VAGUE SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE AND THE SERIES (specific spoilers tagged)

I was in the mood for some good ole assclass recently but didn’t have a lot of time to read or watch it, so naturally I turned to the recap movie. I would call this a bad choice, but given the fact this stone-cold heart cried multiple times during it, I don’t think I can. Still, there were a few things lacking in the movie that made it less enjoyable than it could have been.

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The movie is framed as an epilogue to the series, in which adult Nagisa and Karma visit the old Class 3-E classroom up on the mountain the day before the rest of their class comes to help clean it up for use as a classroom once again. They find the yearbook Koro-sensei made and begin reminiscing about their time in his classroom, and the movie switches between present-day and their flashbacks. While I enjoyed seeing their adult forms, the flashbacks—or rather, the flashes back to the present—were cheesy and cliche, and they weren’t my favorite.

I also wasn’t a huge fan of what the movie chose to use in its recap. Some moments were highlighted that I think didn’t need to be as prominent, while scenes I thought would have been included were left out, such as

Spoiler, click to view

the introduction of Irina, Ritsu and Itona, the assassination island arc, the bit with Chairman Asano, and Koro-sensei’s origins (though this is touched on a little, it wasn’t to its full extent).

Because crucial elements of the story were cut, it didn’t flow very well overall. I think part of the reason for this was because the movie focused a lot on Nagisa’s experience in Class 3-E rather than the class as a whole. While I do understand that this is probably because Nagisa is the one experiencing the flashbacks, due to his limited scope and perspective, I feel like this contributed to the flow of the movie feeling disjointed and disconnected, whereas the series does a better job conveying a full picture of the class. They also cut most of the other characters' backstories and development, which may have been necessary to fit the story into 90 minutes, but it still made the movie feel incomplete and flat in that regard.

All this having been said, I still cried during the movie. They included

Spoiler, click to view

most, if not all, of Koro-sensei’s death scene

which made me cry like a little kid when I watched it for the first time and again this second time. I think this scene would have been a little more impactful if they had shown a flashback to how the series opens, but even without it, the end of the story is still very heart wrenching. Still, as I mentioned previously, there are some pieces of the plot that would have made the recap more meaningful, especially if you’re watching the movie without knowing anything else about the series. Unlike Attack on Titan Chronicle or the Haikyuu recap movies, it would be very difficult to pick this movie up without having seen the main series and then understand everything about the series and characters.

There’s not much to say about some of the more technical aspects of the movie, like animation and music. They’re pretty much the same as in the show. Lerche did a decent job with the animation, nothing incredibly noteworthy but also nothing awful either. ~~I still like Karma’s appearance more in the manga but maybe that’s just me.~~ I also forgot about the insert song Class 3-E sings during the second to last episode. I think it’s really cool that the characters’ voice actors also sing for the show, not just the openings but the insert songs too. There’s just so many little details like that, and like

Spoiler, click to view

the circle ending, where Koro-sensei calls roll

that just made the show really really cool to me.

As for the anime-only epilogue scenes, while they were cheesy, I did enjoy seeing the characters grown. Seeing what they did and where they went—and the details brought up in the series were brought up again in the epilogue—were all very nice elements they certainly could have left out, but I’m glad they didn’t. It really gave a nice ending to the show, with a nice sense of completion and satisfaction.

Spoiler, click to view

I do like how Nagisa ended up becoming a teacher, especially of Class 3-E, but part of me would have liked to see him turn into a professional assassin. I suppose there’s more poetic value in him becoming a teacher, but I digress.

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Overall, I finished the movie feeling like it wasn’t quite a waste of time, but that it wasn’t quite a good use of it either. If you’ve got some time to spare and an urge to dip your toe back into Assassination Classroom, then this movie is worth it. But, if you’ve got better things to do (and let’s face it, you probably do), then you’re not missing out on much. This is not a movie I’m chomping at the bit to recommend, but since the original Assassination Classroom material was so good to begin with, then it’s not something I’d try to talk you out of watching either.
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I think you get the idea.

So, despite numerous flaws, I’m giving it a 72 out of 100. For me, it was enjoyable, and the material is from an above-average story. However, due to the choppy nature of it and the lack of a fuller picture, I can’t give it anything much higher. Did I need to watch it? Absolutely not. Did I still enjoy myself? Yes. And in the end, that’s all I’m looking for in an anime.