Assassination Classroom

Assassination Classroom is just like its main character: formless and moving at lightning fast speeds.

“Studies and assassination go hand in hand, huh.”

Back in its heyday, Assassination Classroom was an absolutely monster hit. A kooky premise: in which a class of underachieving high schoolers must learn to become the world’s greatest assassins in order to kill their teacher (a giant smiling octopus creature), coupled with an absolutely killer main character design meant that the manga was sure to be big. And big it was. It didn’t take long for an anime to be in production, and with it came the inevitable feature film. And you know how I feel about anime adaptations on this site.

Assassination Classroom, the movie, follows the same premise as the manga and show. A giant yellow octopus thing without a name blows up the moon, and threatens to do the same to the Earth unless he is killed. However, he has immense superspeed and impervious to normal weapons, making this something of an impossible ask. To help, he offers to teach a class of kids how to kill him, and along the way bonds with his new students as he helps them grow and better assassins (and people in the process).

Korosensei – the nickname given to this monster – is easily the star of the show here. And that’s not because he’s so iconic. Don’t get me wrong, he is, and replacement voice actor Kazunari Ninomiya does a fantastic job it, but I think this is largely due to the fact that he’s one of the only really recognisable parts of the franchise in the film. No one else is particularly memorable, and certainly bear close to no resemblance to their drawn counterparts. Korosensei steals the show, by virtue of the fact that no one else was even given a chance to.

The film wants to cover a bunch of different arcs – ending at the beach hotel one at the end of the first season – and so races through tonnes of character introductions and important lore moments. It gives us the bare-bones narrative, akin to a YouTuber recapping the show to get us ready for the next season. Only Karma (Masaki Suda), the red-haired bad boy of the group, is like his manga counterpart, and that’s largely due to his kind of auburn hair and Suda’s performance.

I’ve said this before, but while I didn’t dislike it per se, I struggle to find who this is for. Fans of the show won’t appreciate their favourite arcs being glossed over in three minutes, and newbies won’t really get a chance to connect with any of it. It feels like a teaser trailer for a better, greater series – and in a way it is. Did you enjoy this little skit where an AI joins the class? Get the full story on Crunchyroll!

Visually, it’s fine. The CGI is mid, at best, but it’s tricky to create something like Korosensei in a realistic way without removing all of his charm. In a way, this was the right call, even if he doesn’t really look like he’s in any of the scenes he’s in. The filmmakers knew what the makers of  Sonic movie did not. But there’s a curious choice here, to make Korosensei as comic accurate as possible, and the children unrecognisably generic. I couldn’t tell you who any of the characters are, except the two who get named more than once.

In the end I’ve seen worse. The energy is good, and fits the show well. A bad anime adaptation can be saved, even a bit, by adding in fun and good times and Assassination Classroom has its fair share of them. It’s hard to really dislike it the way you can Fullmetal Alchemist or Attack on Titan. If you’re a fan of the show you might like it. There’s a sequel, too, so I wonder just how much of Korosensei’s backstory (and death) we’ll get – and if any of it will feel like it matters?

Verdict: Decidedly mid, but loaded with good energy, Assassination Classroom offers nothing new, but doesn’t really take away from the source either.

Overall entertainment: 5.5/10
Violence: Barely any actual assassination/10
Sex: 1/10
Ms Bitch: Barely in the movie, huh
Wigs: 1. Why have one weirdo wig, and not just give one to everyone?
Good gags: A few!

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Assassination Classroom (2015)
Also known as: 映画　暗殺教室
Japanese

Director: Eiichiro Hasumi
Writers: Yusei Matsui (manga), Tatsuya Kanazawa

CAST

Ryosuke Yamada – Nagisa
Kazunari Ninomiya – Korosensei
Masaki Suda – Karma
Kippei Shiina – Karasuma
Maika Yamamoto – Kayano
Kang Ji-young – Irina Jelavić
Seika Taketomi – Nakamura
Mio Yuki – Kanzaki
Miku Uehara – Manami Okuda
Kanna Hashimoto – Ritsu
Seishiro Kato –  Horibe
Mirei Kiritani – Yukimura
Wakana Aoi –Saito
Kotaro Yoshida – Ono
Takeo Nakahara – Onaga
Masanobu Takashima – Takaoka