The weird part is, I can’t exactly pinpoint exactly what I enjoyed so much about this show. It wasn’t like each element was outstanding; more like the whole was much greater than the sum of its parts.

The story was utterly absurd – there’s no way round this. The premise of a being who has promised to destroy the world, but not before he has taught a particular middle-school class for a year? Pure nonsense. Illogical. Irrational. And yet the story took itself so seriously, treating this nonsense for all the world like it was totally reasonable. Most plot points in the anime were thought out in a realistic way (like all the possible ways to kill their teacher, how to keep his identity under wraps, compensation from the government etc.) while ignoring the fact that the entire premise completely defies logic itself. Not in a fantasy way either; this story is set in real life. It was almost like the anime itself was the straight man in a comedy duo, a very specific type of humour that I personally found hilarious. Fascinating to watch, and exciting to boot.

Although you basically know how the anime’s gonna end from the get go (simply because it’s that type of anime), there are plenty of twists and turns to keep you entertained, along with some cool fights and a few suspenseful moments. Who knew that a bunch of kids taking midterms and finals could be so much fun to watch? I certainly didn’t feel that way when I was taking mine. Something as ordinary as exams can be turned into a battle of minds. It reminded me a little of Light and L’s mental battles in Death Note.

Characters next. Assassination Classroom has a big cast, and in just 22 episodes there’s obviously not enough time to cover every character in depth. We barely see any backstory from anyone. That doesn’t matter though, as these aren’t your normal anime protagonists. There aren’t any tragic backstories, absent parents, and they don’t have the endless power of nakama or unexplainable likeableness to rely upon. They’re basically a bunch of relatively normal middle-school kids. Each of them has their own little set of mannerisms, likes and dislikes. They’re a group, and they grow as a group.

That isn’t to say that they’re all vanilla by any means. Nagisa, Karma, and Terasaka are all superb characters whose personalities change as they face various challenges in and out of the classroom (especially Nagisa, but that’s to be expected as the MC and all). Even the one-dimensional characters were fun to watch, because they all contributed something. Each student was an important part of the class, and this made the sense of camaraderie between everyone all the more heart-warming and believable. The only character I was confused about was Kayano. She appears on the front cover and a lot in the op themes, so I expected her to have a big part, but she was one of the least developed characters in the series. She could have done with a lot more screen-time, or at the very least have been featured in some more character interactions.

Karasuma and Irina were good characters who were both interesting themselves (or comic relief, in Irina’s case), and able to act as plot devices when needed. So too the students in other classes, they spiced things up nicely during the exam arc in particular.

But the best character by far is Koro-sensei. He just steals the show. Respect to Jun Fukuyama for a magnificent performance as his seiyuu. Koro-sensei’s incredibly volatile, switching from smug to angry to embarrassed within the blink of an eye. His sudden and frequent changes in mood keep the tone light, and keep you guessing what he’ll do next. He’s also a phenomenal teacher; he knows exactly what to say and when and how to say it. You could actually attribute the entire class’ growth to him. Most real-life teachers dream about being able to make a difference to their students’ lives the way Koro-sensei does in the anime. So many important and profound messages are hidden in this series. Don’t be fooled by the comedy aspect; the lessons Koro-sensei gives apply equally in the real world, and to all different areas of life. Even if you don’t like the anime as a whole, it’s still worthwhile to take the lessons from it.

The music was catchy, lively, and although a bit too cheerful for some of the later episodes, it really did get me pumped up each time I heard it.

The art was unusual, lots of strong lines and bright colours. It looked great, and the animation similarly so. All strong positives for the anime.

Well, you can probably tell that I very much enjoyed this. I’ve seen a lot of school anime, and this is definitely one of the best. It has all the components a good show needs, and the assassination aspect was unique and refreshing. It does stray quite far from the original goal in the final arc and become much more like your standard shounen, but even those parts were immensely enjoyable because it felt like they actually built on the plot and characters that had been developed the rest of the series. I couldn’t wait to watch each new episode.

I’d recommend to fans of…well, basically anything. Comedy’s a given, but there are a lot of other things to love in this anime too. Just don’t go in expecting a horror, romance, or thriller/mystery. XD