Classroom of the Elite II

Episode 6

Looking back on this arc, one thing is clear: it's all about Horikita and her personal growth. In episode 4, she learned she needed to help lift others up instead of just expecting them to reach her level. In episode 5, she learned that there was a limit to what she could do by herself. Now, in this week's episode, she puts what she has learned into action—well, kind of.

It's clear that Horikita is heading into unknown territory in this episode. Chasing after Sudo, she at first tries to appeal to him with facts and logic—which comes across as a lecture at best and preaching at worst. However, this shows Sudo that she cares enough to make the attempt and so he gives her a second chance to try and convince him to return to the team.

It's here that she does something she hates doing: revealing her own vulnerabilities. She explains what she wants to do and why on a deeply personal level. This is something that Sudo, as a person ruled by his emotions, can connect with far more than logical reasoning. Then, after bringing herself down to his level, she puts her second hard-learned lesson into action and straight up asks him for his help. She admits she cannot reach her goal without him, which is what Sudo really wanted all along: to be respected and valued by his class of much more intelligent peers. Having gotten what he has been looking for, Sudo returns to the sports festival and apologizes to everyone, fixing the majority of the damage he caused and ending things on a positive note.

Unfortunately, while Horikita has learned to ask for help for the sake of the class, she has not learned to do the same for her own personal problems. Faced with Ryuen's blackmail, she tries to tackle the problem herself, even when Ayanokoji inquiries about it. And of course, it goes about as terribly as you'd expect. While she may be intelligent, Horikita is far from cunning, so her attempt to try and trick Ryuen into outing himself while being recorded all amounts to nothing. Luckily, someone watching from the shadows reveals that a traitor in Class-C recorded the original planning session for the blackmail plot, forcing Ryuen to give up on the whole ordeal. Hopefully this will drive home the message to Horikita that she is not alone and can call upon others for support even when it comes to more personal matters.

This all brings us to the elephant in the room: Kushida. It's revealed from the start of the season that she's been working with Ryuen behind the scenes in an attempt to get Horikita expelled. This seems to be her sole goal—that, and doing away with anyone else who knows the “real her” beneath the mask.

Kushida turning out to be the actual traitor is rather disappointing. From what we have seen so far, Kushida is a weak villain. While trusted and loved by the class in general, she has less control over the girls of the class than Karuizawa and her always-optimistic mask makes it hard for her to badmouth others. More than that, she's not proven herself to be particularly intelligent—especially when compared to someone like Ayanokoji. And while pairing up with Ryuen helps mitigate this some, her revealing her plan to get rid of anyone who knows her secret to Ryuen, Ayanokoji, and Horikita—i.e. those who know her secret and thus her targets—is an idiotic move to say the least.

But what really hurts her as a villain at this point is that her motivations seem almost nonsensical without knowing her backstory. Why is it so important that no one knows the true her? What happened to cause her to feel this way? What does she hope to gain by reinventing herself as the pure goody-two-shoes she pretends to be? If anyone needs an arc focused on them, it's Kushida. Let's hope we get it soon.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• All that said, we still have the makings of a good conflict here. Ayanokoji now has a traitor to deal with, but simply doing away with said traitor would mean he would never be able to reach his goal.

• Shouldn't Kushida be more than a little worried that both Horikita and Ryuen have her true personality recorded? Either of them can destroy her mask at any time for any reason.

• Those recordings make for a much better blackmail tool than having “fingerprints on a dress shirt” from months before.

• I wonder if Class-C actually has a traitor. I mean, it's not that hard to simply bug their classroom.

• If the Class-C traitor turns out to be Mio—i.e., the most likely person to be the traitor—I'm going to be even more disappointed.

• While Ayanokoji is usually cold and logical, we see again that his ego is his one weakness. He can't resist testing himself against someone who is considered to be both physically and mentally perfect—even if it makes him stand out.

• Class-D seemed surprisingly okay with being last place despite the punishments that come with it.

Classroom of the Elite II is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.