One of Crunchyroll’s hottest psychological thrillers is closing in on its fourth season’s finale, and it has serious potential. The series itself is an amazing blend of Solo Leveling and Death Note, two stand-outs series in and of themselves.
Solo Leveling is known for being the best example of straight-up power fantasy. Sung Jinwoo is destined to become the strongest Hunter in the series, and the franchise itself does a great job of keeping everyone interested.
Death Note might be the best psychological thriller ever made. It’s an expert-level cat-and-mouse game that leaves viewers with more questions than answers, and this Crunchyroll sensation has those two aspects in spades.
Classroom of the Elite Is a Blend of Solo Leveling and Death Note
Classroom of the Elite is the perfect combination of Death Note and Solo Leveling, and any fan of either franchise will most likely love Classroom of the Elite. Power fantasies are hardly new in anime, but few pull off the trope quite like Solo Leveling. Power fantasies themselves can be boring because of how predictable they are, but that’s exactly where the series thrives.
Jinwoo is never going to lose a fight, and that’s the point. He’s also destined to become so absurdly powerful that nobody in his series will be able to face him in battle, and yet, the series is interesting because of it. Solo Leveling is filled with some of the best fights in anime history, and Jinwoo himself is a treat to watch every time he pops up on screen.
Crunchyroll’s New Isekai Is Basically Solo Leveling 2.0 & We’re Here for It
Solo Leveling took the world by storm and this new Crunchyroll isekai looks to replicate a lot of the same aspects that made the series amazing.
Death Note is an incredible watch because of how ornate and complex it is. It feels like the series was written backwards in that there are so many wonderful twists and turns it’s hard to understand how even the smartest mangaka could come up with it any other way.
Classroom of the Elite doesn’t have the same amount of action as Solo Leveling, nor does it have two of the smartest characters in anime like Death Note, but it does have a few similar aspects. Like Jinwoo, Ayanokoji is in a league of his own, and watching him manipulate his way through the Advanced Nurturing High School feels a lot like watching Light outwit L.
It’s Been Amazing For Three Seasons, But…
Classroom of the Elite, like Solo Leveling, takes one of the most dangerous tropes in anime and runs with it. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, the protagonist of the series, is so much smarter than every character around him that it’s hardly worth comparing him to anyone. He’s a dark, brooding main character, and while that level of edginess can weigh a series down, it only makes Classroom of the Elite even better.
The first three seasons have displayed Ayanokoji at only a fraction of his power. He’s been a C-student in every way because he wants to sit back and watch how things play out without his interference. There have only been a few moments where he’s willing to let his genius run rampant, and those have been some of the best moments of the show.
After three solid seasons, Ayanokoji is finally letting the rest of his schoolmates know what he is truly capable of. He’s no longer hiding behind a guise of averageness. Now that he knows another White Room student has been put in charge of his expulsion, he’s willing to go all-out for the first time in the franchise.
The Fourth Season Allowed Ayanokoji to Let Loose
Ayanokoji announced early in the fourth season that he would no longer be acting average. He got a perfect score on an incredibly difficult test, placing higher than everyone in his entire grade by some margin. The few people that knew of his genius were surprised, and the dozens of people who didn’t could barely understand it.
He has a bigger target on his back than ever, and the series feels alive because of it. While Classroom of the Elite never hit a low point through three seasons of Ayanokoji’s lying-low, it feels like his reveal was always meant to be. It’s one thing to watch Ayanokoji manipulate his classmates from the shadows, and it’s another thing to watch him do it in broad daylight.
The Fourth Season’s Ending Could Be Unreal
The fourth season has everything necessary to create an unreal ending. Ayanokoji is letting loose, the Student Council President is fighting, what seems to be, an unsuccessful war against the dominant Koenji, and the freshly introduced first-years are banding together to take out Ayanokoji and claim the 20-million point prize placed on his head.
Ayanokoji has fought against a myriad of top-tier opponents in the past. From Ryuen to Sakayanagi, he’s had no shortage of worthy rivals, but the still-hidden White Room student might prove to be his greatest opponent yet. He even has the Acting Chairman of the Advanced Nurturing School against him, and still, Ayanokoji-boy couldn’t care less.
It’s not often that such an edgy series can thrive like Classroom of the Elite. The series has been filled with ups with little to no downs in sight, and the fourth season has been no different. It’s been a great watch from the very beginning, and there are more than a few signs pointing to the fact that the finale will be one to remember.
- Release Date
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2017 – 2024-00-00
- Network
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AT-X
- Directors
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Hiroyuki Hashimoto, Seiji Kishi, Yoshihito Nishouji, Noriyuki Nomata, Masaru Kanamori, Yohei Fukui, Yuki Nagasawa, Yoshinari Suzuki, Mako Shiina, Song Hyeon-dae, Takuma Suzuki, Yuka Tsuda, Lisa Notaro, Hideki Takayama, Hideki Tonokatsu, Taro Kubo, Takahiro Majima, Fumio Itou, Tatsu Yamamoto, Atsuko Tonomizu, Yasunori Goto, Nana Fujiwara, Kentaro Iino, Kanae Komoda
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Shoya Chiba
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji (voice)
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Akari Kito
Suzune Horikita (voice)