Spy Kyoushitsu - Nostalgia Project! After timeskip Erna is great. Monika x Lily!

July 30, 2026 · 7:53 AM

Spy Kyoushitsu, also known as Spy Classroom in the rest of the world, is a light novel series written by Takemachi and illustrated by Tomari. It started at the height of the pandemic in January 2020, and it is one of those series that I started right from the first day, excited about each next volume coming out.

There are 15 main volumes and 6 side-story volumes available so far; I have currently read 12 of the main ones and 5 of the side ones. I am going to start catching up, so I thought it would be good to have a starting post to discuss what we have had so far in the story and the experience I have had with the series as a whole.

The premise is a Cold War world where countries have stopped fighting with weapons and have instead begun to use spies and other means to exert influence over one another. Assassinations and other incidents abound, and each government puts great care into training new spies to send into the fray. In the midst of this chaos, eight different young girls who are apparently dropouts are recruited into a team called "Lamplight" by an expert spy named Klaus in order to carry out an "impossible mission."

Sara was the lowest in my heroine rankings until her volume after the time skip arrived and she just skyrocketed near the top. Amazing growth.

Anette is crazy, everyone agrees on this, but damn if her arcs are always fun to read? She knows how to make things explosive. Quite literally actually.

The main issue is that Klaus is so good at his job that he is completely unable to communicate any effective training to the girls. Instead, he resorts to the simplest directive: "beat me." This leads the girls to try in every possible way to make him accept defeat, learning more and more as they prepare for the mission.

This was the initial premise, but at this point, it is long-gone history for the girls. We have gone through multiple "impossible missions," and all of the girls have managed to come out on top through wit or even just brute force, from fighting Klaus's old teacher to infiltrating a neighboring country to find the truth behind an assassination, and now, after a time skip, trying to incite a revolt in a country suffocated by repression.

The cast is stable at nine characters (eight heroines and Klaus), which works great to ensure the relationships between the characters get more detailed and complicated simultaneously. We have Grete, who is in love with Klaus; Monika, who has a crush on Lily; and various other non-romantic interactions, like the friendship between Erna and Annette.

Erna is my close second when it comes to heroines, she started pretty plain, but once the timeskip arrives she changes drastically and I simply can't put my eyes away from her.

My favorite overall remains Grete, great logical thinking, extreme dedication to protecting everyone else and absolutely stunning looks.

The series seems to follow a pattern where the author picks one heroine, or a subset of the heroines, and focuses an entire volume on them, which works to make you get attached to the characters. Backstory building is solid, and each heroine has a detailed set of motivations for joining Lamplight and reasons to continue improving.

There were other characters introduced in the story, like the Ootori team, but they are short-lived (in every meaning of the word) and only work as fuel to help the heroines reach new heights. Think of them as stepping stones or training partners used to achieve the "power-up" needed to reach the next stage.

The current arc that I am reading is centered on the revolution in the kingdom of Lylat; this happens after a significant time skip, which causes all the heroines to undergo big changes in personality and appearance. Stakes have never been higher, and I feel this is going to be the end of the series altogether.

Sibylla is sort of an ambivalent character for me, she had a good story arc, but still can't put her anywhere other than the middle.

*headpatting intensifies* Tomari's art is, as usual, downright impressive. It's a shame we don't have more series illustrated by him. I only know like two series in total.

The team is tasked with creating a revolution to try and thwart the "Nostalgia Project" that was planned by the original leader of Homura, named Veronica. There are various details about it, but it seems to be about bringing back war as a way of conducting diplomacy, as it was in the past, hence, "nostalgia." Many groups of spies across the world collaborated to achieve this, which would cause the world to plunge into another decade of slaughter.

To be honest, as intimidating as she is, I feel Nike is just a mid-boss, and there is someone even more dangerous behind her. There is no info so far as to who it might be, but I feel stopping the entire project just by fighting her would not be as satisfying as having someone from Homura appear as the final boss.

I am going to start reading volume 13 after this post is published, and I hope to make another post as soon as I finish. The revolution arc is heating up, and while the result of them avoiding the big war is expected, I am really worried about the heroines managing to survive this ordeal.