Assassination Classroom – Episode 1 [First impressions]

Dear readers, if you are reading this I’m probably already dead. I’ve watched episode 1 twice now, if I have died from laughing too much. I leave everything I own to the other members of the blog. Before I go, I should write what this show was about and what I thought of it. Assassination Classroom is a manga that runs in Weekly Shonen Jump. The premise? These kids have one year to kill their Inhuman teacher before the end of the school year or else the world will be blown up. The problem? He’s the best teacher they’ve ever had.

Basically, we get the idea of this plot through episode 1. The opening part of the episode contributed to my death where at 1 minute and 39 seconds. At morning roll call, they all pull out guns and start shooting at him. He just casually takes attendance while dodging bullets, HE JUST, STANDS THERE AND TELLS THEM TO SPEAK UP SO HE CAN HEAR THEM OVER THE GUNFIRE.

I can’t tell what the funniest part of this series is. It’s a comedy, while taking itself seriously. There is a sense of urgency here, the world is going to be destroyed if these kids don’t kill this thing by the end of the school year. It’s already blown up 70% of the moon.

It’s not a constant comedy either, these are deep characters with worries and troubles of their own. Class 3-E is the class of ‘problem children’ who weren’t good enough for the main prep school. I’m sure they are all quirky in their own ways and have things funny about them but at least in the first episode they play these characters stories rather seriously.

Nagisa, who’s quirk I’d guess is how he seems to be the best potential assassin due to his hidden blood lust despite looking like a cute little shouta boy seems to be one of the main character focuses of the series and it does a good job of portraying how he feels about how the world has treated him and how their new inhuman-sensei views him.

I call him inhuman because he’s not an alien and got rather offended when the class refers to him as such. He was born and raised on earth and he wants you to know it. However, he has no qualms about blowing it up. It seems like he has quiet the back story as well, we see him at what looks like a blown up lab being told by a dying scientist to go teach these kids and that he’d make a good sensei.

From episode one, this show looks like it’ll be a good balance of comedy and plot. The comedy mostly comes from the things that…I’m just going to call him “Koro-sensei” since that’s the name that the students give him at the end of the episode. The series comedy at it’s core comes from the things that Koro-sensei does while people try to assassinate him.
In the flashback, he grooms the military guys eyebrows as he shoots at him. He waxes military fighter jets as they try to kill him. He brings a missile back as a souvenir from lunch because they tried to kill him on his way to China to pick up some Mapo Tofu. The way he avoids the GENIUS assassination attempt at the end of the episode is something I won’t even say here because it needs to be seen.

The best part of this show is everything fits, from the upbeat opening to the change between dark and light animation depending on the situation. Nothing feels out of place or forced and it’s a rather enjoyable watch. I’m sure this will be a highlight of the season.

Possibility of watching: Gaurenteed
Possibility of blogging: Moderate

While I enjoyed it enough to watch it twice and I might even go watch it again if I manage to revive myself from death….wait, I didn’t die in a pair. I can’t go see Decim and his sexy eyes in Death Parade…. -revives self- Forget that giving things to everyone. I’m good now. However, the only thing holding me back from blogging it is I’m already covering a comedy this season and while I think this will have enough plot that each review will have something to talk about….I’ll think it over and if nobody else really wants it. I’ll blog for it.

Assassination Classroom, it’s a deadly good time.

~Midnight 

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Savage’s thoughts

Overall, I agree with Midnight wholeheartedly. The show has a nice balance of silly and dark, but what I love about it is how utterly and completely unique it is. There’s never been a show or story quite like this before and its handled expertly. The class looks distinct, as no doubt their personalities will be focused on in turn, but the real draw is Koro sensei. Despite knowing little of his past or his motivation in destroying the earth, we do know quite a bit about him. We see him move, we see how his face changes to show different expressions, his abilities and some of his personality trait. He’s oddly enough like a reverse Monokuma, he’s sinister but also genuinely helpful. The fact he’s a danger isn’t played for laughs, they take it all seriously as can be. He’s devilishly charming and great.

The animation is fantastic, and really helps bring the comedy home in parts. Seeing him dodge the bullets and speed through the air, it is an utter treat.

Possibility of watching: Absolutely.

Possiblity of Blogging: Definitely.

The trap in blogging about comedy is that it is both highly subjective (senses of humor can WIIIDELY vary) and its difficult to discuss (the only way to talk about it is to say the joke, which is hardly as funny as seeing it yourself). However, just as there is comedy, there’s also darkness, complexity, and, yes, uniqueness. There’s so much interesting in this story that I want to find out; and heck I want to see how many more ways they try to kill him. This anime was well worth the wait and I feel will continue to bring laughs and surprises week after week.