A Lost Comedy Gem: REVIEW Gakkyu-oh Yamazaki (TV)

Just a heads up about the images unfortunately, the ones available are of very poor quality !!!

I was browsing the internet without much intention, you know that feeling of falling into random links? Well, I ended up stumbling upon an anime I had never heard of in my life: Gakkyu-oh Yamazaki, or simply The King of the Class.

I confess my first reaction was something like

“How come I’ve never seen this before?”

The synopsis sounded straight out of a parody: an alien boy arrives on Earth with the mission of becoming the planet’s leader. His disguise? Pretending to be just another new student in elementary school. But instead of going unnoticed, the guy shows up claiming to be a prince and declares that he’ll first conquer the classroom and then the world. Man, that idea alone already made me laugh.

Obviously, I went searching for some episodes and clips.

And what I found was exactly what I imagined: a completely over-the-top comedy, full of wild expressions and absurd situations. There’s no deep arc, no hidden philosophy, it’s raw, unfiltered humor. Each episode feels like an excuse to throw the protagonist into yet another mess and leave everyone around him confused.

One detail that really caught my attention was the dog Watanabe. From what I understood, he’s Yamazaki’s personal assistant, but on Earth he has to pretend to be just a regular pet. The problem? He’s incredibly clumsy, never understands orders properly, and still commands an “army” of animals just as disastrous as he is. Just by watching a few scenes, you can tell he’s the kind of character who steals the show through sheer chaos.

I also found it funny that the anime has a sort of rivalry between Yamazaki and Takuya Shimobe, the sixth-grade president. He’s the total opposite: responsible, sharp, and he never buys into any alien prince story. This dynamic sets the tone for many comedic moments, because while one is trying to prove he’s a superior being, the other is just there calling him out and exposing the truth.

The curious thing is that this anime seems to have completely disappeared off the radar. I couldn’t find almost anything about it in forums, not even in lists of forgotten classics practically zero mentions.

It’s as if it was swallowed by time. And that’s exactly why I thought it was cool to bring it up here. There are always those titles we don’t know about but that still carry that lighthearted, carefree style that was very much part of their era.

I won’t lie.

It’s not the kind of anime that will hook you with its plot or emotions. But if the idea is to watch something funny, different, and a bit nonsense, Gakkyu-oh Yamazaki does the job perfectly. Sometimes it’s refreshing to find shows like this, because it reminds us that not every anime needs to be a big production or filled with theories to be worth watching.

And seriously, stumbling across this by accident was almost like finding a hidden easter egg. Maybe those who watched it back then have nostalgic memories, but for me it was pure curiosity and surprise. And it was already worth it just for the experience of discovering something new (even if it’s old) and laughing at a bunch of completely offbeat scenes.

So, if you’ve never heard of it, I recommend at least checking out a few clips. Even if it’s just to laugh a bit at the exaggerated expressions and the absurdity of the situations.

And if anyone here actually watched it back in the day, drop a comment because I’m really curious to hear the perspective of someone who followed it.