Classroom of the Elite
Rating: 8.82 / 10
Author(s): Tomose, Shunsaku
Artist(s): Kinugasa, Shougo
Genre(s): Drama, Psychological, School
Type: Light Novel
Release: 2015
Status: OnGoing
Plot Summary:
Receiving funding from the government to nurture the next generation's hopefuls, Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School brings together the brightest youth of Japan onto a single campus. At this seemingly perfect institution, the reserved Kiyotaka Ayanokouji arrives as an incoming member of class 1-D, where he befriends one of his classmates, the antisocial Suzune Horikita. At first, his peers revel in the academy's leisurely lifestyle, taking advantage of all of its state-of-the-art facilities. Soon enough, however, the facade of Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School gives way to its true nature—only the top scoring classes can fully utilize the school's offerings, and Class D is the furthest from such a status. Standing at the bottom of the hierarchy, Class D houses all of the school's "worst" students. Following this rude awakening, Ayanokouji, Horikita, and the rest of Class D must overcome their differences and clash against other classes in order to climb to the coveted position of Class A by any means necessary.
Reviews
Rating: ★★★★☆
The story of Classroom of the Elite is easily one of the best parts of this series. When I started reading it, I also watched the anime as well as soon as I finished the parts that were adapted and was surprised at how much different the cores of the story were different from each other. If you watched the anime, which adapted the first 3 volumes, you probably watched what is in my opinion the worst (although not worst as in bad, just relative to the rest of the first year) part of the first year. Although, if you watched the ending of the anime or have read the third volume, you may have noticed a major shift in the story. I'm not going to spoil anything but from volume 4 on the story completely changes from its original Oregairu vibes and becomes more and more interesting. Not only do we get to see more and more interesting exams, we have long build ups and create even better pay-offs. Additionally, in the end of the 5th volume, we get another added aspect to the story that will slowly build up and become a major factor in the future volumes and even more so in the second year. I don't want to say too much, but one thing I will say is that everything that happens in the story makes sense, I don't recall one moment that I though to myself that the thing that just happens makes no sense or is an asspull.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
I have never read a novel series or been excited to start the next volume in any other light novel series. I am really glad that I started so late that I could binge all of it so fast. The build ups that occur during this novel and the developments of the characters are some of the best that I have experienced reading novels so far. Not only was this first year really good, it set up the next year to have the potential to be even greater. With a concept like CotE, I could see how recurring elements could end up making this series kind of boring, however with the set up that happens over the course of this year, the second year brings a whole lot of interesting developments that are going to be exciting to experience. If you can get past the somewhat slow of a start that the 3 volumes are, you will not be disappointed in how the story progresses and builds.