ようこそ実力至上主義の教室へ 4th Season 2年生編1学期

Throughout the episode it became clear why a part of them main first-year students are directly declaring their intentions for peace to Ayanokoji (although Yagami is bizarrely suspicious). Hosen created an imbalance between the first-year classes, and the news that he stabbed Ayanokoji likely spread. Knowing that Ayanokoji might destroy them in the future, only Ichika, Tsubasa, and Hosen remain with the expulsion plan, at least in a direct way, since everything is still suspicious and there are no clues as to who came from the White Room.

It did seem very fake. She was somehow asking all the right questions even though she really seems to be not that intelligent. Also they met earlier and teamed up earlier for that test. It was weird that they put attention towards that if it's going to be irrelevant. Though they also put attention towards that girl with the straw for some reason. Maybe he's being manipulated or acting for her? Oh and Kushida specifically mentioned that he knows her past too. If that isn't a lie, she has every reason to follow his orders or plans since it gets rid of Ayanokoji (knows her past & generally hates him) and makes sure he won't expose her either.

Hearing Kushida's real motive for getting close with that 1st year was actually fucking hilarious, her true scummy behaviour never changes and it's fun to see how she incites more chaos. Hosen has really been a great addition in stirring shit as well, the way his picking fights with everyone, including the 1st Years and also blatantly lying to Amasawa on the bribe. Dudes like a comically evil villain from a different genre of series dropped in here.

Lots of set up this episode, I'm really enjoying the scheming this season! So many questions though. I'll just leave some notes here so I can come back to them later (not asking for spoilers of course): \- Did Kushida pretend she wasn't aware of the bounty on Ayanokoji until now? Surely one her many 1st year friends already talked to her about it? Also considering that she'd have every reason to work with the 1st years to get him expelled, that's just hard to believe... \- So we got confirmation that Yagami knows about Kushida's past. Yet he still approached her with a big innocent smile. Definitely sus af... \- Yagami spilling all the beans is interesting. I don't think he's lying, since most of this could be verified fairly easily. On the other hand we already knew about most of this, so this didn't feel very useful? At least we got confirmation that Nagumo created the bounty. Could be his way of finally asserting himself over Manabu? \- Are all those 1st years expert fighters or what? Not just Housen, but also Amasawa, Nanase, Utomiya... That's a huge step up from the previous year. \- Housen seems really short sighted? Amasawa is gonna see his betrayal coming a mile away. I wouldn't be surprised if Nanase wanted to use that chance to get rid of him as well. 2 birds with 1 stone? \- On the surface it seems like more 1st years want Housen expelled than Ayanokoji, somehow. That's kinda surprising considering how few people went against Ryuen the year before. At the very least I don't see Koji buying into it, since we just established that Housen was a ""reliable"" non-white room partner. He probably doesn't even see Housen as a threat at all.

I don’t know if I really trust Yagami all that much. Feels like he’s playing at something telling Ayanokoji all that. Keen to see what he might be scheming. I’m also curious to see how Hosen’s plan is gonna play out. Not sure his little alliance with Amasawa and Nanase is all that reliable. I mean there’s gotta be mutual trust for a partnership to work and I don’t think either of them trust one another.

Although we didn't get much screen time with Ayanokoji, this episode proved to be extremely interesting as it focused on the first-year students and their strategies for the next exam. Amasawa, Hosen, and the rest are great characters, so I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how Ayanokoji thwarts their plans in future episodes. Yagami seems like a genuinely nice guy, and that's what makes him very suspicious. I wouldn't be surprised if he turns out to be similar to Kushida in terms of personality—they seem very similar in their behavior, at least at first glance. Here my screenshot albums from the episode: * Group scenes * Amasawa * Others

Housen is probably going to get the biggest fall out of any other character, he's way too arrogant and it makes me feel like the author wants to make his crash real ugly. It might be because he's so flashy, he's big and violent, he's completely different from Ryuuen even though they're sort of in a similar position in their year groups.  It was nice to see Utomiya stand up to Housen, that's a fight I'd be interested in watching.  I thought Yagami was going to have a clearer cunning side, like there'd be more obvious hints and that he has Kushida wrapped around his finger because he knows her past, but it's not seeming like it from what we saw of their interaction. I guess maybe Kushida accepted to be his partner so that she could keep an eye on him? I'm curious about what his role will be.

Hosen is just annoying. I really hate him as a character. And I don’t mean in a Joffrey from game of thrones sort of way where it’s because he’s a very well written bad guy. He just feels very cheaply made and takes everything out of this show that makes it good. Instead it basically feels like a shitty shounen show whenever he shows up. Ryuen atleast had good writing and a lot more to him. People were also following him not entirely out of fear too. He is just such better done as a character compared to hosen. Doesnt help that the author gives hosen a shit ton of plot armor too to let him be what he is.

You can see the difference in experience between 1st year and the upperclassmen by how the 2nd year considered the possibility of isolating a single class and the 1st year kept thinking about unity at all costs. The truly rational decision would've been to exclude D class and make an 3-way alliance to make sure 1-D lose as much as possible. What they truly need is not to compete against their upperclassmen but to make sure D class is never able to recover and be a serious competitor again until graduation. It's precisely because they don't need to care as much about class points as upperclassmen that they should care that much more about the power dynamics between classes. And if a rogue element like class 1-D can't be tamed, they should be put down as soon as possible.