Assassination Classroom (Japanese: ????, Hepburn: Ansatsu Ky?shitsu) is a Japanese comic science fiction manga series written and illustrated by Y?sei Matsui. The series was serialized on Shueisha's Weekly Sh?nen Jump magazine from July 2012 to March 2016 and is licensed in English by Viz Media. The series follows the daily lives of an extremely powerful octopus-like teacher and his students dedicated to the task of assassinating him to prevent Earth from being destroyed. The students are considered "misfits" in their school and are taught in a separate building, the class he teaches is called E-3. The students call him 'KORO-SENSEI' which means unkillable teacher in Japanese. As of July 2016, twenty-one tank?bon volumes have been released in Japan with a circulation of 20 million copies.
A single original video animation adaptation by Brain's Base based on the series was screened at the Jump Super Anime Tour on October to November 2013. This was followed by an anime television adaptation by Lerche, which began airing on Fuji TV in January 2015. This adaptation has been licensed by Funimation for release in North America. The series was obtained by Madman Entertainment for digital distribution in Australia and New Zealand. A live action film adaptation was released on March 21, 2015, and a sequel, titled Assassination Classroom: Graduation, was released on March 25, 2016.
Video Assassination Classroom
Plot
Earth is threatened by an enormously powerful octopus-like monster who destroyed 70% of the Moon, permanently rendering it into the shape of a crescent. The monster claims that within a year he will destroy the Earth, but he offers mankind a chance to avert this fate. In class 3-E, the End Class of Kunugigaoka Junior High School, he starts working as a homeroom teacher where he teaches his students regular subjects, as well as the ways of assassination. The Japanese government promises a reward of ¥10 billion (i.e. 100 million USD) to whoever among the students succeeds in killing the monster, whom they have named "Koro-sensei" (?????, Korosens?, a pun on korosenai (????, unkillable) and sensei (??, teacher)). However, this proves to be an almost impossible task, as not only does he have several superpowers at his disposal, including the capacity of moving at Mach 20, but he is also the best teacher they've ever had, helping them to improve their grades, individual skills, and perspectives for the future.
As the series goes on, the entire situation gets even more complicated as other assassins come after Koro-sensei's life, some coveting the reward, others for personal reasons. The students eventually learn the secrets involving him, the Moon's destruction and his ties with their previous homeroom teacher, including the true reason why he must be killed before the end of the year term. The series is narrated by Nagisa Shiota, one of the pupils in the class whose main strategy in killing Koro-sensei is making a list of all his weaknesses. At first Nagisa appears to be one of the weaker members of Class 3-E, but he later emerges as one of the most skillful assassins in the class.
Maps Assassination Classroom
Media
Manga
The series began serialisation in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine on July 2, 2012. The first collected tank?bon volume was published on November 2, 2012. The initial print run for the first volume was 300,000, but after several reprints over 1 million copies were printed. Volume 20 was released on June 3, 2016. 10 million copies are in circulation. A VOMIC (voiced comic) version, which added voice clips to the manga pages, was featured on the Sakiyomi Jan Bang! variety show between January and June 2013. The series has been licensed in English by Viz Media, who began releasing the series in physical and digital editions from December 2014. The series ended on March 16, 2016 with 180 chapters.
A spin-off manga, titled Koro Sensei Quest, is being written and illustrated by Kizuku Watanabe and J? Aoto, and began serialization in Shueisha's Saiky? Jump magazine on October 2, 2015.
Anime
An original video animation based on the series was produced by Brain's Base for the Jump Super Anime Tour and shown at 5 Japanese cities between October 6 and November 24, 2013. An anime television series based on the manga began airing on Fuji TV from January 9, 2015 and ran for 22 episodes. The anime television was directed by Seiji Kishi at Lerche, with Kazuki Morita as character designer and Makoto Uezu as the lead scriptwriter. An OVA episode was included on the first BD/DVD volume released on March 27, 2015, following a screening at Jump Special Anime Fest in November 2014. The anime has been licensed by Funimation, who are simulcasting the series as it airs and began a broadcast dub version from February 18, 2015. The first opening theme is "Seishun Satsubatsu-ron" (???????, lit. The Theory of Savage Youth) while the second opening theme is "Jiriki Hongan Revolution" (????????????, lit. Self-reliance Revolution); both are performed by 3-E Utatan. The ending theme is "Hello, shooting star" by Moumoon. The second season of the anime began airing on January 7, 2016, and ran for 25 episodes. Anime Limited has licensed both seasons in the UK. On June 30, 2016, they announced two anime films, one titled Assassination Classroom the Movie: 365 Days, the other one Koro Sensei Quest and both aired on November 19, 2016. When Koro Sensei Quest aired they announced an anime adaption which will be the sequel of the movie, and more details will be revealed soon.
In the Philippines, a locally dubbed version started airing on March 12, 2018 in GMA Network with an alternate title, "Invincible Teacher"
Film
A live-action film was released in Japan on March 21, 2015. It opened at number one on the Japanese box office with $3.42 million and as of April 5, 2015, has grossed over $20 million. It was the tenth highest-grossing Japanese film at the Japanese box office in 2015, with ¥2.77 billion (US$23 million). A second film, titled Assassination Classroom: Sotsugy?-hen, was released on March 25, 2016. In English, the title of the sequel is Assassination Classroom: Graduation.
Video games
A video game based on the series, Assassination Classroom: Koro-sensei's Great Besiegement!! (???? ?????????!!, Ansatsu Ky?shitsu: Koro-sensei Dai H?im?), was developed by Bandai Namco Games and released on Nintendo 3DS in Japan on March 12, 2015.
Koro-sensei appears as a playable character in J-Stars Victory VS, originally released in Japan for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita on March 19, 2014, with an international version, J-Stars Victory VS+, released for PS3, PS Vita, and PlayStation 4 in Summer 2015.
Reception
Over one million copies of volume 1 have been printed, and individual volumes frequently appeared on the lists of best-selling manga in Japan. Volumes 2, 3, 4, 1, 5, and 6 placed 26th, 32nd, 36th, 37th, 41st, and 50th respectively on the list of the best-selling manga volumes of 2013, making it the seventh best-selling manga series in Japan of 2013 with 4.5 million copies sold. It was ranked second in Zenkoku Shotenin ga Eranda Osusume Comic 2013, a 2013 ranking of the top 15 manga recommended by Japanese bookstores. It was nominated for the 6th Manga Taish?. It placed second in male-oriented comics category on the list of "Book of the Year" by Media Factory and manga news magazine Da Vinci. Nippon Shuppan Hanbai elected it the best work of 2013 in their "Recommended Comic Books Across the Country Clerk's Choice". It was number one on the 2014 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! Top 20 Manga for Male Readers survey by Takarajimasha.
In February 2015, Asahi Shimbun announced that Assassination Classroom was one of nine nominees for the nineteenth annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.
References
External links
- Official anime website (in Japanese)
- Assassination Classroom (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
Source of the article : Wikipedia