Assassination Classroom

At school, you may have some boring teachers, and you may sleep through their lessons; then, you may also have some teachers you actually like, and you're actually engaged in their lessons. For example, the teacher for assassination class is - Wait, assassination?! Since when does a school teach their students about assassination?! Well, if you're in Class 3-E of Kunugigaoka Junior High School, you would know the answer to that question. I don't remember exactly when it was that I first found out about Assassination Classroom, nor do I remember when was it that I decided that I was going to watch it; all I can say is that it was very enjoyable.

Ladies and gentlemen, tentacles all over, here is my review for Assassination Classroom.

Assassination Classroom begins with a large portion of the moon being destroyed, turning it into a permanent crescent. (That's right, folks, full moons are now a thing of the past!) The one responsible for this catastrophe is a giant, yellow, octopus-like.... thing. Oh, you know how I mentioned what happened to the moon? Yeah, apparently, Earth's next, but first, the octopus thing, eventually named Koro-sensei, wants to teach Class 3-E at Kunugigaoka Junior High for a year! As a result, the students of Class 3-E are given an assignment; they have to assassinate Koro-sensei before graduation, with the prize for doing so being 10 billion yen! Of course, with that big of a bounty on his head, it's obvious that Koro-sensei is no easy target; he can move at Mach 20 speed, which makes it easy for him to dodge all of their attacks. It's not just that that's getting in their way (although Nagisa Shiota does take notes on his weaknesses); it's also how Koro-sensei is the best teacher they have ever had. Much emphasis on ever is used here, considered how badly Class E is normally treated.

Yeah, the story of Assassination Classroom can be quite interesting. It has a bit of a comedy/slice-of-life feel mixed with all of the students' attempts to assassinate their teacher, and it mixes in a bit of the academics, as well. What makes the story of Assassination Classroom interesting, however, is its characters. This anime is full of interesting characters, with not even one dull one. Saying that Koro-sensei is a great teacher is a great understatement; despite how he plots to destroy the Earth the way he did the moon, he puts his students first. He doesn't just teach them school subjects; he teaches them about life and goes above and beyond to help them with their problems. Koro-sensei isn't the only interesting character, though. A majority of the Class E students are likable, especially Karma, Nagisa, Kayano, and Ritsu. If there's any character in this anime I don't like, it's any student besides those in Class E; I just hated how poorly Class E is treated by others. They may be the lowest class, but the LEAST you could do is be at least a LITTLE bit nice to them!

The animation in AssClass (am I the only one who is amused by this abbreviation?), done by Lerche, was very well-done. It really stands out in the action scenes; with the fluid animation in the action scenes, you can really feel yourself getting into it. I alternated between watching this in Japanese (with English subs) and English (dubbed, of course), and I have to say that both versions have good voice acting. I also liked both opening themes, "Seishun Satsubatsu-ron" and "Jiriki Hongan Revolution"; they were very upbeat. While the ending theme, "Hello, shooting star", was also great, sometimes, I didn't feel it didn't really fit this anime.

Overall, Assassination Classroom is a very good anime. If you like anime that focus on teachers trying to teach their students (some other examples being Negima and Denpa Kyoushi), I think I'd automatically recommend this one. There are quite some interesting and funny things happening in the assassination classroom, where the students are assassins and their target is their teacher!