Classroom Of The Elite Season 3 Release Date, Plot, Cast, Teaser Trailer And More Details

Half a decade elapsed between "Classroom of the Elite" Season 1 and Season 2, but the anime's producers didn't wait as long to confirm that a third season was in the pipeline. "Classroom of the Elite" in its original form is an ongoing series of light novels — effectively the equivalent of young adult fiction in Japan and typically serialized in volumes — by author Shogo Kinugasa. This light novel series became a hit shortly after its publication began in 2015. Season 1 of the "Classroom of the Elite" anime then premiered in July of 2017.

It wasn't until five years later, in July of 2022, that a second season started airing. In fact, Season 2 was only announced in February of 2022 following years of radio silence about the show's future. Fortunately for fans of the anime, Season 3 was greenlit at the same time as its second season. But what should fans expect from it? From the cast and crews to the confirmed release window, here's everything you need to know about the upcoming third season of "Classroom of the Elite."

When "Classroom of the Elite" Season 2 and Season 3 were first announced, the plan was for Season 3 to premiere sometime during 2023. However, in the summer of that year, a sort of bittersweet update about Season 3's release date began circulating online, based on a post to the show's official Twitter account translated into English by various outlets, Crunchyroll among them. The bad news for fans eager for more "Classroom of the Elite" is that Season 3 will no longer premiere in 2023. The good news embedded in this announcement, however, was a more precise release window. The powers that be confirmed that the third season of "Classroom of the Elite" was scheduled to premiere during January of 2024, and we now know the date on which the third episode will drop.

As confirmed by Kadokawa, the third season of "Classroom of the Elite" will premiere on January 3, 2024. "It will first premiere on the AT-X channel on that day at 10:30 p.m. (8:30 a.m. EDT), before running on Tokyo MX, BS NTV, Sun TV, TV Aichi, and KBS Kyoto," Anime News Network reports. In further good news, Crunchyroll will simulcast the third season of the show for fans outside of Japan, meaning viewers in the United States will be able to watch the episodes on the same day if they have a premium membership. It will be made available for subscribers in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, and CIS, the streamer has confirmed. This will likely be subtitled versions only, with dubs in various languages expected to follow at a later date.

"Classroom of the Elite" takes place at a prestigious government-run academy called the Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School. Protagonist Kiyotaka Ayanokoji is a smart and talented student who enters into the lowest-level class on purpose. He and some of the other students in Class D then attempt to politick their way through the school's ranks and into its upper echelons. When Season 2 concludes, Kiyotaka and friends remain in Class D, albeit after overcoming a conflict with Class C's Kakeru Ryuen. In the season finale, Maya Sato confesses her feelings for Kiyotaka — only for him to turn her down. His main love interest, Kei Karuizawa, witnesses this and wonders if he's capable of seeing his peers as anything other than pawns to be manipulated.

While Season 3 will no doubt address these core plot threads, the main story is about a "mixed training camp," an official synopsis has confirmed. "As the name suggests, the test is divided into men and women," the Season 3 description continues. "Despite the existence of groups mixed from multiple classes, the test is graded on a group-by-group basis. The students are horrified by the fact that they can't get a high score unless they cooperate with students from other classes who have been competing against them, and most of all, they are horrified by the rule that any group that fails to reach the borderline will be expelled." One thing's for sure — the stakes have never been higher for our favorite gifted students.

The original Japanese voice cast of "Classroom of the Elite" features Shoya Chiba as the voice of Kiyotaka. Chiba's recent voice work includes the lead role of Hajime Aono in "Blue Orchestra" and Sigma in seven episodes of "Bungo Stray Dogs." In the show's English dub, Kiyotaka is voiced by Justin Briner, who also voices protagonist Izuku Midoriya in "My Hero Academia," among other characters. Kei Karuizawa, meanwhile, is played by experienced voice actor Ayana Taketatsu in Japanese and Bryn Apprill (the English voice of Kobeni in "Chainsaw Man") in the dub.

The rest of the show's main cast is likewise portrayed by voice actors with considerable experience in the anime industry. Other major roles include Akari Kito and Felecia Angelle as Suzune Horikita; Yurika Kubo and Sarah Wiedenheft as Kikyo Kushida; Ryota Osaka and Dallas Reid as Yosuke Hirata; as well as Rina Hidaka and Trina Nishimura as Arisu Sakayanagi. According to Anime News Network, all the main Japanese voice actors are returning for Season 3, though there's no news on the dub cast yet. New additions for Season 3 are yet to be confirmed.

In November 2023, the Kadokawa Anime YouTube channel released a teaser trailer that shed some light on the events of the upcoming third season of "Classroom of the Elite," getting fans excited about what's to come for their favorite characters. In the description field of the video is the first official synopsis for Season 3, which confirms that it will be all about a high stakes mixed training camp. Among other things, the synopsis confirms that "Ayanokoji and his friends are promoted from D class to C class and head to forest school" in Season 3. The teaser itself is on the short side at just 44 seconds, but it still got pulses racing on YouTube.

We already knew that Kiyotaka Ayanokouji and Arisu Sakayanagi were going to take center stage thanks to a previously released key visual, and the teaser appears to confirm that their intense rivalry will be at the forefront of Season 3. The teaser begins with a run-through of all the main players before showing Kiyotaka and Arisu facing off against one another. This moment alone was enough to whet the appetites of viewers, who took to the comments section to express their excitement. "This is gonna be epic," said @stfudream728, while @user-mo3kb2rx4r added, "My heart can't take any more waiting for this season."

In December 2023, Kadokawa dropped another promotional video for Season 3. The new trailer debuted the music for the upcoming season, but it also that confirmed just how heated things are going to get between Kiyotaka and Arisu, revealing what the representative of A class intends to do. "I declared that I'd destroy you, but it'll have to wait," she tells Kiyotaka. "I decided to destroy Class B first. Because... everyone has two sides."

As Crunchyroll confirmed in its English translation of the news about the change of release date, the third season of "Classroom of the Elite" Season 3 is being animated by Lerche, which was founded in 2011 a subsidiary of Studio Hibari. While not necessarily a marquee name in the anime industry, Lerche is nevertheless behind some notably successful shows from the past decade or so. Other popular Lerche shows include "Magical Girl Raising Project," "Kino's Journey," "Scum's Wish," "Gakkou Gurashi," "Monster Musume," "Toilet Bound Hanako," "Danganronpa," and "Assassination Classroom," considered by many to be one of the best anime shows of all time.

If you've seen any of those shows then you'll know what to expect from "Classroom of the Elite" in terms of style and quality. Some fans of "Classroom of the Elite" felt as though there was a slight drop off in quality for the second season, but the early indications are that Lerche brought its A-game for Season 3. When the first teaser dropped in November 2023, several YouTube users mentioned how impressed they were with the animation. "It definitely looks better than season 2," @dylanz6361 wrote, and @CryptoPRO100 added, "The graphics have improved very noticeably."

The directing duties for "Classroom of the Elite" Season 3 will be split between three people: Hiroyuki Hashimoto, Seiji Kishi, and Yoshihito Nishoji. Hashimoto and Kishi are listed as co-chief directors, a title that sometimes causes confusion among anime fans. So what does a chief director do, exactly? Essentially, the chief director (or chief directors, in this case) make the big decisions about the direction of the show, getting the last say on things like story and style. The series director, meanwhile, does the things more traditionally associated with directing in the West. It's a more hands-on role, and that's what Nishoji will be doing for "Classroom of the Elite" Season 3.

All three have a history with Lerche, having collaborated with the studio on some of its biggest past projects. Co-chief director Seiji Kishi, for example, previously worked on "Assassination Classroom," while director Yoshihito Nishoji has experience on individual episodes of "Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun." Co-chief director Hiroyuki Hashimoto, meanwhile, collaborated with Lerche on "Danganronpa: The Animation," working on the show alongside Kishi. The third season of "Classroom of the Elite" should be in safe hands with this experienced trio, who have each worked on dozens of shows between them.

Crunchyroll's update on "Classroom of the Elite" Season 3 mentions that this upcoming batch of episodes is based on the original light novel series' First Year story arc, which the anime will adapt in full. While this has yet to be confirmed definitively, Season 3 will most likely continue through the end of the First Year story arc, which consists of 11 light novel volumes in total, supplemented by three short story collections numbered Volumes 4.5, 7.5, and 11.5 respectively.

Season 1 pulls almost entirely from Volumes 1 through 3, in addition to some story from Volume 4. Season 2 picks up the pace and adapts Volumes 4 through 7, plus a storyline from Volume 7.5. Remaining, then, are Volumes 8 through 11, which Season 3 can very well adapt in their entirety if it continues at the same rate as Season 2 before it. Theoretically, there might be room for a story or two from Volume 7.5 and/or Volume 11.5, but at the very least, it's safe to assume that Season 3 will conclude the First Year story arc portion of "Classroom of the Elite."

If you're a fan of the light novels, then you'll already have a good idea of the finer details. Season 2 came to an end with the events of Volume 7.5. That means Season 3 is likely to start with the events of Volume 8, in which the students are taken to the mountains for a boot camp. They are split into three groups and tested on their ability to thrive in the harsh environment, with the leader of the group that comes in last being kicked out of school. This tallies with the official synopsis included with the teaser.

The opening theme song of "Classroom of the Elite" Season 3 is called "Minor Piece," and it's performed by the singer-songwriter ZAQ. This won't come as a surprise to fans of the show — ZAQ was also behind "Caste Room," the opening song of Season 1, and "Dance in the Game," the opener from Season 2. ZAQ burst onto the anisong scene in 2012 and has since become a prolific performer. Among her many anime credits are "Trinity Seven," "High School DxD New," and "Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma," and "Rail Wars!" Her song "Braver" from "Food Wars!" was named as one of the 20 best opening and ending anime theme songs by JRock News, which caught up with ZAQ when she visited New York to perform at the Anime NYC convention.

"In the past, I've been listening and composing music with a direction of hip hop, soul, funk, Jpop, classical music, and more. As such, my spectrum of music genres is quite wide," she said. "But when it comes to the anisong genre, it doesn't really have any rules or theories on what it's supposed to sound like. This means there's a lot of room for my creativity to run wild, and that's why I feel that anisong is my genre." Her latest contribution to the "Classroom of the Elite" franchise has gone down well with fans. "ZAQ never disappoints with the op," said YouTube user @josemariauwu7666. "This COTE season is gonna be lit."

The ending theme song of "Classroom of the Elite" Season 3 is called "Konsei Dai Kakumei" (The Great Revolution of this World), and it's by voice actor and singer Yui Ninomiya. In terms of anisongs, she's perhaps best known for "Dark Seeks Light," which was used as the opening theme for "The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat." Ninomiya has also contributed songs to the likes of "Guardy Girls" (in which she voices the character Silvia), "Peter Grill and the Philosopher's Time" (in which she plays Luvelia Sanctos), and "Aikatsu Friends!" (in which she voices the role of Ema Hinata).

Like ZAQ, who performs the opening theme of "Classroom of the Elite" Season 3, Ninomiya is signed to the label Lantis, a subsidiary of Bandai that specializes in anime and video game music. Her debut album, entitled "Ai Toka Kanjou" (Love, Emotions, Etc) dropped in 2020. It's all about "the troubles and conflicts typical of teenagers," the Lantis website states, adding that Ninomiya will continue to "grow as an artist who will lead the next generation by generously showing off her unique worldview." She followed "Ai Toka Kanjou" up with a five-track mini-album called "Aijyou Kairi" (Dissociation of Sad Emotions) on December 23, 2020.

Those interested in "Classroom of the Elite" Season 3 who have yet to see its two prior seasons, will, of course, want to know where all past episodes of the series are available to stream online. Unfortunately, while many of the top streaming services like Netflix and Hulu offer plenty of anime to subscribers nowadays, "Classroom of the Elite" is unavailable on these and most other platforms. You can, however, watch it on Apple TV+, which features both seasons of "Classroom of the Elite" released to date.

Crunchyroll, meanwhile, is the only other platform on which all 25 of the episodes comprising "Classroom of the Elite" Season 1 and Season 2 are available. With Season 3 eventually coming to the service upon its January 2024 premiere and it's availability through Apple TV+ at that time undetermined, a Crunchyroll subscription offers the most straightforward way to both catch up on old "Classroom of the Elite" episodes and eventually watch the new season once that premieres.

The first season is available to watch for free on Crunchyroll, but if you want to view the second one, you'll need a premium membership. These come in three tiers: Fan, Mega Fan, and Ultimate Fan, priced at $7.99, $9.99, and $14.99 a month, respectively. The more you pay, the more perks you get. The Fan package means you can watch ad-free anime on the same day as it drops in Japan via the streamer's simulcast system. With the Mega Fan package, you can stream on up to four devices at one time, with offline streaming also an option. If you splash out for the Ultimate Fan package, you can stream on up to six devices and you'll also receive an annual swag bag.