2015-09-28

Classroom Crisis

Classroom Crisis (クラスルーム☆クライシス) is a 13 episode sci-fi series with an accompanying manga and light novel.  The series aired in Japan during the summer of 2015.

    Set in the distant future, the designs of two high school students, Kirishina and Kiryu, made interstellar flight possible.  Their design earned them wealth and renown and their vision went on to form the basis for the mega-corporation Kirishina.  The main head quarters for the matured company exists on Mars where descendants of the founders wield corporate power.  The spirit of the original invention lives on in a special division of the corporation known as A-TEC.  The division is a focused R&D department made up of the best students in the corporations school system.  These teenage wizards attend school part time and work in the A-TEC facility part time, designing and improving the companies rocket technology.  The current head of the division is a genius engineer named Sera Kaito, who's ambition and dreams for technological advancement blind him to the trouble his students face.


    A new chief is assigned to the division, the youngest brother of the Kiryu family, Nagisa.  The goal given to him by one of his older brothers is to dismantle A-TEC in order to save money that he see's as being wasted.  The Kaito and the kids of A-TEC don't take the news of their pending closure lightly and work to convince the CEO to keep this important division.  Unfortunately, destroying the department is only a cover, instead plans are in action that will change the future of the company.


    This series had many aspects of shows from the late 90s.  Initially that nostalgic feeling made the show enjoyable.  The plucky group of misfits who were facing a goliath battle to maintain the future they envisioned for themselves.  About halfway through, the show shifts from this very predictable trajectory in which the cast overcomes their impossible obstacles to win the hearts and minds of those trying to take everything from them.  It changes focus to being about the young Nagisa plotting to destroy his older brothers in a bid for personal vengeance and power.  It also starts to focus on political and industrial intrigue at which point the nostalgia shine that it had in the beginning wares off.


  As the enjoyment became muted I started to notice the artwork, specifically the character designs, were rather sub par compared to current standards.  This worked to make the show even less enjoyable than it was in the beginning.  In the end as well, the fore-drawn conclusion panned out, even if it was side tracked by a plot line out of left field.  The series was mediocre, which is disappointing considering it could have been a fun and carefree throwback to a fun 90s show.  On the upside, there was perhaps only a moment of unneeded fan-service.  But there was little else worth mentioning.  The characters were mostly flat and the story was barely original.  It stuck to its canned script, even with the unexpected side track, which was also unoriginal, and ultimately didn't deliver much.

   The aniee was simulcast on Crunchyroll.  Aniplex of America is licensing it in America so there's a good chance it will see some form or disc release.  No word on the peripheral releases being licensed though.

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