By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 1 hour ago

You ever get weird looks from people when you tell them what kinds of music you like? Whenever someone asks me what I like to listen to, I tell them the truth: “sad girl music.” Sure, I may travel the country to attend rock and metal festivals, and I always have a great time. But at the end of the day, my real jam is the dulcet tones of ladies like Lana del Rey and Phoebe Bridgers. That’s because these gals have built a career on capturing the most elusive creative aesthetic of all: bittersweet melancholy. 

It’s especially difficult to find that kind of vibe in anime, a medium dominated by bright colors and over-the-top battles. But that vibe is alive and well in Assassination Classroom, an anime (now streaming on Netflix) that is filled with inspirational moments between colorful students and their completely unconventional teacher. Fittingly enough for a school anime, this show is filled with solid lessons that might just change how you view life. Where does the bittersweet melancholy come in, though? Simple: the teacher is a threat to the entire world, and he is training these students to save humanity by killing him!

Class Is In Session

The premise of Assassination Classroom is that after most of the moon blows up, a yellow, octopus-looking man shows up and claims responsibility. The governments of the world discover, to their horror, that this guy has so many superpowers that he is impossible to kill. The mystery man announces that he’ll destroy the entire planet in one year, but he also makes a very bizarre offer: he wants to teach his own class of middle school misfits. He plans on teaching them a standard curriculum, but with a twist. Day by day, he will teach these students how to kill him. If they can do so by the end of the school year, they can save all of humanity.

As you can tell, the wonderfully absurd premise is what draws most fans to Assassination Classroom. In both Western and Eastern media, there is no shortage of shows about teachers inspiring a group of quirky students. But this is the only one (to my knowledge, at least) where the teacher is actively training his students to kill him, making this feel like Dead Poets Society meets Die Hard. The plot also invites plenty of speculation about the teacher. Who and what is he? Where did his powers come from? What are his true intentions? It’s a powerful hook that really encourages binge-watching.

Voted “Most Likely To Kill Their Teacher”

While the students are interesting (more on this in a minute), the teacher affectionately dubbed “Koro-sensei” is the highlight of the entire show. In some way, he reminded me of Vash the Stampede from the original Trigun. Koro-Sensei spends most of his time onscreen cracking jokes, but he can turn deadly serious at the most unexpected times. This helps give the character a killer combo of charisma and mystery. Plus, he’s a weirdly good teacher, one who establishes an easy rapport with students while dispensing major life lessons. Honestly, if you’ve ever been nostalgic for your school days, it’s probably because you had a teacher like this (minus the tentacles and invulnerable skin, that is). 

Assassination Classroom also shines because Koro-Sensei has such a good class. Nagisa is particularly compelling as a student balancing his unconventional skills as an assassin with a chaotic and abusive home life. Karma, meanwhile, is a study in contrasts; an academic genius who keeps getting kicked out of school due to recklessly violent behavior. I was pleasantly surprised by how much the show focused on the students because I was afraid that Koro-Sensei would butt in and steal every scene. But like a good teacher, he knows when to help and when to let the students figure things out on their own, and watching the kids’ arcs play out is genuinely exciting.

School’s Out For Summer

Those students’ lives, as well as the mysterious background of their teacher, contribute to the salty/sweet tone of the show. Scenes can often go from slapstick humor to deeply emotional, which gives some of Assassination Classroom’s more tearjerking scenes the impact of a bullet. Speaking of tearjerking, this show has a finale that is guaranteed to bring the waterworks out in anyone with a functioning heart. That’s the real beauty of the series, honestly. You’ll learn some life-changing lessons and cry your heart out, often in the same episode, and all because of a weird octopus man that looks more like a horror villain than a teacher.

If you’re worried about the time investment (personally, I always get nervous when somebody recommends a show with a zillion seasons), you’ll be pleased to learn that Assassination Classroom is only two seasons. That’s plenty of time to introduce the characters, give everyone a fulfilling arc, and wrap things up before the show wears out its welcome. It’s the kind of anime you can easily finish in a week, and one that you can easily introduce to your wife and kids. Just think of it as Koro-Sensei’s final lesson: the family that slays together, stays together!

Fortunately, you don’t have to wait for the drop/add period to add yourself to Koro-Sensei’s roster of students. Assassination Classroom is currently streaming on Netflix, with the second, final season about to drop on the streaming platform. It’s an anime like you’ve never seen before, featuring a teacher like nothing you could imagine. Filled with hilarious moments, heart-wrenching truths, and some of the most charismatic misfits to ever grace the small screen, this is one inspiring anime that has earned its place at the top of the class. Or, at the very least, the top of your “to be watched” pile! 

ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM SCORE