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): Korosensei’s backstory was a pretty big turning point for the series. and one that was bound to have some serious repercussions on the Class-E kids. We already saw a bit of how that played out last week, but this week’s put their focus on the fallout, as the kids find themselves at a crossroads. The proposed solution is, of course, something you’d expect from the show at this point, and outcome itself is a bit harder to guess, the conflict itself makes for one of the show’s better spectacles.
Coming directly from where we left off, Nagisa tells the other kids about his proposal to save Korosensei, and they mostly seem on board with the idea. However that doesn’t mean everyone, as some of the kids want to continue on with the assassination regardless, and Karma in particular is determined to keep going. Thus, the class finds themselves divided between those who treasure Korosensei as a teacher and don’t want to lose him and those who respect him enough to believe that they owe it to him to see things through to the end, feeling that anything less is half-baked. This eventually erupts in a brawl between Nagisa and Karma, but before things escalate any further Korosensei proposes an alternative solution by having the class split between teams for a paintball fight, with the winning side being the one that decides Korosensei’s fate.
With everyone’s tension at an all-time high, the ensuing battle makes for one of the most dynamic the show’s done thus far. It’s not the first time the show’s managed to make its faux-battle elements work well, but the compared to the more straightforward David v.s. Goliath of the competitions with Class A, the conflict here is a bit more of the gray side and that adds to the intensity a bit as I kind of wanted to root for both sides. It also helps that this one of the first times we’ve really seen Nagisa and Karma opposed to each other. Despite more or less being opposites in personality, and how they view their respective talents, they’ve always maintained something of an odd friendship to the point where it’s kind of a mystery how they became buddies to begin with. Now with the two of them gunning for each other, I’m looking forward to seeing them go all-out and learning just what attracted them to each other. Of course, we’ll have to wait until next week to see how all of this pans out, and while I’m sure the kids will come to their own unique conclusion on this issue, the conflict itself is turning out to be more interesting than I could have possibly imagined.
In Summary: With Korosensei’s backstory having been delivered, the class finds themselves torn over whether or not to keep trying with the assassination. Things get heated between Nagisa and Karma in particular, and the conflict soon results in the show’s best mock-battle scenario to date. With both sides being fairly valid in their viewpoints on the issue, it’s hard to guess exactly how this little debate will conclude, but in the meantime I’m glad to see the show’s getting this much mileage out of it.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Funimation, Hulu