Assassination Classroom

Plot

Earth is threatened by an enormously powerful monster who destroyed 70% of the Moon with its power, permanently rending it into the shape of a crescent. The monster 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 whoever among the students succeeds in killing the monster, 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, helping them not only to improve their grades, but also their individual skills and perspectives for the future.

As the series goes on, the entire situation gets even more complicated as other assassins come after Koro-sensei's life, some coveting the reward, others for personal reasons, and 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 year term.

Manga

The series began serialisation in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen 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 Q!, is being 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. A television anime series based on the manga began airing on Fuji TV from January 9, 2015 and ran for 22 episodes. The television anime 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 are simulcasting the series as it airs 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) by 3-E Utatan 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) also by 3-E Utatan. 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. Anime Limited has licensed both seasons in the UK. On June 30, 2016, they announced two anime films, one titled Assassination Classroom the Movie: 365 Days, the other one Koro-sensei Q! and both aired on November 19, 2016. When Koro-sensei Q! aired they announced an anime adaption which will be the sequel of the movie, and more details will be revealed soon.

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: Sotsugyō-hen, was released on March 25, 2016. In English, the title of the sequel is Assassination Classroom: Graduation.

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

Over one million copies of volume 1 have been 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 4.5 million copies sold. 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.