Classroom Crisis is back! After two straight episodes of tedious and emotionally sterile boardroom shenanigans, Classroom Crisis finally returned to what it’s actually good at – demonstrating remarkable humanity in the conversations between its lead characters. And jeez, was this episode’s big conversation ever a stunner. The cathartic reunion between Nagisa and Mizuki here honestly justifies the series for me pretty much single-handedly. Satisfying romance is one of those mystical white elephants of anime storytelling, and these two have all kinds of character-coherent and endearing chemistry. Couple that with the dramatic stakes of Nagisa being at his lowest point and Mizuki dragging him out of it, and you’ve got a scene that will pretty much permanently endear me to this series regardless of all its other (numerous) failings. Scenes like this are what I’m in fiction for – I built my first novel around a scene that was basically exactly like this, and I will probably be always be a sucker for “I know things are bad, but god damnit, I care about you. We can get through this together.” Nice work, Classroom Crisis. You got me.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

“To Each His Own Rebellion”

No OP this time!

Iris recovering in the hospital

The ship got wrecked by Iris’ breakdown

Dr. Li from the hostage episode runs into Kaito

Dr. Li’s now a Kirishina employee

Nagisa’s brother talking about his plans with Nagisa

Nice pacing to this episode so far. Good momentum

Dr. Li’s working on a crazy military robot

The CEO’s planning to make Kirishina a military supplier for the coming energy wars

And he’s getting rid of A-TEC to nab Kaito for his military work

Kaito realizes he’s been groomed to make weapons of war

And Li is just super excited about all of this. He’s the scientist without concern for the practical taken to a terrible extreme

And Nagisa’s been groomed for this project, too

“If you join me, I’ll make sure you strike it rich”

Iris wants to talk about Nagisa’s past, but she’s not ready for that conversation

“I don’t think you need to martyr yourself that much for the Shinamiya family” Nagisa’s brother is practical

“You, a mere stand-in”

So Iris really was “Nagisa,” the heir to the Shinamiya family

And Nagisa wasn’t a part of either family

Great closeup on Nagisa when he feels relief at hearing his brother doesn’t know about Iris

“I don’t have the slightest interest in who you really are. What I want are the abilities you have now.” A respect born of corporate meritocracy

Some nice low-key scenes featuring Nagisa, Iris, and Angelina

Nagisa doing what he did with Kaito with Mizuki. He can’t be an optimist, but he wants to hope, so he challenges the people who he believes in with his own doubts in order to build himself up

He wants to be yelled at again, but he won’t be

Holy shit this scene is so good. “Let’s struggle, Nagisa-kun”

And then Kaito and Nagisa just being bros and talking out the future. So good

“What the CEO said… as a businessman, I don’t think he’s wrong”

“If you quit, what’s going to happen to the A-TEC students who look up to you?” Nagisa sharp as ever, poking easy holes in Kaito’s convenient philosophy

“It’s because you’re so simple that you’re strong.”

Ah shit Nagisa got stabbed by the brother he defeated!