Spy Classroom Complete Collection Review

Fans were delighted when it was announced that Spy Classroom (based on the popular light novel series by Takemachi published by Yen Press) would be receiving an anime adaptation. Even more excitingly, that project then ran for a full 24 episodes in a split-cour format, offering plenty of content for fans and newcomers alike. But is it worth watching? Let’s take a closer look.

The story takes place in a world where a devastating military conflict between countries has left millions of innocent people dead. Although a peace treaty was eventually signed, behind the scenes, another war is brewing – one fought between spies. One such spy is Klaus, a man tasked with completing an Impossible Mission with a 90% chance of failure. The world-class team he belonged to already lost their lives attempting it, but with the fate of the world at stake, Klaus has no choice but to rebuild the team.

Klaus’ recruits are spies with no practical experience and who are all on the verge of dropping out of their respective spy schools for one reason or another. But they all have particular skills that (in theory at least) should make for the ultimate team. However, to make matters worse, Klaus is eager to train them all himself, but he’s a horrific teacher. The trouble is, Klaus is a genius, and he doesn’t understand how to teach anyone because the way he himself has learnt is very different to how most people would. So his trainees will have to fend for themselves and hope they don’t die during his training or on the job.

It’s a good thing there are so many episodes, since seven girls have been recruited for the Lamplight spy team Klaus is putting together. And while you’d think that Klaus would be the leader, it’s actually 17-year-old Lily (code name Flower Garden) who takes this position. She’s clumsy but can effectively disable enemies with her special poisons. And while the other girls don’t approve of her at first, over the course of the series, they gradually come to appreciate that she really cares about them and just wants the team to be the best it can be. Hopefully, they will be able to come together for their first actual mission…

The problem is that this is a messy adaptation of Spy Classroom. The first four episodes adapt the first light novel, but they rearrange parts of the content in a way that ends up being underwhelming. Now, this is because there’s a twist that’s more difficult to handle in a visual medium, but it still feels unsatisfying in how it’s delivered here. And then, rather than going straight into Volume 2, the next three episodes instead adapt the first short story collection (released after Volume 4). This, unfortunately, just feels like filler when there are still so many characters and the story to establish. We then get back on track and begin tackling Volume 2, but by this point, I couldn’t blame anyone for being entirely tuned out.

The sad thing here is that the second half of the series is a lot better because it keeps itself on track, but having to get through the first half to get there can feel like a slog. With the main story as the central focus in the second half, there’s a good balance of action and character development. Far better than the short stories, that’s for sure. I imagine the anime team felt that the short stories meant getting to see more of the individual characters sooner, but it’s sadly a choice that just doesn’t pay off. Even as someone who has read some of the light novels, I struggled to stay engaged with the anime, so I can’t imagine how newcomers will feel!

A general problem with Spy Classroom is that the series advertises itself as a spy series, but we don’t get to see that much spy work, really. Generally, the girls end up being used as a distraction while Klaus does all the actual espionage. It’s not that the rest of Lamplight does nothing, but they do tend to solve most of their problems with brute force rather than brainpower (which makes sense when their abilities tend to be more combat-orientated). And Klaus generally doesn’t give them (and thus also the viewer) enough information to have the full picture. Depending on what you’re expecting from the show, this may prove disappointing.

Generally, the presentation of the anime is pretty good. It’s been handled by Studio Feel (Outbreak Company, Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle) with direction by Keiichiro Kawaguchi (Sket Dance, Classroom for Heroes). It’s certainly not the best action series of the last several years, but it does the job. It’s not overly bright or flashy, but the character designs and overall colour usage are what you’d expect from looking at the light novel artwork.

Music is handled by Yoshiaki Fujisawa, who has several Love Live! credits to his name, as well as for Mushoku Tensei Jobless Reincarnation and Takopi’s Original Sin, which I was honestly surprised by, as I didn’t find the soundtrack here anywhere near as memorable as those. Like the rest of the production, it’s not inherently bad; it just doesn’t stick with you afterwards. There are many voice actors here, given the large cast, but we’re led by Yuichiro Umehara (Goblin Slayer in Goblin Slayer, Niimi Nishiki in Blue Miburo) as Klaus and Sora Amamiya (Aqua in Konosuba, Mizuhara in Rent-A-Girlfriend) as Lily, who are a formidable pair. Aoi Yuki (Maomao in The Apothecary Diaries) is in here too, and you get the impression that possibly what drove the team to adapt those short stories early on was due to the popular castings they’d made for the girls.

Spy Classroom comes to home video thanks to MVM Entertainment and has been released on Blu-ray in a complete collection edition. This includes all 24 episodes across 3 Blu-ray discs with Japanese audio and English subtitles (there’s no dub). Extras include cleaning opening/ending videos and ‘character previews’, which are introductory trailers released prior to the series airing.

Overall, Spy Classroom is an underwhelming adaptation of what’s a fairly entertaining light novel series. There’s fun to be had here seeing the girls in motion, but there were key choices made that just haven’t worked out for existing fans or those new to the franchise, leaving this in an awkward place when it comes to making a recommendation. I didn’t hate this, but I’d probably suggest reading the original work instead and only picking up the anime if you’re particularly taken with the series.

Our review copy was supplied by MVM.