Funny that with the sounding name like “Classroom of the Elite”, this episode moves as far away as possible from the “classroom” scenario and of course in no way those kids are the “elite”, because no elite argues about the need of portable toilet in the middle of a deserted island (because of course you need no toilet in the middle of a freaking deserted island); yet here they play it completely straight. That and somehow nearly the whole class don’t know how to set fire to wood make me question whether the writer himself knows anything about proper camping. Put the plot aside for now (because silly plot is… silly), it’s the setting that I find rather intriguing this time. Of course it comes from me who have zero experience of getting stranded in a deserted island before, so take my two cents below with a grain of sand. Suppose that a group find itself stranded in the middle of nowhere, what would they do first? Setting up a base, choosing the leader and looking for food. The basic, long-term survival plan. In that sense, Yousoko this week fulfills two of these, and they actually blend these two with the “bonus points” each class will compete with each other (finding the spots, only the leader can secure the plot and the guessing game of who is the leader of each class).
The most natural rule about setting up base, is to pick the place near the river/water. Maybe I come from the place whose big cities are primarily located in a coastline, so I’m biased; but I believe that control the water supply is one of the most crucial condition. Class-D, intentional or not, picks one of the best place to survive as a result. Then, you’d need to look for the food and this is where Yousoko does a poor job as the class has no trouble or even put much thoughts of finding food. Granted that they’re leaning on buying two meals a day anyway but this should be an aspect the show can make an interesting spin on it. On other notes, despite my moaning, I understand the intention behind the guys and girls arguing about that wrecked portable toilet. In order to work together as a team, you’d need to satisfy the basic needs of the members of the group. About picking the leader, l really adore the subtlety from Youkoso about saying the importance of guessing and figuring out the leaders of other classes (High risk, high return they say) and then the very next scene our guy Ayanokouji just happens to spot the leader of Class A – with his card on his hand, lecturing his classmate about “don’t talk too loud” no less. Choosing Horikita as a Class-D leader is a sound plan, mostly because she’s a lead (hah!) and that way Ayanokouji can work effectively in the shadow for the class’s benefit.
But behind all these complicated rules and “living in the island for a week” premise, the main meat is always about points. It’s not the matter of saving and gaining points, it’s more about how to use the points wisely. Not wasting any unnecessary points, but still fulfill the basic needs for everyone and gain more points by securing spots and identify the other classes’ leaders. Seems like Class-D get that aspect right, except that… the Tarzan Perfect Species doesn’t agree with any of that. Man, at this point I stop taking him seriously because who’s in the world except monkey would climb and hop between trees instead of walking normally like a normal sensible human would do? I believe he has another agenda for swimming away and admiring the moon, but frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn. Another important development is that class-D decides to take care of Class-C girl’s Ibuki, who is beaten up by her classmates. It looks like a trap for me consider that we don’t really see the reason why she got injured in a first place and I know Ryuen is wicked bastard; but class-D proves again why they are at the bottom of the food chain by sharing her their food and genuinely care for her without any question asked. Until next week when all the cards are on the table should we know how all this play out, but for now, securing the spots, while having fun argue about portable toilet, how to use points and protecting themselves from the evil scheming of other classes sound like a pretty good fun for me. Do it with styles Youkoso.
I’m glad the show is back on track with this episode. The previous two were lacking in substance, especially episode 7 which adapts material from volume 4.5 when the main storyline is still in volume 2. It particularly infuriated me because it came right on the heels of Ayanokouji and Horikita saving Sudo’s ass only for him to get involved in this stupid stunt. Speculation is that this season will close out at 12 episodes and finish the survival game arc, which is evidently Ayanokouji’s best performance in *any* of the novels, so that’s something to anticipate for any fans of his puppeteering. He’s really carrying this show since there’s more focus on Horikita than in the light novels where she is developed only slightly more than the other supporting characters in class D. More than a third of this season will be this arc if you include most of episode 8.
Probably one of the more significant scenes of ep 8 is the class C girl’s fight with Ryuen at the boat’s bar. It was awfully convenient that they had a falling-out at the exact time/place Ryuen was talking to the two people responsible for foiling his plans to expel Sudo. If the characters are careful they can avoid information leaks by taking her away from the campsite when they renew the lease, etc. But class C could also be trying to frame C-class again for beating her up – this time with a 0% chance of having somebody film it. Speaking of lack of cameras; I imagine that Katsuragi of class A is not the real leader. Of course having a proxy leader is not allowed, but with no way to prove that he was actually leasing spots it’s entirely moot to argue as such. As you said, he loudly lectured his classmate about being covert while holding the key card, of which we are only shown the backside. Probably the only truly reliable way to determine the leader is to get a glimpse at the name on it. Class D should employ this method as well instead of / in addition to the human shield. Or put one of the tents there and cut out the back of it to renew from inside. A proxy leader in particular would be ideal if they are going to try to control multiple spaces as Horikita isn’t looking so sharp. She’s been nursing a spot on her right arm since last episode and she clearly doesn’t have the drive to go running through the jungle all day every day for a week leasing areas. Tarzan would’ve been good for that.
I think maybe Tarzan was able to scout out at least 2 other (potential) leaders, so he would be able to offset the missing 30 points with 50 or 100 while also potentially saving them a bit of money on food and water. I don’t know if he’ll have the chance to consult with his class again or not, but that’s my guess for his plot (if he has one).
The port-o-john is really a contentious item to debate with people on the web! I personally think it’s a worthwhile investment even though I have a fair bit of camping experience. One of the big reasons is just logistics – one cardboard toilet for 24 people is a bit much, even if the guys don’t have to use it to pee. I think it’s also important for sanitation. Just because Ike can safely drink the water doesn’t mean everyone can, and food-bourne illness is extremely contagious via excrement. Very interesting that people are so split on whether or not they should purchase one!
Looking forward to the next three episodes as the show attempts to redeem itself from the previous two fanservice-filled flunkies. I’d really like to keep watching it, and there’s enough material to make another 2-cour season already, but its ratings in Japan are supposedly not wonderful, especially compared to the LN sales, which due to the boost from the show is now the top-selling LN series. So many shows now only serve to open up the premise to a wider audience to sell LN copies. I’d find that more acceptable if they didn’t take 3 years to translate them, and it hurts anime as a distinct medium.
Thanks silver for a very detailed response. I’ve read part of the LN (the events in episode 2) and with what little I read, I found the LN has much more focus on the side characters than in the anime – Hirata has only handfuls of dialogues in the show, the other members of the class beside the 3 idiots are just there. Well for me this arc at least retains my little interest left for the show. Seems like you’ve read the LNs so it’s affirming to know this survival game arc is worthy enough.
I agree it’s convenient that they showed the internal conflicts of Class-C right in front of our leads. But knowing Ryuen, he might use this girl as a way to destroy Class-D (or more specifically, Horikita) AT THAT GIRL’S EXPENSE. Yep, I also have a second thought of whether Katsuragi was Class A’s leader, but it doesn’t hide the fact that the show tried too hard on that scene – being too obvious is never good in my book. Tarzan would be as terrible choice of Horikita if you ask me, since that guy just charge through to wherever he feels like without any care for his own class. Ayanokouji would be the best choice.
About that port-o-john, human and animal waste still play a role in the recycling of nutrients (or whatever, I don’t really care ^^) and they can dodge that issues by doing their business in a self-dug hole far away from their base. Having one also brings a fair share of issues of demanding, the place to put it, how to carry it. It’s unrealistic anyways so it’s rather hard to make some meaningful observations on that.
I’m in the middle of reading volume 1 which is where I realized that they focus more on other side characters as you said. I don’t dislike Horikita as much as most LN readers, but she is much less abrasive in the anime because they’re trying to make her into the main girl for whatever reason. At least once per chapter Horikita says something that makes Ayanokouji think, “damn girl that’s mean as hell.” Thus he empathized more with the “real” Kushida because he honestly feels similar as he’s only associating with Horikita because she’s twisting his arm. Sakura also plays a more prominent role as somebody he actually cares about because she’s by far the nicest of the three aforementioned girls. The translations are stalled around ep 5 or 6 (during Sudo’s trial – 1st half of vol 2). I was hoping to be able to read this arc (end of vol2), but it’ll be a while yet before somebody has time to translate to the next 6 or 7 chapters to complete vol2. I’m only basing my statement about Ayanokouji’s impressive performance in this arc on comments made by folks who’ve read the LNs raw.
I only mentioned Tarzan as a good proxy leader to swing around the jungle leasing spots. Obviously he would never be careful to avoid detection while doing this so making him the actual leader would be unthinkable. I think we can all agree that it was out of malice that Kushida nominated Horikita, and that it was a stupid decision all-around given the recent diving board proclamation, etc. I think Ike would be a good choice for this as he’s part of the 3 idiots and not well-known as a leader even among his own class. It’s only in the second half of this episode that we learned of his abilities as an outdoorsman and it seems Hirata is deferring leadership to him for this event. Ibuki is going to have her eyes glued to Horikita for sure.
Definitely agree that Ryuen is using Ibuki to attack D-class. Whether the current situation is part of the plan or not, they obviously beat her up – something Ryuen is fond of doing to his own classmates. I think that the empathy displayed by class D very well could offset the abuse she’s taken from her own class and throw a spanner in the machinations. Probably what Ayanokouji is thinking as he initially showed hesitation at helping her when they found her; his gut is probably right, but I think he figures that he can run damage control on any plans they are using her for and thus lets his classmates help her. I also think he might still feel quite apprehensive about her but didn’t want to show such insight in front of her as he’s still relatively unknown compared to Hirata, Kushida, Horikita, et al. For this reason I think he would never agree to be leader, either, even if he were to be recognized and nominated by his class. From the events that happened during the Icarus play in ep 8 we know that somebody from his dark and mysterious past has sights on him, so he’s already attracted too much attention. This is probably why LN readers say this arc is his best badass moment. Maybe he *really* steps behind the curtain for future events to shake off the aggro.
Also OT regarding these recent episodes, but what do you think about Ichinose having 2.5 million yen? That’s overwhelmingly more than any other known character, including Katsuragi and other prominent class-A members who are in the 200,000-500,000 range. It seems like she probably knows Ayanokouji saw the amount on her phone as he went to her to borrow money to rent the cameras to end the trial arc. I’m sure being indebted to her is uncomfortable despite how innocuous she seems.
I don’t know how good Sakura is in the novel but in the anime version… poor girl, she has no real roles except acting all shy and cute in front of Ayanokouji and of course this guy is totally oblivious to her crush. After what happened to the “Operation: Peep on the Girls’ Dressing Room” where I witnessed Ike and the likes devoted 100% efforts to carry out the mission (and nearly failed), I have no doubt at all that he’d screw up somehow if he were a proxy leader; but damn I’m more intrigued to see how that will turn out than what we have here.
In my opinion, Ayanokouji would never like to be a “true” leader and he never fit to be a leader. He’s more a lone wolf type where he works best alone. Hachiman in OreGairu sums it best when he remarks that “When I act alone I get excited while making intricate plans, but when there’s other people, my style is to follow after them”. But this proxy leader isn’t the same as real leader. The proxy leader doesn’t need to make any decision (not that I can think of) and the only requirements to become one are 1) that person needs to fly under the radar (which he seems to be very good at) and 2) that person is active enough to go around the bush and tap his card to the tapping machines (which I believe he’s quite adept of).
About Ichinose’s insane amount of points, my theory is either the members of class-B nominate part of their points to her as a bank or she’s a loan shark who offers help and make others paying back by points. I’m leaning to the former since I believe class-B understands the purchasing power system in this academy. Having huge amount of points allow them to buy goods that benefit the whole class. It’s a sound plan for me since at that academy you can basically do everything you like/need by using points; but both of the possibilities feel off as Ichinose just lend her money to Ayanokouji with ease, without interest in the camera incident.