All society is built on a certain level of competition since there can indeed only be one number one. This competition can start early in those school years, and as with many things, anime can take it to the extreme! Whether it is classes competing with each other or individual classmates battling for that top ranking, competition has every place in the classroom in these anime recommendations.
Best Competitive Classrooms Anime
Classroom of the Elite
Classroom of the Elite is quintessentially these trope. It follows the students at an elite academy sorted into classes. Class A is the best while Class D is the lowest. However, while the individual cannot change classes, even the bottom-ranked class can improve their ranking if they overall score better than the class above them. With two seemingly very intelligent people put in Class D, they work to raise their class rank.
Baka and Test
At the highly competitive academy in Baka and Test, students are tested when they enter school and separated into Classes A through F based on academic performance. The top class gets the best of the best while the bottom class gets the scraps. They can, however, improve their lot through a virtual battle system where their summoned avatars have power based on their test scores. Lucky for class F, they have a genius in their class who was put there due to a fever on the day of the deciding test.
Assassination Classroom
While the plot of Assassination Classroom is about a class training to kill their teacher, the series takes place at a pretty competitive school. The story follows the lowest ranking class that is full of misfits and failures. They are treated like outcasts by the rest of the rather elite student body and staff because they, for one reason or another, do not excel in traditional education.
Food Wars
Food Wars is the anime answer to competitive cooking shows. Set in a top cooking school, it has students all competing in order to earn a very prestigious spot on the elite student council. Overall in the school, disputes are also settled by competitive cooking battles that form the very core of the show.
The Irregular At Magic High School
In a world where magic has been harnessed by technology, students training as magicians at one prestigious school are separated into two groups based on their aptitude. The series follows two siblings, a sister that has great aptitude and a brother that appears to have none. Of course, the test is not able to accurately measure his true magnificent abilities.
Chivalry of a Failed Knight
In Chivalry of a Failed Knight, people can turn their souls into powerful weapons. In order to hone this talent, they head to school in order to become Mage-Knights. Within one such school, the students are ranked based on ability, and our main character of course attains the lowest rank due to the test not really measuring his true abilities correctly. As such, you watch him struggle to attain respect among his higher ranked peers who look down on him.
Kill la Kill
In Kill la Kill, academic performance decides all at this over-the-top school. Students are ranked and the more stars they receive, the better off they are at school. It even decides what clothing they are allowed to wear in a world where certain clothes come with power.
Special A
Special A is a romantic comedy among the best of the best at their elite school. The top class is comprised of the most talented individuals who constantly compete with each other. Of course, among that is a romantic connection between a girl constantly trying to best a guy, though the girl doesn’t realize that the guy loves her.
Kakegurui
The actual education classes in Kakegurui aren’t especially different from your average school, but it is the activities “after dark” that really highlight the spirit of competition in this series. It is all about after school gambling for high stakes.
My Hero Academia
While it is only a small piece of the series, My Hero Academia features some inter-class competition that will likely prepare them to enter the competitive hero society. The students are trained to become heroes and the power and ability to use their quirks is everything. Not only are the classes separated into Hero Class, Support Classes, Management Classes, and General Classes, but there strict competition within each class as well. This is all done in order to prepare them for entry into their competitive society where Pro-Heroes are ranked based on performance.
Do you know more anime series where classmates get competitive with each other? Let fans know in the comments section below.
