I will admit that Assassination Classroom has a very odd concept; it's part of what drew me to the anime sci-fi/comedy series. Basically, a giant yellow blob with tentacles will destroy the earth by the end of the semester if the students in the classroom he chose to takeover do not find a way to assassinate him. Not only do the students have to keep up with their studies, they have to plot and scheme with specialty training and weaponry from the government to kill their new teacher. There are so many layers going on with this show it's not even funny. The classroom chosen for this experiment in life or death odds is the lowest performing class at an elite Jr. High School. They are not even allowed on the same campus as the rest of the students; they are in a rustic period schoolhouse devoid of all modern technological and academic advances that make an elite school elite.
The administration agrees to the experiment because it gives them an easy scapegoat if the students fail. Surely their elite students could assassinate the teacher if given a chance. The riff-raff who can't cut it? Let'em try to do something right for once.
Enter the killer alien teacher with two beady eyes, incredible speed, an even more incredible nose, and knowledge of every fact and concept known in the history of mankind. These students obviously resent his presence--he is trying to destroy the world. Yet, this alien is the greatest teacher they've ever had.
What makes Assassination Classroom such a fascinating examination and satire of modern educational policies is the alien's approach to classroom management. He builds the students up every chance he gets. He customizes his lesson plans to actually engage with the students. Every student is given a personalized quiz on Wednesday afternoons to challenge their strengths and review their weaknesses across all academic subjects.
This inhuman monster is literally the only chance these students will ever have to get a quality education. The traditional system, defined by performance to tests and conformity, has failed them all. You don't wind up exiled from mainstream campus life for excelling in the almost-militaristic expectations of elite classrooms.
Your job as a modern student is not to engage with the material, but engage with a test. In America, a long-standing inspiration for satirical anime (Deadman Wonderland, another recent sci-fi/horror series, is an indictment of the school to prison pipeline and for profit correctional facilities prevalent in America), schools are graded by their students' performance in standardized tests. If a large enough percentage don't pass, the school can see their funding cut, setting the students back even further. It's a vicious cycle designed in the eyes of a strict bureaucracy in an attempt to quantify the qualitative world of academia. Combine that with the pressure to test into the best of the best schools in Japan and you have a rich world of possibilities to explore in modern educational standards.
In Assassination Classroom, the only ally the students have is an alien. Even the government agents sent to train them on killing are grading them solely on their ability to accomplish an absurd task. If they fail to assassinate the alien with specialty ballistics and hand to hand combat, they quite literally fail existence.
Another teacher is brought in whose own goal is to just assassinate the alien teacher; she treats the students as a burden in her mandatory English-teaching sessions. It takes the alien teacher foiling her first assassination attempt with kindness, respect, and a makeover (his own form of disclipine) for her to even consider showing a modicum of interest in the enrichment of the students. She is the teacher forced to give up her passion for strictly binary results--kill or don't; pass or fail.
Assassination Classroom is a bizarre setting for a heartfelt, positive, coming of age story, but that's what it ultimately is. A helpful figure reaches out to a group of disadvantage young people and builds them back up. Shoot, he even gives them hints on how to complete their assassination attempts by breaking down everything that went wrong with their plans; if they come close, he praises them as highly as he does when they complete a complicated math problem.
This bond that adds so much unexpected characterization and heart to a silly concept actually makes the whole show a more nuanced experience. We grow to love our yellow Sensei too, making it much more difficult to enthusiastically root for his assassination even if failure means the end of the world.
Assassination Classroom is available to stream on Hulu. The source manga is available through Viz Media.
