This week’s Classroom Crisis was… an episode. For the second week straight, the show focused largely on Nagisa’s political dealings within the Kirishina Corporation, and for the second week straight, those dealings failed to have basically any emotional grounding or sense of coherent internal drama. Nagisa’s stuff here is really just “stuff happening” – it all exists to the side of the conflicts that either have some earned emotional weight or drive at the contrast between pragmatism and idealism (which is a conflict that’s itself largely confined to the conversations between Kaito and Nagisa, since the actual political stuff is way too simplistic to carry much meaning). This episode had one great conversation between Iris and Mizuki that reflected what the show is actually good at, but aside from that, this was a dreary wash.

But anyway. You can check out my breakdown over at ANN, or my notes below!

Continue reading →

Well, we finally hit Nagisa’s big “betrayal,” and it honestly felt kinda underwhelming. He didn’t actively help A-TEC, but his move here was more an incidental betrayal of convenience than a strong dramatic choice between friends and revenge. But I guess that’s somewhat reflective of Classroom Crisis’ fundamental strengths and weaknesses – it’s very strong when it comes to building these characters and putting them in a room together, but its ability to tell a tightly composed story isn’t the sharpest. I’d figured that was likely due to the need to add a bunch of nonsense anime diversions like the beach episode, but maybe this writer just isn’t as good with plotting as he is with writing people. Either way, this episode still worked nicely when it leaned into the show’s strengths, so I’m still fairly confident everything will turn out well in the end.

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

Continue reading →

Classroom Crisis had likely its best episode yet this week, using Kirishina’s school festival as an opportunity to contrast Kaito and Nagisa against both their past selves and the political interests they each theoretically represent. It was a very nuanced performance when you break it down, but it came off very lightly in practice, with the show once again riding on firmly constructed character relationships. It’s kind of sad that it seems like Classroom Crisis is somehow slipping through the cracks of this season – it’s an odd and occasionally awkward show, but it nails the best stuff a show can nail, the important character stuff that makes everything else worth caring about. It’s a very endearing production.

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

Continue reading →

Classroom Crisis had another strong episode this week, with the show at long last allowing Angelina to escape from those awful gags that have been dragging her character down. Nope, no stupid age jokes this time – instead, Angelina got to drink wine and kick ass, knocking out some hijackers and making friends with Iris in the process. This episode also featured a whole bunch of payoff on Nagisa’s side, as the relationships the show has developed between him and the rest of the class led to some satisfying moments of real friendship and camaraderie between them. We’ve reached that sweet spot where it’s inherently satisfying to see these characters spend time together, which is a very good place for any drama to be. Keep it up, Classroom Crisis!

You can check out my full writeup over at ANN, or my notes below.

Continue reading →