Monster Test looks like a pretty fun RPG
What They Say:
One day a weird tentacle creature destroys 70% of the moon and threatens to do the same to Earth in a year. However in exchange for being allowed to teach a group of misfit students called the E-Class, he’ll allow them to try and assassinate him. With the chance to earn 10 billion yen and prove their worth to the world, the kids are willing to give it a shot, but this thing might just end up being the best teacher they’ve ever had.
The Review:
Content (warning as portions of this review may contain spoilers):
Assassination Classroom is two parts about assassination and also about school stuff. The show’s mostly been focusing on the former since that’s the hook but these last couple of episodes it’s been giving a bit more attention to the former. This week’s is all about that and the results are frankly a lot more interesting than they should be.
Where things last left off the principal decided to make his move on Class E, and he and Korosensei come face to face. Despite a quick gag about his control over Korosensei’s paycheck, the interaction between the two is pretty tense, given how much their perspectives on teaching differ. Korosensei can’t abide by the idea of the kids being marginalized and decides to have them take advantage of the school’s remedial system and have them score high enough on their midterms to get out of Class E.
Amusingly the students aren’t particularly motivated to do it, given they don’t see much reason to care about fighting back above the reward they’ll get for killing Korosensei. He uses the opportunity as another chance to give them a good life lesson through roundabout assassination pretext. The lesson here being a proper assassin should always have a plan B, and that they should do the same regarding taking their studies seriously since if the whole assassination thing goes south, it’s all they’ll have left. It’s all pretty simple stuff, but at least it serves to demonstrate the classroom part of the show is just as important as the assassination one. That’s something that need to be addressed on some level in order to really buy into the premise since the idea that they wouldn’t just be devoting all their time to killing him would feel like a stretch otherwise.
Thankfully, focusing on that classroom aspect doesn’t equate to less fun. Ironically what should be the most boring part of the episode turns out to be the most fun: the actual midterms. Rather than fast forwarding through the tests or showing how the kids have improved through Korosensei’s teaching through a more mundane method, the show decides to use some…interesting visual metaphors. Specifically the test questions are treated like creatures straight out of Monster Hunter, and have to be whittled down in that same meticulous method in order to conquer them (in hindsight that’s probably the most appropriate game you could ever use to visualize that). It’s a really bizarre sequence but it’s loads of fun and a really neat spin on that usual scenario.
Unfortunately the students get done in by one of the questions (which appropriately looks like a Shadow from one of the Persona games) and end up falling short thanks to the principal pulling a fast one by changing the questions at the last minute. However Korosensei feels like he’s the one who failed his students by underestimating him. They cheer him up though and end up turning his earlier lesson back on him by telling him he can’t throw in the towel on teaching them. It’s another charming little display of showing that the teachers have some learning to do as well and even Korosensei himself is no exception. With that established, hopefully the next go around works out better for them.
In Summary:
Assassination Classroom is all about the education side of things this week but it’s certainly not any less fun. The testing sequence is one of the craziest things the show’s done yet and there’s some heartwarming material with Korosensei and the kids taking turns inspiring each other. Assassination may be the name of the game for the show, but this episode shows the classroom part can hold itself up just fine.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: FUNimation
