Gakushu Asano

Gakushū Asano is a student in Class 3-A in Kunugigaoka Junior High School and one of the Five Virtuosos. He is the Student Council President, the top student of the school, and the only son of the Board Chairman Gakuhō Asano. He serves as one of the academic antagonists to Class 3-E.

Appearance
Gakushū is fairly tall for a middle school student. He has short, dirty blonde hair (strawberry blonde in the anime) that reaches to his ears and brown eyes (violet in the anime). He is described as being rather handsome and has been noted to highly resemble his father.

Personality
Like most of the stereotypical Main Building students Gakushū looks down on those that are less intelligent than him, which is this case mostly incorporates the entire school as he is the top student. However he breaks away from this stereotype by putting up a face of benevolence and a charismatic smile.

Befitting his genius intellect and heritage Gakushū is a very driven individual who is very much like his father in a lot of ways, although one could argue that he is far less extreme in virtue than his father is. He is highly manipulative to the point of wanting to control everyone and puppeteer the strings. The most frightening aspect of this is his desire to completely dominate his own father. However he is a little conflicted himself in this manipulative nature to the point that he has to actively justify it in his mind as "this is how you raised me father". Another note is his keen desire for knowledge an sense of investigation to get to the truth. Hearing local legends and urban rumors about Class 3-E's supposed octopus (actually Korosensei), Gakushū has made it his top priority to get to the bottom of this mystery. Indeed he has gone to methods that he himself have briefly questioned in order to acquire this information, from blackmail, bribery and even legal backup (making Class 3-E sign a contract) to get to the bottom of this. However for all of his intelligence he tends to miscalculate certain more admirable aspects of the people he is trying to manipulate which has now led to his plots failing no more than two times in the story.

Despite sharing many of his father's personality traits, Gakushū does have a sense of morals, which often makes him question his father's extreme educational methods. One instance was how he voiced his opinions of being against his father's idea of poisoning Class 3-E's food during the school festival.

First Semester: End of Term Time
Gakushū made his debut appearance in Chapter 50 (Episode 15) during the finals of the first semester as the leader of the prideful Five Virtuosos and Class A and the top student of Kunugigaoka. Over the course of the first semester, Gakushū had heard rumors surrounding Class E and attempted to get any information of it from his father Chairman Asano who evaded his questions. When his fellow Virtuosos rashly made a wager with Class E to see which class can get the top score in the 5 core subjects, Gakushū drew up a contract that Class E had to sign as their request. Underneath the legal jargon was a clause stating that Class E must be honest to any question Class A asked should the latter win. This clause would then be used by Gakushū to find out Class E's secret in order to blackmail and control his father.

In the aftermath of the exams, Gakushū kept his top ranking but Class E managed to beat Class A in three out of the 5 core subjects, thereby losing their wager. The Chariman later admonishes his son for losing such a petty bet to a class of misfits. Gakushū was then forced to submit to Class E's demand: a holiday resort to Okinawa. Humiliated at this loss, he vowed revenge against Class E.

Takebayashi's Time
Gakushū and his father scored an early victory at the start of the second semester, convincing Kōtarō Takebayashi to leave Class E and join Class A. However Takebayashi reneged on his deal after seeing how Class A is educated and that he had to trash-talk Class E to be fully accepted. To the Asanos' surprise Takebayashi destroyed one of the Chairman prized possessions as a means to return to Class E.

Athletic Festival Time
Gakushū made his next major appearance at the Athletic Festival arc. Discovering that Yūma Isogai was working at a cafe despite a regulation forbidding such a thing, he threatened to have Isogai reported and expelled. He made a deal however that he would remain silent if Isogai and Class 3-E participated in a game of boutaoshi against Class A. In preparation, Gakushū contacted four physically imposing foreign exchange students to join his class so they could "crush" Class E as revenge for their lost during the first semester finals as well as to rebuild confidence to Class A for the upcoming midterms. During the match he made various strategies to take out the Class E students with superior numbers and the use of the exchange students' build. However he was outsmarted and outplayed by Class E's unconventional tactics and Isogai's leadership. His own pole was endangered and eventually fell despite using his martial arts in a desperate attempt to defend it. This second loss and the main campus' changing attitude to Class 3-E earned his father's ire and criticism towards his son's command skills. Kevin, Gakushū's friend from America, defended him however this only made the chairman beat him and the other exchange students down to a pulp, with a horrified Gakushū watching.

School Festival Time
Gakushū appeared again at the end of the midterm exams where he and the rest of Class A monopolized the top 50 rankings due to Class E helping out at a nursery. While the other Virtuosos were smug at this (especially after their crushing loss at the Athletic Festival) Gakushū remained silent. His next major appearance was during the school festival where he negotiated with the top-tier restaurants to sponsor his cafe complete with live shows. During that time he stated the nature of his friendship with the Five Virtuosos and asked them to keep supporting him.

His cafe would later win the festival; however, many speculate that had Class E not closed up shop halfway through the final day (due to unexpected high demand for their acorn noodles) the result could have been very different. Gakushū praised Class E and stated that there was no way to win an overwhelming victory. His father told him and the other Virtuosos otherwise and suggested that he should have poisoned Class E's natural products so as to irreparably damage their reputation or have stated the food was terrible. Gakushū spoke out against this and was soon sent out of the chairman's office for five minutes while his father "talked" to his friends. When they next came out, he was shocked to see them brainwashed to annihilate Class E.

Finals arc
When the chairman began teaching Class A for the upcoming finals, he allowed his son to study at home. Gakushū figured that his father would brainwash Class A the same way he did his friends to beat Class E. Reflecting on their father-son relationship and how it was one of competitiveness, he confronted some of the Class E students at the end of the day and asked them to kill his father's education philosophy by having Class E monopolize the top 50 spots, going as far to even acknowledged their victories by bowing to them. Karma reminded him of the promise at the midterms that he would claim the top spot from Gakushū and demanded that he will not hold back.

During the math portion of the final exam, Gakushū and Karma went head to head once more on the final question with very little time to spare. Gakushū attempted to solve the question with a complex formula and was not able to finish in time whereas Karma figured out the answer by simply analyzing the question. The result was that Gakushū came second to Karma and Class 3-E taking the top 50 spots. Class A performed well initially but the chairman's hypnosis backfired when the students burned out halfway through the finals. For the first time Gakushū stood up to his father when Class A asked if they could transfer to Class E, and was brutally slapped in the face as a result. Later he saw his father walking back from the Class E classroom and accompanied him back to the campus in good faith.

End of the Semester: Theater Time
Towards the end of the second semester, Gakushū and the Student Council were organizing for the school's drama festival. Even though Class E was still forced to perform their play while everyone was having lunch, Gakushū subtly commented to Isogai and Kataoka that they could work around it. Indeed, Class E student Kirara Hazama caught the audience's attention by writing a dark play that made everyone lose their appetite, much to Gakushū's chagrin and her amusement.

Abilities
Intelligence: As one of the school's Five Virtuosos he is one of the top ranked students in Class A, and even more impressive is that his grade score is the highest in the school. Indeed Gakushū is one of the smartest characters in the series and this coupled together with his manipulative mindset makes him a dangerous enemy to Class E. The System in Class A is that an incompetent teacher teaches the class straight out of the text book at high speeds and the fact that this system is how he is learning only further proves the evidence of his actual intellect given such an inept method to teach. A Class A student once mentioned that he has the ability to make others "flock" around him.

Other Skills: Intelligence aside, Gakushū is shown to be multi-talented. He has demonstrated super-human speed and is even trained in martial arts. He's also musically talented and has been shown to be multilingual as he has been shown freely manipulating four different languages for one of his plans. This may be something he inherited from his father, who's also been noted to be multi-talented.

Trivia

 * His favorite subject is all of the major subjects while least favorite subject is Ethics.
 * His specialty is being number one.
 * His future goal is to have an executive job.
 * The position his father would have when he gets an executive job: Holding Gakushū's sandals to his chest to keep them warm before he goes out (and his father can’t put them on).
 * He is the first enemy to admit the superiority of Class 3-E after being defeated many times by them.
 * As of Chapter 123, Gakushū is now the second ranked student of Kunugigaoka with a composite score of 497; having been beaten by Karma Akabane who scored a perfect 500.
 * According to Roll Book Time, Gakushū has been scouted numerous times.