Anime 51096 Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi No Kyoushitsu E 2nd Season Reviews

Now, Classroom of Elite has got be one of my most favorite anime that I have watched. Right after I finished the first season, I read rest of the light novels released, even those that were machine translated.

Story & Character: (10 & 9) The storyline and development of the main characters is superb. The main character (Ayanokoji) is very dark and mysterious, with a very intriguing backstory, and continues to surprise you during the show. Other main characters like Horikita or the Class leaders, continue to change, giving life to the show giving them dynamic life. My main criticism would be the inclusion of ... side characters, that see little to no change in how they act or how they influence the story, and disappoints me that such potential is going to waste. The story is fantastic, with games and challenges that are faced at almost any turn providing Ayanokoji to show off his prowess and capabilities. While the story is fantastic, the pacing is horrible. While I understand they want to use a limited amount of material from the light novel, they exclude the life and slow down the main events.

Animation (Art: 6): The studio has failed to put an impression of effort into animating the scenes. The characters look janky, and often seem like they were cut out by a child and moved around instead of being animated.

Sound (Sound: 10): I have got to admit, the intro and outro songs are beautiful. I am very excited to watch the episode just from hearing the close to perfect intro.

Classroom of the Elite is a fantastic story, and please do not judge it too harshly based on this season. If you have enjoyed season one, read the light novels and then watch this. Ayanokoji still is one of my favorite characters with his mysterious backstory. Overall rating: 9.

TL:DR:

Great story, bad animation, read light novel.

BYE

There are only a few shows that make me feel the thrill, and genuine impatience when waiting for a new episode. The Classroom of the Elite is one of them.

After a rather mediocre first season, with an unnecessary amount of fanservice and a bit too slow-paced action, 2nd season started really strong. The story isn't that repetitive anymore. There's significantly more action than before. The story is getting straight to the point.

[Story - 8]
With the new season, we get to know better few characters, such as Karuizawa and Kushida. Especially interesting, and important for the first few episodes is Karuizawa's story plot. Like with Kushida, ... we get to know a bit of her backstory, and what is driving her, when making certain decisions. Ayanokouji is gaining more allies, or I should say tools, that are helping him reach his goals. While gaining "tools", also his enemies counter is going up, but they, apparently, can't even compete with MC at any point, in literally anything, which makes the story quite predictive. As mentioned above, the story is paced faster, than it used to be in the first season. It's a good change since some viewers could find the first season boring. There are no unnecessary beach arcs, or pool arcs, which in my opinion were done ridiculously in the first season, and turned "psychological" anime into ecchi comedy. The show is slightly less focused on points/currency things, which is good, since viewers are usually not really eager to analyze all those numbers floating on the screen, and sometimes this can become overwhelming.

[Art - 7]
Art is really a disappointment in this season. As far as I liked it in the first one, here we got a visible downhill. The animation feels weird at times, and colours are not as vibrant and detailed as before.

[Sound - 9]
Not much to complain about. Opening deserves special attention - it is absolutely great.

[Characters - 9]
Ayanokouji has to be one of my favourite anime characters of all time. His whole appearance, actions, behaviour - everything adds up perfectly, creating the MC that viewers really want to see. His personality is something that makes people love this anime so much. He's smart, good at sports, and martial arts (piano and calligraphy too). During the show, viewers can acknowledge his thinking process, and how he is constantly analyzing his surroundings. Ayanokouji's character is basically the powerhouse of the whole series since I can't think of any other character being that interesting in this anime. He may be seen as an overpowered character though, and that point alone discards any mystery in this show since viewers are already used to the scheme where MC is always in a winning position.

Horikita was the main heroine of the first season, and the thing is supposedly the same now. However Karuizawa is getting much more screen time, and the overall focus of the show is more on her than Horikita. Her character isn't getting developed really well, since she's still doing similar mistakes, as in the first season, and basically is only a tool for Ayanokouji. Viewers may have mixed feelings about her. Personality-wise she acts like a tsundere, but at the same time, she doesn't appear to be one. She's kind of inconsistent with how she feels, and it makes her cold, and blunt.

Karuizawa seems to have a much higher impact on the plot than anyone could expect after the first season. The first episodes already suggest that the action will be now more focused on her. Viewers get to know her personality, and past better. She's starting to play a more important role, in the whole of Ayanokouji's plan. Her character development is noticeable. She's way more confident and determined to reach her goals, with Ayanokouji's help.

Kushida after playing a significant role in the first season, now getting revealed to be a traitor to the whole D class. Viewers get to know her dark personality since she shows it to Ayanokouji and Horikita. This side of Kushida can rarely be seen in the anime since she's still playing an innocent, helpful girl in front of others.

[Enjoyment - 9]
Personally, I really liked the 2nd season of COTE. The story finally picked up some pace, and as a viewer, I'm impatiently waiting for new episodes. The biggest downsides were probably poor animation, and my personal remark about the Ayanokouji character - as far as I understand the whole show is based on how perfect and infallible the MC is, it often feels unnatural. Dialogues, and interactions of Ayankouji with others, on the other hand, are just hilarious. I absolutely love his cold responses, without any sign of emotion. It really makes up his whole appearance and personality.

The Classroom of the Elite season 2 didn't disappoint me. I'm really glad I discovered this series recently since this show is really worth a watch. Very good plot, as well as characters. Decent art and sound. COTE 2nd season gets deserved 8 out of 10 from me.

The title of this show is very misleading. I thought this school was for “elite students”, but instead, we had 4 classes of bozos participating in Among Us tests and school festivals. I’m not 14 anymore, so this isn’t as deep as I thought Season 1 was. After I finished Season 1 a few years ago, I was convinced that this was the smartest show ever with the best plot twists and the best protagonist in Ayanokouji, but now that I’m older, my views have changed.

That said, as an anime-only for this show, I still found Season 1 much better than Season 2, in basically ... every way. The story for Season 2 was quite boring, with events that felt very dry. The characters weren’t nearly as good as Season 1, because it seemed like everyone’s IQ except for Ayanokouji declined so much, and I questioned some of their decisions in the story. I’m sure that some of you have seen the bad animation frames posted on MAL and on social media as well, so the production was quite messy at times. The OST was nothing compared to Season 1, which I loved. Nothing felt as well done as Season 1, and save for some cheap enjoyment and satisfaction, this was quite the disappointing season.

My grading criteria: Story: /25 Art: /10 Music: /10 Characters: /20 Enjoyment /15 Thematic Execution /20

STORY: 11.5/25

The story felt quite un-psychological this season. Last season, at least the focus was on studying, and the point system, while this season, the plot material felt very dry, and the point system felt very insignificant. All the activities were built on these overly complex rules that was dumped on us all at once, and that’s never really enjoyable for the viewer. There are better ways to get us to think instead of thinking of rules all the time. It’s really the wrong way of being thought-provoking. The character drama felt very dry as well, as some of the backstories were very surface level. Perhaps this was the product of a rushed series, nothing really felt fleshed out enough to be interesting.

ART: 7/10

A downgrade from Season 1, which would be expected given the amount of episodes that Studio Lerche outsourced to other studios. It got better towards the end though.

MUSIC: 8.5/10

Also a downgrade from Season 1, which had quite the OST. There wasn’t a whole lot of stand out music in this season, other than the OP and ED, which I enjoyed a ton.

CHARACTERS: 8.5/20

The character personalities in this show are rather blank, and with how rushed the show was, they weren’t fleshed out enough. There were a few characters that had rather awkward and out of place interactions this season, such as Sakayanagi and Katsuragi from Class A. They just showed up with not much build up, which was a bit awkward (perhaps a few skipped LN parts?).

The biggest problem however, is that in a school for “elites”, how much the intelligence of the characters dropped this season compared to the last. Horikita for example, being the top of Class D, fell into obvious traps, which was so uncharacteristic of her character. Ryuuen as well, while being an extremely violent person, didn’t seem like the dumbest person out there, but as a villain, he wasn’t that good. It seemed like he knew who the mastermind of Class D was, but then he didn’t know? That was quite disappointing.

Now, I’ll also talk about the fan favourites, Karuizawa and Ayanokouji. Karuizawa in Season 1 felt like a lazy, spoiled girl who mindlessly spent her points on unimportant things, and fell off my radar real early. In this season, she works with Ayanokouji in the hope of defeating other classes. She has a bunch of secrets in her past, which I wished they fleshed out more. The romance between her and Ayanokouji feels somewhat rushed as well, since there isn’t much of a key reason for her to love someone, apart from getting protection.

Ayanokouji is still a good character for the most part, as he creates most of the satisfying moments in the show. His character doesn’t change much, and that’s unfortunately a bit of disappointment. He’s probably the only reason this show is still watchable.

ENJOYMENT: 11/15

With all my criticism, I still enjoyed this show, because the payoffs were quite satisfying, and who doesn’t like seeing Ayanokouji destroying everyone he meets?

THEMATIC EXECUTION: 10.5/20

For whatever this show was trying to do, they execute everything decently, but with the show being rushed the way it was, the psychological factor of the show was not up to par, and felt very surface level. The violence and the romance, while not being the main focus of this season, felt better executed than the mind games to be honest.

OVERALL: 57/100

Just comparatively blander in every single way compared to Season 1. It only felt satisfying to watch Ayanokouji mentally and physically destroy people who opposed him, but in the end, it just felt like everything could have been done much better, if the season had more episodes. Whatever Season 3 brings next year, I hope Studio Lerche learn from their shortcomings from this season.

My english is pretty horrible, sorry
It's disappointing, it's bland, poorly made and very generic. The first season had at least an air of new-season anime, now it feels like a mix of edge lords with a hint of king of all, too bad it does it all wrong.

The animation is bad, poorly done for an anime that had already got it right in the first season.

The script is generically awful, there's no way it could have been done by someone over 13.

It has deplorable scenes worthy of other people's shame.

The protagonist is a potato who has L syndrome, the biggest thinker of edge fanboys.
...
If you take away 90% of the cast, it changes absolutely nothing in the plot.

A lot of people freak out about this aspect of character manipulation, but it's not even an FBI or Sun Tzu manual, IT'S JUST A POTATO STUDENT WHO HAS GOD SYNDROME IN ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING

I was very hyped when they released news about it, but I say it is one of the biggest disappointments of anime in terms of continuation and anime as a whole

First of all this season has been doomed by being hyped and because of that the general public started to judge the show. This anime is not about romance, action, leveling up etc. its about the development of horikita and revealing of ayanokoji (true self). And by development I mean exactly what any of who understands this show is thinking while watching it - what does it take to meet your life goals and ambitions while retaining your humane side. Horikita a complete solo player is starting to open up and is showing us the supposed "right" way by uniting the class and acting as ... a smart , confident leader while ayanokoji by the end of S1 is the dark side of ambitions and represents the hard and brutal way of obtaining your goals. So its funny to read reviews about S2 where people admit that their english is bad, that the show is boring, nothing is happeing, its static well guess what sadly that is what this anime is all about - dialogue, outsmarting, guessing, questioning ourselves of the "right" way to succeed. Is ayanokoji the prototype of how you must be nowadays to be at the top or can you go the "new horikita" way. This anime is a fresh break from all the fan service, action, game becomes real, i got transfered to another world animes floating around. Chill, make yourself comfy and enjoy if you like mind bending and thinking if not just dont watch there is no point.
Aslo this dude not gettign the quotes at the start is hilarious... thats like admitting im watching something i barely understand the point of but my opinion is that it is bad?! guess what you cant have an opinion thats relevant if you dont understand it. You can say it aint your kind of anime to like but dont drop reviews like you know anything relevant about the show.
And it is nothing ground breaking I admit it too but this anime gets a high score from me because its different is portraying a real life struggle how to make it in todays society.

There are a few reasons that make the experience with this anime disappointing.

When I started watching the first season, I thought it was cool the proposal of a school where meritocracy comes above all and students have to earn their food, their grade and everything within the school through a points system. The proposal was cool in the first episodes of the first season, but I think now the anime has lost too much of what was proposed.

First, A Horikita has become a boring and irritating character in the work, where her only job is to build the continuation of the story.
The protagonist has that ... serious and cold aura. But his backstory is literally very uncaptivating and that in the story itself didn't add anything. It was just another way to fill the story with irrelevant factors.

When I think of a SCHOOL anime, I think of an environment where you have to at least follow the basic laws of normal citizenship. But they don't even follow the basics of a school. Class D's teacher is a totally poorly written character. And the school break up into gangs that commit crimes at the school, such as assaults and vandalism to the point of leaving a girl to suffer from hypothermia. If the work wanted to put Ryuuen as a delinquent, fine. But the anime is completely lost in the construction of this character, leaving him superficial and damaging to the story. I think it's perfectly acceptable to put heavier things in anime and I think it's something even good to explore, however, in this context it's a terrible thing. This second season has bizarre technical failures, a very poor art direction using repeated sprites several times and the script is broken.

If you're going to watch it, I recommend you keep in mind that all the pretext the anime gave you in the first season is wasted in the second.

'Classroom of the Elite', otherwise known as CotE, is not as pretentious as people perceive it. While it may incorporate philosophy into its reasonings, it does not seek to explore too deeply into it, just a surface level understanding is required. This is intentional as CotE does not intend to force one into realisation or muse over something excessively thought provoking; they utilize these concepts to their need as fundamental reasoning(the general truth) to the many character subtleties and interactions we witness. The main goal of the story after all is to unveil Kiyotaka's intelligence and progress with the tests. Moreover, it is one avenue ... to enhance the entertainment above superficial acts.

Let us take a look into the overall narrative by far: Season 2 exists to create development and establishment for the ever expanding cast in this series. This is to be expected given the direct confrontations between classes that involves everyone. Moreover, the psychological element is expected to be stronger and has already proven more evident. The relevance of the hierarchy system and interclass battles continue to persist being the main ideas of the narrative. This is already being supported with the new test that we have jumped into these past 3 episodes with more to come in the future. Depending on how the Anime is produced, we could be anticipating more calculative battles to match the intricacy of the tests rather than just skimming the details and reaching the conclusion.
For LN readers, the present pacing is obviously slightly faster than expected(yes I was prepared for less relevant moments to be cut but it is still fast). Consequently, we lose out potential emphasis on scenes and details in the story. For instance, this Planet Test could have spanned 4episodes for more adequate and impactful storytelling.

Qualitatively: nothing revolutionary as per these 3 episodes. There is a step up in the art and details, maybe even environmental setting but nothing incredible of a change. Notwithstanding the slip up in EP2 which ended quite disastrous-for some relief, EP3 did recover-I am optimistic that consistency will be achieved as Lerche should have incentive to appropriately support this currently hot and thriving LN series. On a side note, the OP/ED do possess more symbolic value.

As of now, CotE S2 has an underwhelming performance. Though when it comes down to things, I would just recommend everyone to give this series a look and dictate for yourselves. Prospectively, I expect improvements in S2 so I do look forward to the coming episodes for a reversal.

His games and manipulations are very clear throughout the show, which doesn't leave me confused. And I was glued to the screen for every episode.

Especially when Kushida's lore started, that was an 11/10 episode. Kushida is a monster created by the expectations everyone had towards her. She went insane trying to be perfect and liked. But in reality, it made her a bipolar toxic individual.
Hooked on attention and praise, she poisoned herself. And once it became too much and crushed her completely, she revealed it to everyone. Turning her 'fake' friends into weapons against her.

Ryuen was very close to identifying the mastermind, which was absolutely ... terrifying as a viewer.
But, you know, the goat is always five steps ahead. Kei sacrificing herself and breaking down was a heartbreaking moment.
But her trust in Kyotaka has kept her in check.

And so, the curtain rises on the mastermind: Ayanokoji Kyotaka,
the "perfect human" with no connection or emotions towards others.

After defeating Ryuen, he met him. And if I understand correctly, he even played with him.
This guy is a remarkable beast. "Can I change? When can I look at people without using them as tools?"

And so, the curtain rises again on a new tale.

How does the principal's daughter know about the white room?
And how does she think she can challenge and defeat the one in control?

Final thoughts:
This season was much more complex, entertaining, and interesting than before. The mind games are more visible, making it accessible even for those who may not be as sharp. However, there are some elements that remain in the shadows until the end. Definitely better than the first season, for sure. Even though it's a bit more "in your face," there were still secrets kept until the end of the season. And the reveals in the last three episodes were mind-bending. One of my favorite moments, other than the ending, was how Ayanokoji played with Kushida. When Suzune set up a game to defeat her, Kushida thought she had the upper hand. The twist with the exam papers left me speechless. Kushida believed she could outsmart the one in control.

Conclusion: I will definitely read the novel; I've heard they butchered it in the anime.
If the anime was this good, I can't even imagine how great the novel must be.

I am eagerly awaiting Season 3.

Classroom of the elite is a typical example of a media that should cease to exist. And by that I am not referring only to the anime, but also to the source material, that is the light novel. Do not get tricked by those claiming that the series shouldn't be judged because of the poor anime adaptation, as the novels themselves are anything but good. I've read them all, got into them because of the edgy quote in the end of season 1, and here I am trying to warn you not to get into this clickbait of a series. Needless to say, it did ... surpass my expectations when I heard that a second season was announced and here we are.

If there's anything worse in the anime adaptations compared to the source material, that would be the pretentious quotes in the beginning of the series. They were just bad at first, but to think that they would throw Nietzsche's name there again, is something that I could never expect. If Nietzsche would somehow come back to life and end up watching this anime, I really doubt that he would be able to relate his writings to what this show is trying to convey. We can already conclude that there is nothing intellectual about this show, it's obviously pretentious, but it's not meant to be taken seriously. That much is apparent when you see what occurs in these so rushed yet slow episodes

This season has pretty much the same issues that the first one had, with some technical errors that make it somehow, even worse. I don't even remember what exactly happened in the Zodiac exam, aside from the bullying scene. And I know for a fact that it has nothing to do with me being incapable of understanding this masterpiece of a show, but rather with something else which could be easily described with "plain boring". I swear this is not an anime only thingy for this series, because there are many exams with multiple pages of rules in the novel as well. They want to create this feeling of complexity with the hope that the audience will hopefully forget that the details given were irrelevant and try to focus more on the other not so hard to understand stuff such as copying experiments throughout psychology textbooks and acting as if our prodigy of a main character knows everything about psychology. It seems to me as if this show does not really have a genre so in order to compensate for that, is trying to be like Arceus which is capable of changing into every type in existence. What is this show about again? Is it about psychology? Is it a high school drama? Is it romance? Or is it a martial arts shounen? I can't tell because it seems to have a little of everything, but the way in which it's presented cannot be described with anything other than cringe.

After a bunch of pointless rules in the Zodiac exam, the first memorable thing happens which is Kei getting bullied by Manabe and her gang. Apparently our phd professor Ayanokoji was the one who orchestrated the entire thing, by replicating something known as the Milgram experiment. There are too many things that happen with Ayanokoji in this season as well as in the previous one which only serve to power up the self-insert argument even more. 1) Ayanokoji proves that he is an expert on psychology. 2) Ayanokoji is a fast runner 3) Ayanokoji has an incredible amount of strength 4) Ayanokoji is an expert in martial arts 5) Ayanokoji is an expert in maths 6) Ayanokoji knows English 7) Ayanokoji is an expert in literature 8) With all of these traits combined, the guy was presented as someone who does not like to stand out so it's not easy for him to make friends. It couldn't be more clear that this guy is the role model of many who resort on using him as a mean of escapism.

The Ayano traits that I mentioned bring us to the fundemental problem that this show suffers from. The lack of a realistic setting, despite taking place in a...seemingly realistic environment. Since everything takes place within a school and there are no super powers involved, you would expect the series to be more up to date with what goes on in schools. Instead this show brings you a so called elite high school, funded by Japan which not only has dominated the world economy, but it has enough capital to invest on an entirely new currency as well as private islands for 16 years old kids who are expected to be the future elites of Japan. These kids consist of 1) red haired guy who slams his desk after being politely asked for an introduction by one of his fellow classmates 2) a very troubled individual who seems to despise everyone who knows her past, 3) a girl who's been bullied so viciously, so she has to resort on using other people to defend her, 4) a lab rat who has trouble with social interactions 5) a red haired psychopath who claims he's never had fear, 6) A narcissist, 7) a crippled girl who uses her classmates as a shield, and the list goes on. These are just some of the important characters in the show, and some of them seem more like people who should be locked in prison rather than being accepted in a school which is trying to groom the future elite of Japan. If you've already grown accustomed with this setting, then I guess you would have no problem with a facility which trains kids to the point that they become geniuses in every field in existence. Interesting concept but for what purpose? A plot device is needed to solve conflicts. Everything is resolved with the use of deux ex machina, because there's nothing about this school that would particularly stand out( for good), so they can easily compensate for that by saying "Geniuses have high IQ, problem solved". For a school directed to the supposedly elite students, it certainly isn't doing a good job marketing itself as such.

The main focus of this season seemed to be Kei, the girl who got bullied by people who were set up by our main character, who ends up being her crush, and Ryuuen the main shounen like antagonist who resolves everything with violence because why not. There isn't much to say about Kei aside from the part that the bullying had broken her to the point that she had no trouble spreading her legs for the main character. Don't get me wrong, stuff like that happens, but when bullied by Ryuuen this same girl wouldn't tell him the mastermind's name. Within a few episodes she went from being broken to the point of letting someone **** her, to refusing to answer a simple question while again being vicisously bullied. How did this change happen? It was not explained, but it did happen.

And Ryuuen is again, the typical shounen antagonist that for some reason he's one of the most important characters in the series. Who would have thought that the elite school would have a class full of morons, people who would obey one of their classmates who rules over them as a dictator, without thinking twice? Ryuuen is the leader of class C, an arrogant person who has control over his class because they're too afraid to go up against him. Again the show trying to be smart and involve "politics" as if his class representing dictatorship is an example of good writing. There is another important trait of Ryuuen that many seem to have either ignored or forgotten, and that is his lack of fear. It's already made apparent multiple times in the couple of last episodes, that Ryuuen killed the snake because he didn't feel fear. But when asked whether he felt fear or not by Ayanokoji, he responded by saying that he only felt pain but was unable to feel fear. I don't even know how psychology is considered a genre for this show anymore. Guess what happens when Ryuuen fights Ayanokoji? Yeah Ayanokoji scares him. Finally after a decade, Ryuuen learned the meaning of fear. Took you a while Ryuuen.

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e (You-Zitsu) a.k.a Classroom of the Elite, is literally one sweet-ass heck of a LN written by Shougo Kinugasa that even 3 years after the 1st Year ended, it's still the cult classic that has cemented amongst readers as one of (if not) the GOAT LNs ever written thanks to its typical school premise, but involving high stakes of a psychological brain-inducing mess that when all comes together, makes for one masterpiece source material worthy of a read.

Say what you will about Season 1, but I LOVE this show when it aired exactly 5 years ago in Summer ... 2017, thinking that as a newcomer into seasonal anime (back when Re:Zero had already finished airing, that single-handedly brought me back to anime), I would experience something very new and unique. And while You-Zitsu does deliver just that, even with LN readers lambasting the heck outta how both directors Seiji Kishi and Hiroyuki Hashimoto destroyed the anime adaptation by choosing to adapt later volumes in the literal 2nd half of Season 1, I still found it to be a great watch thanks in part to the GOAT character that is Kiyotaka Ayanokouji (literally Best Boy)'s way of circumventing through all of the psychological rules that Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School has to offer, Lerche's great animation (that back then was unlike anything I've ever seen before) and most certainly ZAQ's OP "Caste Room" which is still to this day, the perfect complement and a GOAT banger of a song (easily one of (if not) the best OP of the season at the time, together with Made In Abyss's OP).

Of course, without the prior information that the anime heavily butchered the LN and as an anime-only at the time, I wished there was more to see of Ayanokouji's further psychological exploits. And lo and behold, in the beginning of this year, it was announced that You-Zitsu is coming back in the Maou Gakuin fashion of not just Season 2, but also Season 3 as well, that's set to complete the entirety of the 1st Year arc. Well...how much we have grown over 5 years to finally get a shot to roast and ridicule the anime adaptation more than just being long and much-awaited sequels. TL;DR: The production staff team NEVER learnt anything about Season 1's pitfalls and proceeds to ham the anime down even further.

Season 2's continuation onto the adaptation of Volumes 4 (adapting the remainder) to 7, Ayanokouji, Horikita and the rest of Class 1-D evolves from test to test, most specifically Volume 4's VIP brain game, Volumes 5 and 6's sports festival, Volume 6's final exam, and to conclude with the biggest event of all: Ayanokouji vs. Kakeru Ryuen, the infamous head honcho-cum-hooligan of Class 1-C in Volume 7. Everyone has remained the exact same, though at the test level with the incorporation of non-important side characters that only add more fuel to the fire. Sure, like Season 1, those tests' rules are complicated as hell and don't give the audience enough time to take in what's happening only to then lose the plot altogether, but don't give the crap excuse that it can't be done due to time constraints (which they can only do so much in 20 mins, exclude OP and ED). To make matters worse, it's not a bad thing that the rest of the character cast stays the same and delivers on their aspects, but somehow the interpretation seems even worse than what I remember, despite having the same VA cast, to the point of being void characters with monotone personality (the worst offender being Ayanokouji himself, his voice seems darker and more bass now). Shougo Kinugasa's story plot is already amazing on its own, but now realizing the pain that plot pointers are even more lost in translation, it just derives the fact that the anime as a whole, even for Season 3 next year, is the "so good, it's bad" inferior version as a whole, with the manga version being the absolute worst.

The absolute sin of You-Zitsu's anime adaptation will always lie in the production team. Despite both Seiji Kishi and Hiroyuki Hashimoto still within the team as chief directors, they got someone else instead to do their favour: Lerche's in-house director Yoshihito Nishoji, who directed the abomination of an SAO rip-off that is Shichisei no Subaru, and a fair few assistant directorial roles involving in Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun and Gyakuten Sekai no Denchi Shoujo. Needless to say, both chief directors were looking for another scapegoat because deep in their hearts, they knew that You-Zitsu's hardcore fans have thoroughly denounced the anime adaptation outright since its initial release. And the purpose of bringing it back 5 years later just to say "Oh, so yeah...eff it, we're going for quantity over quality by covering more material than our work would allow. And with some new staff members, hopefully our inequalities aren't just covered by us alone." HELLO??? Who do you think we are? Are anime fans to you, stupid and/or idiotic enough to not realize this? We are more knowledgeable and can sniff out your BS, y'know.

It's unsurprising to say that Lerche didn't put an effort into Season 2, NONE AT ALL. Everything just looks drabber, even the darker undertones which are more than just "brightness" complaints of the audience not being able to properly see what's going on (especially during the cruise underbelly segments). Along with its fans, I should expect better given the gap of 5 years between Season 1 and now, but with the announcement that foreshadows the Maou Gakuin multi-season format, it's obscenely clear that production took a big hit, and at the very least, this move was definitely a mistake without healthy production schedules.

The OST feels just right about at home, except for the OP and ED which I'm thinking: "How are you gonna top 2 brilliant songs that at the time, were bangers in their own right?" And I'm right to speculate that ZAQ would most probably come back for another OP, which don't get me wrong, "Dance In The Game" is a good OP, but it fits more akin to something like Kakegurui instead. And don't get started on the OP visuals, which are notches down as well for having song lyrics pop up on screen (Yofukashi no Uta did this as well, but at least it has creativity as a backup) and nothing more with imagery for what's about to come for the season. A nice foreshadowing, but ultimately an awful lazy effort. The exact same goes with Mai Fuchigami's ED...and nothing else to say about that.

At this point, while You-Zitsu fans have completely given up on its anime adaptation, anime-onlys will most certainly have mixed receptions about the sequel and beyond into Season 3 next year, with no more hopes left that Shougo Kinugasa's work would ever be adapted to perfection. At least to me, right now, I'll see through it all with Season 3 to come and finish the remainder of the LN's 1st Year arc, but the original LN will always be the superior version, no qualms at all.

TL;DR: Masterpiece story, worse-than-subpar animation, go read the LN.

This has got to be the most overhyped show of the season. I initially expected it to have a significant improvement compared to the first season but it remains more or less the same.

What I think has gotten worse however is the dialogue, which progressively becomes more and more tumblr-esque and overtly edgy. Ayanokoji is the main culprit of this awful writing and his character continues to draw out plot elements with contrived anecdotes and knowledge that makes him look more stupid and self-absorbed than superhuman. This is in spite of the anime trying its hardest to convince the viewer that the main character ... is more intelligent than the average psychology major or high schooler taking a psychology course. The only part of him that continues to be redeeming is his cruelty toward others and his willingness to act towards his goals.

I hope it gets better but this problem continues to plague the enjoyment of this show.

Read the light novels so you can experience the great story and characters of classroom of the elite. The light novels are amazing while the anime and manga are just bad. If you are able to enjoy the anime because you haven't read the light novels and don't know what you are missing, then great and all power to you. But I would still recommend for you to read the light novels because if you liked the anime, you will absolutely LOVE the light novels.

Few notes why I think the anime is bad (probably because I have read the light novels)

-The story feels rushed
-The ... characters feel different and are poorly portrayed
-Some of the most important moments are done badly and are stuffed with information and dialogue that is supposed to happen later and because of that the truly important parts are rushed and not paid enough attention to.
-Some of the scenes are altered to be way worse (yes I know they cannot make the anime completely like the light novels because they don't have the time and they are two different types of storytelling but still...)

My score at the moment for the classroom of the elite anime is 5 (mediocre) because I have read the light novels and I know what this could have been. For anime only people it could be way better all I know. I would have liked to give it a 4 when I compare it to the light novels but I assume that for anime only people it is not that bad. After episode 5 my score went to a 4. They rush the hell out of things

You-Zitsu season 1 was probably one of the most disappointing anime adaptations in recent memory. While anime only casual fans largely enjoyed it, those of us who have been with this franchise from the start were very disappointed by seemingly unnecessary plot changes, omissions and the lack of depth that the anime gave to one of the best written LN series of all time. While not perfect, season 2 is certainly an improvement and did many of the most hype scenes of Year 1 the justice they deserved.

The pacing of You-Zitsu season 1 was probably the biggest complaint among fans of the course material. Very ... important parts of the story were rushed through and not properly explained, while insignificant moments given too much time. Season 2’s first few episodes started out somewhat the same, but by the 3rd or 4th episode the pacing improved considerably. I was quite pleased with how they handled the zodiac game in the first quarter or so of the season and while changes were made, they were consistent with changes that had been introduced in season 1. Such as class sizes and group sizes, etc. The next two arcs which make up episodes 5-13 or so were amazing. Lerche really took their time and did justice to some of the hypest scenes in year one. Episode 12 , the climax of this season, for instance may have even surpassed the LN with the animation, voice acting and direction.

Unfortunately, large parts of the season were outsourced to smaller animation studios and there are quite a few shockingly poor animated and drawn scenes. Like legitimately some scenes look like my little nephews drew them. That aside, at its peak, the production values were pretty good this time around. I’m sure there’s no correlation, but it really did feel like the more people tweeted about the bad episodes, the better the next ones started to get.

In addition to better direction, this season also just benefits from having better source material to work with. Volume 2 which was apart of season 1’s story is considered one of, if not the worst books in the series whereas the novels covered this season are some of the best. A perfect storm for any sequel. I mean we hadn’t even met the main heroine of the series when the first season ended. Not only do we get best girl introduced, but the character arcs for so many people start to really take shape. One of the biggest strengths of this series is the diversity of its cast and seeing what they all bring to the table. Yes, you’ve obviously got the best MC in the medium at the helm of everything, but even somewhat minor characters are interesting and bring something to the story. The constant mind games and social gymnastics are what makes this franchise tick.

I still maintain that the best way to consume You-Zitsu is the Light Novel, as will most other source readers, but I can honestly say this is a decent adaptation. It’s not great, but its peaks are, and as a whole it’s a serviceable depiction of the most exciting moments in the story. Certainly better than season 1, let’s hope this trend continues in the future seasons.

You-Zitsu season 2 gets 8 out of 10.

The Greatest of All Time.
Zenith of the Medium.
Hallmark of Media.
Gold standard of storytelling.
Apogee of Creativity.
Vertex of Invention.
Crest of Ingenuity.
Acme of Imagination.
Pinnacle of the Medium.
Epic of Epics.
... Legend among Legends.
🐐 among Goats.
King among kings
genius among geniuses.
Treasure among treasures.
Masterwork among masterworks.
Summit of intelligence.
Definition of psychological genre.
Description of perfection.
Masterpiece of our generation.
humanity's greatest invention.
Modern masterpiece.
The absolute.
Peak fiction.

Plot :
The Japanese government has established the Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing School, dedicated to instruct and foster the generation of people that will support the country in the future. The students are given a high degree of freedom in order to closely mimic real life.

The story follows the perspective of Kiyotaka Ayanokōji, a quiet and unassuming boy, who is not good at making friends and would rather keep his distance, but possesses unrivaled intelligence. He is a student of Class-D, which is where the school dumps its inferior students. After meeting Suzune Horikita and Kikyō Kushida, two other students in his class, the situation begins to change and he starts to get involved in many affairs, and his thought of an ideal normal high school life begins to get scattered.

Overall:
I give this show a 10/10. This show definitely worth your time, watch it.

Honestly after season 1 of this anime, CoTE comes back with a season 2 and I really think it deserves more attention. Since season 1 was pretty much boring most of the time because there barely was any action and more psychological thinking season 2 only gets more exciting after almost every episode. Even though there are some "budget Ayanokouji scenes" I honestly just find it funny and I laugh everytime I see the poor animation on his face.

(OST & VActing) - I really love the opening and ending of this season compared to season 1 which was honestly trash and not exciting to ... listen to unlike Dance in the Game and Hito shibai which really I can't skip when watching the episodes, the music has it's own uniqueness and the voice acting is in good quality with amazing effort for the emotions built into it (except for Ayanokouji, mans basically never shows emotions) disregarding that the music is definitely enjoyable. (10/10)

[Characters & story] - I feel like the story is more interesting and unpredictable which makes it extremely exciting. Many people dislike the fact that the main protagonist is "lifeless, emotionless character" I honestly don't mind because you don't really see any other main protagonists who are over dramatic and emotional making Ayanokouji quite unique. The other side characters are fine as they are enjoyable enough to watch. (9/10)

[Animation] - Although there are a bunch of shit scenes of Ayanokouji and other characters I really don't mind it since it just makes it more funny to see when it pops up, thinking holy sh*t what the f*** is that? While laughing my ass off and all the other parts you can tell the animation for the characters is really detailed and it doesn't make my eyes hurt from just looking at. (9/10)

[Spoilers (Episode 12)] - This was the episode that the studio mainly put most of their budget into and I have to say this episode was so fu***** good, however the adaptation to the light novel wasn't perfect, seeing Ayanokouji doing what he does without expressing emotions is just cold, it's the first time we actually see Ayanokouji engage in fighting, the animation put into it was amazing and definitely worth the build-up and hype.

[Overall] - I definitely recommend season 2 of this anime as it was much more entertaining than season 1 in my opinion, although season 1 definitely has better animation season 2 was just more fun to watch and more enjoyable than many other Anime. Please watch CoTE it's amazing in it's own way 👍👍👍👍👍 (10/10)

Classroom of the Elite is back with its unexpected return, and while production as a whole went down, it came back to provide us more big-brain action like the first season backed by its entertaining characters and a really good climax. There are a couple of issues with this adaptation that I would like to point out, but it has nothing to do with the source material as I’m strictly reviewing this as the anime, not the light novel because I understand that there are some changes. Now as good as this anime is, it struggled from pacing issues toward the beginning and kind of ... just had a rough start to the season in general, also animation dropped as a whole.
Art: 7
I can’t lie this rating would be a lot lower if it wasn’t for the quality of the last few episodes, but even then most of the season struggled from subpar animation. What I will say is that the music still continues to be great. From the op to the ost, was a pretty solid soundtrack.
Characters: 8
Kiyopon is a cool mc. His ability to not give a damn about anything(at times) always makes him enjoyable to watch. Also, Ryuen is a good antagonist as well, however, his motives to his actions aren’t explained the best. Other than that the side characters have a surprising amount of depth to them. Kei is fire.
Story: 8
The Story is a tale of two halves. I liked what they did with Ryuen, but as I said before it starts off pretty slow and felt a little rushed early to really close in on the final couple of events of the season, but at the end of the day what is important is enjoyment, and this series is always a fun watch. Overall I give it an 8/10

(Reposted because MAL can't tell Non-Preliminary reviews from Prelim ones)
Tens of thousands of years ago, an underwater volcano poked its head out from the ocean for the first time. As the volcano erupted over and over, the lava cooled to create swaths of basalt, and the volcanic ash and fallout gradually condensed to form tuff. Birds, weary of the long flight over the ocean, used the island as a resting spot and brought plant seeds along. The island grew rich in foliage and fledglings, and one day, a small community of traveling humans set foot. Cut off from the rest of the world, they developed ... their own culture and religion, carving massive stone statues out from the tuff. These statues depicted a stoic, emotionless head, and their purpose is unknown, but the current consensus is that they served as symbols of power and authority. Hundreds of years passed on this island, and generations came and went. But the status quo could not last forever. One day, outsiders invaded the island, saw the statues, and took them to the great big world. Outsiders, fascinated by this puzzling sculpture, deemed it a curiosity and showcased them in museums. And sometime, somewhere, and for some reason, a Japanese passerby saw one of these historical legacies and thought, "Wouldn't it be amazing if the main character for our popular upcoming anime had a face that permanently looked like this cool rock?"

And thus Lerche presents Classroom of the Elite II to the world! Starring our favorite moai Ayanokoji and his harem of calcite cutouts, it has everything you could possibly expect in a garbage anime. Ayanokoji is your everyday hyper-gigachad high-schooler, capable of beating up all the baddies, wooing all the girls by simply existing, and showing everyone around him who’s the biggest alpha in town with his sheer intellect. I kid you not: I literally saw a YouTube video titled “How to be emotionless like Ayanokoji” the other day with tens of thousands of views. How does one possibly watch someone manipulate everyone around him and conceal everything with lies and end up thinking “Damn, I wanna be like him when I grow up” or something? This show feeds on those with an immature mindset: that they can get anything they want as long as they can know or control everything. Reality check: you can’t. Escapism is fun and all, but it should not be confused with reality.

Everything else is not that great either. The story is jarringly rushed, and plenty of important details are missing. Characters exist for the sole purpose of existing, never developing in any shape or form, just patching their problems with shoddy solutions that are convenient beyond practicality. Character designs are awfully plain. The music seems like it was created in pre-production instead of post-production. Ayanokoji’s presence blocks out all emotional outlets of the show. Pacing is consistent(ly bad). This anime is basically a power-fantasy in a school setting, with nothing interesting besides the premise.

Come to think of it, what is Ayanokoji even trying to do? What message does the show try to say? What makes this even remotely worth watching? For me, the answer for all these is “nothing”. I’m sure some smart aleck can explain the hidden reasoning behind everything and anything in this show, but I can’t be bothered trying to squeeze water from an obviously dry stone. Classroom of the Elite II is just another waste of time better spent elsewhere.

Very dissapointing tbh. Episodes getting outsorced and looking wank as hell. Sometimes it feels like watching a slideshow. A lot of content is getting skipped from the LN. That should be fine and all but I feel like they are skipping and rushing way too much and that makes the whole school feel dead. Not enough interactions and dialogue between the characters, it's like here you go, this happened, the end move on.
Just a decently animated, with somewhat of an effort would have been great but this feels like a rushed ass cashgrab. I am still very biased cuz I am a big fan but ... they could and should have done much better.
Also Horkita just seems stupid and the whole Class C getting away with cheating thing makes zero sense .

I think I am lucky I did not read the novel!
The work, in my opinion, is great, especially now it is getting better. I admit some details were unclear until we heard about them from the novel readers.
I guess the animation could be better, but it is good enough as there are no fights and action.
The novel reader should stop comparing it with the novel and start looking at it as a different work; they may like it!
Logically: the story is different, and it is unique 10/10
Art can be improved, but still, I will give it 8/10
The characters are amazing so far; ... Ayanokogi is so liked, and the amount of hate Koshida receives from the fans shows how successful the character is. in addition, there are a lot of mysterious characters waiting to know
The characters' reactions make a lot of sense, taking into account the background of these characters
I am sure anyone who did not read the novel will like this series, and even those who read it already just consider this work a different one and you will like it

The second season of Classroom of the Elite continues exploring the students of Class D overcoming the different challenges assigned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing School to test their cohesion and individual capabilities under the school’s merit-based system, with things intensifying with the class’ rivalry with Class C led by the feared Kakeru Ryuuen.

The second season retains focus on the competition for students in each class to overcome different challenges through working out the rules and mechanics of the challenges and working within or exploiting loopholes with said rules to have things swing in their favor. This element still makes for one of the ... more engaging elements of the series with characters learning to work with one another or conspire against one another to gain whatever advantage they can get. This makes up the majority of Season 2’s story arcs, though is focused on as equally as the issues that stir up between Class C and Class D throughout the season that builds up in intensity as Class C becomes more suspicious of Class D’s “leader” sabotaging their chances at victory.

One major strength of this season to Classroom of the Elite is that it devotes time to further fleshing out and developing its characters. In particular, Kiyotaka’s character gets more fleshed out in regards to his past and motives, while also undergoing some development as he comes to gradually view a few of his classmates to be more than just valuable pawns to take advantage of. Increased focus is also shown on Kei Karuizawa, a seemingly minor character from Classroom of the Elite’s first season who becomes a major character to aid in Kiyotaka’s plans throughout much of the second season. Suzune’s character is also shown to undergo some major developments to get over her abrasive personality affecting her ability to befriend others and becoming less dependent on Kiyotaka to overcome any of the school challenges.

These praises aside, Classroom of the Elite II still carries similar weaknesses as its first season in that audiences may not like like many of the characters within the series due to the title’s jaded stance on school life reflected with its premise. Kikyo and Ryuuen, in particular despite their strategical capabilities, are pretty shallow as far as their personality and what their main motives are. Plus, it’s rather rough at points for me to think if I should root for Kiyotaka or not considering his manipulations and regarding his classmates as pawns to utilize for his plans, even with the gradual character development he undergoes in this season. In addition, the series still ends inconclusively as there are ongoing developments with the series’ plot that remain unresolved due to its light novel source material still ongoing as of this review. However, a third season of the series is currently in the works and slated to air sometime next year.

In short, I admit my reception to Classroom of the Elite II is just as mixed as my viewing of its first season. While the challenges faced by the classes are still engaging and this season actually features some fleshing out and development of some major characters, others are still rather shallow and Kiyotaka’s character is still rather questionable in whether or not I can connect with him due to how he perceives his classmates, alongside the title’s trademark cynical approach to exploring high school life. If you enjoyed the show’s first season, you’ll likely get similar enjoyment out of this latest installment of Classroom of the Elite if you’re still watching the series up to this point.