Ansatsu Kyoushitsu / First Impressions

「野球の時間」 (Yakyuu no Jikan)
“Baseball Time”

Aside from the tentacle jokes to be made, this week’s episode was fairly straightforward, a bit clumsy, but still fairly solid for establishing the story. Let’s dive right into it!

The first half reaffirmed much about the conclusions we made last episode. Koro-sensei cares much about this specific class and their success employing various methods to achieve that goal. For sensei, actions of his rarely seem wasteful; weird and illogical behaviours end up serving class 3-E’s students in some way…usually. What was a casual baseball game ended up becoming a sign of affirmation for this week’s student focus: Tomohito Sugino (Yamaya Yoshitaka). Whereas last week had a message of looking out for each other, this week focused on a message of using one’s strengths and not being pressured by one’s idols. Both are basic messages, but consequently they give Ansatsu the sort of wide appeal that even those outside the shounen demographic can enjoy. What’s interesting about these messages is the unorthodox practice of said morals via assassination. At surface, it’s a mismatch of ideas, but perhaps for Koro-sensei, this is his way of inspiring this downtrodden class to try their absolute best. By placing himself as a target with a high reward, Koro-sensei inspires the students to creatively and diligently improve their strengths to overcome him. It’s a crafty blend of good teaching combined with the thrill of impending doom.

This style of teaching stands out with the rest of Kunugigaoka Junior High, a big target of a statement concerning education in contemporary Japan. The whip of competition and the fear of falling behind is what spurs the students of the main campus, to avoid shame and feelings of inferiority. There is no joy to their learning, yet that same lack of joy spurs them to apparently become the top that they can be. Humanely speaking, this is not a desirable situation; while being downright depressing, such life skills are not conducive to self-actualization and a positive self-image. As the show will show us in the coming episodes, class 3-E has it great at this point–although they were not born with innate talent or other benefits, it is their assassination mission that will show them that they can exceed what they believe they can do and achieve what they once believed impossible. Rather than encouraging a boring formula, Koro-sensei loves creativity from his students, even if those ideas are flawed or incorrect. By encouraging his students to dare to fail, Koro-sensei is able to help them learn from those mistakes positively and have them aim even higher. Again, not a ground-breaking statement, but in terms of education, it is a relevant topic of interest worth repeating.

The second half was fairly straightforward in showing us more about Koro-sensei’s weaknesses and his human traits, but towards the end, we see the military getting serious, sending a professional assassin/psychopath into the fray as a student undercover. Though it’s highly likely this assassin is going to get owned hard and taught a valuable lesson, the introduction of more interesting challenges should make the assassination attempts more entertaining to watch. As those meticulous notes from Nagisa continue to grow, hopefully so do the elaborate plans of class 3-E.

End Card

44 Comments

  2. So, Kunugigaoka High’s Principal is voiced by no other than Sho Hayami in his evil tone… Talking about maleficient enemies.
    E-Class’ antics are as wacky as Koro himself, and it will only get better with the incoming adds.

    SeedStriker
    Reply

    1. Well,

      Show Spoiler ▼

      Lelo
      Reply

    1. About that…

      Show Spoiler ▼

      randomly
      Reply

      1. Maybe you should come back when your age is in double digits. He/She was just stating an opinion. Some people just find romance between two guys off putting and don’t like to watch that for fun.

        Rutix
        Reply

      2. @Cusack

        Some readers on here are obviously still in their maturing youth finding such comments funny and fitting.

        Jokes are good when used appropriately and not used over and over in this manner, but no need to wonder since this is the internet and the level is low nonetheless.

        Yato
        Reply

      3. @Yato
        If you are so mature compared to these readers, then why are you stooping to their level by responding? Not a very mature thing to do.

        And I think your comment above is far more offensive than this.

        Cusack
        Reply

    2. Pffffft, for a wife to envy her husband, she must’ve been an otaku. Now, with the moon destroyed and tentacles appearing in the ground, people would be like “Aliens do exist!!!!!!!!” or “We are being invaded by a squid- Geso!!!!!!!!!!!” Anyway, the good news is that people do not have to worry about aliens, with a monkey tail, that will turn into a giant ape when seeing the full moon.

      L002
      Reply

  10. Maybe I’m totally getting the point of this anime wrong, but I feel really bad for Koro. =S Especially seeing the very brief flashbacks that may or may not indicate that he has affections for a human (whom probably died). Then you have him teaching students that want to kill him (for good reason of course) but he acts like he’s genuinely a good teacher and wants the E-class to do better. Anyway, I don’t really find myself laughing, but more like “Aww-ing” and feeling very bitter-sweet about the situation T_T I still really like the show though and I want to see where it goes, but I feel very conflicted while watching and I’m not sure how to react sometimes =S

    Cherrie
    Reply

    1. “Aww-ing” is totally a reaction I have to a lot of the scenarios in the manga, so you’re not alone there! Koro-sensei is all about creating situations to maximize his students’ growth, so there’s a lot of sentimentality and “ganbare!” moments throughout. Humor, however, is definitely this series’ strong point—it just takes a little while for the hilarity to hit its stride after building up the “assassination classroom” setting. One concern I have though is that a lot of the gags may be harder to catch in anime vs manga form due to timing; I found myself pausing the action a lot with pretty hilarious results.

      randomly
      Reply

  11. If the anime follows the manga, then it should get darker
    Show Spoiler ▼

    is probably the real antagonist of the series

    weird-d
    Reply

  12. Something I liked about this episode was that it used two chapters for the story instead of just one. The starting episode made me worry we’d be getting just a single chapter or a few chapters in an arc per episode, which isn’t economic for an anime of this size. However, the merging of the two chapters (even if it’s just one after the other) wasn’t the most graceful I’ve seen in an adaption. Once we get into the arcs (such as the new student’s) we should see some better meldings.

    I just hope that we don’t lose chapters in the adaption, because I’m hard pressed to actually think of chapters in the manga that don’t add to the characters or establish part of the setting. Considering this is an entire classroom getting in on the action, the series needs as much room as it can to develop them all. As a bit of a spoiler for the manga, we don’t get an arc focusing on Nagisa’s homelife until past chapter 100. It’s a good story, but it takes a while to get there.

    Taiko
    Reply

  14. they should use the “weapons” of the Brazil Indians. A Blowpipe weapon, instant of loading it with Venom, they use the Ammo

    It is super silent. Well, only the blow into the Blowpipe sounds

    WorldwideDepp
    Reply

      2. or a Whip. it is the tip/end of the Whip that breaks the Sound Barrier and thats why he hear this Sound

        Geez, i hope the Maga-ka did think all of this out. Because Sensei, need the Air to hear the Attacks. What if they use Weapons that are faster then the Sound-barrier?

        WorldwideDepp
        Reply

    2. I am not sure if there will be any new advances in anti-sensei weaponry, but as of now Show Spoiler ▼

      Glacierfairy
      Reply

  15. https://randomc.net/image/Ansatsu%20Kyoushitsu/Ansatsu%20Kyoushitsu%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2020.jpg
    I can’t kill Koro-sensei with that look on his face.
    https://randomc.net/image/Ansatsu%20Kyoushitsu/Ansatsu%20Kyoushitsu%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2025.jpg
    I can so draw this.
    So this…
    https://randomc.net/image/Ansatsu%20Kyoushitsu/Ansatsu%20Kyoushitsu%20-%2002%20-%20Large%20End%20Card.jpg
    is this?
    https://randomc.net/image/Ansatsu%20Kyoushitsu/Ansatsu%20Kyoushitsu%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
    Anyone seen that OVA?

    random viewer
    Reply

  18. Today it got me again. When the other Countries get the News, that he will End the World. Do you think they really not do anything? Perhaps it is really critical that not many or only “Japan” nows of this. Because if the Day of Doom is approaching, and he is still alive. What you think will happen, with Country’s that have access to Atom-Bombs?

    Yes, when the day comes near, the more their become desperate and will use and WILL sacrifice Human Lives against the World

    So, dear Manga-ka. i hope you see this black Future. Well would i be a President that have access to Atom-bombs i would use it against this Creature to save the World. What is this “puny little” life’s against the World?

    WorldwideDepp
    Reply

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