Ansatsu Kyoushitsu

Tucked in the mountains near the elite Kunugigaoka Middle School lies a small derelict building that houses the delinquents and dropouts of Class 3-E. Looked down upon by their peers, the students in this class appear to have little hope in advancing their academic careers. That is, until the national government tasks them with eliminating the greatest threat to their planet: their new teacher.

Having already destroyed the moon, the octopus-like professor—dubbed "Koro-sensei"—has now threatened to destroy the Earth by March of the following year. In light of their mission, the students have found that killing him is easier said than done. Not only can Koro-sensei move at speeds of up to Mach 20, but he can also resist almost every earthly weapon. Ironically, he also proves to be one of the best teachers Class 3-E has ever had. Training the class to excel in both their studies as students and skills as assassins, Koro-sensei is confident that his students' ingenuity and indomitable will could return them to the main campus.

Through trial and error, Nagisa Shiota, as well as the other students of Class 3-E, must figure out Koro-sensei's weaknesses—and fast, for the very fate of the world depends upon it.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Koro-sensei Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Akabane, Karma Main

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Shiota, Nagisa Main

Fuchigami, Mai Japanese

Kayano, Kaede Supporting

Suzaki, Aya Japanese

Karasuma, Tadaomi Supporting

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Jelavić, Irina Supporting

Itou, Shizuka Japanese

Asano, Gakushuu Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Nakamura, Rio Supporting

Numakura, Manami Japanese

Horibe, Itona Supporting

Ogata, Megumi Japanese

Hayasaka, Ritsu Supporting

Fujita, Saki Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Higa, Yuuji Producer

Ozaki, Noriko Producer

Kishi, Seiji Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Apr 5, 2025

50Fiftillididee

Recommended

😁 Killer Class: That one teacher who changed everything °9° °Warm & Fuzzy°

Here's a story (that could only be pharmaceutically inspired), about a class that has been charged to assassinate their teacher, but when the school day is done, they'll pummel the chalk out of the erasers for him.

If they don't "off" him, he'll destroy the world before the school year is out. But in the meantime, he's an /excellent/ teacher. Simply world-class. In fact, they bring in a gorgeous female assassin as an English teacher, but when she keeps calling study hall instead of actually teaching them, the kids revolt and try to ... kick her out. Old tentacles never stops teaching. He can turn a poisoning attempt into a class on the effectiveness and importance of communication. "With assassination, as in life, communication is the key," you see.

AC is a 2013 release that is rated 8.08 on MAL. It is 2 seasons consisting of 49 23-minute English dubbed episodes with CC available. There is 1 offshoot production: Ansatsu Kyoushitsu: Deai no Jikan.

One year to save the world. All they have to do is kill their teacher. Kill their teacher or kiss the world goodbye. Simple? No. At mach-20 he can dodge bullets while he's taking roll call. The military couldn't kill him - and they have fighter jets and nukes. He's teaching because he demanded the opportunity, and they need to placate him until they can figure out how to gank him. So he's assigned the worst class at one of the best schools. They have a remote classroom up on a hill in the woods. The principal treats them like lepers, so the rest of the students do, too. Of course, this is top secret, and none of the other teachers and students know what's going on in class 3E. Others may think it's the @$$ class but it's the /assassination/ class. Given what the rest of the school is, this sets up several battles of the Assassins vs A$$@$$es, led by Asano Gakushuu is the principal's son - a real @$$ & poison pill. The Japanese word for unkillable is "Korosenai", so they call their teacher Koro-sensei.

"That was a very clever attempt, but I'll have to make a rule: No more shooting during class. Midterms are around the corner and if you are shooting at me all the time you'll never learn anything. This is a classroom, afterall...' that's a paraphrase, but I'm sure you get the picture. How's a class of Jr high 3rd-years supposed to get the job done? The prize money is billions... The motivation is there... They just need to think outside the box.

It's certainly heartwarming to see how much he cares about the kids and how much effort he puts into their lessons. They come to appreciate him, too. Teach was so excited about the school trip to Kyoto! He put together a Field Guide: A book (complete with a first edition souvenir 3D puzzle of a Shinto Temple) that's 1300 pages! Don't you know, every single page of that guidebook turned out to be useful! I feel like another word would be a spoiler so I'm going to stop there.

AC is FUNNY. Sonny Strait is amazing as the English voice of Koro-sensei. (For live-action, I'm team-subtitles, for anime, I'm team-Dub. The English voice actors are excellent). In order to razz and punish people, this octo-teacher will groom them. At mach 20, he does it so fast they are powerless to stop it. For some reason he likes grooming eyebrows. Perfectly. He does nails and hair, too. He's been known to catch a Yankees game for lunch, or to fly over to Hawaii for the evening. His exuberance is delightful.

The animation is hilarious. Koro-sensei gets most of the laughs. While his usual look is demented-smiley-face, he can change color at will, just like octopi. Here's a sample of the Koro-sensei Face Color Key:

Purple ~ wrong answer;
Bright red ~ right answer;
Green stripes ~ feeling cocky;
Pink face ~ resting;
Blazing eyes ~ anger;
Pitch black ~ pissed

People are drawn with classically simple features, more fantastical and less realistic and a tad of hyper-fantasy. Backgrounds are minimized, stylized, and enhanced realism. All of the art reinforces a light-hearted tone. Koro-sensei has seen plenty of tragedy, but he remains quite upbeat. There's something to be said for happy people. If we can't be happy, what's the point?

Much of the music is forgettable, but some is good, like Kaketa Tsuki by Shion Miyawaki. There's strong character development. The primary protag is the blue-haired Shiota Nagisa. He's earnest. Intuitive. Decent. Fair minded. Caring. Brave. And as it turns out, LETHAL. Jelavic Irina is the femme fatale professional assassin brought on to train the kids, "teach English" and to aid in their mission. She was never the sentimental type. The kids quickly pick up on her psychology and start calling her "Professor B!+ch," to her agitation. Being around the kids exposes her to a childhood she never had. She comes out a better person. Karasuma Tadaomi is the dour, dutiful, and deadly government agent assigned to monitor the class. He won't remain unaffected, either.

Akabane Karma was well on his way to being a criminal mastermind. He is one of the smartest kids in the school but he dropped out - in every way but physically. Koro-sensei coaxes and cajoles him back into civilization. Kayano Kaede is a mild mannered student who ends up full of surprises. Terasaka Ryouma with his 2-toned brown and white hair is sincere, simple, and a total meathead. Nakamura Rio has exceptional abilities but hated standing out in Middle school. She's been holding back which landed her in class 3E. Her time there has made her want to shine again. Even Ritau, the AI student they brought in gets a makeover. In fact, the whole class is inspired to shine. Koro-sensei may have destroyed the moon, but he's actually more like the sun, and each of these students are little moons reflecting his brightness. In that way, AC touches on messianic themes.

Other themes: Self-respect (You must believe yourself worthy of your target). Dignity. (Take pride in what you do). Teamwork. (If we all work together, we can get the job done). And mostly, DUTY; The Necessary Must be Done. There's a lot we can learn from Koro-sensei.

QUOTES🗣

His bloodlust fills a hole in my heart.

The key to Victory is learning to not take the game so seriously.

The difference between the novice and the master is that the master has failed more times than the novice has tried.

Nothing hones like bloodlust.

What scares me most of all is not being afraid.

Maybe growing up is knowing whom to imitate and whom to ignore.

〰🖍 IMHO

📣9 📝9 🎭8.8 💓7 🦋4 🎨8 🎵/🔊6.8 🔚9 🤗10 ▪ 🌞8⚡8.4 😅5.5 😭4.5 😱4.5 😯3 🤢4 🤔6.8 💤0

Age 13+ Language: b!+ch, b@$+@rd,

Violence and scares: Sure, they want to assassinate their teacher. But it's out of love. And duty. That isn't for little kids, though.

Sexual content: It's a bit of a b👀by brothers production, and Koro-sensei is a bit of a lech. Teach happens to be a dirty perv at times. It is never directed at a student. He's more into 2D voyeurism. It's funny.

There's so much good stuff out there for tweens. Show them Trollhunters, The Dragon Prince, The Last Airbender, and any of the Studio Ghibli offerings. Sean the Sheep is a belly-laugh-work-of-art-hoot, Paulie, My Dog Skip, original looney Tunes, One Piece...

Rated TV-14: Parents Strongly Cautioned.

Re-📺? Did & will again

My current anime favs:
FullMetal Alchemist-10,
Hunter × Hunter-10,
Jujutsu Kaisen-9.5,
The Last Airbender-10,
Vinland Saga-10,
Assassination Classroom-9,
Attack On Titan-8.9,
Parasite the Maxim-8.9,
Tokyo Ghoul-8.5,
Trollhunters-9.5,
Maid Sama-10,
Toradora-8.5,
Violet Evergarden-9.5,
Your Lie In April-9,
Made in Abyss-9,
Death Note-8.8,
Demon Slayer9.3 - starts slow... so what? Once the train gets rolling it's unstoppable

You may also like:

Akame ga Kill! 8.6,
Akiba Maid War 7.5,
Beyond the Boundary 7.8,
Chaika The Coffin Princess 8.4,
The Eminence in Shadow 8.8,
Reincarnated as a Sword 8,
Gate 7.9,
Girls Und Panzer 8,
Hakkenden 7.7,
Land Of The Lustrous 8.1,
Legend of Exorcism 8.8,
Love Chunibyo And Other Delusions 8.4,
No Game No Life Zero 8.8,
Princess Principal 8.6,
Princess Resurrection 7.6

I didn't differentiate between season 1 and season 2 when I wrote this review so it is for the entire 47 episodes.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Apr 15, 2025

uchu_no_otaku

Mixed Feelings

Not gonna lie, I went into Assassination Classroom kind of unsure what to expect—like, the whole “kill your alien teacher” thing sounded wild on paper. But surprisingly, it actually has a nice flow to the story. There’s a clear structure to how the class and Koro-sensei evolve, and I found myself appreciating that slow but steady character growth.

The animation was alright. Nothing bad, just nothing that particularly wowed me. It gets the job done, and I respect that—it never looked cheap or rushed, which is always a plus.

That said, I can’t help but feel like I’ve seen a lot of these beats before. The underdog ... class, the quirky teacher with hidden depth, emotional flashbacks sprinkled in—it’s all solid stuff, but it kind of gave me déjà vu. Like, it has heart, sure, but it still leans heavily into familiar anime territory.

Still, for what it is, I had a good time with it. Didn’t feel like wasted time, just not something I’d call unforgettable either.

Worth checking out if you like the genre, but it didn’t really break the mold for me personally.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 13, 2025

joemaamah

Not Recommended

This started out good, but ended up totally ass². Certainly an ass-ass-ination. Huge differences in quality for the first and second cours.

I wasn't ever a big fan of the artwork, below average but not horrible. The character art remained steady but there was a great drop off in background and especially animation work in the 2nd half. The last 4 eps were tough to stomach. It got so bad with the scrolling across still shots.

The character designs are kind of a mixed bag. Koro Sensei was pretty cool, and showed a little bit of depth. But the rest of the cast is ... very 2 dimensional. If you are looking for character development, you won't find much here. It's a shame, as it seems some of the characters could have been far more interesting. Especially drab was Nagisa. The little androgynous one was about as interesting as a wet dishrag.

The narative was also a mixed bag. The first cour was interesting, and moved along at a good pace. Not so the 2nd cour. It endlessly recycled material from the first cour. It got very sloggy after a couple episodes. They seemed to run out of ideas. So let's trot out the middle school tropes! They stretched out the conclusion over 4 episodes, when it would have been better done in two. The ending was so contrived and cliche, I almost bailed out a couple times over the last two eps. The writing ended up klling the series.

At first I liked this, and would have graded the first cour in the B+/A- range. But the writers and direction were deadly. It was like a knife ro the heart. Final grade for this would be no better than a D+ at 68/100. These producers need some schooling on basic consistency.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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