"The worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself"
- Lerche adaptor of this shi khammam, F. W. Nietzsche
The second season of Classroom of the Elite, I couldn't believe my eyes. I can still remember sitting in class and reading that on my MAL Home page on my mobile. I was hyped to be honest, after five years (Only one in my situation) the very 4/10 at max show has returned and will get a second season and right off the bat they announced the third season of the anime. In that moment i got a bit worried, 2 seasons one
...
after another, but that could be only good, right? No, that can also mean how little they are going to spend on one season and how fast they're going to animate it. At the time, I didn't want to think about it in any way, I just was too hyped. I started watching anime regularly a year or so ago, that time when I watched the first season, my expectations were not high at all, almost anything would have been good just don't be boring af and be different from the regular story line (new experience, which I had not at all at the time).
It was in the second seasons second episode that I felt like something was missing and how the story didn't add up, not to mention the insanely low quality of the episode (I have read at reddit that 2nd episode was handled by another studio small Vietnamese company, and I think that this is Lerche fault but let's ignore that), I wanted to know if the light novel itself was that bad or have they just fucked up, so I gave it a go. I was amazed, I loved it so much. I read through the whole thing in one week (was summer and I had nothing better to do). But let's forgett that this is an adaptation and only try to evaluate what we have received (experience) from the second season as its own story.
The story starts off where they left it at the end of the first season (also ignore the fact how many plot-holes and adaption issues were also there). Continuation of this insanely OP manufactured introverted MC who just want to live an ordinary high school life, and the only thing what I can call entertaining about the show. Continuation of the cardboard sidecast and the tools "hihihiha I have no fucking emotion". But let's talk about everything in parts so maybe I can give you a better overview of why you wouldn't like this show.
MC alias the black belted in every martial art, cold as Einstein, who transcends all natural human limitations, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.
The storytelling from the MC is wrong, because there aren't any kind of monologue or only limited amount, we have no idea what my man thinks. I mean just look at him, he's not expressing any kind of emotion, like nearly every medieval age portrait and doesn't feel anything too. And that's why I could not like him if I was only watching the anime. There isn't any entertaining element of the character that you could enjoy while watching this. "But Lacito, he's soo good at everything and soo smart", yeah right, there is some kind of problem (special exam, someone going to be raped or someone going to expel him and his classmates). Don't worry:
- Kiyotaka: "/gamemode 1" (Creative)
- *lays down every inch of the plan that is perfect*
- Kiyotaka: "/gamemode 2" (Spectator)
- Everyone else: "OMG somehow we got through everything, and we won"
"Then where is the problem?", you might ask. The problem is that the ** part got less screentime than Naruto's frog wallet in Shippuden. We can't see the mind game. We have zero chance getting to things from ourselves, how he did this and that. And the theme of this anime is "Psychological" xd, no, not really. My man just comes down as a lifeless MC and you can only relate like "omg he's just like me" or "yeah I want to be this antisocial genius". Let me give u some advice, don't every be Kiyotaka in IRL, you're not the Terminator.
The Supporting Cast / Side Characters
This is the point where I lost, I cannot bring up any argument why any of the side character is good if you watched only the anime. They just don't adapt the reason why you should like any of them. Every character is soo lifeless and does nothing. Exception is that you like random waifus with big booties, then why don't you just go watch a harem and not a "psychological" anime. Those will grant some genuine fun than these paper bags who rattle. And another problem is people very easily tend to turn it in to waifu war argument, by saying "Kei is the best" or "Horikita was soo much better at season 1" and because of that, the main issue doesn't even get addressed. What are these characters?
[ Karuizawa Kei the blond-haired parasite whose personality is ]
- Kei: "Oh no, they used to hurt me at school soo badly" *proceed to spreads her legs*
*Kiyotaka pulls up her shirt UwU, and there is a scar*
- Kiyotaka: "Karuizawa... There exist many kinds of despair, and you've experience qualifies without question"
*MC start using as she is a tool, and bait her in even more despair to manipulate her*
*Kei acknowledge the fact he's using her*
*Kei falls in love after MC saves her* That's it
[ Satou Maya random girl ]
*Kiyotaka runs fast in a race*
- Satou: "OMG You are soo hot, please go out with me"
[ Horikita Suzune, the girl we thought is the main heroine in the anime ]
*Being as arrogant a human can be*
*Kiyotaka who doesn't feel anything*
*Befriending each other*
There is no point of any girl if we just look at the anime, this is just a waifu race and we wait who's going to melt Terminator heart first. And there are the memers like Yamauchi, Kouenji and Sudo. None of them can be taken seriously, maybe Kouenji but he just acts like a monkey. And the worst part is probably that there is zero interaction between two side character like 95% of the time. ONLY the MC has interactions and that's all.
Art/Animation
This is where the anime becomes a joke fr. I have no idea what they thought when they released this, did they not give this any kind of proof watch to say that "Hey Tim at episode six 13:30 why is one runner is stepping over the other’s head???" or "Why the animation is overall static and look like 2000s computer graphic???". Everything is just soo bad, if you just look in any episode at Kiyotaka face at the background or EVEN when he's in the focus, how badly it can look and low budget. Let's not even talk about things like Albert's egghead and which sometimes looks like the hilltop of the Csomolungma, how bad Sakayanagi looks compared to her 1st season design, and the fact that they want to perspectively animate something and at the same time one-dimensionally (See for yourself Ep 5, 6:43 timestamp). This is probably the worst part of this season
Sound
I also need to mention this part so my review won't miss any parts while you might wonder about how good it is. I assure you; you won't miss out on anything. The sound and the background music in the main time is mediocre, sometimes I feel epic music should be played and maybe there comes something insane that can hype me up in absence of clean animation, for example the Kushida reveals that she's the ImPoSTorE and there isn't a single sound or enigmatic music playing. But to be honest the OP is spot on and very well done. It's not something I would listen all the time, but I have to say something positive, not just negative arguments.
Story
"What could go wrong with psychology themed anime?" you might ask. In the history of anime there was quite a lot of perfect examples of this theme, just one and two for the example: Steins;Gate which tells you a story about time travel and its problems, Death Note a story about a guy with god complex, and all of these with great questions and with REAL entertainment. This should be the best part of a psychology themed anime and NOT THE OP. But just stop for a minute, "Has the story been written badly?" no, definitely not "But then what's the problem? Where did they go wrong?" No idea. There was a masterpiece on the bookshelf, and they should have just taken it down and animated a ufotable category masterpiece with great direction. Sounds not that challenging rigth? Well, it seems like that's not the case. There isn't any kind of element that can be called psychological. Maybe they thought if they put random quotes with no purpose or meaning, at the start of the anime then it's going to be psychological. No, it won't be that. And now the plot section of the story. As I explained above, see fourth paragraph. There isn't any kind of explanation about how the MC does what he does, you have zero clue as to what's going to be his next move. You are just watching a National Geographic documentary about monkeys, but there is a superior among them who controls everyone, just like a totally "normal" high school student. There isn't any kind of progress going on in the class standings either, because THEY DIDN'T SHOW IT ONCE AT THE WHOLE SEASON. Isn't the goal to graduate from class A? We have no idea about standings or how the OTHER classes are progressing. There is no development about the characters at all, they don't have a story or a background. The MC is the same white room student as he used to be, but he said that "I want a normal school life", this is the biggest contradiction in the whole anime.
And finally in a Summary
I don't recommend this show because you won't enjoy it if your expectations are high. I can't think of any reason, as to why you should watch this show. However, despite all the flaws I’ve pointed out, i did somewhat liked this show because of the background work from the LN, but as you can see "Not Recommended" is how I feel.
Overall score 3/10
Thank you for taking the time to read my review
Sep 26, 2022 Not Recommended Well-written  Spoiler
"The worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself"
- Lerche adaptor of this shi khammam, F. W. Nietzsche The second season of Classroom of the Elite, I couldn't believe my eyes. I can still remember sitting in class and reading that on my MAL Home page on my mobile. I was hyped to be honest, after five years (Only one in my situation) the very 4/10 at max show has returned and will get a second season and right off the bat they announced the third season of the anime. In that moment i got a bit worried, 2 seasons one ... |
