Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. When it comes to anime the basic belief is cute girls in anything guarantees success. Looking at past animes there is some truth to this statement. I mean who’s going to hate an anime with a bunch of cute girls? However, it’s also important to have an intriguing story and characters to go along with this concept. It’s also important for it to be executed correctly. Case in point, Spy Classroom. Also known as Spy Room, this was a light novel series written by Takemachi. In terms of light novels this series is relatively new. It got started in 2020, yet despite its young age it’s already got nine novels and three short stories out. Along with this the series has received praise both in Japan and in the West. In 2022 it was announced that an anime adaptation of the series would be making its debut in 2023 under the production of Feel (Outbreak Company and Mayo Chiki). I actually got a chance to check out the first novel and a little bit of the second so I was excited to check out this series. How was it? Let’s find out. Class is in session. This is Spy Classroom.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “Tomoshibi” by nonoc. This is an artist I’m not familiar with but everyone says her music is great and yeah I have to agree this song is great. The song manages to capture the determination of the characters and I like the animation. Especially the first shot which shows eight frames that show all of the spy equipment that each particular spy uses. It’s a perfect glimpse into their personality and what their specialty is.
For the ending we have “Secret Code” by Konomi Suzuki. This is a very relaxing and soothing song. I haven’t heard Konomi in so long that I forgot just how good her voice is.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts by talking about a great war that left deep scars on every nation in the world. This caused a radical change to take place where instead of nations pointing guns at each other they instead rely on spies and battle over information (better than them bitching about each other on Twitter). It’s now 10 years after the war and we focus on a young spy named Lily voiced by Sora Amamiya (Chizuru from Rent-A-Girlfriend) who has just graduated and given her first assignment. She goes to the location of her assignment which is a school where she meets a bunch of other spies who have been assigned to this mission with their group named Lamplight (scene here: https://youtu.be/7xrVDcvUj8o). We learn that all these girls are washouts. Problem students that the school had no problem getting rid of and must now participate in impossible missions where the survival rate is 10% or less. We get to meet the rest of the girls: Sybilla voiced by Nao Toyama (Chiho from the Devil is a Part-Timer), Grete voiced by Miku Itō (Miku from The Quintessential Quintuplets), Annette voiced by Tomori Kusunoki, Sara voiced by Ayane Sakura (Gasper from Highschool DxD), Monika voiced by Aoi Yūki (Futaba from Persona 5 the Animation), and Thea voiced by Sumire Uesaka. Along with them is their leader Klaus voiced by Yūichirō Umehara (Goblin Slayer from Goblin Slayer), a strange man who has been given the impossible task of turning this group of washouts into top-class spies. The problem is that he sucks at teaching (scene here: https://youtu.be/8byOlx2Rn78, already off to a bad start here). The girls start to believe that they’re going to be used as sacrificial pawns and Lily decides to take matters into her own hands. She takes Klaus out the next day to clear his head where they go on a boat ride and she poisons him. It turns out Lily is a poison expert (she is named after a flower) and threatens to kill him unless he gets them out of the class. However, Klaus saw this coming and prepared a trap of his own. He allowed himself to get poisoned to see her skills, shackled her feet, and the boat is slowly starting to sink meaning they’ll both drown unless she gives him the antidote or rows like the wind to shore (scene here: https://youtu.be/HVf_to14GlA). They make it to the shore where Klaus was impressed with her skills and names her the new team lead. The next day he clears up the misunderstanding saying none of them are going to die and has prepared a curriculum that will make them stronger, defeat him.
So in episode 2, the girls have one month to defeat Klaus and all their attempts fail. Even attacking him in the shower was a failure (scene here: https://youtu.be/7Tj1a78haFY. Uh, I think you got your fanservice mixed up here). We do learn about Klaus’s past. We find out that he was orphaned and was raised to be a spy. His team, Inferno, was said to be the best of the best, but they went off to do an impossible mission without Klaus and wound up dead. For Klaus this impossible mission is all about revenge and honoring the memory of his team. He won’t force anyone to follow him and gives them the chance to back out, but everyone says no (they have nothing to lose and everything to gain). The day of the mission finally comes where they’ll be infiltrating the Galgad Empire to steal a sample from one of their labs. The lab is located on the outskirts of the imperial capital. On the surface, it’s a pharmaceutical lab, but in truth it’s where the military creates cutting-edge weapons and they just happen to be developing a biochemical weapon known as Abyss Doll. The success of this mission hinges entirely on getting information so for the first few days the girls spend their time gathering information. They have one close call with the authorities but Klaus is there to save them. On the night before the operation the girls have a party to calm their nerves (and share one last happy moment in case the worst were to come) and even invite Klaus who shows up to see them sleeping soundly showing how much they trust him.
Episode 3 is a mess of an episode because of how rushed it is. You want to know how rushed it is? These first three episodes covered the first volume. Yes. We just watched one volume of the light novel in three episodes. The first volume was meant to establish the characters and we got to see some of their training which showed them coming together as a team and building their skills. In the anime they rushed past the training (which I can understand, but there should have at least been one episode showing them training and coming together as a team), so this mission honestly feels like the group is unprepared for this mission (when really they aren’t. We’re just missing vital information). Anyway, the girls come face to face with Guido, Klaus’s master and leader of Inferno. It turns out he betrayed the team and set them all up (he’s a spy. It’s what they do). He also bugged their house so he knows all about their plan. He fights the girls and captures them only to find out that he’s the fool. Klaus knew all about the wire-tapping and Guido being a traitor from the very beginning. So on the first day, he told the girls what to do via letter. Meaning everything Guido heard was false information. When it comes down to Lily and Guido we get the one twist in this episode that I like, there’s an eighth girl. While Lily distracts Guido, the eighth girl named Erna voiced by Inori Minase (Hestia from DanMachi) pops out and stabs him from behind. Erna was late and arrived on the second day. However, they kept her a secret up till this moment as a secret weapon (and yeah, that was clever. Hell, they didn’t even show her in any of the episodes prior to this moment, this was a legit surprise when they revealed her). Guido passes out but quickly regains consciousness and attacks the girls once again (you know the fact that he hasn’t killed these girls despite having plenty of chances to do it really shows he’s not a good spy). Luckily, Klaus shows up. He gives the virus to the girls and tells them to escape while he stays behind to fight Guido. Klaus manages to beat Guido but doesn’t kill him (scene here: https://youtu.be/7k5-2NsUPZM). He wants to rebuild Inferno with Guido (you already have a new Inferno. (Baron): One with surprisingly better assets). Unfortunately, we’ll never get a chance to see this new Inferno as Guido gets taken out by a sniper and Klaus escapes. With the mission complete the group disbands and returns to their academies (for like one minute). The girls return and say they want to continue training under Klaus and working as a team because they enjoyed it so much (it makes sense. Why split up a great team when they worked so well together?).
In episode 4 we rewind the clock (I guess they heard the complaints from the last episode) and focus on Erna. Erna has the ability to cause bad luck to other people, so she tries to use that bad luck to take Klaus down only to fail. Things get a little out of hand when her and Klaus get captured by some local thieves but with the help of everyone else they manage to escape. That’s pretty much the episode. Nothing really all that interesting happens here.
Episodes 5-8
The stories of the past continue in episode 5 as we see the girls try multiple attempts to beat Klaus. Thea tries to get Lily to seduce Klaus which fails epically (scene here: https://youtu.be/gNl0ZG4vxmQ. Despite having some nice assets, Lily is a child when it comes to the ecchi stuff). Sybilla tries Russian Roulette (Didi mao! Didi mao!) only to get caught removing the bullet (Seras: That just takes the fun out of the game). Monika challenges him at billiards and loses. He leads them on into believing he has food allergies so they prepare a meal for him only to find out that he tricked them. Despite these failed attempts, it does bring the group closer together.
Episode 6 focuses on Sybilla (where I have to admit I gain a new level of respect for her after this episode). The episode sees Sybilla go on a solo mission to snatch some secret documents off of Klaus while out in town. While trying to steal them she stops a little girl named Fine from pickpocketing him. As the episode goes on we find out that Fine is part of a pickpocketing ring run by a man in the slums. Naturally, he uses fear and abuse to get the kids to do what he wants. Sybilla is all too familiar with these tactics because they were used on her. In the past, Sybilla and her two siblings lived in the slums where she was abused daily by her father. Luck would come their way when they were put in an orphanage and Sybilla became a spy in order to change this corrupted world (well getting into the spy game was a bad choice, because that only shows just how corrupted the world is). Sybilla defeats the man abusing the kids and they all get put into an orphanage where they’ll be safe.
In episode 7 we focus on Sara (who is a good girl and must be protected at all costs). Sara’s specialty is communicating with animals that she’s trained herself. Out of everyone in the mansion, she’s been a spy for the shortest amount of time and wasn’t really good at it. She became a spy in order to help her family whose restaurant got shut down. Sara recognizes her shortcomings so she decides to take on a more supportive role with the group. Meaning she doesn’t speak up in meetings. One thing she does do that Klaus praises her for is repairing damages done to the mansion. While everyone is asleep, Sara fixes up the mansion at night not telling the others and making them believe Klaus calls in contractors to fix the place up (he’s a spy, why would he want outsiders coming into his house?). The next day Klaus cooks up breakfast for the team and shows them a tender steak he plans on eating that evening. The other girls want that steak and Klaus says he’ll give it to them if they can beat him in a repairing contest. It’ll be five rounds of cleaning/repairing the mansion and if the girls win one round they win the steak. Klaus easily wins the first four rounds, but it’s the fifth round where Sara becomes the MVP along with her animals. Despite their efforts, they still lose to Klaus who gives the steak to the animals and Sara speaks up about chores which everyone agrees to help out in.
In episode 8, Klaus is taking on a number of missions and keeping the girls out of them because he doesn’t think they’re ready for the field and doesn’t want to lose any of them (protect harem). Fatigue starts to set in and after finishing up another mission the girls almost and I mean almost get Klaus all by following Grete’s plan (scene here: https://youtu.be/87yI6Gf9fS4). Actually, this episode proves that Grete should have been the leader instead of Lily. Not only is she a fast thinker and a master of disguise, but she’s also in love with Klaus (I think she’s lying but that’s just me). While Klaus doesn’t give her an answer, he does invite them on the next mission which is taking out an assassin named Corpse.
Episodes 9-12
The mission to find Corpse begins in episode 9. However, Klaus will only be taking the four strongest members in the group. Klaus chooses the four girls we’ve been focusing on these last few episodes. Lily, Sybilla, Grete, and Sara. Corpse’s next target is a political figure named Uwe, so Lily, Sybilla, and Grete infiltrate the mansion as new maids while Sara is on surveillance/support duty (she’s proven how effective she is at support). Right from the get-go Uwe doesn’t trust them (three cute girls volunteer to be his maids. I would find that suspicious as well) and keeps a close eye on them. The one he gives the hardest time to is Sybilla who says her cooking sucks. Grete also has a hard time talking to him as she’s not good with men outside of Klaus (because she loves him). One of the things we do learn about Uwe is that he’s not a very materialistic guy (even by political standards). He barely has anything in his mansion because he prefers to use his money to help out the poor. In fact, it was actually thanks to him that Sybilla’s father got arrested. After catching Sybilla sneaking into his secretary’s office, he fires her as well as the others. However, Sybilla tries to get back in his good graces by cooking up a tasty meal, but it doesn’t work. Not because it’s awful but because he can’t taste it. He’s suffering from malnutrition, a vitamin deficiency, and it’s affecting his eyesight as well. He’s given so much away, that he hasn’t had a proper meal in forever, but he doesn’t care. He’s prepared to sacrifice everything in order to save the less fortunate. Uwe agrees to keep Lily and Grete, but fires Sybilla who becomes his driver near the end of the episode. As the episode ends, Corpse makes his move and attacks Uwe at night. Uwe fights back and forces Corpse to run away where the girls chase after him but he gets away.
In episode 10 Uwe is going to be hosting a party at the mansion (dude, an assassin is trying to kill you. Why are you letting him in?). While at the party we see Grete refuse to mingle with men (I don’t blame her, these guys are perverts) because she’s in love with another guy (it also ties into her backstory but more on that at a later time). Later that night, Corpse attacks Uwe but he gets saved by Sybilla. It’s here that the head maid Olivia starts to become suspicious of the others (took you long enough) seeing how calm they are after the attempted assassination, but Grete quickly turns the tables and says she’s been acting suspicious as well. This makes Olivia back off but she’s still suspicious of the girls, especially Grete. As the episode goes on it gets revealed that Grete disguised herself as Corpse and initiated the two attacks against Uwe in the hopes of luring out the real Corpse who gets revealed to be Olivia (https://youtu.be/kdhhQhqi_AE, maybe to those who weren’t paying attention). Olivia catches on that they’re spies (which tends to happen when you speak out loud for everyone to hear you. Starting to see why you guys flunked out) and attacks the group with grenades. They escape and Lily suggests they call Klaus for backup but Grete reveals he’s not coming.
At the start of episode 11 Grete reveals that Klaus was never there to begin with. She’s been impersonating him this whole time in order to throw off Corpse. In truth, Olivia isn’t Corpse but instead an accomplice he sent to kill Uwe. Klaus is pursuing the real Corpse with the others and left Olivia to them believing they could handle her. Olivia manages to evade Lily and Sybilla and takes on Grete directly where Grete lures her into a trap and she gets shot by Uwe (she was on his property, you saw it, right?). During this fight, we see how Olivia came to be Corpse’s apprentice and even fell in love with him (but did he love you?). Grete reveals a disfigured birthmark she has on her face which her father called disgusting and came to despise her for it because no man would ever marry her because of it. Olivia reveals a transmitter which she used to call Corpse (or Roland as she calls him) for backup, but Klaus shows up instead. He reveals that he saw her disfigured face a while back but didn’t find it disgusting. He also has Corpse locked in a chest. Turns out the guy was a complete pushover and not on Klaus’s level. After the credits, we see Klaus and Grete have their alone time together where he says he has no romantic feelings for her or anyone for that matter. He only seeks the love of a family member.
In the final episode, nothing of importance really happens until the end. The girls take down this corporate president harassing a baker who makes some great meat pie they all like. It’s actually nice to see them take on a mission on their own without Klaus’s help and shows how much they’ve grown as characters (I no longer see them as spy dropouts). After the credits we see Monika holding Thea at gunpoint asking her if she’s going to betray them ending the season on a massive cliffhanger.
Final Thoughts
And that was the first season of Spy Classroom. The premise for this anime is unique and different than what we’re used to seeing which I welcome. It starts off rocky with them cramming one volume of the story into three episodes and rushing past a lot of things, but they manage to turn it around and present to us a good story that focuses on the characters and see them go on missions. Exploring the past of the characters was good. While we didn’t get a chance to see all their backstories the ones we got to see were good and I look forward to seeing the rest of the characters in the next season. I do like how each girl has their own personality and specialty that they bring to the team and they work off each other quite well. Grete was easily the best character. While I have nothing against Lily I just can’t take her seriously as the leader of the team. Honestly, I think Grete should have been the leader. Better backstory and character all around in my opinion.
The animation is nice. It does a good job mimicking the style of the novels and I did like the orchestra music. There are some good and funny moments thanks in large part to the girls and their antics and even Klaus gets a laugh or two.
Final Score
My final score for Spy Classroom is a 5/10. As someone who’s read a little bit of the novel I have mixed feelings about this anime. The anime started off badly and rushed but then it started to do things correctly by slowing down and giving the story the time they needed and exploring the characters. Honestly, I recommend checking out the novel first before watching the anime. That’s the best way to digest this series and then if you want to put voices to the characters check out the anime. A second season is coming out this summer so hopefully they’ve realized the mistakes they made in the first season and give us a better story in the second season. Until then, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.