Classroom of the Elite has always been a show about people who think they're playing chess while Ayanokoji is quietly playing 4D chess against an opponent nobody else can even see. Season 4 is the first time we see side cast actually actually shine, and fans genuinely couldn't believe in the amount of potential certain characters had.
Studio Lerche blessed all cote fans by dropping four episodes at once, we got to see the second years get paired up with first years for a partner exam, and within minutes the whiteroom's masterpiece finally crawled out of the shadows. It was a bit overstuffed initially, because ninety minutes of setup is a lot to sit through in one go. But by the time Amasawa strolled into Ayanokoji's life demanding home cooked meals as her price for an alliance, we all were locked in. Karuizawa's jealous spiral over that whole thing might be petty, but it's the kind of petty that makes this cast feel alive instead of being a bunch of npc's with a few dialogues.
Then the anime does the thing it does best. It slows down, lets the tension simmer for a few episodes, and waits for the real test to land. The Uninhabited Island Exam isn't just the centerpiece, it's the whole season's reason for existing, and the way it pays off the side characters is honestly the biggest flex this show has pulled in years. Koenji topping the leaderboard with 327 points while putting in the bare minimum effort the entire test gave the fans a hint of what his true potential could be. The man does not care about rank, points, or anyone's expectations, he casually tops the special exam beating all the 3rd year groups just so that his classmates wont bother him in the future when. Meanwhile Ryuen, who we used to think was just an angry meathead with a grudge, baits Hosen into a trap so clean it made fans realise the amount of growth his character had over the course of 3 seasons
Sakayanagi barely gets screen time this season and somehow that works in her favor. She's just sitting there in the background, taking it easy and basically enjoying her "mini vacation" while everyone else burns through their plans, and you just know she's three moves ahead of them all. She also cleverly forms alliance with Ichinose's class to protect her class from various first year and third year groups trying to take them down. The show doesn't need to spell out what she's thinking because by now all of us know what she's truly capable of. That's the kind of restraint cote shows and we should respect it.
Nagumo's class limping to second place behind Koenji, then watching his on students get expelled because he refused to back them, hits different. Watching a guy this arrogant get humbled by Ayanokoji without a single raised voice is exactly the kind of quiet brutality this series is known for. And then we have Ichinose, after three seasons of being the school's golden girl with a smile that never cracked, she finally confesses to Ayanokoji, and the show lets her be messy and scared instead of perfect for once.
Class D dragging themselves back up to Rank C with Ichinose's class breathing down their neck sets up something genuinely exciting for the next special exam. Studio Lerche stepped up on the bigger confrontation scenes too, and the OST does a lot of heavy lifting during the quieter, tenser moments where dialogue alone wouldn't cut it.
What gets me most about this season honestly isn't just exam or the new rankings. It's watching everyone slowly realize that Ayanokoji isn't just smart, he's actively shaping the people around him without lifting a finger, and most of them don't even notice it's happening until it's too late. Horikita's grown because of him, Karuizawa's grown because of him, Even Ryuen has become smarter with his ways just to keep up with other classes because after his final confrontation with Ayanokoji at the end of season 2, he had realised that he would never catch up to him no matter how hard he tried. The show's quietly building toward something bigger than test scores and class rankings, and that's exactly why fans are soo excited about the series.
The season still ends with a cliffhanger. Half the mysteries are still wide open and Ayanokoji's endgame is as unreadable as ever. But that's never been a flaw with this show, it's the whole point. Season 5 just got confirmed and fans cannot wait to see, Ayanokoji's biggest fight, which hasn't even started.
