The following contains spoilers for Episode 5 of Classroom Of The Elite Season 2, “Every failure is a step to success,” now streaming onCrunchyroll.
Episode 5 ofClassroom of the Eliteadded a new spice to the current season with the Sports Festival, which turned out contrary to Class 1-D’s expectations. The event was introduced in episode 4 as a rich opportunity for members of Class 1-D to leverage on to acquire interesting benefits. However, the path to this success didn’t seem smooth, as minor internal scuffles almost dampened the class unity.

The biggest reveal of episode 5 was Ayanokoji’s theory that Kushida was a traitor that leaked information that resulted in Class C winning the Cruise Ship test. Interestingly, episode 5 produced more evidence that a traitor in Class 1-D is botching the class’s chances of winning the Sports Festival. Could it really be Kushida?
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The Sports Festival Begins
Before the start of the Sports Festival, Ayanokoji shared his reasons for tagging Kushida as Class 1-D’s traitor. However, the one fact that still puzzled Ayanokoji is Kushida’s reason for treachery. So, to discover Kushida’s intent, Ayanokoji schedules a meeting between himself, Kushida, and Horikita. Unfortunately, Kushida successfully denied any acts of treachery even in the face of Horikita’s direct confrontation. The meeting soon ends with no visible traitor and a see-through renewed relationship between Kushida and Horikita.
The main theme ofepisode 5, the Sports Festival, was an exciting development for characters like Ken Sudo, a talented athlete who was overly eager to show off his skills in the sporting events. Team Red surpassed Team white in the first few matches of the Sports Festival, thanks to Ken Sudo and Horikita Suzune. Horikita Manabu, the Student Council president, was also revealed to have taken the lead in competitions he participated in. His brief debut in the episode was enough to trigger Horikita Suzune’s sibling inferiority complex, showing viewers her fragility in issues relating to her brother.

Despite the early success of Class 1-D under Team Red, things start to change subtly, forcing Horikita and Ken Sudo to try and convince Ken Sudo to assist the team. However,the self-centered characteracts in his own interest as usual. Eventually, Class 1-D’s performance drops, with Ryuen’s using dirty tactics targeted at Ken Sudo to stump the class’s success. Ryuen also targeted Horikita, using one of his classmates to inflict a severe injury on her legs. This development puts a strain on Class 1-D since Horikita was a crucial factor in Team Red’s success. Regardless, Ryuen continued his actions, further infuriating Ken Sudo, who easily fell prey to Ryuen’s provocations. Fortunately, Hirata prevented the short-tempered character from jeopardizing the Team’s slim chances of success by attacking Ryuen. Eventually, Ken Sudo gives into his anger, strikes Hirata in the face, and leaves the festival, swearing not to participate.
Horikita, on the other hand, stubbornly participated with her nasty injury only to lose over and over again to Ryuen’s strategies. This development forces Ayanokoji into giving Horikita a very stern and harsh talk, subtly convincing her to take a different path other than self-reliance. Apparently, the harsh reprimand works as Horikita then decides to convince Ken Sudo to join the Team once againwith a cool-headed approach.
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Ryuen’s Dirty Plan For Horikita
While Horikita searched for Ken to convince him to act right, she encountered Kushida. According to Kushida, Kinoshita, the girl that first injured Horikita, had a severe injury, and she was at the infirmary. The revelation already reeked of a set-up even before both characters arrived at the infirmary. On arrival, Horikita discovered Ryuen at the scene, confirming that the Kinoshita injury saga was a sham targeted at Horikita. Horikita then tried to absolve herself of the blame; however, based on the circumstantial evidence, it would be next to impossible to prove that she didn’t injure Kinoshita severely.Ryuen then reveals his intentionto tell the obviously framed set-up to the school’s authorities.
Interestingly, Kushida butts in with a suggestion, asking Ryuen if they could pursue any other alternatives to prevent Kushida from being expelled from the Sports Festival. Ryuen then makes an offer of a million points to Horikita to prevent him from contacting the authorities. At first, Horikita hesitates to accept his ridiculous offer, but when theStudent Council is mentioned, she succumbs to his request. But this time, Ryuen added another compulsory offer to the table, which involved Horikita groveling to him. The whole event shows the awful sibling relationship between the Horikitas. Suzune is willing to put herself in harm’s way so that her brother’s sterling reputation remains untarnished. Contrastingly, Manabu doesn’t want anything to link or connect him to his sister, who he considers a failure.
The psychological abuse Horikita faces won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon, until she decides to live her life for herself, not her brother. Regardless of the relationship between the Horikitas, Horikita Suzune still has to figure out how to overcome her new problems while planning to win the Sports Festival. Ryuen’s goal might be to put a mental strain on the character to prevent her from coming up with other ideas. Ironically, this tactic might work in Horikita’s favor since she is more motivated now than ever to secureTeam Red’s win at the Sports Festival.
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