Here we are the last episode of the season, where do we end? Well the end of the Island arc of course, we left off last episode with one really bad cliff hanger. With the antidote to the virus blown up and Nagisa ready to commit murder. You can see the murderous intent clear as day in his eyes. We’ve known for some time out of all of the students in the E-class Nagisa has probably the most blood lust of all of them.
Terasaka calls out to him and tells him not to kill him, not to become a murderer. He throws his stun gun to Nagisa and tells him to knock him out instead. Nagisa picks up the stun gun and puts it away in his belt. It honestly looks as if he’s intent on using the knife to actually kill this guy. The whole class is worried, even Koro-sensei who is normally so put together and can tell what’s going to happen is pretty worked up by all of this.
Going as far as too tell Karasuma to shoot if he thought that Nagisa was going to die.
The battle begins and Nagisa is kicking his ass handed to him. Then, just as everyone is worried about him dying and even Karma says he’s about to step in. We’re stopped and reminded that Nagisa had been learning something special. The one surefire instakill move. The move itself did not kill immediately but it set the stage for it.
I have to say, the use of flashbacks, slow motion and thoughts in this part of the episode did wonderfully to build the tension. I felt myself leaning closer to the computer as Nagisa dropped the knife and Takaoka’s eyes following the knife. Allowing him to get in a good shot with the stun gun. Then, putting the stun gun to his neck.
Can I just say, that this might of been the most unsure I’ve been in an anime fight in a long time. Normally, you relax during a fight because you’re always certain the main character is going to win. Well this wasn’t a case of winning or not winning, it was a case of becoming a murderer or not. Which is entirely different. I couldn’t be sure which direction this was going which was a nice change of pace.
I mean, considering it was this series I should of known he wouldn’t become a murderer but, well sometimes with anime you can never tell.
With the fight over, we know we’re still not out of danger. With only a few bottles of the antidote left, it’s not enough for everyone. Also, the three assassins that we’ve beaten previously suddenly show up with an ominous line like. “You won’t be needing an antidote.”
Which you know, implies that they’re not going to live long enough to need to bring an antidote back to the others. Well yeah, it’s supposed to sound that way but it’s real meaning is that nobody was in any real danger to begin with. The poison expert had given them a different virus then he’d been hired too, pretty much a souped up version of food poisoning.
A little medicine and rest and they’ll be good as new. So the three assassins are brought in for questioning and the last we see of them is them sitting around with 3DS’s playing Pokemon….at least, he mentioned a Max Potion so I assume it’s Pokemon.
The students return to their hotel, and there is a giant concrete thing filled with either water or anti-sensei stuff, Koro-sensei regens and it’s time for some fun in the sun! Or it would be if they didn’t have to leave the next morning, he must try to enjoy as much of his summer with his students as he can before time is up. Of course the episode ends with a very end of season monologue from Nagisa about this being their Assassination Classroom.
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ALRIGHT, it’s time for this seasons Final Thoughts on Assassination Classroom season 1. I thought this series was a lot of fun, while it had some pacing issues here and there it was still pretty solid. I can see why they wanted to end it on this arc, it’s such a heart pumping arc where you’re left guessing what could happen next. Perfect end of season material.
I still love Karma and Karasuma the best, but I’m very happy with the character development that Terasaka got in this season. I also really like this stuff with Nagisa, even Bitch-sensei has grown on me a lot since her first appearance. I kind of wish that this season had been able to cover when Itona joins the class, I’m not sure exactly when this happens or how far past the island arc it is though.
I haven’t read the manga for this show, so I can’t say much in comparing the two of them, but i’ve never really felt like they’ve left out important information.
The story has always felt coherent, so that’s good. The animation has been wonderful and totally fitting to the tone of the series. I love the openings, they’re fun and bouncy. As you would expect of the same company that made Carnival Phantasm.
I will be waiting on baited breathe for season 2 so I can continue to cover this series and find out more about Koro-sensei, how he was made, what his goals are. Who IS that girl in his backstory…Well those are all questions for season 2. Until then, I’ll be watching the simuldub from Funimation to fill the emptiness that comes from the ending of a fun story.
~Midnight
Berry’s Thoughts
What an exciting finale. I knew Nagisa wasn’t going to kill Takaoka, but at least hurt him. There’s no way he would become a murderer, though if the class wasn’t there to stop him, namely Terasaka, I think he really would have killed him. That’s a scary thought. But I’m glad Terasaka got what he deserved.
This series is definitely fun, but when it comes to how much I enjoyed it, I have to think about it. Not that I didn’t like it. I guess for me there was just a few problems I couldn’t get out of my head. Since you’re dealing with a whole classroom, which usually averages to about 20-30 students, then you have a really big cast. Then transfer students. Then the teachers. Then the students and teachers from the main campus. Then the enemies. That’s a lot of people. And of course with such a big cast, then that means other characters are going to be ignored or get little to no screentime. Because it’ll just be a mess if you try and include everyone in everything. Though some characters were given the shaft, or minimal screentime, we got really good character development with Nagisa, Karma, Irina, Terasaka, and others. But in some ways, all the students have grown as normal to students to not-pro-but-almost assassins. Also, Koro-sensei is just great.
Another problem I have with this show is…the plot. The kids gotta kill sensei before the next year or else everyone will die. They try really hard but it’s almost impossible to kill Koro-sensei. It makes me wonder if they’re ever gonna kill him. Also, they really like him. So won’t there be a lot of conflicting feelings killing him? JUST WHAT DIRECTION WILL THIS GO? They also have not talked about why Koro-sensei wants to kill everyone and who or what he actually is. I want answers, but we haven’t gotten any. There were also pacing issues and some episodes that were a little more boring than others. I just hope the second season next year will answer these questions.
Even though I have problems with this show, I still liked it and it’s fun. I’d give it a 7.5/10 (a 7 on MAL), and I hope the second season brings better things, like the Island Arc.
Note: They went to the beach and Karasuma never took off his shirt. We get Bitch-sensei boobs but we can’t even get Karasuma half naked? I see how it is.
Oh don’t worry, you’ll get shirtless Karasuma in season 2. And more actiony arcs like this last one and more information. This manga has a gradual build-up, starting from slow and speeding up more and more as it goes on, although even in the most intense situations it still keeps a small dose of comedy.
Though I must say, as intelligently executed and original as it was, I still felt that a slap being a secret weapon is underwheming.
Nothing else to say, I’m biased for this series so I could not do a proper mini-review here – I’ll just wait for season 2 and maybe some OVAs (I hope) for the few mini-arcs that did not make it in.