There is no doubt
that “ Classroom
of the Elite ” is one of the most popular franchises of the
moment, especially in the world of light novels. However, when we turn
to other media such as the manga adaptation or the anime adaptation, the
reviews become mixed, to say the best.
The manga
adaptation is considered a complete failure by omitting much of the protagonist
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji's personality, especially all of his internal monologues. It was evident that this flaw
would carry over to the anime adaptation as well, and the absence of these
details ended up leaving Ayanokoji as a clichéd anime protagonist.
It makes sense to use
cinematic shorthand (turning written clues in the light novel into visual clues
in the anime) to convey that there is something “off” about Ayanokoji from the
beginning. After all, television and novels are different mediums, and
it would be tedious to include all of their internal monologues. There
is also no guarantee that the viewer will have the patience to watch a
seemingly unremarkable character in this cast of larger-than-life
personalities.
These
problems have been going on since the first season, and the recently concluded
third season was no exception. Certainly
“Classroom of the Elite” was from the beginning a light novel that was almost
impossible to adapt to anime, and this is why many fans of the franchise
recommend avoiding the anime if you are looking for a complete experience of
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji's journey in the Metropolitan High School for Advanced
Education.
And there was no
shortage of complaints in the third season, but curiously they were not about
the representation of the protagonist. In fact, the criticism itself
was towards how “Classroom of the Elite” went from being a story of mental
battles and strategies to a simple harem story. Or at least that's how
it was portrayed on a popular comment forum:
- " I was expecting
a head-to-head battle in the third season of Classroom of the Elite, but I
was disappointed that it was just a convenient harem story... "
And of course, there
was no shortage of comments:
- « I was expecting stories
like the camp in Season One or the cruise in Season Two, what happened? ».
- " It's as if each of
the girls were only there to become a tool of the protagonist ."
- « The designs were better
in the second season. The story and the production go from bad to worse,
to be honest .
- " As long as
Sakayanagi-chan keeps appearing, I don't care about the rest ."
- « Yes, it's almost like a
harem, but he also makes friends with men, so I guess it's not so bad .»
- « At most one or two
romantic interests would be accepted in a story like this. But now there
are more than five .
- " Daddy Ayakoji has
been teasing us and the curriculum is a disaster ."
- « Next season they will
add another harem. If there is one ."
- " I want a series of
fine books that give Yamauchi-kun an important role in the series ."
- « There hasn't been even
an ounce of cerebral battle elements in this anime since the beginning. It
has been a story of “I am the strongest protagonist and no one else knows
it . ”
- " Ayanokoji is a
funny guy, so it's no surprise that he chose Suzune Horikita ."
- « I left the original
story at the end of the second year, the story is in decline .»
- " The most common
reason is that the school is very elitist, but it is also very unsafe ."
Source: Yaraon!
