Special A

Hikari Hanazono has always been able to do things that normal people cannot. As a child, she assumed no one could beat her—until she met Kei Takishima. Thinking she would win, Hikari challenged him to a match. But things didn’t go as planned; she lost not once but each time she rechallenged him. From that point on, she has sworn to best Kei at everything, ranging from academics to athletics.

To achieve her goal, Hikari enrolls in the same school as Kei—Hakusenkan, a prestigious institute for the wealthy. As a pair, they hold the top two rankings in school and are among seven of the academy's best students in a class known as Special A.

While Hikari treats Kei as a rival, she is completely oblivious that he harbors hidden feelings for her. Together, the members of Special A deal with competition, friendship, and just a bit of love.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Takishima, Kei Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Hanazono, Hikari Main

Gotou, Yuuko Japanese

Karino, Tadashi Main

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Tsuji, Ryuu Main

Horie, Kazuma Japanese

Yamamoto, Megumi Main

Takagaki, Ayahi Japanese

Toudou, Akira Main

Nabatame, Hitomi Japanese

Yamamoto, Jun Main

Yonaga, Tsubasa Japanese

Saiga, Yahiro Supporting

Taniyama, Kishou Japanese

Takishima, Sui Supporting

Shimizu, Kaori Japanese

Koupe Shuzette, Finn Supporting

Kawamura, Hiroshi Producer

Watanabe, Takashi Producer

Yamazaki, Fumiki Producer

Miyao, Yoshikazu Director, Episode Director

Reviews

Feb 10, 2023

armycat23

Recommended

This will always be the best comedy/romance high school anime to me.

Too often in a romance/comedy anime the side characters are pushed to the side as a mere after thought........and are just as significant to the story as minoru in boko no hero. THANKFULLY, that is not the case here. Each character in this anime has their own journey and it's fun to watch. Even certain characters who seem like an "antagonist" ends up being a character that is worth watching for his own growth.

I enjoy all the romantic couplings, and I'm going to say that my favorite of which isn't even ... the main guy/girl..........it's Akira and Tadishi.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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May 7, 2021

Shizukana_Sekai

Mixed Feelings

Special A came out in 2008 when I was first falling in love with anime, which is why I was rather surprised I had never heard of it before. Having watched it now, I realize that I hadn't missed much.

Story: Calling this a poor knockoff of Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama wouldn't exactly be fair, as this show came out two years prior, but it is difficult not to compare the two. Special A follows the now standard trope of a strong independent woman and her seemingly perfect male rival. While this trope is meant to signal female empowerment, that message falls flat when our female lead's ... "strong independence" always fails to surpass her male counterpart. Nearly every episode ends with the heroine being saved by the hero, even under circumstances where she had the situation under control and did not need saving.

Art: The art is as expected for 2008, and does nothing to help or harm the show.

Sound: The sound is about as bland as the art, but earns a slightly lower score due to a couple of glaring faults. The suspenseful music most often comes across as corny, and the voice actors have uncomfortably long pauses in between lines that is usually reserved for the dubbed community.

Character: The characters begin and end as boring tropes. In the first episode, I had hopes for real character growth on the part of the female lead, but that hope died quickly, and no other character came close to filling the gap.

Overall: This anime is a feel good that thought about making a statement and decided against it. To put it plainly, it was boring. Not bad enough to turn off, but never good enough to keep me watching at the cost of other things.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Oct 13, 2020

Shellshock123

Not Recommended

The series is set in a high school (completely original setting). The series is based around 7 characters. These 7 characters are the top 7 students in the school and are known as Special A. The MMC who is no. 1, The FMC who is no.2, Hot Twin boy is no.3, Hot Twin Girl is no.4, Punching Bag is no. 5, Violent Tsundere is no. 6 and AnimaIIover69 is no. 7. Together they form the group known as Special A.

The story mostly revolves around the MMC and FMC (obviously). They have a rivalry going on. The FMC is trying super hard to beat the ... MMC but she fails every single time. The MMC on the other hand is in love with the FMC. You kinda have to feel bad despite his teasing he does try to show that he likes the FMC. But she is sadly suffering from density syndrome. Truly an epidemic in romcom main characters. The problem with there relationship is that its not really equal. The FMC despite being incredibly talented needs rescuing from the MMC multiple occasions. No wonder she can't beat him. Even then its really disappointing how she just loses all her charm just so the MMC can come in and save the day. Despite these negatives. I did like the comedy surrounding those two (albeit they over do it by making the same joke over and over again no. 2). Their romantic interactions were cute (Despite the end of each episode basically restarting).

The main issue likes in no.6 the Violent tsundere. Whoever invented the trope tsundere needs to fucking die. These are the most lazy ass piece of shit characters to exist. This is 0 effort type characters made to pad the series and pull the series down in every way imaginable. Goddamn she sucked so much ass the entire 24 episode series. another pink haired weirdo also didn't do much and tried very hard to take the no. 1 spot from violent tsundere to be the worst character in the series but was able to get no. 2 piece of shit by the skin of his teeth.

The rest of the characters aren't really that memorable. Falling into the more mundane style of being a cast of characters. Animal lover 69 was fun to watch but overall none of the characters really had any stand out moments so despite being part of the main cast they felt like they belonged in the background.

There really isn't much else to talk about here. Some other characters show up. Most mediocre. They weren't all boring but they weren't memorable either. Each episode pretty much starts the same and ends the same. Really the only fun aspect of the series is that the romance between the MMC and FMC. Its not anything special but it is fun to watch. Some comedy moments here and there and some light character development.

Another issue was the ending. It doesn't resolve anything. I understand that anime are ads for the manga anyway but thats such a horrible way of looking at it. The author should aim for a better anime or director in this case.

TLDR: I was disappointed in this series. It actually had potential at the start but fell into this repetitive groove. I don't remember much of this series and i finished it in 2 days. Overall 4/10. Disappointing.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Special A Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Akane- - Sep 16, 2008	156 replies	by Fairytelly »» Nov 2, 7:09 PM
	Poll: Special A Episode 23 Discussion ( 1 2 ) littlebluetotoro - Sep 10, 2008	61 replies	by Fairytelly »» Oct 30, 4:18 PM
	Poll: Special A Episode 22 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Di27 - Sep 8, 2008	61 replies	by Fairytelly »» Oct 19, 8:42 AM
	Poll: Special A Episode 21 Discussion ( 1 2 ) yakyuu-addict - Sep 2, 2008	50 replies	by Fairytelly »» Oct 13, 8:15 PM
	Poll: Special A Episode 20 Discussion phammo - Aug 18, 2008	47 replies	by Fairytelly »» Oct 6, 6:29 PM

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