Kindly refrain from bullying Kei; thank you very much. Classroom Of The Elite Season 2 Episode 3 sees us go further into the discussion game, so let’s see where it went in this review!
Classroom Of The Elite Season 2 Episode 3 Overview
Classroom Of The Elite Season 2 is a drama and suspense series developed by Studio Lerche. Lerche is a studio that is very well known for developing popular anime such as Assassination Classroom, Given, and Monster Musume. It is based on a light novel illustrated by Shunsaku Tomose and written by Shougo Kinugasa. The series is also known as Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e Season 2 in original Japanese.
The series is being directed by Seiji Kishi, Yoshihito Nishouji, and Hiroyuki Hashimoto. They are known for directing projects the likes of Angel Beats, Assassination Classroom, and the first season of this show which came out in 2017. This episode is also referred to as Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e Season 2 Episode 3 in Japanese. Click here to read our review of the previous episode in the series.
– Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e Season 2 Episode 3 Review does not contain spoilers –
Classroom Of The Elite Season 2 Episode 3 Review- A Conundrum
Let’s start this review by saying this arc has been entirely too predictable so far. Every move that Ayanokoji made, or performed in the late stages of the game, was hinted at from its start. It is hard to call it good or bad writing without getting into specifics, so let’s do just that. We have already discussed in this series how needlessly complicated the rules of this game were. Combine them with the number of groups that we needed to keep track of and the different characters inside them, and you get nothing from it but a headache.
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The show’s intention for doing that was to make things more interesting and to get more people who could make an impact in the future involved in the arc at some point. It even worked to an extent, as we certainly know more about the people that we didn’t realize existed. However, if they were people worth knowing is a different question entirely. We can say Kei was a decent addition to the main cast, but if this were more of a faithful adaptation to the manga, she would already have been a main character, and her arc here would have been much more impactful.
The bullying plotline had powerful scenes in this episode, and the topic was handled more carefully than previously imagined. However, the combination of her being an almost unknown character before the bullying part began, and the acts that she performed to incur the wrath of the bullies being just as unknown, it is hard to muster anything more than a little pity for her that won’t be all that useful in the long run. Ayanokoji got to drop one of his patented philosophical speeches at least, so that could be a good thing, depending on your taste.
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Classroom Of The Elite is doing a peculiar thing as it moves on with the story. It established Ayanokoji as a supreme mind above all the others studying in the school, alongside his ability to mastermind games to a microscopic level to ensure that his preferred outcome comes out on top. It seems to have done that too efficiently as the feeling going into this game was “Nothing is going to matter until Ayanokoji does his thing and wins the day again”. That feeling was aided by the game being extremely confusing, as the only thing certain about it was Ayanokoji’s victory.
The show then went in an entirely different direction with the end of the game, which ended up turning the predictability on its head. Some would call it a good thing, but unpredictability is only good if it at least makes some sense with regard to the show’s universe. With the players in the game increasing and us knowing how cunning people like Ichinose and Kakeru can be, it would have been in the show’s interest to let this one twist not appear as out-of-nowhere as it was. There can still be more to this story as the explanations of how everything happened are still (hopefully) coming, so don’t count this arc yet.
Verdict
Classroom Of The Elite Season 2 Episode 3 was a confounding episode that didn’t make the weird game being played any more interesting and didn’t make you care much for the characters it featured.
Click here to read the review of the next episode!