The following content contains spoilers for Episode 1 of Spy Classroom, currently streaming on HIDIVE.
With a new line-up of Winter 2023 anime coming up, one of the more recent shows is a Light-Novel adaptation with an interesting premise on its own. Spy Classroom released its first episode on January 5th, and with it establishes the characters, the goal, and solidifies the audience's interest in why they should stick with the story. In many ways, the topics it tackles are presented effectively.
One of many reasons why this is has to do with the circumstances as well as the decisions made by the main character in response to the conflicts and their circumstances. Nevertheless, the review in question is meant to recap and give a good explanation of what is happening at the moment.
A Wide-Eyed Flower
10 years after a Great War had ended, the nations of that world decided to forgo overt displays of military might, in favor of shadow wars over information with Spy's, trained covert operatives meant for this specific kind of work. Of course, to maximize these efforts, every country seems to have established spy academies in order to train them in the harshest conditions and effectively produce them. Lily, otherwise codenamed as Flower Garden, is a student of on such academy in the Din Republic. While we start off the episode with what can be considered a flash forward into a mission the main cast of characters finds themselves in, the episode doesn't really start until we learn about Lily and her current situation. It is said she has been offered a provisional graduation to be invited to an important spy team directly from the Cabinet themselves.
Lily, as excitable and positive she can be, doesn't really question this and simply accepts the graduation and makes her way to the establishment where she will be learning with her fellow spies. Of course, the curious thing is that all of them are washout students in one way or another, and Lily acknowledges this as she herself is a washout. Of course, then comes the question of who will be leading them.
A Concerning Lack of Teaching Skills
The person in question, Klaus, is their teacher for operation Lamplight, and he is tasked with teaching them, so they can succeed an Impossible Mission. His introduction is simple enough, as are his teaching methods to his students. After his students make themselves at home and begin their first lesson in lock picking, Lily commented that it would take 15 minutes to unlock, only for Klaus to take all their locks and unlock them in a flash. This wouldn't be a problem, if only he had a better explanation of how he did it. Something that Lily and her classmates pointed out several times, only for Klaus to come to the natural conclusion that he is apparently bad at teaching.
This doesn't really inspire much confidence in the classmates, one of them eventually coming to a hopeless conclusion. Since all of them are washouts, and they were formed to take on an Impossible Mission with a mortality rate so high that they all figure out they are just sacrificial pawns. Something which Lily takes a moment to reflect on, and begins a plan in response to this fact. A refreshing response, considering this reveals an aspect of her character that not many get to see from a light novel adaptation main lead.
Lily goes to meet Klaus, and offers him a day out in the town to help him unwind from the work and his inability to teach at the moment. Eventually, they arrive at a boat in the middle of the lake near sunset, and Klaus begins to tell Lily to never forget the smiles of the people in town, as those are what spies manage to fight for in their war-scarred world. Certainly not a poor choice of words, but ones that spurs Lily into her own choice of words. If she was going to be used as a sacrificial pawn so early, she'd rather be removed from the operation.
Abnormalities Filled With Potential And Promise.
Soon we learn a bit about Lily's motivation for becoming a spy in the first place. Her village had been used as an experimental testing ground for poison gas, of which she was the only survivor due to her physiology allowing her to survive poison. It is this same trait that allowed her to catch Klaus off guard at first, paralyzing him with no threat to herself. After having proven her point and made thorough preparations at first, Klaus reveals that he had foreseen these events as soon as she approached him about the subject of a day out.
Eventually, through circumstances that lead to them understanding each other, they have to row back to land, where Klaus makes a statement which shows his newfound dedication to what he must do. Lily, having shown she is competent and with great potential as a spy due to her plan, is given the opportunity by Klaus to be trained to survive the Impossible Mission. Of course, the next day he makes this announcement to everybody in their team, with newfound morale having been boosted, and Lily becoming the leader to rally up the rest of her team. With that statement, the episode ends with Klaus having developed a new curriculum to teach his students effectively. As unorthodox and possibly impossible it is. To defeat him.
Spy Classroom certainly gives an interesting and well-paced start to the story, although it also provides with a refreshing take on the main character and the teacher character. Lily's story as a spy in this operation, with her teammates and her teacher, begins with Spy Classroom.