Kiyotaka Ayanokouji

Kiyotaka Ayanokouji is the main protagonist of the light novel series Classroom of the Elite (also known as You-Zitsu or Youjitsu for short), written by Shougo Kinugasa and illustrated by Tomoseshunsaku.

The series takes place on Advanced Nurturing High School, a prestigious institution reputed to have 100% of its graduates go into college or become employed. The school demands high standards from its students; failure on an exam may risk immediate expulsion. Each student is given a monthly allowance of virtual "Private Points" that is used in place of real money. All classes are ranked by "Class Points", which are gained or lost depending on their performances in the school's various activities, thereby enabling a class to replace another's position in rank if they perform well / bad enough. Because of this system, the school encourages competition and even allows unsavory tactics, including but not limited to deception, sabotage, and blackmail.

Kiyotaka appears as an ordinary high school student who was enrolled into Class 1-D, which is largely composed of problem students. He prefers to keep a low profile for as much as possible. While the light novel regularly shows his inner thoughts, the anime depicts him with emotionless expressions and a monotonous personality. The story quickly reveals that Kiyotaka is not as ordinary as he seems; for example, an early scene shows him unexpectedly defend his seatmate Suzune from being attacked by the student council president and effortlessly dodges his blows. He also scored exactly 50 out of 100 points in every entrance exam subject, which he brushes off as just "coincidence".

Following the events in the anime's season 1, Ayanokouji garnered a reputation in the fandom as an ultra-smart, manipulative puppetmaster. His fans tout him as one of the most intelligent light novel / anime characters of all time, sometimes even comparing him to renowned masterminds from other shows such as Lelouch and Light Yagami.

S1 Anime spoilers Later episodes reveal that Kiyotaka was a participant of his father's project called the "White Room", which forcibly subjects young children into harsh training methods in order to produce highly capable persons with superior physical and intellectual abilities. This upbringing is what made him into the stoic, manipulative student that he is today.

In the Survival Island Exam arc (last episodes of the anime and volume 3 of the light novel), Kiyotaka devises a strategy that led his class to score the most points on the exam, but he deliberately lets Suzune take the credit for his class' success. The arc is also home to a famous scene, in which while carrying a sickly Suzune in the rain, he declares to himself that "all people are nothing but tools" and that "winning is all that matters".

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History
Kiyotaka is commonly grouped together with light novel protagonists Hachiman Hikigaya, Houtarou Oreki, and Sakuta Azusagawa as the "Four Campus Bullies" - as popularized by multiple videos uploaded to Bilibili    - due to sharing similar traits that give off an "edgy stoic loner, but secretly intelligent and handsome" impression. Coincidentally, this kind of character is also highly successful in the light novel-dominated International Saimoe League, so it's not a surprise that Kiyotaka also performs well here too. The light novel is currently one of the most popular series, especially in East Asian countries, and he emerged as a top-ranked male character in the famous Japanese Konorano rankings, holding the #1 spot for three consecutive editions since 2020.

Kiyotaka is often the sole flag-bearer of the Youjitsu series. For most of his career he is classified as a "Tier 1" contestant: good enough to make the playoffs, but not enough to actually contend for the championship. In his first two years (2018 and 2019), he received the highest nomination votes among all males, but finished 13th in both editions after being eliminated in the round of 16 by Shirou Emiya and Archer respectively. Ayanokouji's playoff woes continued in 2020 when he lost in the round of 16 for the third straight time against Konosuba's Kazuma Satou, but improved his final position to 9th. Kiyotaka made his fourth consecutive last-16 in 2021 where was eliminated by Subaru Natsuki. Later that playoff, he unintentionally benefited from Ai Haibara fan group's successful appeal in the semi-finals as the increase in votes changed the result of his consolation match, causing him to replace Shidou Itsuka as the final guy who will contest the 5th-12th place matches instead of 13th-20th. He eventually landed at 10th place.

Just several weeks after the 2021 tournament, more CotE anime adaptations were unexpectedly announced, with season 2 due to be broadcast in July 2022. Since that season will likely include Volume 7 - considered by many fans as one of the best - it will provide an opportunity for the MC to finally overcome his last-16 curse and possibly win the tournament, considering the other 3 of "Four Campus Bullies" have won the Scepter before.

The Class D student is also a regular pendant contender since his debut, but he frequently finishes at the middle of the pack. The 2019 edition saw the highest number of new pendant winners since 2015 with six, and he was one of those new winners, having won the Sapphire pendant. In 2020 he initially appeared to have won his second straight pendant in Sapphire, but the results were re-counted after the organizers miscounted the votes and several appeals were sent, which resulted in the pendant going to Fate's Gilgamesh instead.

Main Tournament
Overview (as of ISML 2021)

Match history

Pendant record
 * Wins: 1 - 2019 sapphire
 * Appearances: 18
 * 2018: Aquamarine (6th), Topaz (5th), Sapphire (7th), Diamond (3rd)
 * 2019: Aquamarine (6th), Topaz (6th), Sapphire (Winner!)
 * 2020: Aquamarine (6th), Topaz (3rd), Amethyst (6th), Sapphire (2nd), Emerald (5th), Ruby (4th), Diamond (5th)
 * 2021: Aquamarine (6th), Amethyst (8th), Ruby (7th), Diamond (4th)

Other tournaments
Kiyotaka reached the last 32 in the final edition of China's Bilibili Moe event, but had an unfortunate meeting with Fate/stay night's'' Archer.

Although Youjitsu has gained a decent online presence outside East Asia, the novel did not gain much traction in the /r/anime subreddit in terms of upvotes, as expected of many light novel series. For this reason, Kiyotaka just sits like a bum in the subreddit's character tournaments, and is yet to win a single match in Best Guy and Best Character. It should be noted that the anime became notorious for its alleged online backlash caused by several mis-adapted scenes (in particular, a late-afternoon pool scene where instead of Kei, it showed Suzune instead)[citation needed]. Only time will tell if the long-awaited seasons 2 and 3 would finally enable him to get over that hump.

Honours
Contest Wins (2)
 * ACGN Mr. Anime 2021 - Winner
 * Full Anime 2.0 - Torneo Best Prota 2020 (FB link)

Non-contest honours
 * Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! Male Character
 * 2018 (10th), 2020 (1st), 2021 (1st), 2022 (1st)

Navigation
Notes

References

Beware of spoilers and pop-ups.
 * Classroom of the Elite Wikia
 * MyAnimeList
 * Baike Baidu (Chinese)
 * Moegirl (Chinese)
 * Namuwiki (Korean)