Hello and welcome to the final review of Project Nitsuj. For this year obviously. I’m not going anywhere, I’m having way too much fun here. Anyway, it’s time to close out the year on a high note and review the final part of Assassination Classroom. There will be laughs, shocking reveals, and meaningful conclusions. Let’s get started.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening for the second half is “Bye Bye Yesterday” by 3-nen E-gumi Utatan. Once again a very good opening. It has an upbeat sound similar to Question but there’s a sense of sadness within as in this is, everything is coming to an end. We know it, the characters know it, and the animators know it. They don’t hide it at all. The animation in the opening is similar to the animation for the show and the shot that really stands out to me is near the end where Koro-Sensei is standing outside the classroom seeing Nagisa off only for Nagisa to turn around and see that Koro-Sensei is nowhere to be found. It’s actually very good foreshadowing for what’s to come. The ending is “Mata Kimi ni Aeru Hi” by Shion Miyawaki. Out of all the endings this is probably the most straight forward with it’s tone. Once again this ending synthesizes that the end is coming. Unlike the other endings which had a pleasant tone at the end this one has a rather sad tone. To make it even sadder we actually see the drawings of the previous endings being erased and leaving only a face of Koro-Sensei at the end and we see another drawing which shows the silhouettes of the students.
Episodes 11-13
In episode 11 it’s the return of the dreaded exams (judgement day has come once again. Bury your gold. You guys have been burying your gold right?) and tensions are high as this exam is not going to be your basic junior high exam (oh no, we’re way pass that point). This is exam is a battle between the educational ideals of one crazy principal and one perverted octopus (in other words it’s Koro-Sensei vs Gakuho). Gakuho has taken over the teaching of class A and has brainwashed them into zombies who want to destroy class E once and for all on the exams (the visual representation of what he’s doing to them is frightening. Like something out of a horror movie). Gakushu finally realizing how messed up and crazy his father is bows his head and begs class E to destroy his dad’s education system by getting the top scores on the exam however he still plans to get the highest scores but Karma says he’s going to get the highest scores and beat him (now there’s a fight I look forward to seeing). Despite this they all agree to stop the principal and they all prepare to go all out on the exams which are so hard that even college students would have a hard time answering them. The day of the exams come and as Class E walks the halls they see the zombified students of class A (man, if I knew we were walking into a school full of zombies I would have bought a shotgun or a metal bat) and go to their first exam where once again they are represented by monsters with the students fighting them in a gladiator like match (//youtu.be/Y5JxIrn4OVs).
In episode 12 we see the match between Gakushu and Karma who are on the last question of the math exam and it’s a tough one where in the end thanks to his bonds with everyone Karma managed to solve the answer in time while Gakushu runs out of time meaning it counts as an incorrect answer (the champion has fallen). In the end everyone in the E class makes it on the top 50 list with Karma actually coming in first beating Gakushu (yeah go Karma). While A class had high scores as well as the exams went on they started to burn out because of the bloodlust draining them (bloodlust is good but the downside is it burns out and leaves you high and dry). While everyone in class A is depressed Gakushu holds his head high saying that he will learn from this mistake and continue to win in high school (even in defeat he feeds his ego). Gakuho comes in mocking Gakushu but everyone starts to rally behind him and say that the principal’s ideals are wrong and reject them (his education system has finally been proven wrong and now the students are rejecting it. You lose Gakuho). Even Gakushu gets up in his dad’s face where his dad totally shocked at what’s going on smacks his son in the face and sends him flying (damn! What steroids you on?). Not accepting this lost Gakuho decides to take drastic measures. He’s going to tear down the E class homeroom and fire Koro-Sensei (oh hell no! We need to be to kicking this guy’s ass). Everyone protests this so the principal decides to give Koro-Sensei a chance to stay and save the E class homeroom. He plans an assassination attempt on Koro-Sensei by having him answer exam questions from 5 exam books but here’s the catch. Four of the books has a grenade of anti-sensei pallets inside of it and unless Koro-Sensei can solve the problem it’ll explode on him. The final book is for Gakuho to answer and inside that book is an actual grenade. If Koro-Sensei can survive four of the blast he wins. Koro-Sensei does the first problem where of course he begins to panic (his job is on the line, the entire class E’s future is on the line, and he’s terrible when under pressure and solving puzzles. Gakuho has done his research) and the grenade explodes hurting him quite a bit.
Picking up where episode 12 left off episode 13 opens up with Koro-Sensei moving on to the next test book where he answers it just in time before the grenade goes off because he memorized all the test books (and when I say all of them I do mean all of them. Honestly guys, let’s just steal his brain and put it in some robot or something. Killing him is like a crime against the world). He solves the other questions easily, leaving Gakuho to answer the final text book. Before he opens the book we get a flashback to his younger years when he first started the academy. In the past before Gakuho started the academy he started off small with a cram school which only had 3 students and his building was the same building Class E currently resides in (you think he would have more respect for his stomping grounds). We see that back then his teaching style was similar to Koro-Sensei. He was passionate, kind, talented and cared deeply for the well-being of his students. He was also a super-human who was filthy rich and everything he did he was good at (what the hell happen to him?). Tragedy struck him when years later one of his first students in high school committed suicide from being bullied constantly (the sad part is this stuff does in fact happen in today’s culture. It’s sickening). Gakuho blamed himself for his student’s death saying he didn’t teach him to be strong (it’s not your fault man) so he quickly changed his teaching philosophies, used his money to open up an academy where he could teach his philosophies and became the cold, dark, and terrifying person we see today (okay I see the reasons for how he became the person he is today but it doesn’t justify his actions to what he’s done to Class E. Your first student died because of bullying and now here in your own academy you are encouraging students to bully and look down on the E-class all in the name of education. Do you not see the hypocrisy here?). Back in the present Gakuho refusing to accept his philosophy of education is wrong resigns himself to his death but Koro-Sensei saves him by shedding his skin (no matter how many times I see it that is disgusting) saying that they’re both alike (yeah except one of you is a borderline sociopath. Don’t believe me? Do you wanna know what Gakuho did to the bullies who made his student commit suicide? He turned them into bums. Yeah, he manipulated and got them addicted to gambling where they lost everything and now live on the streets still addicted to gambling and begging people for money. And whenever he sees them on the streets he hands them money just so they can lose it). Gakuho accepts his defeat and leaves showing a little change in his personality but still refuses to change his ideas of education. As their reward for scoring high on the exams Koro-Sensei tells the class one of his major weaknesses, his tentacles. If the class manages to pin all of his tentacles down he becomes immobilized and defenseless making for a quick and easy kill. In the second half of the episode the class has to perform a play in front of the entire school as part of some drama festival. They perform Momotaro however they give it a very deep and dark twist (and I laughed at this play more than I should have. Scene here: //youtu.be/43QICml_SwA).
Episodes 14-18
In episode 14 the sweet and kind Kaede reveals who she truly is. While cleaning out the storage with Koro-Sensei and Nagisa, Kaede springs a trap hole where Koro-Sensei falls in with Kaede right behind him trying to kill him where she reveals that just like Itona she too has tentacles (what is this anime’s obsession with tentacles?). Using the tentacles she tries to kill Koro-Sensei but he manages to escape. Kaede than reveals her true name, Akari Yukimura a young and famous actress who captured the hearts of many with her amazing acting (well she’s doing a good job because I did not see this twist coming). She’s also the little sister of Aguri Yukimura the teacher of class E before Koro-Sensei came along. Although their time was short (2 weeks actually) the class and her developed a good relationship with each other. Kaede says that Koro-Sensei killed Aguri in the past and now she wants revenge so she took a bottle of the tentacle weapon, drank it and gained tentacles which according to Itona are slowly driving her mad (I hear tentacles in my head. They council me they talk me they understand~) and soon they will kill her. She takes her leave saying that she’ll contact him later for their next fight where the class is still stunned that their friend this whole time was keeping such a secret away from them all this time (yeah so much to take in. How much of her was real and how much of her was fake?). The whole class wants answers from Koro-Sensei about his past and agrees to tell everyone but only after they have rescued and saved Kaede (yeah I’m still calling her Kaede because in my eyes she will always be Kaede). Kaede finally texts Koro-Sensei on their meeting spot which is at night under the moon in a field of zebra grass (what’s with this samurai-like setting?). Koro-Sensei tries to get her stop saying if she continues to use those tentacles she’ll die but she refuses to listen and traps Koro-Sensei in a ring of fire (inferno match~) and begins to fight Koro-Sensei slowly losing herself to the tentacles (scene here: //youtu.be/MNbiF8L4HbQ. (Tentacles): Kill your teacher. Kill your teacher. Kill you teacher).
At the start of episode 15 Koro-Sensei tells the class that they have to remove the tentacles before it’s too late. However, unlike Itona where they were able to talk to him and calm his bloodlust they don’t have time to do that with Kaede so they have to think of something to curb her bloodlust while Koro-Sensei removes the tentacles (kiss her). After Koro-Sensei allows his weak point (his heart located behind his tie) to get stabbed by Kaede he grabs her and Nagisa comes in where he kisses her (scene here: //youtu.be/H1GRt2VuDcw. 15-hit combo, not bad Nagisa. You’re a regular lady-killer just like I expected). Koro-Sensei removes the tentacles and Kaede returns to normal where she admits that it wasn’t all in act. As time went on she started to get over her bloodlust for revenge and really did enjoy being in the class with everyone. But the tentacles wouldn’t let her forget her revenge so they kept plaguing her until she finally became consumed by them and attacked Koro-Sensei. Shiro comes in and sees Kaede’s failure where he reveals his true name Yanagisawa (man that’s a mouth full) and leaves. After he’s gone Koro-Sensei begins talking about his past. It turns out that he too was an assassin (not what I was expecting. All this time I thought he was a clumsy perverted teacher always getting taken advantage by his students or an easy-going scientist) known as the Reaper (the real one this time). He was betrayed by his pupil (The Red Skull wannabe) and captured one day by Yanagisawa’s men where they performed experiments on him day in and day out. Their goal, generate antimatter within the human body (uh question, why would you want you to do that? I mean yes creating antimatter is a big thing but why use the human body and how is this going to benefit society?). Little did Yanagisawa know that Koro-Sensei was playing them, his goal throughout this whole ordeal was to gain a destructive power (geez Koro-Sensei was a messed up guy in the past. How do you go from assassinating over 1,000 people to hands down the best teacher a student can ask for? It’s like Donald Trump going from an ego-centric billionaire to a manager at your local McDonalds). During his incarceration, he befriended Aguri who was still a teacher at the academy and was being married off to Yanagisawa who treated her like trash and abused her on a daily basis (man I knew he was an asshole but abusing a woman? That’s just low even for him). Within 3 months the assassin and the teacher had become friends openly talking to each other and everything. As time went on Koro-Sensei’s body slowly began to change but even so he never let the pain showed and continued to smile for Aguri.
At the start of episode 16 we see that a year has almost passed. Koro-Sensei and Aguri’s bond continues to grow to the point where the two have developed feelings for each other (the assassin and school teacher falling in love. Quite the awkward combination there). Also, you know about the moon blowing up at the beginning of the anime and Koro-Sensei saying it was him. Lies! All lies! The one who blew up the moon was a lab rat (first rat in space). The rat was filled with antimatter, discharged on the surface of the moon and destroyed it (or at least 70% of the moon. I would have liked to see the effects this had on the tides). What happened was the cell division exceeded its natural limits and after crunching the numbers Yanagisawa figured out that Koro-Sensei will also explode in March of next year (so we either kill Koro-Sensei before March saving the world. Or we fail and he dies taking a huge chunk of the world with him. In the end Koro-Sensei dies it’s just a matter of who dies with him). Yanagisawa makes the decision to kill Koro-Sensei and Aguri overhearing the conversation goes off to warn him where Koro-Sensei escapes and goes on a rampage in the lab killing everyone he comes across (the old habits die hard. Trust me, I should know). So after destroying the place (I wasn’t a big fan of the place. Too many assholes) he’s about to fly off (the massacre world tour 2016. Coming to a city near you) Aguri stops him begging him not to go down this path (you keep killing and killing all for the sake of it. Until you wake up one morning and forget the whole reason why you killed in the first place). After she gets pierced with a spear from the security system Koro-Sensei’s eyes are finally opened and he blames himself for her death saying if he wasn’t focused on killing and instead learned to use his powers for more practical usages he could’ve saved her. As she dies she asks him to teach her class saying how they’re just like him (I seriously doubt that) lost in the dark but still good kids who need direction. He soon left and told the tentacles he wanted to be weak so they changed him into the octopus-like creature we see today (you call this weak? He moves at mach 20, sheds his skin like a lizard, has advanced intelligence, and is very strong. If this constitutes as weak than I hate to see what you consider strong). After hearing the story the whole class is stunned. Nobody says anything. It was in this moment that the weight of the situation came crashing down on them. The weight that at end of the day they have to kill their teacher or risk destroying the world. Winter break goes by and nobody so much as plans an assassination attempt. Even when class resumes nobody thinks of assassinating Koro-Sensei. Nagisa finally breaks this mood by gathering all the students in the forest and telling them that he wants to save Koro-Sensei (while I respect your desire to save him Nagisa it’s impossible). Also, Kaede has fallen for Nagisa.
In episode 17 a civil war erupts within the class. While some of the students side with Nagisa in finding a way to save Koro-Sensei some students have sided with Karma and want to continue the assassination saying that’s there gift to Koro-Sensei. He’s been training them this whole time to kill him and to just drop out of the race now would be insulting to him. Because of this the line is drawn between the students especially Nagisa and Karma whose ideas have finally come to ahead and the two (supposedly) good friends come to blows with each other (scene here: //youtu.be/WYxVtI5uZlA. Fight, fight, fight). Koro-Sensei decides the best way to settle this is in a deathmatch between the students who want to kill Koro-sensei and the students who don’t want to kill him. Everyone picks a side except for Ritsu who remains in the neutral camp and the battle begins between team Karma and team Nagisa (Jack Frost: Honestly Pyro I have no idea who to cheer for. In terms of all around ability Karma’s side has the advantage, they got the muscle, the brains and the two best snipers on their team but at the same time Nagisa’s side has a lot of wild cards who we don’t pay attention to all that much thus they’ll be sure to surprise us. (Pyro Jack): Right you are Frost. It’s difficult to see who has the advantage in this match but what I’m looking much forward to is the battle between the two captains Nagisa and Karma. The fight could very well come down to the performance of these two men. These two men who are hands down the best assassins in the class and good friends but at the same time a wall stands between them. Karma has the brains and the size advantage over Nagisa but in terms of assassination skills Nagisa far surpasses Karma and his unpredictable nature makes him a threat. (Jack Frost): Plus he has that killer smile. It’s one of the cutest smiles you’ll ever see but it will haunt you in your sleep. Well let’s not waste anymore time. It’s time for a death battle~! Sort of).
Sure enough in episode 18 it all comes down to Nagisa and Karma (blue vs red. Captain America vs Ironman. Batman vs Superman. Sonic vs Mario and any other epic rivalry you can think of will fit this situation). Karma gets Nagisa to come out and face him one on one where we get a little backstory about their friendship with each other. It turns out that in the past Nagisa really looked up to Karma (he’s so cool, smart, athletic, and not a trap) but once he saw a little bit of Karma’s true sadistic side he realized that they could never be on the same stage and after a suspension the two grew apart. For Karma it was quite similar in that he enjoyed hanging around Nagisa (he’s so small, cute, cunning, and totally a trap) and he was the first to sense Nagisa’s true potential. A potential that he said scared him and kept him on his toes around Nagisa until he could bear it no more and decided to put some distance between himself and Nagisa. Returning to the fight they really go all out here (dear God I am actually impressed with two middle school boys fighting each other. What has life become?) with a knife fight which quickly turns into a fist fight where Karma clearly has the advantage but Nagisa gets some good shots in as well. The fight finally reaches its climax when Nagisa beats Karma at his own game and traps him in a triangle choke hold which forces Karma to tap out (scene here: //youtu.be/G9m3i0QXEOQ *Finn Balor theme begins to play*. (Jack Frost): Holy shit! That was awesome! (Pyro Jack): On the surface Karma seemed to have the advantage. In terms of strength and intelligence he beats Nagisa easily and he was smart to get Nagisa out into the open for a one on one fight where he had the advantage. (Jack Frost): But Nagisa managed to pull through by having the better skill set. Karma’s style of fighting is to overwhelm people with his strength and aura but that kind of stuff doesn’t work on a guy like Nagisa whose known Karma for sometime now. (Pyro Jack): Nagisa has been training in the ways of the assassin for months now while Karma just relies on his natural abilities. Nagisa knew that he didn’t have to beat Karma with strength, he just had to get Karma to admit defeat which he could do. On top of that Nagisa has gone up against professionals and beat them. (Jack Frost): “But Jack Bros. didn’t Karma beat up that Grip guy”? (Pyro Jack): Yes. However, Grip admits that he went easy on Karma. He didn’t take Karma seriously because he didn’t want to hurt a child. Nagisa on the other faced a professional who was seriously trying to kill him and won, giving him a distinct advantage over Karma and that one advantage was all Nagisa needed to win. (Jack Frost): Karma’s luck just went bad. (Pyro Jack): The winner is Nagisa). With this Nagisa’s team wins and they all agree to find a way to save Koro-Sensei however Karasuma gives them until the end of January to find a way to save him, if they don’t it’s back to the assassination (and we all know how well that works out). As they’re thinking up ways to save Koro-Sensei they wonder if any of the other countries are working on anything in the same field as them. Apparently there is one agency working on something in their field the ISS is working on an experiment with tentacle fusion in space but it won’t be coming back down until the 25th of January so they have to go up there themselves and Koro-Sensei has a way for them, riding in a space rocket currently being developed in secret by the Japanese (guys, get ready for a field trip to space).
Episodes 19-21
In episode 19 the class sneaks into the base of the space shuttle, hack Ritsu into the system, and Nagisa and Karma become the lucky boys to fly into space (you guys just hijacked a space rocket? What have they been teaching you at school?). At the station they meet these America astronauts (and give Japan credit they actually used American VAs) where we get to hear more of Karma’s engrish along with Nagisa’s engrish (cringe worthy but at the same time funny) and they agree to give them the data because they respect their bravery. They return to Earth safely where they see that they can reduce Koro-Sensei’s chances of exploding to 1% meaning they can save Koro-Sensei however they all decide to keep the assassination going until March where they’ll save him should the time come.
Nothing much to say about episode 20. Nagisa is still unsure of what he wants to be when he grows up but his heart is leading him to be a teacher (meh). We also get some Valentine’s Day fun as Kaede gives Nagisa some chocolate but doesn’t confess to him because she doesn’t want to distract him from the assassination since he looks so cool when he goes into assassin mode (what is it with you and your sister falling for assassins?). At the end we also see Karasuma smoothly propose to Irina (scene here: //youtu.be/GwvQp-JDlNI, smooth. Real smooth).
Episode 21 is the beginning of Koro-Sensei’s end. It’s early March and the government have finally taken action with their final assassination attempt. They use a giant satellite laser to hit Koro-Sensei but he dodges it barely so they move on to Plan B which is creating a giant anti-tentacle barrier which surrounds the whole mountain so now Koro-Sensei can’t escape and in a week the government will fire the laser once again only this time at 100%. With this Koro-Sensei’s death is all but certain. The government has blocked the area so the students can’t get in, they’re put under tight surveillance, and the government makes Koro-Sensei out to be a monster to the public so now everybody is an arms asking the military to stop him (this is pretty much the biggest cluster fuck in the history of this anime). But despite this overwhelming odds the students refuse to let someone else steal their kill so they do their surveillance and come up with a route to enter the mountain themselves and save Koro-Sensei. The episode ends with March 13th coming around the corner and the students having only 3 hours before the laser goes off (scene here: //youtu.be/43YWovbhavA).
Episodes 22-25
In the final four episodes of the series we see everything come to an end. The students infiltrate the mountain and take out all the soldiers easily (they may be trained soldiers but this mountain is their home and they won’t lose to everyone). They make it to Koro-Sensei who praises them for making it and they try to come up with a way to get him out of here but he says it’s impossible. There’s no escape and even if he were to go into his absolute defense form it still wouldn’t protect him from the laser. As a few of the students begin to complain about how unfair the world is Koro-Sensei tells them that the world is full of unfair odds and rather than complain about them it’s much more fun to challenge and change them. He says that he is proud of all of them and the students decide to celebrate his birthday by bringing out a cake (scene here: //youtu.be/4LfuJ6UdCoA). Just before Koro-Sensei can eat it, Yanasigawa shows up with the fake Reaper who was actually Koro-Sensei’s first student. In the past Koro-Sensei killed the fake Reaper’s father and rather than seek revenge (like Batman) he instead asked to be Koro-Sensei’s student which he accepted. The fake Reaper just wanted Koro-Sensei to acknowledge him but because of his naïve way of thinking Koro-Sensei never did so the fake Reaper betrayed him and left him for dead (scene here: //youtu.be/NCweYWD2iWM). He’s now back and has been transformed into a tentacle monster just like Koro-Sensei (okay Yanasigawa we seriously need to talk about your fetish) only stronger and faster. Koro-Sensei takes on his former student where it seems Koro-Sensei is at a disadvantage. The fake Reaper attempts to attack the students (screw the money I want revenge) so Koro-Sensei has to take the hits in order to protect them. Kaede tries to fight using her tentacles but gets fatally injured in the process (scene here: //youtu.be/u5U8diTDDNw). You would think this would send Koro-Sensei into a blind rage but no he still maintains his cool and manages to beat both the fake Reaper and Yanasigawa. He sends them both flying with a Kamehameha wave where the fake Reaper gets destroyed by the force field and Yanasigawa gets messed up badly that he falls into a coma (the one character who I want to die still manages to live. Barely). Koro-Sensei then turns his attention to saving Kaede where he uses his skills to save her life. Drained, exhausted, and defenseless Koro-Sensei tells his students to take advantage of this opportunity and do what they believe is right. They put it to a vote and agree to kill Koro-Sensei with Nagisa given the job of dealing the final blow. Before dying his last request is that he takes roll call one last time (oh God the feels are returning) where everyone is present and Nagisa kills Koro-Sensei (scene here: //youtu.be/d36pelIaV1I, you were too good for this world). After this they all cry and go to their classroom hoping by some miracle to see if he’s still alive but he’s not. They instead find their diplomas, a photo album, and personalized guidebooks to help them through life (greatest teacher ever). Thanks to Karasuma the class is able to attend their graduation where they get their diplomas (scene here: //youtu.be/MSp1D4-Bee4. Again, Nagisa is thanking Gakuho, but I’m positive he wants to say something along these lines, //youtu.be/zP1fMJXwEtY). After the ceremony we see Nagisa’s parents together again thanks to Koro-Sensei (geez he’s making Oprah look bad) and the media comes in to question the kids (damn vultures). Luckily, Gakushu and class A help them escape and as time passes the E class system gets abolished (thank you, that system was messed up) and Gakuho gets fired for endangering the life of his students (obviously) not that he minds. We fast forward 7 years into the future where everyone is all grown up and pursuing their own careers and enjoying life. We see that Karasuma and Irina are now married (scene here: //youtu.be/DmwzW3gLo8U) and as for the money they got for killing Koro-Sensei they pretty much gave a majority of it to Karasuma and the others. They kept a little for themselves and made one big purchase by buying the mountain of their classroom. They get together every now and then and clean the place up while also discussing what everyone’s been up to (it’s like a class reunion). During this moment it’s hinted that Nagisa and Kaede are a couple and Nagisa got her pregnant (nice) and we find out that Nagisa became a well-respected teacher for a group of young students who thanks to his teaching and encouragement went on to do great things (oh who am I kidding, this is an anime, nothing ever goes perfect for the MC). Nagisa becomes the assistant teacher for a class full of delinquents. On top of that he barely grew after middle school and is still short (he also cut his hair. Oh Nagisa why?). Yet despite this set up Nagisa takes control of his class and sets his students straight (scene here: //youtu.be/3L05iAqNvbc, he may not reach Koro-Sensei’s level but Nagisa will be a great teacher).
Final Thoughts
Boy, this was a great series. Not only is the manga great but the anime is great as well. The anime has an excellent balance of comedy, drama, action, and teaching. Now I will admit this anime isn’t for everyone. If you have a dark outlook on the whole assassination this anime is not for you as this series uses the concept of assassination as a way to teach others and it pulls it off quite well. Koro-Sensei not only teaches his class from an educational standpoint but from a life standpoint. He teaches them things that most people go through life not knowing or learning the hard way. All of these lessons and ideals that Koro-Sensei talks about can be applied in real life and are very thought provoking. No matter how old we get or where we go in life there’s always room for improvement and development. We shouldn’t live our lives with any regret and strive to reach our full potential while challenging ourselves along the way.
The characters in this show are good. Each character is unique and different from the others. No two characters are the same nor do they look the same. They have a different design, personality, and quirk that makes them all stand out. The only downside is not all of the characters are developed as much as you would like. Some characters get overlooked more than other characters and some characters get no development at all. The two characters who get the most development and focus are Koro-Sensei and Nagisa. Koro-Sensei is a great teacher despite his silly appearance. He takes his job seriously and loves everyone of his students. You know that one teacher you had in school who just loved, well that’s Koro-Sensei only 100 times better. This is the teacher that everyone needs in their life. I have to give major props to Jun Fukuyama for bringing this character this life and giving him just the perfect voice. Nagisa was a trap who instead of just being played for laughs is given a rather serious spotlight and focus in the anime. While his true he gets his moments where they make fun of his appearance, for the most part he’s treated as a very serious character. Most of the story revolves around him and is all told from his perspective. We see how he has family issues, how he’s unsure of where he wants to go in life, and has a meek personality like a lot of people who there but still presses on believing that he’ll find his path. I’m still pretty meh about his choice to be teacher. I don’t dislike it and I’m sure he’ll be a great teacher, but I just felt that he would of done something more major with his life. Also, what is relationship with Kaede now. Are they a couple or are they just friends now?
The animation is good. It’s similar to Danganronpa’s animation only more livelier and flushed out more. While not the best animation it does allow for great facial expressions. Particularly on the part of Koro-Sensei. His expressions are some of the funniest expressions I’ve seen on an anime character. The music is okay. Besides the openings and endings the music doesn’t really leave much of an impression on me. There’s like two or three songs from the anime that I can remember and hum, the rest is pretty forgetful. The fight scenes are surprisingly good. I really did think this animation style would hold the fight scenes back but no they’re done quite nicely and deliver.
Final Score
My final score for Assassination Classroom is a 8.5/10 with a must watch stamp of approval. This series may sound strange and silly at first glance but if you give it a chance and buy into its story you’ll be surprise at how good it really is. Just like I did when first began watching it and reading the manga. I actually turned this series away until I checked out the anime and started really like its characters and story. While the series was midcard at best in Shounen Jump it was a great midcard which had great characters, and interesting story, and good life lessons. If you haven’t checked this anime out definitely give it a watch or check out the manga. Either one is great as an introduction to the series. I know they’ve got a spin-off series and a movie coming out. Will I review them? It all depends on what material I can come up with when I watch them. Until then, thanks for reading, happy new year, and I’ll see you next year on Project Nitsuj.
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