YMMV / Classroom of the Elite

Tropes with their own pages:

• Awesome

Other Tropes:

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• Accidental Innuendo: In the final episode of the third season of the anime adaptation, Kiyotaka claims that he wouldn't mind being crushed by Ryuen. While the line was meant to show that Ayanokouji considers him as a Worthy Opponent and wouldn't mind if he was the person who proved his father wrong by winning over a genius like him, many fans interpret it in the sexual way, only further fueling their ship.
• Awesome Ego:
  • Rokusuke Kouenji. He's The Narcissist Academic Athlete who's very confident in his abilities, although he rarely puts them to use.
  • Fuuka Kiryuuin. Much like Koenji, she's extremely capable and she's aware of it, being so confident in herself that she outright taunts Nagumo that she's better than him at everything except for his leadership skills.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • There are those who believe that Suzune is a boring and incredibly flat Tsundere Love Interest, and thus detrimental to the series, and those who consider her a pretty nice cold girl whose expression makes her look more cute-threatening than icy. The fact that she has two potential Love Interests increases the controversy even more. And let's not recollect controversy because of her positioning in the anime◊.
  • Likewise, part of the audience believes that Kiyotaka is terrible whose abilities arise suddenly from the air when needed, while the other part adores him, considering him to be a good Audience Surrogate and an incredibly competent hero for this story.
  • While some fans are neutral to Sudo and his friends, believing that thanks to them, Kiyotaka and his friends can replace the narcissistic students from other classes, another part of the fans considers them too primitive Plucky Comic Relief, whose only purpose is to do stupid actions as instrument of the plot.
  • Sae Chabashira, the homeroom teacher of Class D, got this after the first episode for being a rather harsh Sink or Swim Mentor. This, along with her later blackmail of Kiyotaka to force him to become a more proactive student have led to debates whether she holds the Conflict Ball just for the sake of it, or if this makes her an interesting character given the setting.
  • Airi Sakura. One side of the fandom likes her for her pretty design (both regular and as gravure idol), her Moe Shrinking Violet personality, acting as a Surprise Witness to help clear Sudo's name, and her Ship Tease with Ayanokoji, including her Undying Loyalty towards him. This side will also see her as The Woobie for being expelled in spite of being one of Ayanokoji's closest allies. However, the other side sees her as a complete waste of a character, given how Out of Focus she becomes and rarely impacts the plot in meaningful way, along with her being one of the worst performing students in the class. This side is glad that she got expelled.
• Bizarro Episode: While the show itself is serious or at least trying to be so, episode 7 was a so badly written Beach Episode and got out of the general style of the show that fans everywhere hated it.
• Broken Base:
  • The anime adaptation received accusations of being a Cliché Storm due to the fact that many people considered it to retread plots commonly found in Society and Education critiques, and called it a "bad execution of a good setting". Its main character isn't safe either, as his increasing amount of hidden talents gets him pegged as a Marty Stu. On the other hand, other viewers believe that such an opinion has arisen because of high expectations and the erroneous opinion that this show will only be serious and social, and not try to entertain the viewer either.
  • The anime being a Compressed Adaptation of the original light novels. Some fans find this to be a necessary sacrifice in order to tell a more complete story due to how common it is for anime adaptations to only ever get a single cour. On the other hand, you have the fans of the Light Novels who feel the anime is not faithfully adapting the story. To coincide with this, Suzune became an Ascended Extra due to this, taking on roles in the story that went to other characters in the Light Novel.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Ayanokoji's effortless, methodical beatdown of Ryuen and his cronies at the end of Chapter 7 (season 2 of the anime) is so satisfying to watch considering how long the repugnant pricks got away with so much scumbaggery up until this point. Seeing Ryuen's smug face reduced to a pathetic, cowering wreck after Kitoyaka's done pounding him into a bloody pulp is just icing on the cake.
  • Both Yamauchi and Manabe getting expelled from their classes is another satisfying moment to watch, both due to their personalities and the performance of their voice actors' screams.
• Die for Our Ship: Fans of other girls completely dislike Suzune, considering her a completely boring and flat character, which exists only to ensure the work of the Cliché Storm end. On the other hand, Suzune's fans do not like Sudo, believing that she should be with the main character and does not deserve what they consider a Romantic Runner-Up.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Hiyori Shiina. The author admitted he has trouble writing her character, which explains why she appears less often than other girls teased with Ayanokoji. However, she's popular in the fandom for being a Cute Bookworm, a Token Good Teammate among Class C, and her ability to read people through looking at them alone. The anime adaptation adds to her appeal by giving her a cute and soothing voice, which many fans admit to enjoy listening to.
  • Mei-Yu Wang, also known as Mii-chan. In spite of her smaller role, many find her an endearing Moe and enjoy her Ship Tease with another popular character, Rokusuke Koenji.
• Fan Nickname: Kiyotaka earned the moniker "50% Man" by some fans, due to his habit of being perfectly and suspiciously average.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: With the main heroine role having a case of Rotating Protagonist depending on the arc, each of the girls who are teased with Ayanakoji have a time period where they're the preferred option for his Love Interest over the current main heroine of an arc in question. This also includes girls with less screentime and Ayanokoji's rivals.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: With the anime skipping a lot of the source material, many scenes from the light novel become this. Examples include scenes as memetic as the "T-Rex competition" or scenes that give characters more depth, such as Kiyotaka's inner monologue about male friendships and his desire to have one where he can show his vulnerable side while motivating Hirata out of his Heroic BSoD.
• Funny Moments: Kiyotaka gets one in episode 5, when classes C and D are in trial to determine Sudo's innocence. He notices Suzune is keeping quiet during the testimonies, possibly out of fear of her brother. Knowing they are going to lose if Suzune doesn't testify, he quickly and constantly grabs her side to snap her out of her funk. Everyone present just stares in confusion, while Chabashira just lets out a small chuckle.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In Year 1, Kiyotaka thinks of Sakura as one of the very few people he's unwilling to use like a pawn, and always seeks to get her out of harm's way. He is forced to expel somebody during his Year 2 exam thanks to Kushida, and the first person he thinks to suggest is Sakura. The class reluctantly agrees, and she's sacrificed to let the rest of the class avoid her fate.
• Heartwarming Moments: After he sees to it that Kei is alright after the events of volume 7, he tries to rationalize his treatment of her and concludes that he saved her because she's too valuable a pawn to throw away. But then he throws all that reasoning out the window with the very next line, showing once again that he does have a heart deep down:
  "But the truth is, her being useful or not is a secondary concern. All that's important is that she remains mine."
• Hollywood Homely: The very beautiful and gorgeous gravure model Sakura is portrayed as an inconspicuous and very shy gray mouse, after she puts on her closed clothes and glasses. This especially does not work after we see her gravure photos in the novel illustrations and in the anime.
• It Was His Sled:
  • Thanks to the series gaining popularity over the years, the twist that The Protagonist is more manipulative and talented than the Ridiculously Average Guy he paints himself as is pretty well-known. Even people outside of the fandom became aware of it thanks to videos and edits comparing his abilities to other skilled manipulators in various other anime franchises.
  • Similarly, Kikyo Kushida's true nature is also well-known, partly owing to how early the twist is revealed and partly because it's hard to discuss her character otherwise.
  • Both Takuya Yagami and Ichika Amasawa being White Room students is also a fairly known twist. Once again, it's partly because it's hard to discuss their characters without spoiling it as well as because many fans use this reveal as an argument for posts, videos and edits scaling characters' abilities.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains:
  • The villains of the series tend to at least be appreciated for their cunning strategies and competence, if not outright turn out to be Unpopular Popular Character. The same cannot be said about the Terrible Trio consisting of Shiho Manabe, Nanami Yabu and Saki Yamashita, who all are portrayed as just one-dimensional bullies and lack fans to balance out the hate as a result.
  • Kakeru Ryuuen's case also shows signs of this. He's initially despised by fans upon his debut for coming off as a one-dimensional Hate Sink Mean Boss. However, he tends to grow on most fans to the point of becoming an Unpopular Popular Character after the series proves him to be a capable villain.
  • Haruki Yamauichi is another good example. He's initially only disliked by a part of the fandom who finds him too incompetent, whereas the other side enjoys his Memetic Loser status. However, once more and more of his unsympathetic traits come to light, he gains a near universal hate, which contrasts the villains' general popularity.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: The Protagonist is this due several girls falling for him sooner or later. And that's not even including Foe Yay Shipping of all his rivals.
• Memetic Loser: Haruki Yamauchi thanks to his poor academical performance, overall little contribution to the class, and easily getting manipulated by Sakayanagi, which prompted many jokes about him being from a "Black Room", a reverse of Ayanakoji's White Room.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Toolzoned" ^ExplanationA fan term describing how at the end of the first season of the anime, Kiyotaka responds to Suzune's Tsundere-ish expression of affection for him, by coldly thinking that he's never thought of Suzune or any of his other classmates as allies, merely tools to achieve his goal. Some viewers concede that being seen as a tool is worse than being "friendzoned," hence the term.
  • "Suzuneee" ^ExplanationIn the anime adaptation, Ryuuen calls Horikita by her first name in a seductive manner multiple times throughout their many encounters. You'll find a lot of reactors trying to replicate his iconic delivery, along with many users commenting with her name whenever Ryuen appears, especially when the two are on screen together.
  • Calling Yamauichi "Yamagod" or saying he's from a "Black Room".^ExplanationDue to how much of a Memetic Loser he is, as well as because of The Protagonist's strategy of working from the shadows, many like to jokingly play up Yamauchi's stupid moves as manipulation on his part or joke how he's from a reverse of the White Room that is meant to create geniuses.
    • Related to the above, referring to Yamauchi as "Yamagone".^ExplanationA pun on the aforementioned Yamagod created due to his expulsion.
  • Comparing to or outright claiming that Yamauchi is Tohru Adachi from Persona 4.^ExplanationBoth characters have many similarities in their designs, be it their hairstyle, similar face shape, or facial expressions. As a part of many Memetic Loser jokes related to Yamauichi, fans often joke that his expulsion was what led him to become a Serial Killer.
  • "That should do it."^ExplanationA line that was used 3 times in total in the anime: after Kiyotaka's delayed rescue of Kei Karuizawa, after visiting Honami Ichinose in her room when she was skipping school due to rumors, and after motivating Yosuke Hirata. The line gained infamy from fans for replacing Ayanokoji's more complex inner monologues, such as one about the nature of male friendships and wanting one where he can show his vulnerable side to Hirata; thus turning him into more of a one-note cold manipulator. Fans would later jokingly add the line to any single conversation he had or fear it incoming in every new episode.
• Moe: Many of the girls in the show are cute and very sympathetic, but especially Suzune Horikita, Kikyo Kushida (at least on the surface), Airi Sakura, Honami Ichinose, Mei-Yu Wang, and Hiyori Shiina.
• Misaimed Fandom: While panties in the island's arc are used by their thief in order to quarrel students in class D, some of the audience mistakenly decided that they are the very purpose of the arc or even a kind of vulgar fanservice. This even led to the fact that part of the audience began to blame the arc on the idea that the characters allegedly are looking for panties's perverse thief, instead of developing the plot.
• Narm:
  • The philosophical quotes at the beginning of each episode are difficult to take seriously because of their extreme pretentiousness. In addition, the controversial eighth episode begins with the quote "Abandon all hope, you who enter here" from Dante's Symphony.
  • Suzune is so obviously a Tsundere Love Interest and the future Defrosting Ice Queen that her intimidation attempts become rather cute. Especially when it concerns her dissatisfied reaction in the cafe scene.
  • The fanservice in the adaptation also receives this attitude because of its suddenness and lack of context, which contrasts sharply with the attempts of the anime to look serious.
  • The show takes the rivalry between classes so seriously that at some point it becomes Narm Charm and resembles criminal films about the struggle between bandit groups.
• Never Live It Down: While the second third of the show is usually accused of excessive and foolish fan-service, in fact it ended already in the eighth episode, and the audience, as a matter of habit, began to attribute to it any trifles, like stolen panties or the appearance of girls in swimsuit for a couple of seconds. In the end, the episodes after the eighth were accused of what they did not have, just by tradition.
• Paranoia Fuel: The sixth episode pretty strongly implies that Kiyotaka can turn out to be a very delicate and cynical manipulator, and his origin even has some paranormal notes. Confirmed later on, where he can rather cold-bloodedly manipulate people for his own goals.
  • Furthermore, with The Protagonist and several other characters acting as The Chessmaster manipulating various variables behind the scenes for their goals, and with Kushida pretty quickly turning out to be The Fake Cutie willing to spread False Rape Accusation, many fans grow unable to trust any character who comes off as a Nice Girl or Nice Guy. Or even any character period.
• Tainted by the Preview: When it was first announced that this novel would be adapted by the Lerche studio, many studio fans became angry, believing that it was moving away from its dramatic and postmodern gloomy roots, taking up work in the "generic school Romantic Comedy" genre. It almost disappeared after the anime turned out to be more serious and dark than the audience thought.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The main criticism of anime adaptation is that the studio has simplified most of the story, including at the expense of other girls, replacing them in many scenes on Horikita.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: At first, many viewers perceived it as a flatter version of My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected, whose main characters are Flanderization Hachiman, Yukinon and Yui.
• Unpopular Popular Character:
  • Although everyone treats Kiyotaka as a gray mediocrity in the work, he is the most popular character in the show, especially after he showed his talents and a fairly progressive view.
  • While he's The Friend Nobody Likes (aside from Mei-Yu Wang) due to his narcissism, Koenji is beloved by many fans for a number of reasons: from being equally as capable as Ayanokoji, his carefree nature, unapologetically being himself, being a source of many comic relief moments, to his Ship Tease with Mii-chan.
  • Ryuen only has his group by his side and at best has his capabilities recognized by some other students, but is otherwise Hated by All for his tyranny. Many fans enjoy his role past the first impression of a simple The Bully, considering him as a more capable than initially assumed The Rival to Ayanokoji once the series focuses more on his cunning strategies. It's to the point that many like their rivalry even more than Ayanokoji and Arisu's.

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