# Classroom of the Elite (2017)

> A gifted but enigmatic transfer student is placed in the school's lowest class, where he quietly plays a deadly game of status and strategy against a rigged meritocracy.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/63232

## Facts

- Seasons: 5
- Episodes: 54
- Episode runtime: 24 min
- Status: Returning Series
- Genres: animation, drama, mystery
- Network: AT-X
- Cast: Shoya Chiba, Akari Kito, Ayana Taketatsu, Yurika Kubo, Mao Ichimichi, Ryota Osaka, Eiji Takeuchi, Mutsuki Iwanaka
- TMDB rating: 7.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7263328/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: cold, tense, calculating, cutthroat, unsettling

## What critics say

Audiences rate the series positively, praising its psychological mind games and the way its class-based survival system unfolds across seasons.

## Synopsis

Classroom of the Elite (2017-present) is a Japanese animated psychological school drama produced by Lerche and broadcast on AT-X, adapted from the light novel series and running across four seasons with 54 episodes. Shoya Chiba voices Kiyotaka Ayanokouji, a quietly brilliant transfer student who is placed in Class 1-D, a dumping ground for students with behavioral problems at the prestigious Tokyo Koudo Ikusei Academy. Suzune Horikita (voiced by Akari Kito), Kei Karuizawa (voiced by Ayana Taketatsu) and Yosuke Hirata (voiced by Ryota Osaka) round out the principal cast. The engine of the show is Ayanokouji's concealed ambition: he hides his true abilities while the school dangles monthly points worth 100,000 yen and unusually free classes, and every classroom exercise, exam and social alliance becomes a calculated contest of bargaining, bluffing and betrayal. Episodes are built around these point-driven trials and the shifting loyalties they expose. The school itself is a meritocracy with a hidden machinery, and the atmosphere is cold, tense and cutthroat, with simmering bullying and rivalry sitting beneath polished institutional surfaces. Fans of Death Note, Battle Royale and Liar Game will find resonance in its mind games and social hierarchy.

## Shows like Classroom of the Elite

- [KAKEGURUI TWIN (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/114159)
- [BEASTARS (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/77064)
- [Platinum End (2021)](https://ember.film/tv/95732)
- [Kakegurui (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/66170)
- [Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts (2010)](https://ember.film/tv/50503)
- [Tomodachi Game (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/113760)
- [Kakegurui (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/63052)
- [Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School (2016)](https://ember.film/tv/59495)
- [Charlotte (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/56085)
- [Talentless Nana (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/85211)

---

Site overview: https://ember.film/llms.txt