Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e: 2-nensei-hen
Classroom of the Elite: Year 2

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This is the definition of masterpiece. like literally the story is amazing and characters like kiyotaka and nanase and some others have an outstanding character development. it is very enjoyable from year 1 until year 2 i only read it in 2 weeks i even ditched anime for awhile just for this masterpiece. it is very enjoyable some scenes/moment are just unforgettable. i tip my hat to you Shougo Kinugasa truly an amazing piece of work. can't wait for the Year 2 Volume 4.

The 1st Volume of Second year is exciting because the introductions of new rivals that Kiyotaka and his class have to overcome ... is more challenging and especially the new 1st years designs and their characters are just splendid. also the scene where Hosen and Kiyotaka is very badass

The 2nd Volume of Second year is just as exciting with seeing the reactions of students from hearing about the results of the special exam. students are now more aware of Kiyotaka's existence and his true abilities. also the reveal and the new rules of the New Uninhabited Island Exam.

The 3rd Volume of Second year is absolutely amazing. i don't even know where to start. the character development and backstory of Nanase Tsubasa is just amazing. the plans of the new 1st years is just exciting and then there's Kushida and Amasawa scene, that has to be my favorite scene. even though the ending is a cliffhanger i was glad it was. i rather wait a few months to get an excellent ending of a story arc rather than a lousy rushed one.

and thanks again to Shougo Kinugasa. i tip my hat to you and ganbatte keep on writing masterpieces for us to read. that's all from me thank you.

This novel is the definition of the word overrated and I don't even know where to begin. It is a continuation of year 1 which was slightly better but mediocre at best. What stands out in this particular year though, is the author's inability to properly conclude the arcs. I'll get into that shortly.

The setting already ridiculous in year 1, now gets even crazier with the introduction of the first year students. There's a literal carbon copy of Kenpachi Zaraki joining the school now. This guy is completely nuts and doesn't hesitate beating the shit out of anyone that dares to cross paths with him. ... He also has a history with street fighting and was apparently a very dangerous individual. What the fuck is the school doing?

What's even crazier about this guy is the fact that he had a confrontation with our main character, in which he literally uses a knife(to stab his own leg). "What's the problem if he's stabbing his own leg"? Before that confrontation he beat the crap out of Horikita(a girl) and Sudo. Had he tried to stab one of these guys, they would drop dead right there and then. The school literally accepted such a dangerous individual without keeping him in check. That's because apparently, the student council president decides the rules and if he wants violence, you've got violence. Japan is somehow blowing up its fortune for this school but there's a risk that the students might get killed for no other reason but to increase the probability of getting a good job? Yeah, No.

Speaking of the characters, I've noticed a pattern. You can describe most of these people with one trait. In fact in one of the volumes it was stated that a student from the third year, was the female version of Koenji. They're incredibly bland and unrealistic. Sudo has been behaving like a domestic animal throughout the novel. Our main character always has to mention the fact that he's growing up because of Horikita. Whenever she tells him to stop he stops. Without her putting a leash on him, he becomes aggressive. And speaking of bland characters, I've got to say that the author did try to change that even though it definitely didn't work out as intended.

If you're familiar with the anime then I guess you remember the final exam that was held in that island. Well in the year 2 novels there are two volumes dedicated to another island exam. Before these volumes we were introduced with some students that would play an important role in the future. One of them was a first year student known as Nanase. This girl was introduced in the first volume of this year, and apparently she was sent there to get our main character expelled. Furthermore the exam itself raised the stakes like never before because every student would participate no matter the year. Guess what happens? Utter disappointment.

Nanase was the main focus on the first half of this exam probably to build up some suspense for her confrontation with the main character. And finally when the confrontation does happen, the disappointment sets in and I start questioning the reason why I'm reading this novel. Nanase tries to challenge Ayanokoji in a fistfight. You heard that right she wants to brawl. But that's not the worst part. The fight that ensues is one of the most idiotic fights in history. Ayanokoji dodges every single one of her attacks with no effort whatsoever forcing her to unleash her secret technique known as "boku". If Nanase says boku, she switches her personality as well as her fighting style. Apparently she also hits as hard as a man. From watashi to boku, from a woman to a man, from jiu jitsu to karate, the boku technique knows no limits. Unfortunately for Nanase, our mc had already been trained with Whis before the exam, unleashing his mastered ultra instinct that allows him to dodge her attacks even when she closes the distance. Since she's unable to land a single hit, she goes nuts and starts screaming like Goku back when Frieza killed Krillin in Namek.

The sheer stupidity of this entire volume knows no limits when you consider the fact that this was supposed to be the main event of the first half of that arc. After that, Ayanokoji uses talk no jutsu into making her his ally.

And that's the first part of the exam. On the second part Tsukishiro( the guy who sent Nanase to get Ayanokoji expelled), decides to personally intervene. He decides to throw hands. In the end the fight ends without a valid result and Tsukishiro leaves. Every single conflict in this volume was resolved with fights. Ryuuen and his goons vs Hosen, Horikita and Ibuki vs Ichika, Ayanokoji vs Nanase, Ayanokoji vs Shiba and Tsukishiro and so on. The novel tries too hard to give the impression that it excels in multiple fields yet it fails miserably. Currently reading it has become a chore and there's absolutely nothing to look forward to. But I did have a good laugh during the whole Nanase incident.

This ,,Creation" is like slapping a big piece of unprepared meat on a little clean side plate.

YouZitsu is a specific title, that despise it's flaws, hate and of course edgy kindergarten fanbase was at some point a really solid, entertaining and overall, interesting story, but unfortunately we were bestowed with utter disappointment called ,,Year 2", that not only is bland in a way it feels like every volume is a build up for another tome, but what is more ridiculous ruins the entire development characters received in Year 1.

Shortly, one of the main leads that were carrying this show got a complete degrade. For ... instance Ayanokoji feels more robotic and dead inside along with release of Volume 0 that made him a god damn robocop at this point, whilst Karuizawa that had a strong influence in year 1 and went through drastic changes, not only does she get like 2 pages of content but becomes even more miserable than she was previously.

We don't stop here of course, because there is more! In year 2 the so-called ,,villains" despite greatness of their backstory or promise they show early on, turn out to be just some bugs that MC ultimately spits on because, you know, Ayanokoji is great, Ayanokoji is godlike, Ayankoji never loses and is 1954 steps in front of you!

And I could go on with certain aspects like this but the last aspect I will present is just hillarious. This show had some harem-like vibes but you could stand it with the outcome of 11.5 and it just being not that visible. Year 2 is just a straight-on harem, you literally get short stories when some random ass girl that no1 even remembers falls in love with Ayano because she felt like someone can notice her presence. Now if there is any girl in MC's range of breath she instantly falls for him, those are the vibes the show gives.

Overall it is a total big black stain to the franchise, if someone looked forward to his relations with other characters you will be better off with some fan wrote stuff, because all you will get is boring story, degrade of characters, ruined premises of Year 1 and every female going gung-ho on MC.

If by some chance the show redeems itself in last volumes I will gladly change the rating.
(I highly doubt it tho)

Prolly one of my first LNs i have ever read, but despite my dislike in reading books this was one of those which pulled me inside the story. Although i know not many people out there would "always" like the story no matter how much of a masterpiece it is (*cough* aot fanbase *cough*). In my opinion a story is decided as a masterpiece when majority of the people like it, the more the people like the higher ranking it gets. So, i am mainly writing this to calm myself to the other negative comments about this LN, more like i had to show my ... own view as well.

This being one of my favourites was a hell of a rollercoaster, i would probably never forget this summer when i read this, probably the best summer i ever had.

Yes, i will stop simping on the the novel and dive into my ratings. At first when i came across the anime i was like it was a meh sort of any average "overpowered" anime sort of vibe, but was watchable, i think i never really dived into this later on, i was aware it had an a LN, since my friends had read this already and were using Ayanakouji pfps all over the place (not saying i am not one of those myself right now). Then i guess a year or two later i was watching some anime compilations and came across this again, and i hoped when it will get a season 2, when i researched a bit on the next season release date and also asking some of my friends i understood that this anime was supposed to promote the Ln or some sort. Well, to be honest this was my sole reason "at first" to read this. Either way i started off from the fourth where the anime had stopped (dont attack my dms, i know you lot being "how can he miss out on these parts blah blah", i am lazy for godsake"). I usually thought LN would be much complicated to read than mangas, well it was a fault on my side for judging too fast, but i understood the true worth of this novel.

Now leaving the first part of course, i know this is supposed to be a review about the 2nd year, but i was lazy to post both reviews so forget that. Starting with Ayanakouji his intentions were never revealed at the beginning giving the reader more of a mixed feeling of anxiousness, confusion, thrill, tension etc. and as additional bonuses even drops of sweat and tears. I think some people dont think this way of writing, that is mainly because of plot armor which is basically an invisible barrier that protects the mc no matter what, but that as well is can be subjective is some manner. To me it felt like plot armor was basically non-existent, because the main plot revolves around Ayankouji expulsion and danger in different ways, and it was at this 2nd year novel where it had peaked. Imagining the first years and second battling Ayankouji would be normally thought as "exaggeration" but i really do think if he is the so-called "masterpiece" he should be able to escape any situation possible, but of course this isnt the case, the way outcomes of his plan plays out depends on the situation he was mainly in, for example his situation was really hard to get out of and he lacked the power to crush the opponent he would normally escape and not do anything extra to avoid risk, but if it was a situation easy to handle he would implement a strategy which would be the most beneficial. And i would say he has peaked of killing 6 birds with one stone at one point in the plot.

Especially in second year when the unusual combinations of the first years who were both strong and smart had amazing above-average strategies planned against Ayanakouji, they do have my respect for that, but the only downside is that they underestimate their opponent and lack the analysing prowess Ayanakouji posses, although the white room student did make my skin crawl after his plans were revealed in 4.5, which i think is the best competition Ayanakouji can get at the moment. It's not only Ayanakouji, but the characters all around him who have their stories revolving around the main plot and playing it's part at specific times. i would however skip those and mainly give overview of Ayanakuji's story since this would be never-ending. Now resuming my point at hand, Kinugasa had seriously done an amazing job with the storyline, its all about the random plot points which plays out in the start having no relation and its all spread out here and there, which starts connecting. And its not only at the end that these points connect, Kinugasa devised the story to play out in such a way and had timed when and where certain scenarios have to take place in order to make it both easier and sensible to read. When i was reading the final part of 4.5 listening to Beethoven Für Elise, was a truly a blissful time in my life. It was at this time i knew that a main character cannot get any better than this, it also helped me to trust that Ayanakouji will handle the White room student with ease, because his expressions were portrayed that way in the end.

One of the good things about the second years is that it was beautifully planned out. With the intergrade battle, president Nagumo's affect on the plot. development of certain character was certainly delivered. Although i guess some people wouldnt see it that way, it would usually be because the difference in how you imagine the scenario to play out in you head.
To me this was a different feeling than the first year, mainly due to the fact because Ayanakouji had peaked my expectations for him and this novel was all about how he would maintain that status of him.

As i reached 4.5 i endlessly started to search up Vol 5 release date, cause i didnt want to get stuck on a this part. The white room student whom i will not name yet, but his presence and plans were one of the best out of any character so far only second to Ayanakouji. Its just that this made my feel insecure about my expectations for Ayanakouji, and started thinking will there finally be another person who would outsmart him. But sadly i knew what would happen, I had to hold on to these doubts until the next Volume comes out, yes it is truly sad, I am in pain, I change my views, this sucks, dont read it, no just kidding if you do have time this would definitely be one of a good ways to pass some time.

This may sound like a really illogical way of thinking since i am placing my emotions and not my brain, but that is irrelevant to me at this point. While reading this the ratings and constructive criticism is at the bottom of my list, because i mainly read this to feel relaxed and take out my stress on the flow of the story, and just let me sweep me away into the depth.

Also, while reading this if you feel i am not expressing the excitement compared to the scores i gave, dont think about that. I am sweating typing all this, because this is the best story i read so far.

[To lazy to correct my spelling error]

Hi and welcome to another round of “Is this actually that good or is it just that mostly only fans of the previous work read it, inflating the score?”. And I guess my overall score already spoiled you the answer.

2nd year of Classroom of the Elite is pretty much the same as the 2nd half of the previous novel series. Which is to say – fans won’t be disappointed, but it is still boring. It retains most of the faults that I’ve complained about in a review for the previous part, but it does improve a little. Not enough for me to give it a ... higher score, at least not enough yet, but the improvement is here. This is mostly about more emphasis of MCs inner thoughts and finally, more insight into his actual planning instead of a plan just popping up out of nowhere near the finale of a volume. Other than that it’s the usual pattern of “Ayanokouji saves everyone’s ass during the flavour of the week trial“.

Ironically, this is also a downside for the first volume, as it is overdone in quite wrong direction. Certainly, we now get to read the protagonists planning, but in this particular case it was absolutely annoying. He has to choose one person to pair with from over hundred people, and that person can’t be the single “spy” from White Room. Had he chosen at random, the probability of failure would be less than 1:100. Now I understand that he really doesn’t want to be expelled, but the volume is just riddled with the same though pattern all over again – “I might choose someone with xy characteristics as someone from White Room wouldn’t have such characteristic, but they could have expected me to do that and fabricate that characteristics, so I won’t choose like that”. This goes on for some time. The longer Ayanokouji takes, the less people he can choose from. The chase for 100% sure-fire way leaves him with worse and worse chances of succeeding. What is worse is that there are no repercussions for this terrible planning decision at all, as a solution just falls into his hand, almost literally.

Onto more general criticism, Classrom of the Elite commits what I consider a grave sin for books - the text is there only to describe what is happening. I know what some of you might be thinking - "But that's what it's supposed to do!". Well, yes, but that is simply the most basic requirement for it to exist. With good books, you can feel the author from the text. Maybe it's some quips, maybe it's some nuggets of personal wisdom hidden in the story, maybe it's simply some linguistic quirks, but you can feel that there is more meaning to the text than to be just a plain script describing the scene. It doesn't have to be always of course, just once in a while will do. Additionally, with books narrated by a character, the character's personality should influence how is the narration written. My favourite example of that would be Monogatari Series, where some of the volumes are narrated by different characters and you can absolutely tell the difference. But not even a hint of anything like that is happening in Classroom of the Elite. It's just a simple text rid of any literary value. And I think this is the biggiest reason why reading this series feels so painfully boring to me and that to even continue reading I have to constantly keep forcing myself to do so.

Back to some specifics. My biggest peeve about YouJitsu is how little the setting makes sense. And this only gets worse. Now let me remind you that Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School is supposed to be an elite school. I’m reminding you this fact because I myself have basically forgotten this fact, as the students seem like mostly average students with some clever ones here and there mixed in. But that’s wrong. It’s supposed to be an elite school – not just that but high shot elite school that the government is focusing and pumping in ungodly amount of money and effort to maintain. And this is the cast that ends up attending to school? It’s not even justifiable by saying “but hey it’s class D, they are supposed to be the weakest”. Yeah, weakest in comparation, the worst class in top tier elite school should still be leaps above the average, yet most of the characters still feel like regular people filler that require those few people with actual talents to lead them through the whole school exams ordeal. Mentioning the finances, this leads to another question – who the fuck is funding this? The school facilities are like a small town, and that’s not counting outside parts like islands and boats. The students are literally handed out huge amounts of money for literally just participating in school activities correctly (while some students don’t get that much, when the total amount adds up it’s a huge pile of money just being thrown at high-schoolers). We even learn in previous novel that literally every student in Japan is automatically being evaluated if they are worthy of joining the school or not. Imagine the insane amount of paperwork just for that. And what for? To supposedly nurture few supposedly talented individual. And keep in mind only one class is considered to be this. And only the students of this class that managed to not get expelled. So in return for what can’t be anything else than tanking the budget of the whole nation, you get a shocking… circa 20 talented people per year? And that’s not all, those people (apparently) get to choose their carriers, so with this much effort you can still get what, a somewhat good baseball player? All that to hand out an employment recommendations by the school. It’s such a terrible investment return it’s unreal. It’s like the worst gacha ever funded by taxpayer’s money. I realize that goverments are known for being terrible with money decisions but fuck me, how are the citizens not rioting to stop this complete waste of everything? Not to mention the fake advertising of “hurr durr 100% students find employment”. From a writing point of view, Ayanokouji did not join the school – the school was created so Ayanokouji could join it and show of, and the school makes no sense outside of the POV of ths story.

Now, I’ve already mentioned how lot of the characters don’t even seem actually talented in the first place, but this gets worse. So many characters are problem children. This isn’t an elite school, this is a delinquent detention facility. Keep in mind that this is Japanese government funding this, deliquents are like the exact opposite of what they would want for the “bright future of the country”. Enter the new batch of students. The new D class suspiciously good at scheming – despite barely entering the school they pose a formidable threat to our protagonists. Just compare to how much of a bubbling idiots “our” D class was in their place previously. This seems the case because the power leveling sucks and the writing just power-upped others to create new antagonist without thinking about how much it wouldn’t make sense for the abilities of the new characters to be set as such. This is some beginner battle shounen writing mistake.

Back to the “delinquents” theme. With the new cast addition the setting absolutely collapses. You know what you would expect at school for modern society elites? To have to study a lot and shit like that. You know what you would not expect? For the school to accept an extremely violent individual, and for this individual to literally attempt a murder and get away with it. You know how Sudou defending himself was a big deal and he could be expulsed for that? Well that is thrown out of the window, because it seems that Ayanokouji needs an antagonist he could overpower with physical strength to now show off only his mental superiority, so the story throws in a dangerous maniac and the school is suddenly like “Yeah well you guys sort those little disagreement between yourself, we don’t care”, because somehow a student council president has the power to influence school policies for whatever the fuck reasons. And don’t try to excuse it with “but he only got away with it because people didn’t report the incident"". Firstly, I refuse to believe school wouldn’t keep tabs on such a volatile individual. Secondly and most importantly, while Ayanokouji kept him non-expeled to use him to get through a certain predicament, literally nothing is stopping him from reporting the incident after already solving said predicament. Well, one thing is stopping him – the script that wants to keep this antagonist in the story. And how are people still willing to stay in school where there is a chance of being stabbed or at least beaten up should they dissplease the wrong person? All thet for a small chance at job recommendation? Unless there is an apocalypse or absolute collapse for economy where getting a guaranteed job recommendation could make a difference between life and death (and nothing at all suggests such thing), it makes no sense for so many people to be willing to deal with the bullshit the school makes them to go through. And that applies even before literal violence becomes a possible threat. Similar to how this project has a low return for the goverment, the reward for the students isn't exactly that high either. Could actually talented people really not get a job just by their own efforts without it being handed to them by a goverment? The whole setting is a seriously flawed system, and that doesn't seem to be written like that on purpose (like as a critique of goverment doing useless but ridiculously expensive things).

Some of this might sound as just nitpicking, and indeed, if isolated, it wouldn't be that much of a problem. It gets worse when all these problems accumulate in one series, and when said series doesn't offer entertainment value to compensate. After all, belief can only be suspended when you're having fun.

I would also like to point out something about my rating. It might be 4/10, but for me that simply means "it could be even worse". But if you rate based on how many good things there are, or how likely you are to recommend it to others, then the rating would be 1/10. There is no good element of this novel and I can't think of any non-ironic reason I could have to recommend it to someone.

So yeah, for a novel that seems to advertise itself as for the “intellectuals”, you need to shut down your reasoning to even be able to accept the inconsistent plot. Classroom of the Elite is not a novel for clever people, it’s a novel for people who want to feel clever by inserting as the protagonist.

I want to start this review with saying that I read a lot. I don't want to seem snarky, or full of myself, I just want to say that I can recognize bad from good, when it comes to literature. Or maybe not? It's up to you to decide whether or not my review is helpful.
(Some spoilers included)

With that being said, Classroom of the elite isn't anything revolutionary when it comes to writing. Most of the descriptive paragraphs, are something you'll pretty much find in any other basic novel. You know "Her shyness was showing through her rosy-red cheeks" type of descriptions. Of course non ... of this means that the writing is bad per say, it's just average, and it does what it's supposed to. Giving the reader enough to work out the image.

What I can compliment this work on, are the characters. The whole premise of this guy, being exposed to white room torture at a young age, and somehow becoming this STEM scientist, instead of a crazed lunatic is fun to read. Also given that the medium in question is a light novel, it gives you more room to flesh out characters personalities, talk about their past and the like. Which the author does well enough. And I also like that they mature, and their motives change, it's not like they have this set goal from the beginning that they stick to. Most of my favorite characters started of being very one dimensional. But thankfully the author developed them so they didn't become insufferable. This is a personal pet peeve more than anything, but the author has, in my opinion, a problem with writing characters that you are supposed to hate. For example Ichika and Kushida are obviously written to be villains. But I cannot hate them, maybe because the main character is so otherworldly, that they do not pose a threat. No seriously, at this point Ayanokoji is written as this flawless being that the only weakness the author could come up with for him is, the fact that he doesn't watch anime so he fail a test based on that, and that he has trouble communicating. The author pulled the most anime trope ever.

With that being said, even though this piece is objectively cringe worthy, and it's target audience is mostly edgy teenagers that post sigma edits on the gram, it is such dumb fun. All these weird and strange exam challenges, are so out there that I can't help but laugh while reading the synopsis of them. Like the school at one point rents out a cruise. For an exam. What is this "The Suite Life on Deck"? Maybe I should read about the whole gist of the school again, but if the whole point of the school is to create academic elites I don't get why they accept average or below average students, seems counterintuitive, but then again it's a light novel. It's not supposed to make sense it's supposed to sell. Anyway, You-Zitsu or COTE whatever you call it, isn't this crazy work of fiction that everyone should indulge in. It is fun to read, it is also easy to read. So if you're looking to kill time after school or work, this is a good way to just turn off your brain and enjoy some outlandish story that you wouldn't be able to find in normal literature. So I am giving it a plus for characters, plus for creativity and average points for the rest (writing, progression, fluidity etc). Just don't take it seriously and enjoy it for the atypical work that it is.

While Year 1 felt like a masterpiece in some ways, Year 2 seems to be considerable weaker. Characters built up in Y1 as major antagonists are suddenly mostly harmless and meek. Characters developed to be important are suddenly nonexistent as if their progress never happened. Talk about gaslighting..

In Y1, there were so many characters being introduced and developed and yet basically none of them felt one dimensional.
Even way more characters were introduced in Y2 but the sad price paid was serious corners cutting. One dimensionality is a thing here, up to the point that even some of old characters feel more like a ... caricature. "I want to add mooore characters", says mangaka and perhaps it is his dream to break some record in handling so many of them. Unfortunately, he already cannot handle properly this much at this point. Why diluting so much if there are so many interesting personalities waiting (in vain) for more depth?

Oh, and the harem thingy. It was actually pretty decently done in Y1 where it was well understandable why Kiyotaka induced feelings in some girls. He also did not shy using these feeling for his strategies. It was part of the story and not purely a fan service.
Here however, it is like in every boring harem - he looks at a new girl and she gets wet.
It is also visible in short stories that feel like fillers or crude repeatings. Most of it is exactly the same as when it happened from Kiyotaka perspective and the benefit of having other character to interpret the situations is almost unused. What a wasted opportunity. Most of them have a single prupose to add a single sentence: "My heart beats so fast when he looks at me / talks to me / exists". Compared to Y1, it seriously feels boring.

I am probably too harsh (I still liked it as a whole) but I cannot avoid feeling that it is falling from creative uniqueness to bland mediocrity. Also mangaka saying cheerfully that he does not actually care much about girls and their progress and stories is pretty weird.

To be honest that light novel is pretty bad and very overrated.

The main character is basically a self-insert with a pseudo tragic backstory.

And what is that stupid bullshit about going to a high-class school just so you intentionally score low so you don't to stand out.
It defeats the purpose of going to a renown school in the first place.
MC is just a straight up edge lord that for some reason thinks people are tools, but not because he really is fucked in the head, NO, because he is badly written and his motivation makes no sense in the slightest.

Characters overall have no depth ... and are just plain bland. I don't want to write about them, I've alreay forgotten their names.

And I hate to break it to you, but this novel is complete and utter generic high-school self-insert garbage.

This review wasn't even worth my time.