Koro Sensei has a brother?! And that brother looks human and wants to kill Koro Sensei?!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Yusei Matsui
Translation: Tetsuichiro Miyaki
Adaptation: Bryant Turnage
What They Say
Ever caught yourself screaming, “I could just kill that teacher”? What would it take to justify such antisocial behavior and weeks of detention? Especially if he’s the best teacher you’ve ever had? Giving you an “F” on a quiz? Mispronouncing your name during roll call…again? How about blowing up the moon and threatening to do the same to Mother Earth—unless you take him out first?! Plus a reward of a cool 100 million from the Ministry of Defense! Okay, now that you’re committed… How are you going to pull this off? What does your pathetic class of misfits have in their arsenal to combat Teach’s alien technology, bizarre powers and…tentacles?!
English teacher Irina’s assassination mentor makes an appearance and the two compete-using special agent Karasuma as their target. Another transfer student/would-be assassin joins the class, accompanied by a guardian who claims to be Koro Sensei’s…little brother?! A tentacle showdown ensues, sending everyone into a tentacle tizzy. Then, the 3-E students face humiliation yet again during a school baseball exhibition match. Plus, more secrets of Koro Sensei’s mysterious past revealed…!
Content: (please note that content portions of this review contains spoilers):
Ms. Vitch has failed to kill Koro Sensei for too long, at least as far as her boss and mentor is concerned. He demands she leave the school so he can replace her with another assassin. However, she is given one last chance to stay as the teacher of Class 3-E and keep trying to kill Koro Sensei, but to do it, she has to out assassinate her mentor and master assassin Mr. Lovro. Since neither of them can kill Koro Sensei, they decide to use Mr. Karasuma as the target of their assassination. Obviously, he isn’t going to go along with that, but Koro Sensei states the two combatants just have to score a hit on Mr. Karasuma with an anti-Koro knife, which is harmless to humans.
It doesn’t seem like a fair challenge for Ms. Vitch since her main strength is seduction and Mr. Karasuma knows that. Mr. Lovro on the other hand, is a master assassin and has a great chance at taking out Mr. Karasuma. Will Ms. Vitch win and be able to stay, or will her loss send her packing so Mr. Lovro can send in a replacement assassin to take out Koro Sensei?
Koro Sensei can be a deceptive octopus. Normally, he is smiling and teaching his students as a master educator, but when he gets pissed, he is every bit as frightening as one would expect from the creature that almost destroyed the moon! Never has he been more frightening than when his new student reveals that he has tentacles just like Koro Sensei does!
This new student, Itona, brings Koro Sensei’s origin mysteries back to the forefront. Itona claims to be Koro Sensei’s little brother. An odd declaration, but considering Itona has similar habits, tastes, and tentacles for hair, it isn’t too big a stretch to believe that he is Koro Sensei’s brother. Now the more immediate question is, can Itona kill Koro Sensei? Maybe not on his own, but Itona’s handler, a mysterious magician, gangs up Koro Sensei and quickly turns the tide of battle to Itona’s favor. Can Koro Sensei come back from the brink of losing this battle and his life to bust out one of his life lessons for the class?
In Summary
Assassination Classroom is one of those series that on face value, I almost skipped over and ignored. The idea that a large smiley-faced octopus teaching a class of high school kids to become assassins so they can kill him, just seemed too farfetched to be interesting. Boy was I wrong. Luckily I gave it a chance and it has been a highly entertaining series, both this manga and the anime adaptation. While it still doesn’t make sense why Koro Sensei would want to be killed by a student, that story vehicle allows him to act as their teacher and apply very character-specific teaching lessons to the large cast of characters. Add in Ms. Vitch’s hilarious attempts to be a seductive killer, Koro Sensei’s personality quirks, and the odd chance that someone could kill Koro Sensei at any minute and you have a fun series.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: Older Teen
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: June 2nd, 2015
MSRP: $9.99
