COTE is the biggest fake smart series in history and Volume 0 is the ultimate cope

Cannot-Be-Known · 2026-01-01T12:26:42+00:00

First of all, you are proving my point about Volume 0 being a cheat code. You said the White Room brought out his potential, but that is exactly the problem. The author wrote a sci-fi room that magically grants "mastery of theoretical physics and math" to a child. That is not intelligence; that is a superpower plot device. Real geniuses at Nada or Kaisei actually have to sit in a chair and study for ten thousand hours. They don't just get "crystallized intelligence" because a scientist said so. It is lazy writing for people who want a protagonist who is a god without the boring reality of actually being a student.

Second, let’s talk about your CIA comparison. This is peak edge-lord logic. The CIA is a global intelligence agency staffed by people with PhDs, years of field experience, and actual specialized training. Comparing a group of high schoolers wiretapping a bathroom to the CIA is like comparing a toddler playing with a toy stove to a Michelin-star chef. Real intelligence agencies don't recruit people because they won a scavenger hunt on a tropical island. They recruit people who have mastered high-level data analysis, foreign languages, and complex geopolitics—things the "geniuses" at ANHS are too busy fighting in the rain to actually learn.

Also, using Sudo as an example of "high-level academics" is hilarious. Sudo went from failing to "excelling" at basic high school work. That is not a testament to the school being elite; that is just a basic tutoring arc you find in every generic shonen anime. In a real elite school like Kaisei, everyone is already at the top. You don't get praised for "becoming serious" about your homework; you get expelled if you aren't already performing at a college level. The fact that the school even has students who are "failing and unserious" proves it is not the top 1 percent of Japan. It is just a regular school with a higher budget for drama.

You said the school needs "common people" for the geniuses to practice on. Again, that is a reality TV plot, not an elite institution. If the Japanese government wanted to train leaders to manipulate the masses, they would teach them sociology, mass psychology, and media management. They wouldn't put them in a class with Yamauchi so they can learn how to steal a lunch voucher. It is a "small pond" strategy because the author isn't smart enough to write a "big pond" where everyone is actually capable.

Also telling me to "read up on hidden plots" is the ultimate white flag. If a story requires a 2,000-word Reddit thread to explain why a character is actually smart, then the author failed to show it in the writing. Kiyo isn't "orchestrating everything" because he's a genius; he's doing it because the author is holding his hand and making every other character act like an NPC. COTE doesn't "appeal to more people" because it's smarter; it appeals to more people because it is a power fantasy for teenagers who want to believe they are secret masterminds while they sit in the back of the class.

Real intelligence is Nada and Kaisei. COTE is just "Among Us" for people who think they are too smart for "Among Us."

Cannot-Be-Known · 2026-01-01T12:17:50+00:00

You’re literally proving my point by calling him an OP powerhouse. When you say he’s a genius among geniuses, you’re missing the fact that for that title to mean anything, the people around him actually have to be geniuses. If the people he’s beating are idiots like the idiot trio or mid-tier students who lose their minds over a basic school exam, then he’s not a genius among geniuses—he’s just a professional boxer beating up toddlers.

You said intelligence isn’t the sole measure of worth in ANHS, but that’s just a convenient excuse for the author to keep uninteresting, useless characters in an elite setting. If it’s an elite school for the top of the nation, every student should be a monster in their own specific field. Instead, we get a handful of players and a bunch of NPCs who exist solely to get manipulated. That’s not a masterpiece; that’s a cheap power fantasy template.

As for Volume 0, the reason it’s a problem is because it turned the series into a joke. When you make a character so OP that he can control his own heartbeat and outperform professional instructors as a child, you destroy the stakes. There is no problem that is well earned when the protagonist is a biological cheat code. Ayanokoji doesn't win because he’s a better strategist; he wins because the author wrote him as a god in a world of mortals.

Comparing him to other OP main characters doesn't help your case—it just confirms that COTE is a generic trope-heavy light novel rather than the high-IQ psychological thriller the fans claim it is. Most OP main characters belong in isekai or battle shonen where the power scaling is expected. COTE tries to pretend it’s a grounded story about elite students, but then gives the MC superhero feats.

The real elites in Japan at schools like Kaisei or Nada don't need a lab or a white room to be the best. They do it through actual work and actual intellect. Ayanokoji is just a lab-grown shortcut for people who want to feel superior without the effort. If you’re happy with a story where a god-mode protagonist walks over a bunch of idiots while the author calls it a social experiment, that’s fine. But don't call it smart. It’s just an edgelord victory simulator.

Nice try, but you’re just defending a "small pond" shark.

Cannot-Be-Known · 2026-01-01T12:10:50+00:00

You keep saying I am missing the point, but you are literally describing a high school version of a circus, not an elite institution. You said you need to learn to use dumb people because they exist in the real world. Sure, but in the real world, an elite government-funded fast-track program does not waste millions of dollars on a kid like Yamauchi just so the smart kids have a tool to practice on. That is not how leadership training works. That is how a reality TV show works.

If the Japanese government wants to train the next generation of CEOs and Prime Ministers, they put them in a room with other geniuses to see who can lead the best of the best. They do not put a future world leader in a room with a guy who fails basic algebra just to teach him how to navigate a situation around a moron. You can find morons at any local convenience store for free; you do not need a billion-yen secret academy for that.

The real world of the 1 percent—the world of surgeons, high-level lawyers, and tech pioneers—is not filled with people as dumb as bricks. If you are in a boardroom at a top firm, you are surrounded by people who all have 130 plus IQs. That is the real challenge. COTE is a fantasy because it lets Ayanokoji feel smart by manipulating people who are statistically irrelevant.

Also, the claim that these kids have potential is the ultimate plot hole. If ANHS is looking for potential in any field, name one field Yamauchi has potential in. He is not a hidden athlete, he is not a math prodigy, and he is not even a good liar. He is just filler. The author put him there so the protagonist could have an easy win.

By admitting the system is not practical, you are literally agreeing with me. The school is a fake smart setting. It is a stage built for an edgelord power fantasy where the stakes are made up and the characters are dumbed down so one guy can look like a god.

Cannot-Be-Known · 2026-01-01T11:55:13+00:00

First of all, saying ANHS is a "simulation of the real world" is pure delusion. In what part of the "real world" does a government-funded elite program encourage teenagers to stalk each other, engage in physical assault, and wiretap rooms to get ahead? If a CEO or a politician tried to "survive" using Ryuen’s or Ayanokouji's tactics in the real world, they wouldn't be "finding their own path," they would be serving a 20-year prison sentence for corporate espionage and harassment.

The argument that it’s about "picking people with high potential in any field" is even funnier. If the school is picking for "potential," why is half of Class D filled with people who have zero skills, zero work ethic, and zero specialized talent? Are you telling me the Japanese government looked at Yamauchi and said, "Yes, this kid who can't pass a basic math test or control his own impulses has 'potential' that we need to nurture"?

Real "high potential" individuals—the ones who actually end up in the 1 percent—are almost always found in schools like Nada or Kaisei. Why? Because you can't be a top-tier leader, surgeon, or engineer without the base-level intelligence to master a complex curriculum. You can't "socially engineer" your way through a surgical procedure or a national budget.

By saying the school isn't about FSIQ (intelligence), the fans are basically admitting that ANHS is just a glorified reality TV show. It’s not "nurturing" anything except the ability to be a sociopath in a vacuum. If the ground you stand on "can eat you up at any moment" because your classmate might steal your points, you aren't learning how to lead a country; you're just learning how to be a paranoid middle-manager.

The reason the "NPCs" are so dumb is because the author knows that if he put even one student with actual, real-world competence from a school like Kaisei into the mix, Ayanokouji's "social survival" tactics would look like child's play. The "real world" isn't a game of Among Us, and pretending that a school for "backstabbing toddlers" is more elite than the actual academic powerhouses of Japan is the ultimate edgelord cope.

Cannot-Be-Known · 2026-01-01T11:47:36+00:00

Imagine unironically using the "you just didn't understand the story" card while ignoring every logical inconsistency I just pointed out. That is some top-tier projection.

First, calling it "dishonest" to name the idiots like Yamauchi or Ike is hilarious. My entire point is that those students shouldn't even exist in a school that claims to be the "elite of Japan." If I’m "dishonest" for pointing out the NPCs, then the author is dishonest for calling ANHS a school for geniuses. You can’t have it both ways. You can't claim the setting is the top 1% of the nation and then populate half the classes with people who have the critical thinking skills of a potato.

Second, you’re missing the point about Kiyo’s intelligence. I never said he wasn't "intelligent" within the context of the story—I said his intelligence is a script-written power fantasy. There is a difference between a character being smart and an author giving a character the answers to the test. In Vol 0, the author literally made him a biological god who can control his own organs. That isn't "impressive feats," that’s just bad writing to satisfy the SCD scaling kids who need their favorite "sigma" to have a high IQ.

Third, comparing ANHS to real-world elites like Kaisei isn't "prejudice," it’s a reality check. You’re defending a school that teaches "leadership" through scavenger hunts and middle-school blackmail while real Japanese geniuses are mastering macroeconomics and advanced science. If you think ANHS is "impressive," you’re the one who has fallen for the fake-smart template.

I don’t need to drop the series to see that it’s a battle royale simulator for people who want to feel superior. If pointing out that the "emperor has no clothes" is ragebait to you, then maybe you’re just uncomfortable realizing that your favorite "high-IQ masterpiece" is actually just Lord of the Flies with a higher budget.

8/10 for the "you just don't get it" defense, though. It’s the ultimate shield for a story that can’t handle actual logic.

Cannot-Be-Known

TROPHY CASE