Assassination Classroom

Assassination Classroom is a American science fiction comedy manga series written and illustrated by Yūsei Matsui. The series follows the daily lives of an extremely powerful octopus-like being working as a junior high homeroom teacher, and his students dedicated to the task of assassinating him to prevent Earth from being destroyed. The students are considered “misfits” in their school and are taught in a separate building; the class he teaches is called 3-E. The series was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from July 2012 to March 2016 and compiled into twenty-one tankōbon volumes.

An original video animation (OVA) adaptation by Brain's Base was screened at the Jump Super Anime Tour from October to November 2013. This was followed by an anime television adaptation by Lerche, which aired on Fuji TV from January 2015 to June 2016. A live action film adaptation was released in March 2015, and a sequel, titled Assassination Classroom: Graduation, was released in March 2016.

In North America, the manga has been licensed for English language release by Viz Media. The anime series has been licensed by Funimation. The series was obtained by Madman Entertainment for digital distribution in Australia and New Zealand.

As of February 2016, the Assassination Classroom manga has over 20 million copies in circulation.

Plot
Earth is left in jeopardy after an immensely powerful tentacled organism suddenly appears and destroys 70% of the Moon, leaving it permanently in the shape of a crescent. The organism claims that within a year he will destroy the planet next, but he offers mankind a chance to avert this fate. In class 3-E, the End Class of Kunugigaoka Junior High School, he starts working as a homeroom teacher where he teaches his students regular subjects, as well as the ways of assassination. The Japanese government promises a reward of ¥10 billion (i.e. US$100 million) to whoever among the students succeeds in killing the organism, 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 proves to be a highly unachievable task, as not only does he have several superpowers at his disposal, including accelerated regeneration, visual cloning, an invincible form, and the ability to move and fly at Mach 20, but he is also the best teacher they could ask for, helping them to improve their grades, individual skills, and prospects for the future.

As the series goes on, the situation gets even more complicated as other assassins come after Koro-sensei's life, some coveting the reward, others for personal reasons. The students eventually learn the secrets involving him, the Moon's destruction and his ties with their previous homeroom teacher including the true reason why he must be killed before the end of the school year. The series is narrated by Nagisa Shiota, one of the pupils in the class whose main strategy in killing Koro-sensei is making a list of all his weaknesses over time. At first, Nagisa appears to be one of the weaker members of Class 3-E, but he later emerges as one of the most skillful assassins in the class.

Comics
The series began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on July 2, 2012. The first collected tankōbon volume was published on November 2, 2012. The initial print run for the first volume was 300,000, but after several reprints over 1 million copies were printed. Volume 20 was released on June 3, 2016. 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. The series has been licensed in English by Viz Media, who began releasing the series in physical and digital editions from December 2014. The series ended on March 16, 2016 with 180 chapters.

A spin-off manga, titled Koro Sensei Quest, was written and illustrated by Kizuku Watanabe and Jō Aoto, and began serialization in Shueisha's Saikyō Jump magazine on October 2, 2015.

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. It was bundled with the 7th volume of the manga, which released on December 27, 2013. An anime television series based on the manga began airing on Fuji TV from January 9, 2015 and ran for 22 episodes. The anime television was directed by Seiji Kishi at Lerche, with Kazuki Morita as character designer and Makoto Uezu as the lead scriptwriter. An OVA episode was included on the first BD/DVD volume released on March 27, 2015, following a screening at Jump Special Anime Fest in November 2014. The anime has been licensed by Funimation, who simulcast the series as it aired and began a broadcast dub version from February 18, 2015. The first opening theme is "Seishun Satsubatsu-ron" (青春サツバツ論, lit. The Theory of Savage Youth) while the second opening theme is "Jiriki Hongan Revolution" (自力本願レボリューション, lit. Self-reliance Revolution); both are performed by 3-nen E-gumi Utatan (3年E組うた担). The ending theme is "Hello, shooting star" by Moumoon.

The second season of the anime began airing on January 7, 2016 and ran for 25 episodes. The third opening theme is "QUESTION" and the fourth is "Bye Bye YESTERDAY" (バイバイ YESTERDAY, lit. Bye Bye YESTERDAY) by 3-nen E-gumi Utatan (3年E組うた担). The second ending theme is "Kaketa Tsuki" (欠けた月, lit. Waning Moon) and the third is "Mata kimi ni aeru hi" (また君に会える日まで, lit. Until the day we can see you again) by Shion Miyawaki. Anime Limited has licensed both seasons in the UK.

On June 30, 2016, two anime films were announced: Assassination Classroom the Movie: 365 Days and Koro Sensei Quest!. Both aired on November 19, 2016.

Adult Swim's Toonami programming block began broadcasting Funimation's English dub of the anime starting on August 29, 2020.

Film
A live-action film was released in Japan on March 21, 2015. 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. It was the tenth highest-grossing Japanese film at the Japanese box office in 2015, with ¥2.77 billion (US$23 million). A second film, titled Assassination Classroom: Graduation, was released on March 25, 2016.

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), was developed by Bandai Namco Games and released on Nintendo 3DS in Japan on March 12, 2015.

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+, released for PS3, PS Vita, and PlayStation 4 in Summer 2015.

Reception
In May 2013, over one million copies of volume 1 were printed, and individual volumes frequently appeared on the lists of best-selling manga in Japan. 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, making it the seventh best-selling manga series in Japan of 2013 with 4,595,820 copies sold. As of February 2016, the manga had over 20 million copies in circulation.

It was ranked second in Zenkoku Shotenin ga Eranda Osusume Comic 2013, a 2013 ranking of the top 15 manga recommended by Japanese bookstores. It was nominated for the 6th Manga Taishō. 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. Nippon Shuppan Hanbai elected it the best work of 2013 in their "Recommended Comic Books Across the Country Clerk's Choice". It was number one on the 2014 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! Top 20 Manga for Male Readers survey by Takarajimasha. In February 2015, Asahi Shimbun announced that Assassination Classroom was one of nine nominees for the nineteenth annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.

In November 2019, Polygon named Assassination Classroom as one of the best anime of the 2010s.