Classroom Crisis

Episode 10

Clear strengths, clear weaknesses. Classroom Crisis has always been a show that's excelled at some things and not excelled at some other things, and that was on full display again this week. With Nagisa's big maneuver and A-TEC's test run both coming up, this week's episode unfortunately tried to find drama in some of the show's weakest elements. The results were a predictable kind of disappointing.

In the wake of last week's attack on his brother, this week opened with Nagisa being abruptly promoted to the board of directors. Having now graduated from his always-absurd classmate status, the rest of A-TEC were left wondering how they should feel about this. Kaito urged everyone to focus on their work, but it was clear both Mizuki and Iris had complicated feelings about his sorta-betrayal. Though the rest of the class murmured about their own feelings, there really wasn't much to dig into there. At this point in the show, it's clear all the A-TEC members outside of Kaito, Nagisa, Mizuki, and Iris are essentially window dressing, a chorus that sadly or happily mirrors whatever the actual characters are feeling.

Over on the corporate side, we saw Nagisa meet with Kirishina's vice president, who was apparently Nagisa's main ally in his rise to power. As the vice president made angry noises about returning the corporation to its rightful path, Nagisa mainly just interjected to point out where the president actually had been making smart choices, while reflecting on his far more personal reasons for pursuing power. There was some character tension in revealing the way Nagisa's goals have possibly shifted over time, but overall this and the episode's other politically focused scenes only really showed how this show isn't particularly good at this stuff.

None of Nagisa's maneuverings within Kirishina have enough grounding or complexity to be compelling for their own sake - they're just things that happen. The only characters we have any reason to be invested in here are Nagisa and Angelina, and so any betrayals or counter-betrayals between the other characters don't have any dramatic weight. The climactic scenes of this episode focused on Nagisa's brother secretly wiping out Nagisa's support in both the political and boardroom arenas, but considering we just met Nagisa's allies over the last couple episodes and have no reason to share his reliance on them, the whole drama essentially played out as an empty version of the textbook “protagonist who goes his own way is brought low by ambitions, thus forcing a return to his true friends” stage of the narrative. Everything that is strong about this series lies in the interplay between Kaito, Nagisa, Mizuki, and Iris, and by removing Nagisa from their company entirely for such an important part of the story, Classroom Crisis has done its own drama a huge disservice.

Fortunately, Classroom Crisis did get one opportunity to show its real and laudable strengths, over the course of one conversation between Iris and Mizuki. Seeing that Mizuki was just throwing herself into her work to get over Nagisa's absence, Iris tried to comfort her friend, getting her some food and asking about her feelings on Nagisa. This conversation eventually led to a simple “you love him, don't you?” from Iris, which was handled with remarkable grace. Instead of either character acting overly dramatic, they remained themselves - Mizuki quietly considered Iris's question, Iris got up to leave, thinking she'd made the situation awkward, Mizuki caught her with a simple “yeah,” and Iris smiled, expressing support for her friend. That small sequence felt naturalistic, engaging, and completely true to the characters as we've come to know them. Simple, understated, far more effective than nine out of ten love confessions.

Classroom Crisis excels at the little things. I just wish it didn't have so much trouble attempting to do almost anything else.

Rating: C

Classroom Crisis is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Viewster.

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.