English Dub Review: Classroom of the Elite “Man is an Animal that Makes Bargains: No Other Animal Does This – No Dog Exchanges Bones with Another”

Hell of a title.

Classroom of the Elite picks up from where it left off in “It Takes a Great Deal and Skill to Conceal One’s Talent and Skill.” Class D passes their exams aside from Sudo. He missed by one point. It’s revealed that Kiyotaka spent 15,000 points buying an old exam a few days earlier. Oddly, this isn’t against school rules.

Then, Kiyotaka and Suzune use their points to buy the missing point from their teacher. This way, they save Sudo from expulsion. The finale of “Man is an Animal that Makes Bargains: No Other Animal Does This – No Dog Exchanges Bones with Another” gets pretty dark. Kiyotaka discovers that Kushida has a rather volatile personality. If Kiyotaka mentions this to anyone, Kushida threatens to tell the everyone he attempted to rape her.

On the on hand, I like the dialogue-driven nature of the series. But spending points to buy exams and save students from expulsion is far too convenient. I’d rather see the main character expelled, which would present a neat surprise. Sure, the end of the episode is rather unexpected. But again, as in past episodes, it employs a bit too much fanservice. This really cheapens the series.

I do enjoy the interpersonal relationships and the psychological exploration. Still, the psychology elements are rather one-dimensional. It’s not terribly deep. Overall, it’s an interesting series, but not necessarily a lot new. It seemed from episode one that there was a focus on equality. That theme hasn’t been probed much since, and the series has veered off course.