Highschool setting.
Cute mascot character that makes perverted jokes about the underage characters.
The super intelligent and capable rival character that is Machiavellian and treats the other characters like garbage but is still treated with respect and awe by the other characters because they're so smart and capable.
The characters are constantly repeating themselves and stating the obvious.
The deaths are so twisted like the Joker.
Transphobia.
"Women just don't understand male friendship!"
I don't like the artstyle. There's something "2010s ahegao hoodie" about it.
Anyway, this rant is 16 years late but I just wanted an excuse to talk about anime tropes that I hate.
Don't forget the rampant elitism that just hits you like a hammer the moment any kind of discussion on class is brought up!
The whole Reserve Course plot point feels like they wanted to have some kind of message on classism that damn near straight up comes across as elitist apologia due to the way it never got any kind of meaningful resolution in either of the times it came up throughout the series. And then there's the DR3 anime where this exact problem feels like it was magnified a hundredfold. But to be fair, practically most forms of fiction across multiple types of media have this exact problem, some worse than others
When i played through the first game when they introduce the students as "ultimates" i thought it was going for a "talent doesn't make you objectively superior than anyone else" , but the games turns out to be HOPE HOPE HOPE instead. The third game truth theme is at least tied to the game being a whodunit murder mystery but still.