Ansatsu Kyoushitsu

Title:Ansatsu Kyoushitsu
Assassination Classroom
暗殺教室
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , , ,
Notables: FUCHIGAMI Mai
FUKUYAMA Jun
OKAMOTO Nobuhiko
R1 License - FUNimation
SUZAKI Aya
One day, the moon exploded, leaving it in a perpetual crescent-moon shape. The creature who claims responsibility for the destruction also claims it will destroy the world in March of next year. With powers beyond human comprehension, no military can stand against it. Yet, for some reason, it chooses to take up occupancy as a teacher in the worst class of Kunugigaoka Middle School. The fate of the world rests in the hands of its students, as they have until graduation to figure out how to murder their teacher and collect ten billion yen for saving the world.
(Summary Courtesy of Anime News Network)


22-episode TV anime that premiered on January 9, 2015.
Animated by Lerche
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 8 7 8 5 5 5 Ggultra2764 [series:2999#1552]
Assassination Classroom attempts to be an action-comedy in its focus on members of the outcast middle school Class 3-E trying to kill off their alien teacher before the end of their school year when he destroys the Earth. The comedy of the series spawns from Class 3-E functioning as both classroom and assassination training grounds for the students to kill Koro-sensei, the issues the class faces from the rest of the school considering them outcasts due to how it is structured by a crooked chairman, and other rival assassins trying to claim the bounty on Koro-sensei's head for themselves. Unfortunately in spite of the show's unique premise, the comedy to Assassination Classroom didn't really do much to wow me as a good deal of it felt mean-spirited to a good degree and many of the gags fell flat. Plus despite the show's attempts to flesh out members of Class 3-E, many of them are not too memorable as the only students with prominent focus in the series are Nagisa and Karma. In addition, hints are dropped about some major elements to the anime's story like Koro-sensei's origins and what led Gakuho Asano to adopt his cruel method of running the middle school yet the series is intentionally left unresolved for its second series. In spite of this, Assassination Classroom didn't really do much to wow me throughout its run and is another instance where I don't get what draws fans into liking it.

Last updated Saturday, September 24 2016. Created Saturday, September 24 2016.
Unevaluated Stretch [series:2999#628]
(First five and last episode watched):

There's been an emerging genre of 'teenage secret agents in high school' recently, like last season's Fruit of Grisaia, and like Grisaia most haven't been brilliant. It might be the next genre that every anime studio rushes to exploit, and which rapidly becomes tired and predictable. So I was wary of what seemed to be a new anime about teens learning to be assassins. The premise, however, wasn't exactly what I was expecting: these kids have been forced into this against their will, and, as crazy and absurd as the premise seemed at first, I found myself fairly amused and entertained at the end of episode one. It wasn't LOL funny, but it had an intriguing story to it, written with some cleverness. These loser teens (which makes it easier to identify with them) are trapped in a comical kill-or-be-killed situation, and the rules of the game are clear, so we know exactly where we stand, which is nice (and rare). The real question is whether such a crazy premise can be kept fresh and novel for 12 or 13 episodes. One other thing: Nagisa is a boy? But isn't that a girl's name? And his/her hair is hardly masculine.

But I found myself unable to become all that engaged in the long term plot. Maybe the novelty of the premise quickly wore off. Or maybe the problem is that I quickly came to see Korosensei as the good guy in this story. He is such a nice guy that it's hard to believe that he really intends to destroy the world. He doesn't hurt anybody who doesn't deserve it, and goes to great pains to be a good teacher. I can't help thinking that maybe he's just bluffing and only wants to instill a sense of teamwork and camaraderie among the loser kids of E class. Why give the people he's supposedly out to destroy a chance to kill him? I hoped he actually had an interesting secret motive and as the series progressed we'd gradually learn what it is. It seemed obvious that he would ally with the students someday to solve some major problem which had yet to be revealed.

I hoped some sort of long term story would come together here, because the show really needed it. I wanted to know how the business regarding Korosensei's threat to destroy the world would work out, but for now the episode plots were humdrum and not really worth watching. Without a plot, the only hope is in the comedy. This is a show which I feel sorry for, I appreciate the effort it made, but this is a comedy and it's not particularly funny. I can't remember any LOL jokes at all. I didn't particularly like anybody other than Korosensei and Nagisa, either. I ultimately decided to skip the bulk of the series and just watch the last episode or two. I had a feeling that everything between now and then will be little more than filler and I wouldn't be missing anything that I needed to see in order to understand what was going on at the end. Learning that this show would be 22 episodes long, not 12 or so as I had originally assumed, only convinced me that I made the right call.

I did indeed watch the final episode, to see what the outcome of Korosensei's threat to destroy the world would be. And to my dismay the outcome was that there was no outcome--apparently the 'contract' on him is still valid, and the kids are still trying to find a way to kill him. I was sure they would be his friends and allies by now, but no, that hadn't happened. Instead some professional assassins apparently tried to do something, and got into a fight with the class members. 'We get to kill our teacher, not you' seemed to be the theme. So, basically this is a two-season show, yet never answers the fundamental question that was brought up in episode one. Also, it was strange how the show seemed to almost display a reverence for the trade of being a hired assassin. I'm glad I didn't stick with this anime any longer than I did. It got surprisingly high ratings in the ANN viewers poll of the best anime of 2015, along with several others which I dropped after an episode or two; either my standards are far higher than the average, or there's something fundamentally different about me and my anime tastes.

Last updated Thursday, November 10 2016. Created Thursday, January 15 2015.

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Official Japanese Series Web Site http://www.ansatsu-anime.com/

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