【Assassination Classroom】Super popular science fiction/comedy manga about school life and assassination!!

Ansatsu Kyoushitsu (Assassination Classroom) is a manga series written and illustrated by Yusei Matsui. The manga was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from July 2012 to March 2016, with its chapters collected in 21 volumes. As of September 2016, Assassination Classroom had over 25 million copies in circulation. It was largely praised for well written story and colorful cast of characters, along with tear-jerking moments that were unexpected for a manga in the science fiction/comedy genre.

Assassination Classroom was nominated for the 6th Manga Taisho Award in 2013, nominated for the 19th annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2015, and nominated for the Best US Edition of International Material – Asia in the 2016 Eisner Award.

The manga was adapted into anime by Lerche and aired on Fuji TV from January 2015 to June 2016. In November 2019, Polygon named Assassination Classroom as one of the best anime of the 2010s. A live action film, also named Assassination Classroom, was released in March 2015, and its sequel, titled Assassination Classroom: Graduation, was released in March 2016. The first film opened at number one on the Japanese box office with $3.42 million and became the tenth highest-grossing film at the Japanese box office in 2015.

The story of Assassination Classroom started with a scene in class 3-E of Kunugigaoka Junior High School. This class was referred to as the “end class”, for the school’s losers and rejects.

During homeroom, all students were sitting in their seats, nervously waiting for their teacher. A peculiar creature with tentacles like an octopus, nick-named Koro Sensei, put the attendance record onto the table. The main protagonist Nagisa Shiota gave command for the whole class to stand up and all of them abruptly pulled out guns.

Then, they started shooting at their alien teacher but Koro Sensei dodged the bullets while calmly took attendance of the class. The shooting stopped just when Koro Sensei finished calling the last name.

Koro Sensei gave his review of the class’s performance and told them that their killing tactics were too simple. They would need to devise a much better plan to be able to kill him. The whole class disagreed and claimed that the bullets were only BB Gun pellets that could hardly harm Koro Sensei even if he was hit.

To demonstrate the effect of the bullet, Koro Sensei used one of the guns loaded with BB Gun pellets to shoot his arm off. Even though his arm was regenerated, it showed that these special bullets were developed to be effective against Koro Sensei but harmless to human.

In the past, there were reports of the moon mysteriously lost 70% of its mass, leaving a permanent crescent moon. The culprit behind this incident was later introduced to the students of class 3-E as their “new teacher” and “the one who blew up the moon”. No one dared to believe him.

Tadaomi Karasuma, a guard from the Ministry of Defense, informed class 3-E that they were assigned the mission to kill this creature. Karasuma explained that Koro Sensei had planned to destroy Earth next year, at March. He took out a blade and tried to stab Koro Sensei but he easily dodged every attack with incredible speed while hilariously trimming Karasuma’s eyebrows.

It was revealed that Koro Sensei could reach an inhuman speed of Mach 20. The government tried all possible options to dispose of Koro Sensei but failed.

Koro Sensei then negotiated with the government to let him become the homeroom teacher of class 3-E. Koro Sensei promised to never harm the students and even allowed them to try assassinating him at point blank. The reward for successful completion of this strange mission was 10 billion Yen.

Back to the present, Koro Sensei traveled to China to buy mapo tofu for lunch in mere minutes, while leisurely grading test papers.

During Koro Sensei’s absent, Ryoma Terasaka and his friends questioned Nagisa about the different face colors that Koro Sensei would show and their meanings. Nagisa was really perceptive as he tried to explained everything he has observed. However, Terasaka cut Nagisa off and asked Nagisa to be a part of his plan. “You will stab him when he’s got his most careless face on”, Terasaka said, then he gave Nagisa a small bag.

In fifth period, Koro Sensei asked the class to write a free-poem that would end with the word “tentacles”. Nagisa noticed that Koro Sensei’s face color has changed to light pink as he became sleepier and more relaxed after lunchtime. Nagisa pretended that he has finished the poem and came up to hand it in. A knife was hidden under the paper.

Nagisa swiftly took a swing at Koro Sensei but his hand was caught immediately. Thinking that his plan was over, Koro Sensei was just about to release Nagisa when Nagisa suddenly hugged him. With a calm smile, Nagisa revealed a grenade hanging around his neck that Terasaka then blew up with a remote control. The toy grenade was filled with special pellets and gun powder to shoot the pellets out at a super-fast speed.

Terasaka explained that he would pay off Nagisa’s medical bill with the reward money.

However, Nagisa was found unharmed and lying on the floor under a transparent membrane. Up on the roof, Koro Sensei said that he has shed his skin and used that to cover Nagisa. It was a secret defense skill that could only be used once a month.

By then, his face has turned pitch black. He was extremely angry.

Koro Sensei flied at max speed to collect all the nameplates from every student’s home and reminded them that he only promised not to harm the students. The next time they would use a method that sacrifice their bodies, everyone else was fair game.

Koro Sensei praised Nagisa for being able to move naturally until the moment that he closed in. Koro Sensei wanted his students to assassinate him with a method that would bring smile to their faces and that they could take pride in.

What will happen as Koro Sensei and the students of class 3-E engage in this exciting yet dangerous classroom?