Is it just me or ‘dad’s making questionable decisions for the sake of their child’s wellbeing’ a legitimate issue in anime? Like, somebody gets these fathers a parenting class because they look like they need it. I mean, who can forget the absolute peak of fatherhood that was Gendo Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion? Seems like traumatizing your offspring is the way these fathers bond with their children. And, of course, now we have Kiyotaka Ayanokoji’s father to add to the growing list: Professor Ayanokōji from Classroom Of The Elite.
While we don’t know much about him (not even his first name.), Professor Ayanokōji has revealed himself to be a complex individual. His relationship with the protagonist, Kiyotaka Ayanokōji, seems to be strained at best and openly hostile at worst. And it makes sense why Ayanokōji is so secretive about him, considering he is the founder and developer of the infamous White Room. AKA the secret educational institute where Ayanokōji got most of his education (and subsequent trauma, apparently).
The White Room program also happens to be like, unnecessarily cruel. But it gave us a glimpse into the kind of person Professor Ayanokoji is. After all, no normal human can create a program that tortures its students into excelling, especially since no one besides Kiyotaka has ever made it out alive.
But what could he be hiding? What is Professor Ayanokōji’s agenda here? Why does the White Room exist, and what forced Kiyotaka to go on the run from his father? We will answer all those questions and more in a segment of Character Analysis – where we take a closer look at some of the most curious characters across various manga and anime. You never know what an individual’s personality might be hiding, especially if they end up being crucial to the plot. And Kiyotaka Ayanokoji’s father, aka Professor Ayanokōji – is just that, so let’s dive in!
Professor Ayanokōji: An Enigma Or An Enemy?
First, a little background into how the good professor got started. As we all know, the world in Classroom Of The Elite places a very high value on people based on their functionality and how much they can provide back to society.
This is how the Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing School is set up to instruct and foster the generation of people that will support the country in the future. But often, those not from promising backgrounds are considered inferior and provided lesser resources as a result.
This is where Professor Ayanokōji was an outlier. He was a commoner who never went to a top-tier university or even possessed some talent in sports. He married an equally unremarkable woman, and together, they were virtually invisible in the eyes of society.
But what he lacked in exceptional skills, he made up for with a near indomitable spirit that helped his meteoric rise as a person who could, at one point, influence the entire country’s workings. Imagine living in a world that values you as a resource and then evolving enough to influence the very system that put you at a disadvantage.
This even prompted the chairman of the Nurturing School to comment on Professor Ayanokōji’s nature. According to Chairman Sakayanagi, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji’s father has stronger ambitions than anyone and a fighting spirit that is no joke.
The History Of The White Room:
So, two decades before Kiyotaka arrived at the Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing School, the White Room was set up by Professor Ayanokōji. What it promised was to raise students away from ‘normal human distractions’ to give way to the next generation of perfect individuals that would lead Japan into the future.
Although multiple generations of the White Room have graduated, only the 5th and 6th generations were shown to have completed the program and survived till the very end. Some of the members of said generations show a lot of promise in their ability to lead accomplished lives.
Why Is Kiyotaka Ayanokoji’s Father Pursuing His Own Son?
While the White Room is being touted as an ‘indispensable asset,’ Kiyotaka’s flashbacks have revealed how torturous it has been on its pupils.
With children lined up like cattle, until some of them mysteriously collapsed, never to be heard from again. And then there was the case of how emotionless it made said students as if they broke their spirit and rendered them incapable of normal human emotions. (Salmeterol)
Kiyotaka escaped the White Room with his butler, Matsuo. But Kiyotaka Ayanokoji’s father never stopped keeping an eye on him. He knows that Kiyotaka is hiding his true talents and resents him for it. In the recent chapters, the person revealed to be pushing for Kiyotaka’s expulsion from Class D is revealed to be Professor Ayanokōji as well.
The professor believes Kiyotaka will come back to him of his own accord. Only time will tell if that will turn out to be true. Though, considering how secretive Kiyotaka is about the whole thing (and the fact that he ran away at the first chance he got), we don’t that’s likely to happen.
