Assassination Classroom

Assassination Classroom (Japanese: 暗殺教室, Hepburn: Ansatsu Kyōshitsu) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yūsei Matsui. The series began serialization Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from July 2012 and is licensed in English by Viz Media. The series follows the daily lives of an extremely powerful octopus-like teacher and his students dedicated to the task of assassinating him to prevent Earth from being destroyed. As of March 2015, thirteen tankōbon volumes have been released in Japan with a circulation of ten million copies.

A single original video animation adaptation by Brain's Base based on the series was screened at the Jump Super Anime Tour on October to November 2013. This was followed by a television anime adaptation by Lerche, which began airing on Fuji TV in January 2015. This adaptation has been licensed by Funimation for release in North America. The series was obtained by Madman Entertainment for digital distribution in Australia and New Zealand. A live action film adaptation was released on March 21, 2015.

Plot

The Earth is threatened by a powerful creature who destroyed 70% of the Moon with its power, rendering into the shape of a crescent moon forever. The creature claims that within a year, Earth will also be destroyed by him, but he offers mankind a chance to avert this fate. In class 3-E at Kunugigaoka Junior High School, he starts working as a homeroom teacher where he teaches his students not only regular subjects, but the ways of assassination. The Japanese government promises a reward of ¥10 billion (i.e. 100 million USD) to whomever among the students succeeds in killing the teacher, whom they have named "Koro-sensei" (殺せんせー, Korosensē, a pun on korosenai (殺せない, unkillable) and sensei (先生, teacher)). However, this has proven to be an almost impossible task, as not only does he have several superpowers at his disposal, including the capacity of moving at Mach 20, but he is also the best teacher they've ever had.

Media

Manga

The series began serialisation in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine on July 2, 2012.^[1] The first collected tankōbon volume was published on November 2, 2012.^[2] The initial print run for the first volume was 300,000, but after several reprints over 1 million copies were printed.^[3] Volume 12 was released on December 27, 2014.^[4] 10 million copies are in circulation. A VOMIC (voiced comic) version, which added voice clips to the manga pages, was featured on the Sakiyomi Jan Bang! variety show between January and June 2013.^[5] The series has been licensed in English by Viz Media, who began releasing the series in physical and digital editions from December 2014.^[6]

Anime

An original video animation based on the series was produced by Brain's Base for the Jump Super Anime Tour and shown at 5 Japanese cities between October 6 and November 24, 2013.^[3] A television anime series based on the manga began airing on Fuji TV from January 9, 2015 and will run for 22 episodes.^{[7] [8]} The television anime is being directed by Seiji Kishi at Lerche, with Kazuki Morita as character designer and Makoto Uezu as the lead scriptwriter.^[9] An OVA episode will be included on the first BD/DVD volume released on March 27, 2015, following a screening at Jump Special Anime Fest in November 2014.^[10] The anime has been licensed by Funimation, who are simulcasting the series as it airs and began streaming a broadcast dub version from February 18, 2015.^[11][12] The opening theme is "Seishun Satsubatsu-ron" (青春サツバツ論, The Theory of Savage Youth) by 3-E Utatan while the ending theme is "Hello, shooting star" by Moumoon. A second television season has been announced.^[13]

Film

A live-action film was released in Japan on March 21, 2015.^[14] It opened at number one on the Japanese box office with $3.42 million and as of April 5, 2015, has grossed over $20 million.^[15] A second film, titled Assassination Classroom: Sotsugyō-hen, will be released in 2016.^[13]

Video games

A video game based on the series, Assassination Classroom: Koro-sensei's Great Besiegement!! (暗殺教室 殺せんせー大包囲網!!, Ansatsu Kyōshitsu: Koro-sensei Dai Hōimō), is developed by Bandai Namco Games and was released on Nintendo 3DS in Japan on March 12, 2015.^[16] Koro-sensei appears as a playable character in J-Stars Victory VS, originally released in Japan for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita on March 19, 2014, with an international version, J-Stars Victory VS+, to be released for PS3, PS Vita, and PlayStation 4 in Summer 2015.^[17]

Reception

Over one million copies of volume 1 have been printed,^[18][19] and individual volumes frequently appeared on the lists of best-selling manga in Japan.^[20][21][22] Volumes 2, 3, 4, 1, 5, and 6 placed 26th, 32nd, 36th, 37th, 41st, and 50th respectively on the list of the best-selling manga volumes of 2013,^[23] making it the seventh best-selling manga series in Japan of 2013 with 4.5 million copies sold.^[24] It was ranked second in Zenkoku Shotenin ga Eranda Osusume Comic 2013, a 2013 ranking of the top 15 manga recommended by Japanese bookstores.^[25] It was nominated for the 6th Manga Taishō.^[26] It placed second in male-oriented comics category on the list of "Book of the Year" by Media Factory and manga news magazine Da Vinci.^[27] Nippon Shuppan Hanbai elected it the best work of 2013 in their "Recommended Comic Books Across the Country Clerk's Choice".^[28] It was number one on the 2014 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! Top 20 Manga for Male Readers survey by Takarajimasha.^[29]

In February 2015, Asahi Shimbun announced that Assassination Classroom was one of nine nominees for the nineteenth annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.^[30]

References

External links

• Official anime website (Japanese)
• Assassination Classroom (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia