Assassination Classroom

Assassination Classroom is a live-action movie based on the manga Ansatsu Kyoshitsu. The manga is very popular in Japan but I have never heard of it. With no prior knowledge to it, the movie poster does not invoke any curiosity or interest from me. With an animated yellow smiley face, my guess that this would be a funny show but that is not conveyed through the trailer. I recognise Yamada Ryosuke from Hey! Say! JUMP as the main character but he is one of my less liked members of the group and I cannot really be bothered about him. So why did I end up watching this? Out of boredom.. Lol.. I read positive reviews about how funny and entertaining this movie is. That sounds exactly what the bored, stressed, and tired self needed.

The context of the movie does not really make sense at the beginning but that is a perfect formula for a comedy. A mysterious creature has destroyed the moon, leaving it as a crescent, and is planning to destroy the Earth next. For no apparent reason, this yellow octopus-like character strikes an agreement with the Earth authorities: he will teach for class 3-E of Kunugigaoka High School for 1 year and let the students kill him if they can. If they cannot kill him by March of the following year, he will destroy the earth. The students are armed with military knives and guns which will only hurt this alien but not human beings. The class is nicknamed as Assassination Classroom as their purpose is to kill this alien which is worth 10 billion yen bounty.

The story then progresses like typical school-themed drama as the students get closer to the alien teacher and calls him Koro-sensei. The students are also taught regular lessons (eg. Maths, English, Science) on top of combat exercises. Koro-sensei will even give tips to help the students improve their assassination skills. Meanwhile, the military is sending "transfer students" to increase the likelihood of killing Koro-sensei. The first is a super AI machine which projects a school girl in its screen and the second is a boy with hair that functions similarly to Koro-sensei's tentacles.

Unfortunately beyond this point, the plot comes across as being too forced. A new PE teacher is introduced and he becomes the antagonist as the students do not like his way of teaching. 3-E students suddenly ace their exam as Koro-sensei promises to give them 1 handicap for each student who gets top score in the school in any subject. The students manage to "kill" and Koro-sensei turns into a ball. The evil PE teacher wants to take this ball and surrender Koro-sensei to military to earn him the 10 billion yen. The climax is how the students defeat this evil PE teacher.

The second half of the plot i.e the above paragraph is essentially rubbish. Since this is meant to be a comedy based on a manga, let's not use our brain so much and just enjoy the movie for the laughter. I have to admit that the jokes are hilarious. Even certain scenes which are meant to be lame or corny also turn out to be very funny and everyone in the cinema was laughing. I would call some of the jokes as "smart jokes" which make them even funnier. My favourite is how they call one of their teacher Bitch-sensei. Bitch-sensei is a professional assassin and her name is Irina Jelavic. The students are supposed to call her Vic-sensei but because letters V and B are pronounced quite closely by the Japanese, that's how she ends up as Bitch-sensei. She is my favourite character. Instead of appearing lame with the fake white hair, she actually turns out to be very hilarious. Anyway, this is just one example of the funny parts. There are still many more.

Yamada Ryosuke really stands out among the students as he is simply the most famous. Although I am not a fan of him in HSJ, after watching this, I can sort of understand why people are crazy over him. His puppy eyes and expression are quite hypnotic and makes him like-able. Lol. No comment about his acting as his character is rather one-dimensional but I think he can do funny characters pretty well.

The movie will continue in part 2 due sometime in 2016 and I am looking forward to it. The movie also ends with its soundtrack Koro Sensation performed by Hey! Say! JUMP. I honestly disliked the song and the PV the first time I came across it a few months ago because I did not see the connection between the song title and the people wearing graduation gown in the music video. Knowing the context of a song can easily turn a dislike into like lol. The song sounds quite catchy and I like to hear Inoo's unique vocal featured quite prominently in this song. Haha but I still think the song as so-so at best and I am not going to keep its PV in my desktop.

Please enjoy the PV before Johnny's take it down as usual. Lol. There is also another version of the PV dubbed as the Battle Version which depicts the guys in dancing, singing, and fighting in those atrocious battle gears. Urrgh.. that pink colour is definitely not nice. And for once, I think that the regular edition PV is better than the special version. Haha...