top classes receive favorable treatment.

Kiyotaka Ayanokouji is a student of Class D, where the school dumps its worst. There he meets the unsociable Suzune Horikita, who believes she was placed in Class D by mistake and desires to climb all the way to Class A, and the seemingly amicable class idol Kikyou Kushida, whose aim is to make as many friends as possible.

While class membership is permanent, class rankings are not; students in lower ranked classes can rise in rankings if they score better than those in the top ones. Additionally, in Class D, there are no bars on what methods can be used to get ahead. In this cutthroat school, can they prevail against the odds and reach the top?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ayanokouji, Kiyotaka Main

Chiba, Shouya Japanese

Horikita, Suzune Main

Kitou, Akari Japanese

Karuizawa, Kei Supporting

Taketatsu, Ayana Japanese

Sakayanagi, Arisu Supporting

Hidaka, Rina Japanese

Ichinose, Honami Supporting

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Sakura, Airi Supporting

Ichimichi, Mao Japanese

Ryuuen, Kakeru Supporting

Mizunaka, Masaaki Japanese

Kouenji, Rokusuke Supporting

Iwasawa, Toshiki Japanese

Kushida, Kikyou Supporting

Kubo, Yurika Japanese

Chabashira, Sae Supporting

Satou, Rina Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Tanaka, Shou Producer

Iizuka, Aya Producer

Ogata, Mitsuhiro Producer

Reviews

Mar 22, 2025

ggol

Recommended

Brief overview: Must-watch
It's about a prestigious elite school that can grant all the students that attend that academy a prestigious university when they graduate, or at least a high- ranking job. However, all students are tested through all kinds of circumstances. If they fail to meet the school's criteria, they would have no choice but to be expelled. Therefore, there are many mind games, psychology, and mystery involved in order for the student to succeed.

The review will be based on the whole season, from season 1 to season 3.
9/10 from this point.

Introduction
Kiyotaka, a first-year student, has recently been accepted into a prestigious elite high ... school that can grant all the students a prestigious university once graduated, if not they would at least gain a high level position for any job they desire. Interested in this school life, he decided to attend that school where it would test all its students to their fullest.

Story 10/10
If you like mystery, psychology, mind-games, problem-solving, or detective type of anime, then you are in for a treat, and it's quite similar to Squid Game. The story is set in Japan's most prestigious school that can grant all the students a prestigious scholarship to a well-known university or a high-ranking job position, which can earn them $$$. At first, the school introduced their rules to all students and they must comply with it no matter what. They cannot leave the school under any circumstance, however, there is a dormitory, shopping centres, bribery, and many activities that the outside world has that can be provided into the school. All students will earn a digital currency each month that allows them to purchase all the necessary or self-desired needs, but the currency they earn is based on both their performance and the class performance. With each semester, all the classes will be given various exams that determine their rankings from D to A class. All the exams have all sorts of conditions and rules, and the consequences that each exam gives vary all the time. Some would simply just boost the class's ranking, but some would have to let each class's vote on which student to expel. So generally speaking, it's a very mind-bending anime that tests all its characters to their limit because the school will always provide exams on various scenarios, some are simply to boost the class ranking, and some that make students participate in difficult choices on who to expel. On some circumstances, students would do anything they can to survive within that school, by bribing, falsely accusing one another, or simply hurting them and use them as a tool.

Animation: Season One 9/10, Season Two 6/10, Season Three 7/10
The animation for the first season was outstanding and amazing. All the fight school and action is so well animated, and a lot of unexpected fan-service has been added to enjoy the entertainment. After season one hot damn that is one gigantic fall from grace where the animation looks like a predecessor from its formerself and it is so painful hard to watch because the quality and movement are so janky for the most part. This is one of the rarest anime where it started off so well but fell so hard on its animation that rivals Nanatsu No Taizai season 3's animation. If you think that OPM S2 looks like shit, trust me that is only a slight downgrade when compared to something like this. Without being bias, we do have to give the animators some credit as season 3's animation did improve and the animators learned many of its mistakes from season 2, but it is still a far cry from season 1 when 2 and 3 are compared.

Characters 9/10
Everyone in this series acts with their mask on, and when their mask is off, they show their real selves. It's a very interesting character from COTE because everyone is always manipulating one another or not trying to show their real selves. It's more like everyone in COTE is always trying to hide their background because most of them all have tragic or unsettling stories, which is way the characters in COTE are great and not by the book standard because there are so many plot twists.

Conclusion
This is certainly one of the greatest anime ever made, which has a story that involves many mind games and characters that has unique personalities and stories. However, the animation did hit a massive downturn eversince after season 1, but it still a very enjoyable anime to watch as the story and characters are still great.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Feb 12, 2025

Narxiss

Mixed Feelings

The entire season felt like a prologue or an exposition for the anime. Certain episodes like those that happen on the island were not really relevant to the plot. They just introduce more characters. There were in my opinion only two plot twists throughout the story, which is fine although surprising since I expected this anime to have more. But again, the season may have served as an exposition.

Despite that, it was an easy watch. The last scene of this first season is possibly the only reason I am choosing to continue watching it. I hope the second season will be as easy to watch ... as this one.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 16, 2025

Random9017

Not Recommended

Classroom of the Elite, high expectations, low outcome.
I came into watching COTE with extremely high expectations because of all the praise ive heard, but all I left with was a show with a mostly one dimensional "MC is better than everyone else and wants to be left alone" and characters with tropes ive seen way too many times to count, and a UNGODLY amount of useless fan service, which only purpose it serves is to drive up viewerbase of weird people who wants to see up a girls skirt every minute. Overrated, boring, unoriginal and so much fan service id rather watch hentai.
2/10 would not ... recommend

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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