As part of a project celebrating the series’ tenth anniversary since its original broadcast, Assassination Classroom, a well-beloved franchise in Japan, has just released a new movie titled Assassination Classroom: Our Time. It premiered in Japan on the 20th of March and was soon after released in Singapore from the 9th of April.
The original anime spans over 2 seasons, focusing on Kunugigaoka Junior High School’s Class 3-E attempting to assassinate their super-powered alien teacher, named Korosensei, for a reward of 10 billion yen (about 80 million SGD). Korosensei is an octopus-like lifeform that has the ability to move at speeds of up to Mach 20 speed, who destroyed half the moon, and marked the Earth as his next target. Posing as a challenge even for the government, he struck a deal with them, to grant the academically looked down upon Class 3-E, nicknamed “E-as-in-end”, an opportunity to assassinate him within a year, before their graduation, in exchange for the chance to become their homeroom teacher during that same time.
In Our Time, the students of Class 3-E have 15 days left to complete their assassination. Before their class started for the day, they reminisce over the memories they had made together with Korosensei, recounting the times he helped them grow, both academically and personally. Through pranks done together, swimming lessons, and getting back at others, they discuss the lasting impressions of Korosensei which has been left them with. Our Time explored these memories through newly animated scenes, which were previously in the original manga, but did not make it to the anime itself.
This light-hearted fashion of the movie distracted from the dark impending doom of the overall series, where either the Earth gets destroyed, or the kids assassinate their teacher. The movie offered a perfect mix of gags and seriousness. Our Time did not add much new content and information to the series, but it was truly refreshing to revisit Class 3-E. Despite being a large class of 28 students, each character had still made an appearance during the movie, which was a nice touch from the studio to ensure every character remained included. This homely feeling was a driving factor throughout the series, each character encouraging one another, bonded by their experiences together.
The final memory in the movie had involved assassins outside of Class 3-E. It introduced a group of four assassins, discussing their personal assassination attempts on Korosensei. This story showed how Korosensei had left a lasting impact on everybody, even people outside of his class. Through this, the playful, yet kind and nurturing, nature of the teacher was exemplified, adding on to his likeable personality.
Our Time did not aim to top the charts, but it was created with much love for the series and their fans. The movie’s final scene depicted Korosensei, finally walking into the classroom to take attendance, marking the start of class, as the students of Class 3-E tried to pelt him with their “Anti-Teacher” bullets. This scene was truly touching, as it was a reference to the first scene of the series, where the students are doing the same thing.
Despite there being a 10-year gap since the last episode of the series had aired, the animation style did not differ much, and the movie looked as if it had taken place right where they left off. There was undoubtedly an improvement in quality, yet they had been able to maintain the overall essence of the show. The movie was riveting, gathering laughs from the audience at times, yet constantly reminding them about the eventual shared goal of most of the characters, to assassinate Korosensei.
“For a commemorative project, this fidelity is a strength rather than a limitation.”
– Luqman, on gamerbraves.com
While they do not explicitly show Korosensei’s ending in the movie, as they did in the original anime, there were touching references to it at the end. In the post credits scene, a timely new illustration of the former Class 3-E students is shown, where the students are now grown adults. It truly felt as though the students had grown up over the last 10 years.
As a fan of this franchise, I was eager to catch the movie on the day of release in Singapore. Seeing these characters again after 10 years truly touched my heart, evoking a sense of nostalgia in me, even moving me to tears. Yet, it was slightly confusing, as the original promotional materials for the movie had framed it such that heavy focus on two students were implied, yet one of the two had considerably lesser screen time.
While the movie was not designed to be a standalone film, the essential information required to understand the context of the series was adequately explained in the movie. However, Our Time would be better enjoyed as an extension of the original anime, as nostalgia appears to be the target theme.
Get your tickets for Assassination Classroom: Our Time at $16.50, showing in Singapore exclusively at Golden Village cinemas.
Shoujie Wang 
Yinan Zhou 
SUN Yinchen