Classroom of the Elite is a very interesting Anime series. In this post, you’ll find a recap of everything that happened in episode 1 along with some analysis of what it means for the larger series.
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Characters Introduced In This Episode
Characters Introduced In This Episode
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka
From the jump, we get the feeling Ayanokoji is sort of a strange guy. He’s overly observant, yet extremely calm. He seems completely unfazed by the world around him yet he struggles to introduce himself in front of the class. So far the best way to describe Ayanokoji is as a reserved guy who is hyperaware of his surroundings. He pretends to care about fitting in but it doesn’t really bother him when he fails to make any friends. There’s definitely more to meets the eye with this guy.
Horikita Suzune
Horikita is another character who is not very transparent. She seems to be a diligent student but she doesn’t engage with any of her classmates. She claims to have been alone for her entire school life. When people attempt to be friendly with her she becomes extremely standoffish. Despite this fact, she seems to be somewhat open with Ayanokoji. She quickly accepts his invitation to a coffee shop even though it seems to go against her character. There’s clearly more to her story. Her brother is the school president yet he never approached her or said hello to her in the school. Why is she so defensive? Why doesn’t she want to be friendly with anyone?
Kushida Kikyo
Kushida is the friendliest girl in the school. In fact, she’s so friendly it’s unnerving. Why is she so desperate to become friends with Horikita? The feelings are clearly not being reciprocated. But I guess I can’t knock her too much for wanting to be nice. We don’t know much about her yet except for her obsession with befriending everyone. It’s only been a month and it already seems like she knows every person in the school.
Chabashira Sae
Chabashira is the homeroom teacher for Class D. She’s sort of an asshole. She intentionally misleads the class so they spend all their points and then she insults them afterward. If you don’t know the rules of the game, how are you supposed to play? Doesn’t really seem fair. That’s really the extent of what we know about her so far. She doesn’t seem very understanding but maybe things will change over the series.
Hirata Yosuke
Hirata is your typical teacher’s pet. He takes the lead in having the class introduce itself and it’s clear from the jump that he’s going to be the class leader. There’s not much to say about him at this point.
Sudo Ken
The final character that seems worth mentioning at this point is Sudo. Although we don’t know much about him it’s clear that he’s a delinquent and he doesn’t put a lot of work into his studies. He is also already causing problems in the school. Considering the class is being collectively graded on their conduct, Sudo could be a major problem for his classmates.
Plot Summary
We start episode 1 of Classroom of the Elite with a bunch of students on a school bus. Kushida is trying to get someone to give up their seat for an elderly lady but no one really seems willing. Eventually, someone who is not a student gives up their seat to the woman. We then arrive at the school. Here Horikita confronts Ayanokoji for looking at her on the bus. This is an early indication of her abrasive personality. Ayanokoji is unperturbed and brushes past the incident. When we get to the classroom, what a coincidence, Ayanokoji, and Horikita are seated right next to each other. After a little bit of mingling, Hirata gets up and proposes that everyone introduces themselves. Kushida eagerly agrees and the class goes around introducing themselves. When it’s Sudo’s turn to introduce himself, he flat-out refuses. The students are then interrupted by the homeroom teacher, Chabashira, entering the classroom. Chabashira explains the basics of the school. Basically, the school runs on a point system. Each of the students is awarded 100,000 points simply for being good enough to get admitted into the school. Each month the students gain more points. These points also trade 1:1 with Yen. The students are shocked by how much money they are being given. Throughout the episode, most of the students start spending money like crazy. They make extravagant purchases because they know they’ll get more points at the start of the next month. The only clear exceptions seem to be Horikita and Ayanokoji. They both seem much more frugal. During this month Kushida approaches Ayanokoji and asks her to help her become friends with Horikita. She’s under the impression that Horikita and Ayanokoji are close friends. Ayanokoji agrees to help her and he asks Horikita to accompany him to a coffee
shop. There Kushida ambushes Horikita and tries to convince her to become friends. However, Horikita sniffs out the plot and swiftly rejects Kushida’s offer. She is wary of Kushida and wonders what her ulterior motives may be. The episode concludes at the end of the month. All the students are confused because they haven’t received any more points. What’s going on? Well, it turns out the students aren’t just getting 100,000 free yen every month. In reality, the points are awarded on a merit-based system and the class completely failed. Tardiness and low effort cost them their points. It’s clear at this point that there is more to this school than what’s right at the surface.
Analysis
Finally, we get to the analysis. What was this episode really all about? Clearly, most of the episode was introducing us to the main characters and getting us familiarized with the school. It’s clear that these points are going to play a massive role in the way the school operates. It’s also clear that collaboration is going to be massively important to the students at this school. Everyone in the classroom is accountable to each other because the distribution of points is evaluated collectively. Basically, if one student messes up, the whole class pays for it. It’s also clear that there’s more than what meets the eye for a lot of the characters. We’ll just have to see as the series progresses.