Classroom of the Elite is produced by Lerche, the same studio that recently brought us Assassination Classroom and was directed by the duo of Seiji Kishi (who also directed Assassination Classroom) and Hiroyuki Hashimoto. It ran for 2017 episodes on both Crunchyroll (subtitles) and Funimation (English dub) and wrapped the dub just over a week ago. The series has been met with good reviews by the fanbase and there's still no word on a second season.
The series revolves around the Tokyo Metropolitan Nurturing High School, a school in Tokyo off on an island where students are subjected to four years of intense learning and are then spat out into the world, with almost all of the students guaranteed their dream college or dream job. We follow Class-D, the lowest of the school, as they scratch and claw their way into respectability, following Kiyotaka Ayanokoji and Suzune Horikita as they lead the classroom.
While Classroom of the Elite slips into a few modern anime tropes such as overt fan-service, over-dramatic characters, over-the-top action sequences, and teenagers that are drawn better than most real-life super-models, its clever narrative and story structure blur the line between whether or not these tropes are placed to appeal to mass audiences or lull audiences into a false safety blanket, only to have said blanked yanked over their heads. The characters (most of whom could honestly hold their own series) inhabit a world where they must prove their worth not through combat or fighting, but through sheer survival.
