Wow, Nagumo Miyabi has turned out to be a more formidable foe than originally thought toward both Horikita Manabu and Ayanokoji. I wonder where all of this ‘expulsion’ chaos will lead? Or rather – what will it garner for Nagumo, personally?
Check out last week’s Classroom of the Elite S3 Ep 1 review.
Classroom of the Elite Season 3 Episode 2 Review
Maxim of the Week:
Man is wolf to man.
[Homo homini lupus.]
Plautus, ‘Asinaria’
Nagumo takes down Manabu
Okay, so I can definitely see why Nagumo might actually be a bigger problem to Horikita Manabu now.
Last week, I just (wrongly) assumed that Manabu would lose the battle, not that Nagumo has decided to use chaos to completely upset the power balance at the school. Like I know Manabu mentioned to Ayanokoji that Nagumo wants to use mass expulsions to get rid of his enemies, but for some reason I couldn’t really envision how until now.
It was a good feint attack on Nagumo’s part – declaring he would go after Manabu and not involve others, but due to his overall untrustworthiness Nagumo decided to bend the truth.
Technically – Nagumo didn’t go after Tachibana Akane at all…the group Tachibana was in just happened to underperform. Ikari can then name (as befits the leader) who she deemed to contribute to that failure – which of course would be secretary of the Student Council and Manabu’s friend, Tachibana.
Nagumo correctly ascertained that either way, Manabu would be at a loss: now having to choose between letting one of his trusted advisors go (whose expulsion would sour the relationships of the student council, upset the power balances within the school and set a bad precedent of what could now happen to Manabu’s enemies) or tolerate the setback and “buy back” Tachibana’s membership at the school – which in turn would also upset the power balance of class rankings, divide Year 3’s Class A even further, and create new factions within the school.
So, it was a lose/lose situation either way for Manabu that apparently both Ayanokoji and Manabu saw coming.
Hashimoto and Ryuen’s Alliance?
Hashimoto has been making some plays, as well.
Ayanokoji pretended to be asleep while Hashimoto defused all of the tension in the group by telling a story late at night about once being on the soccer team, but underachieving before quitting. He used the analogy of never getting caught slacking off but quitting and wondering what could have been to signify how their “band of ruffians” were depicted as a group.
In other words, Hashimoto isn’t really into the group and knows everybody else isn’t, but they are all still doing their best and he doesn’t want to quit now because it’s an interesting mix of students and they could potentially do great things together. Or, at least that’s how I read that situation.
Doing this at night increases the intimacy of the teammates, releases the pressure (and shame) experienced by Yukimura who is struggling in his role as group leader, erases any “loss of face” or lost status amongst the boys (like the proud Ishizaki) due to the darkness in the room, and allows them to all realize their common goal without hostility.
When I was in high school, we learned something similar in order to allow others to comfortably open up and relieve tension in hostile situations during my time in a peer-support group. While I do believe Hashimoto was genuine in what he said, it was 100% utilized as a manipulation attempt which is why Ayanokoji refused to participate.
(Ayanokoji wants to remain the aloof outsider, and this would change his bonds with the others in a negative way.)
So, for Hashimoto, the guy opening up about what can be presumed to be a past failure on a sports team – to now be holding clandestine meetings with their year’s pariah Ryuen and arguing with what seemed to be Manabu – the Student Council president, is suspicious to say the least.
I don’t know what he’s playing at, but clearly Hashimoto knows there’s more than meets the eye to Ayanokoji. And like Koenji, he’s tentatively testing Ayanokoji’s threshold out.
Anyway, what do you think the main takeaway from this episode was?
Why is Nagumo shaking up all the grades when he could have just waited until Manabu graduated? Is this some sort of show of power?
What do you make of Ayanokoji and Koenji’s relationship?
次のエピソード: Classroom of the Elite Season 3 Episode 3 Review
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☆ In Asian Spaces
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