Now here is an anime that I didn’t know would affect me as much as it actually did. You ever watch a show that states out the outset the premise of the show… and when that happens you’re still heartbroken even though you knew it was coming. Yeah that was me. By the end, I was a big ball of tears. I will say that the premise of the show is a bit much to take in.

Earth is left in jeopardy after an immensely powerful tentacled organism suddenly appears and destroys 70% of the Moon, leaving it permanently in the shape of a crescent. The organism claims that within a year he will destroy the planet next, but 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. US$100 million) to whoever among the students succeeds in killing the organism, whom they have named “Koro-sensei” a pun on korosenai meaning unkillable and sensei meaning teacher. However, this proves to be a highly unachievable task, as not only does he have several superpowers at his disposal, including accelerated regeneration, visual cloning, an invincible form, and the ability to move and fly at Mach 20, but he is also the best teacher they could ask for, helping them to improve their grades, individual skills, and prospects for the future.

For me, I was okay with the class killing the teacher. I mean he blew up the moon… He is going to blow up the planet. And let’s face it… it wasn’t like the school was really giving the kids an education or even invested in what how they turned out. They were thrown to the wind why not let them waste time on saving the planet right? But my problem with that theory is THEY ARE ATTEMPTING TO SAVE THE PLANET and they are really given no support… Like what kind of nonsense is this????????????? What I didn’t count on was the relationship that was formed between Korosensei and the students and the DRAMATIC character development. I was unprepared. But let’s jump into it. Here is a compilation of my favorite episodes/moments.

So let’s jump into some of my favorite moments/episodes.

1. Assassination Time – The first episode of the series. We are introduced to the story. It was such a shock to see the teacher attempting to take roll and then being attacked. I mean he did blow up the moon and then say he would do the same to the planet. Nagisa calls it and everyone stands ready with their firearms and begin to fire when he yells “Bow!”. The teacher dodges the bullets and begins taking roll. The students gets discouraged that the teacher is a super creature who can turn the moon into a crescent and has a max speed of Mach 20. If he gets away, Earth will be left helpless, awaiting its destruction. The creature states that just destroying the Earth isn’t fun. So, he made a deal with the government: no killing him, and instead, he’ll teach Kunugigaoka’s Class 3-E. They (Korosensei and the government) agree on the condition that he doesn’t harm any of the students and that there were two reasons. First, if the creature comes to the classroom every day, the government can monitor and know his location most days. The second was that it gives thirty people the means and incentive to kill him from an extremely close range. At one point, Nakamura tries to shoot Korosensei. He scolds her and tells her to not let assassination interfere with her studies. (BLEW MY MIND.)  Nagisa notes that the super octopoid teacher and their assassination target was, for some reason, a really good teacher. They were normal students apart from being impromptu killers.
   
   
   
   
2. Baseball Time – Sugino is a member of Class E who uses baseball in his assassination attempts. However, he failed and has lost confidence in himself, causing Nagisa to worry. Korosensei offers advice to Sugino in his time of insecurity. I will say Sugino’s attempt is pretty awesome.  Korosensei is reading a newspaper from Hawaii about the moon. He notes that that has been all anyone has talked about. (I mean… yeah man.) Behind a bush, Sugino and Shiota have prepared an assassination attempt, with Sugino using Nagisa’s notes and then throwing a baseball imprinted with anti-sensei BBs at Korosensei’s head. However, though Korosensei notes its creativeness and stealth, it gives him enough time to go to the sports shed and catch it with a glove. He warns them that graduation will be here before they know it and tells them to go to class. As he leaves, Sugino lowers his head in humiliation. Korosensei and Sugino have a talk the next day where it is revealed that student in 3-E are not allowed to play sports  and when used to be on the team, he never struck anyone out. Korosensei wants to offer Sugino some advice. Korosensei completely wraps Sugino in tentacles. Korosensei is testing out Sugino’s physique. He realizes that Sugino is attempting to replicate the New York Yankees’ pitcher style, but says that because his shoulders are not as strong, that is impossible.
   
   
3. Karma’s Time – Karma is introduced here and I have to say he is a favorite character of mine. Karma Akabane has returned to Class E after his suspension. Upon returning, he manages to injure Korosensei, which hasn’t been done before. He is a BADASS. He inflicts some damage to Korosensei by giving a handshake with knife shards cleverly taped to his hand. While the students later take a quiz, Karma steals Korosensei’s special gelato to get his attention, shooting him with an unloaded gun to catch him off guard. The episode then becomes a game of cat and mouse between Karma and Korosensei. After hearing from Nagisa that Korosensei worships the octopus, Karma leaves a dead octopus on Korosensei’s desk. However, Korosensei cooks it into takoyaki to ridicule Karma. Throughout the day, Korosensei manages to anticipate every prank Karma tries to pull. Karma devises a plan to call into question Korosensei teaching integrity. Karma jumps off a cliff with a gun in hand, which would determine if Korosensei would risk his life for a student. However, Korosensei manages to save Karma uses his tentacles like a giant spiderweb, leading Karma to accept Korosensei as a teacher.
   
   
4. School Trip Time (1 and 2) – It’s finally time for the long-awaited school trip to Kyoto. Can a bunch of assassins go to Kyoto? Also I would like to point out their teacher is the WORST at disguises… He needs someone to help him teach that. Class E has planned an assassination for this trip. But, amid preparation and inspections, Kayano and Kanzaki are kidnapped by high school students from another school. Poor guys have no clue who they are dealing with. Nagisa, Karma, Sugino and Manami manage to use an extensive guidebook written by Korosensei, which provides a thorough procedure for hostage situations, to deduce where Kaede and Yukiko are being held. (Guy, the book is huge and he wrote one for EVERYONE in the class.) Nagisa and the others knock out the delinquents with their guidebooks.
   
   
   
   The second part of episode shows that the students get help with the assassination by recruiting a sniper. While the other groups are accompanying Korosensei on a tour of Kyoto, a sniper known as Red Eye is tasked with assassinating him at various spots. However, each of his attempts to shoot him are thwarted by improbable means, and his mission is called off when Nagisa’s group gets into trouble with the high school male delinquents.  Later that evening, Red Eye is approached by Koro-sensei himself, who treats Red Eye to a meal, thanking him for making the field trip a valuable learning experience for his students due to his assassination efforts. Red Eye, understanding Koro-sensei’s morals as a teacher, decides to quit his job in order to explore the world.
5. Ball Game Tournament Time –  The guys in Class E are training extra hard to beat the baseball club since it is now baseball tournament time at Kunugigaoka. When the announcement of a ball game tournament comes in, the boys of Class E is put into an exhibition match with the baseball club. Sugino expresses his desire to win despite the odds being heavily against them. Korosensei pitches in as their coach to train them extra hard. Seeing that Shindo is the star player mainly due to his fastballs, Korosensei plans Class E to bunt the ball. At the game, the first innings goes well, Class E’s bunting strategy catches Shindo, the rest of the players and their coach off guard and easily score three runs. Before the club’s turn to bat, Chairman Asano steps in. He intimidates the current coach to admitting he is “sick” and replaces the stunned coach with himself. Although Sugino prevents the club from scoring any runs to complete the first innings, the Chairman’s words about needing to trample others to get ahead completely turns the club players around from their stunned selves. All the club players are now defending inside the field, marking the downfall of Class E’s bunting strategy. While technically legal, it would be considered unfair though the umpire (being one of the main campus teachers) is on the club’s side. With Korosensei unable to come up with a counter-strategy, Shindo gets all three batters out in succession. Sugino manages to prevent the club from scoring any runs. I love baseball and a good underdog story to which this is both. Karma’s trash-talking and Shindo’s unwillingness to injure them in the swing leads Shindo to miss Sugino’s pitches and cause the club to lose. Thus E Class wins the game. The audience leaves in disgust that a professional team could lose to a bunch of nobodies. However, Nagisa notes that they did not realise the behind the scenes battle between the two coaches. Korosensei claims this victory against the Chairman and leaves it to the final exams as the decisive round. At the same time, Sugino reconciles his friendship with Shindo.
   
   
   
6. Nagisa Time – Immediately after their summer assassination attempt on Korosensei, a new enemy has appeared. With only 24 hours to save their classmates, the 15 unaffected students must infiltrate the hotel and take that antivirus. As the group of Class E students continue to the top floor, they continue to run into assassin after assassin. Takaoka is finally revealed, and Nagisa must face the monstrosity that is him. Takaoka first appeared as a new P.E. teacher for Class 3-E sent by Ministry of Defense as they were impatient of killing Koro-sensei. Once he appears, he greets the students and gives them food, drinks, and sweets as a sign of greeting them. He tells Class 3-E that he’ll be taking over the P.E. class from now on and self-proclaims himself to be their ‘father’. Sure enough, he begins to give Class 3-E a hell schedule with no time to study. He knees Maehara and slaps Kanzaki when they object to his training and forces Karasuma and Koro-sensei to see his hellish method of training. So needless to say this guy was a jerk and I couldn’t have cared less if he was eaten by Piranha. Nagisa’s rage prompts him to pick up the knife and state that he will kill Takaoka. The class worries that Nagisa may have lost control and may actually do it, until Terasaka throws his stun rod at Nagisa and snaps the latter out of his bloodlust. Terasaka implores him to not waste his chance at killing Korosensei by getting himself arrested for murder before collapsing from the poison. Heeding Terasaka’s words, Nagisa obeys and takes off his jacket, ready to knife. He also picks up the stun rod but then tucks it away. The boy and Takaoka then begin the rematch. Still, but the former soldier’s high alertness and combat skills do not allow Nagisa to find an opening to attack, and is promptly getting beaten up. Korosensei advises Karasuma to intervene should things turn sour for Nagisa. However, Terasaka states that he won’t need to, saying that Nagisa still has a trick left up his sleeve. Takaoka sees the badly beaten Nagisa and gloats that he will use the boy as a trophy for his sadistic pleasures. Like before, Nagisa slowly walks up to Takaoka with the knife in one hand. The boy makes the soldier focus his attention only on the blade. Nagisa then lets the knife drop, which distracts Takaoka and fakes him out with a sudden loud clap. At this, Takaoka is momentarily stunned, allowing Nagisa to close the gap and use the stun rod to electrocute Takaoka into submission. As his opponent wonders what had happened, Nagisa decides to thank Takaoka for everything he had taught the class despite his sadistic nature and gives him a bloodlust-filled smile to cap it off before stunning him again. We have another badass on our hands…. Nagisa used to be a shy, hopeless boy in the beginning.
   
   
7. Reaper Time (1 & 2) – When Irina is kidnapped and held hostage by the legendary assassin known as the Reaper, Class 3-E attempts to rescue her without the help of Korosensei and Karasuma. But the Reaper’s skills may be far too outmatched for the students to handle. This two parter starts with Class 3-E trying to pair up their teachers, Irina (Professor Bitch) and Karasuma. Nagisa’s group returns to the mountain classroom and convinces Karasuma to take the flowers to present to Irina. Initially speechless, Irina thanks him. Karasuma then states that it will be the only time to mark such an occasion as either the world ends or the mission is successful. At this, Irina realises she has been set up, walks over to the window and finds the class eavesdropping underneath (and a spying Korosensei from above). She hopes that the class had fun stringing a professional assassin along as she realises that their relationship is strictly a business one. She rejects the flowers and storms out of the classroom. Three days have passed, and Irina had not been seen since her storming out. The students worry about her wellbeing and unable to contact her as Korosensei leaves for a soccer match in Brazil. The man introduces himself as the Reaper and tells Ritsu to open the image he had just sent to the AI. The image reveals Irina tied up and gagged. The assassin demands that the entire class go to the location. He will specify without any word to their teachers, or else he will send each of them a piece of Irina and take one of them, hostage, in her place. In the second part of the episode, Korosensei and Karasuma arrive to rescue the captured students. When the Reaper reveals that his assassination plan will also kill Class 3-E as collateral, Karasuma is forced to decide whether to sacrifice the students for the sake of the mission or lose the best chance of finally assassinating Korosensei. Karasuma punches the Reaper in the face, having decided the safety of the students takes top priority over the mission.  Karasuma ambushes the Reaper from behind and brings him down through the large hole to a spot where Korosensei and the imprisoned students could see from a distance. Both getting up, the Reaper reveals himself to have no face (as having the same face diminishes his disguise skills) and will take pleasure in taking Karasuma’s. The two men start a brutal brawl. He then points his finger at Karasuma’s chest (with a hidden .10 calibre pistol) and fires it straight into his heart. Blood spurts out as Karasuma collapses to his knees. The assassin moves closer but upon closer inspection sees one of Korosensei’s tentacles covering Karasuma’s heart spurting tomato juice. Karasuma takes advantage of his opponent’s lapse of concentration and hooks him in the groin. The assassin staggers and tries to plea with Karasuma though the latter knocks him out with another punch. Korosensei and the students are now freed.
    
8. School Festival Time – Kunigigaoka Academy is hosting a school festival that is famous nationwide over two days. In preparation for the upcoming Kunigigaoka school festival, Gakushu Asano successfully negotiates with a major restaurant establishment to sponsor their store. Meanwhile, in Class 3-E, the students discuss how to operate their stall, given their financial and geographic disadvantages. Korosensei suggests using the mountain’s ecosystem to gather natural ingredients, to be used to create acorn noodles. On the first day of the festival, Toka Yada advertises her class’s menu at the main campus grounds. This grabs the attention of the same delinquent students that kidnapped Kayano and Kanzaki during the Kyoto school trip, who were looking to unfairly discredit the class’s food. Sugino and Karma recognise the group but otherwise cannot force them to leave due to the class badly needing sales. The leader orders a bowl of acorn noodles intending to spit them out but cannot help but find it tasty. His friends immediately forget their plan due to their greed. However, they also state that at this rate, they will never catch up to Asano. Who happens to be attracting enormous crowds to his cafe complete with live entertainment from famous song artists. On the second day, the students find a huge crowd and news crews lining up at the classroom. Yuji Norita posts an online review. Norita is a famous food critic due to him eating rich cuisines, thanks to his wealthy father. Yuji had taken Nagisa’s words to heart and had given a glowing review of the acorn noodles the class had made. The review immediately has the class working into overdrive, and the profits were raking in fast enough to catch up to Asano’s cafe. The unexpected turnaround, however, meant that demand has outstripped their supply of acorn noodles and they were later running out. While the students consider going deeper into the mountain as a chance to beat Class A, Korosensei decides to stop it there, not willing to disrupt the mountain’s ecosystem. The students agree, and end up having to close up shop halfway through the day. At the end of the day, Asano’s cafe accumulated the most profits from the festival while Class 3-E came third. Many of the main campus students wonder why Class 3-E haven’t closed their store halfway through the second day. The result could have been different, a view that Gakushu Asano himself seems to be pondering. They start to think whether Class 3-E is not as bad as they were led to believe, something that catches the attention of the Board Chairman. I was so Food Wars for me. I love it.
   
9. Past Time – This episode concludes how Korosensei becomes the creature. Korosensei then begins retelling his life. As a human boy growing up in a war-torn region, the only thing he learned was death. As a result, he decided to become an assassin and honed his skills to kill people from intellectuals to powerful figures; in ten years, he earned the moniker of the Reaper. He is later taken captive, and became a test subject to be experimented on by Yanagisawa, who was a researcher. The Reaper soon became acquainted with a female lab worker named Aguri Yukimura, whom he thought could be of use to him. He decided to bide his time, and covertly control the experiment so that he can use his new power to escape one day. While in captivity, he also witnessed Yanagisawa’s cruelty to his fiancée. In the next three months, the assassin and Yukimura became close, and she tells him that she is a teacher at a school. In fact, she was somewhat awed that a professional assassin was schooling a high school teacher about quadratic equations. As time passed, the two grew more closer; Yukimura asks the assassin about the exam questions she prepared, and the latter finally understands her meaning about wanting to be ‘seen’. At this time, it was the beginning of the school year for the current Class 3-E, two weeks away from the creation of the permanent crescent moon.
   
   
   
   
10. Discord Time – There is discord alright. After learning the story on Korosensei’s past… the class is divided. Half wanting to continue with the plan to kill him… and the other half of the class wanting to find an alternative (wanting to save his life.) I had gotten so used to seeing Class 3-E work together to take down their common foes, but this episode showed me the class using their skills to take down one another. When Nagisa proposes that they find a way to save Korosensei, the class becomes divided over the idea. As Nagisa and Karma’s argument evolves into a physical scuffle, Korosensei suggests that the two sides settle the issue in a team deathmatch, capture-the-flag paintball game, where the opinion of the winning team will be the decider. Thus the Class 3-E civil war begins. It is an action packed episode showing the all of what the class has learned about becoming assassins up to that point. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Has to be one of my favorite episodes.
    
    
11. Outcome Time – The civil war comes down to Karma challenging Nagisa on a one-on-one melee battle. Despite Karma’s advantage in terms of strength, Nagisa manages to pin him down in a chokehold with full-force determination. The match is decided with Nagisa’s victory for the “blue” team, and Class E unanimously deciding to find the alternative solution to save Korosensei’s life. With Karma’s prowess in combat and Nagisa’s talents for exploiting his opponent’s blind spots, I was wondering who would walk away from this fight as the victor.
    
    
    
12. Final Boss Time – Korosensei faces his former apprentice and Yanagisawa in a life-or-death battle. When Yanagisawa switches his focus on the students, Kayano sacrifices herself to buy Korosensei time to recover, leading to one final clash. We saw a side of Koro-Sensei we never thought we’d see. In an emotional light show, he debuted a powerful new attack that not only took care of Kotaro, but allowed Koro-Sensei to put his troubled apprentice to rest, tying up the last loose end he had in this world.
    
    
13. Graduation Time – Korosensei falls on his back exhausted. At his urging, and despite their reluctance, the class pin Korosensei’s tentacles and render him unable to move. Nagisa volunteers to perform the actual killing. After saying his final goodbyes to Irina and Karasuma, Korosensei calls attendance one last time, with all 28 students of Class 3-E responding, some tearfully. At the same time he privately thinks to himself how grateful he is to nurture the students and in turn be nurtured by them throughout the year. Nagisa begins to shake uncontrollably just as he is about to plunge his knife down on his teacher’s heart, but Korosensei calms him down, telling him to smile. After some effort, Nagisa does so. Saying his final goodbyes he kills Korosensei with all the emotions he has felt. Korosensei begins to fade in a bright light, until all that remains of their teacher is his clothes. The class begin to cry uncontrollably as they finally graduate from their assassination classroom. I cried like a damn baby. A big blubbering baby.
    
    
    
    
    
    

This show was pretty surprising for me. I laughed and I was excited and I cried. Let me know what other moments you think should be included. Last note… poor Nagisa… He is a boy but there is a reason he has long hair and always mistaken for a girl but I will harp on that another time.

That is all for now.