Classroom of the Elite is easily, without question, the most pretentious series ever in the industry.
…you didn’t see that coming, did ya? It’s such an arbitrary trainwreck that it makes me wonder how I even managed to finish the whole thing in the first place. Now, I would like to crush your hand and say that there are a lot of titles that are infamous for acting smart while missing the slightest sparks of innovation. Titles that try too hard to look intelligent when they’re on the opposite end of that spectrum. Unfortunately, Classroom of the Elite is the biggest, most blatant example of that. This series had a lot of things on the table that would make for a solid light novel. But nah, all we have left is a complete clusterfuck of boredom, armed with incomprehensible yapping and littered notes that no one would ever bother to pick up. I don’t need to say more in the intro; let the complaining commence.
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The story of CotE is set in Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School, and it’s about a group of students competing with each other in a game of wits since they’re given remarkable freedom. This stars Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, the protagonist and main growing genius of the whole story, followed by the main heroine, Horikita Suzune, another genius who appears to be hot-headed as opposed to Kiyotaka’s cold blood. These two occasionally (or often, if any) contrast with each other in a lot of ways, but have very similar feats, and by extension, may work together to win this kind of game. So, with a premise like this, things are already starting to get complicated. Right off the bat, even though this may look amateur at first glance, I actually like how this series takes the game of wits plot to a whole new level. You see, Classroom of the Elite is one of the hardest series to understand, and that’s because its take on intelligence is connected through the exploration of humanity.
The story attempts to detail how intelligent and skillful each student is through various complex obstacles, not just in tests or something similar to those, but through character chemistry as well. Each character is given different characteristics and personalities, and all of those are very crafty ‘ahem’ narratively speaking. Even if some characters tend to have cookie-cutter personalities as part of their base kits, there has to be some sort of motivation, foreshadowing, or twisted growth to them. Keyword, “there has to be”, but we’ll get there when we get there. The series must have taken a lot of time to build up these foundations, and I must say that they’re very fascinating. How CotE sets these things up looks very promising and might even stand out from most other wit-focused anime/manga series. However, that’s where we end the line here, and the only passion I see from the series is the collection of ideas huddled together. If you take another look at how this series goes, it becomes a lot worse than one would ever anticipate.
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First of all, the exposition. We’re given initial information as to what’s going on in this title. The first few chapters are actually pretty alright. Not very good, sure, but it still does its job. We’re getting a decent handful of moments where these ideals are explored. We see Kiyotaka, who, even though he already has pretty high intelligence, builds up his foundations on his own in order to overcome his obstacles. Hell, we even see that he’s an introvert, meaning that he has a hard time communicating with other people. He’s a stoic figure, sure, but he was a pretty interesting character with these observations (‘ahem’ “was”). Not only that, but we also see how other characters tend to act that connect with one of the series’ major feats, a character’s ability and strategy to overcome. These first few chapters would be better, sure, but these are just the prologue of the series. Unfortunately, this won’t be carried into the light. Onwards is where the series completely dropped the flower base.
From here, the story begins to throw in a lot of things that would be interesting and/or enticing, but end up leaving them in the dust. CotE just seems to be bored with developing or looking out for its ideas, and instead, excuses viewers about how it acts smart or something, idk. Really, it’s essentially a nothingburger that doesn’t bother with touching any ideas it either keeps or creates as the story “progresses” (if you want to call it that). Yeah, the story is about wits, human struggles, and stuff, but what about them? What makes your interpretation of those things? This is what I was referring to when I said that it’s a nothingburger. It’s textbook ‘tell, don’t show’. CotE heavily relies on infodumping in order to move forward, which not only leaves its charms to dry out but also damages its intended directions. It absolutely hurts to see. Not only are they completely dry, but the two crucial elements, intentions and ideologies, tend to clash with each other, for some reason. Yeah, even if the series does touch on some things for once after its diabolical laziness, it would end up making very contradictory points, which, in turn, would break its already damaged plot more than it would fix it.
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There’s one character that caused all of this trainwreck, and that would be our star character, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. As mentioned, Kiyotaka was a fine character. He may be initially smart, but he still had his struggles and was introverted. These things would make him a better character when you consider how cold-blooded he is. But, again, after a few chapters, all the care put into his character is completely vandalized. For starters, Kiyotaka is shown as perfect in every aspect, including physical ability and intelligence. For the record, I’m not saying that’s always a bad thing, as some of my favorite characters like Minakami Yuki from Subarashiki Hibi, for example also are prodigal geniuses with jacked abilities, but Kiyotaka almost has no flaws. He trivializes everything that blocks his path without a sweat. Not only does this take away any sense of tension or charm, but it also turns other characters that may have potential to be interesting and charismatic into his personal sausage suckers. Kiyotaka only gets stronger in all dimensions without a consequence.
And if you think it ends here, it doesn’t. Kiyotaka is shown to be the master of social skills, to the point of turning him into a cheap harem protagonist. There’s literally no explanation as to how he comes to this conclusion. Hell, even if you give this some points, him getting a harem goes AGAINST his characteristics, especially when you remember that he stated that he wants to live a normal school life on his own. Introverts being in a group isn’t uncommon, sure, but Kiyotaka’s method of grouping with other characters is just BROKEN. Look at scenes where examples like Airi and Honami fall in love with Kiyotaka just because “he’s nice”, and you’ll know why this is absurdly silly. This further highlights how Kiyotaka is so perfect that he would make every male and female alike explode in pleasure. There’s also the fact that he has zero interest in his social life, either. He wields the position of a strong, elite (pun intended) messiah, giving social and leadership advice to everyone in the series like a sage of a thousand years of knowledge, despite never actually having lived a normal life and living with other normal human beings, and he is, of course, always right, even if he arguably wasn’t in a consistent, logical lens.
His intentions and ideologies clash with each other, as mentioned. His intention of living a normal school life being demolished is one thing, but examples like him seeing the value of other characters are thrown into the fucking garbage as well. He wants to see the development of Horikita and Kei, among others, yet claims that all humans are tools and he does not care about anyone. “Are all human beings truly equal?” Like, how does someone like Kiyotaka even say this boldly lmao? He’s so overly edgy that it’s impossible to take him seriously. What makes him even worse is his intelligence. CotE initially decently built his intelligence through strategizing and such, but after a while, he became so smart with no substance to present. There’s no depth or justification to it. Yes, he’s one of, if not the smartest, characters in the industry, but that doesn’t mean his IQ is written well. Examples like Minakami Yuki, Okabe Rintaro from Steins;Gate, Kira Yoshikage from JoJo, and Makise Kurisu also from Steins;Gate,, among others, present feats of intelligence very well, so that viewers can stay interested and marvel at the clever yet ingenious tactics they use, even when they are given the same information we are. Kiyotaka can’t even be remotely on a similar level to either of those characters, with no care given to his feats.
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And you want to know the worst part? He’s the most important character in the series. So important, in fact, that the story is intended to center on him, which isn’t bad in a vacuum. But as I keep repeating, he’s not only drier than dust lint, but he also completely contradicts the entire story. And that’s without mentioning how this affects the side characters as well. Honami's ideology on group effort and her leadership were great, but her character has been reduced to being obsessed with Kiyotaka. Kakeru's interesting, malicious yet intelligent tactics and dictatorship over his class gave a great villain who could possibly rival Kiyotaka, but obviously, he was beaten up so hard he became a sidelined fucking tsundere. The supergenius Arisu had finally won a chess game against Kiyotaka, yet to save him, had to throw in the nonsense reason that his moves weren't being made as he commanded and that he would have destroyed her if they played fairly. Even opponents who came from his past, like Yamagi and Ichika, who were trained the same way he was, which would serve as a great conflict, are explained to be a thousand times worse than Kiyotaka and are easily destroyed or worship him. As for Horikita… well… I guess she’s just there as an annoying plot device for Kiyotaka, despite her intentions and ideologies, especially when you consider her position of being the main heroine.
I know that I spent more than half of the time rambling about why Kiyotaka sucks dick, but to be honest, he is THE biggest cause of his own series. You know it’s bad when one character is the biggest reason as to why an entire story crumbles, especially as a protagonist. Classroom of the Elite has so much to share, no matter what chapter or volume, but for some reason, it had to throw them into the puddle like they’re resort pools to its eyes. Every plot element is subverted into a mess, every direction is subverted into a mess, every twist is subverted into a mess, every character is subverted into a mess, and every conclusion is subverted into a mess, and that’s all because of one singular entity… Just wow, how impressive is it to mess up your creation with a single thing…? Not only is this whole series bland and boring, but it’s also stupid and offensive.
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Despite the amount of shit I gave to this series, I guess I can compliment how nice the LN covers are to look at. The shading in particular strikes a very nice balance of reflecting realism while also being relatively simple. The character designs in the covers are also balanced and nice-looking, most notably Suzune, who gives off some strong Yukinoshita Yukino vibes in some covers with her expressions, and Kakeru, who looks like a true menace. The art may not be that amazing, sure, but it gets straight to the point.
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And that will do. There are more arguments I can come up with, but at this point, I don’t want to keep readers bored reading one singular review. But basically, Classroom of the Elite is a super dull and pretentious series that fails to understand its story elements, obstacles, and characters properly. It just puts them down while being obliviously ignorant. It could have been so much better if it had kept its focus on its priorities. All in all, CotE isn’t objectively the worst animanga series ever; hell, far from the top 10 worst for that matter, but it’s nonetheless a massive chore that is so arbitrary on multiple occasions that it makes me wonder how it’s even taken seriously in the first place. 
