MANGA: Heartwarming tragedy in Assassination Classroom Volume 15: Time for a storm.
Assassination Classroom Volume 15: Time for a Storm, collecting chapters 125-133. Story and art by Yusei Matsui.
Last time, homemade Noodles taught everyone some valuable life lessons, and then the end of term exams arrived and ruined everyone's calm. Principal Asano was up to his usual shenanigans, and tried to take revenge on Class 3-E when it all went wrong for him. Because, despite being a teacher, it seems he's incapable of learning anything. Lets see if the lesson finally sinks in, this week.
Chapter one, "Time to be perfect," gives us a little backstory for the sadistic "teacher" Principal Asano. But, will our opinions of him be swayed, when we find out why he is the way he is? Probably not, he's a HUGE tool.
Chapter two, "Time to let live," sees Koro Sensei teaching Principal Asano a vital lesson, and the relationship between Asano Sr and Jr starts to heal, a little bit. It's all really rather sweet. Which worries me...
In chapter three, "Showtime!" Class 3-E has no time, and no budget, to put on a play for the whole school. They also have the worst slot on the bill, because of course they do. Can the students pull together and win over the crowd? Will their play be any better than this obvious filler chapter? Who can tell!
Chapter four, "Time for a storm," sees the return of the creepy Shiro, who spends the whole chapter talking about the 'perfect assassin' he met, when he visited Class 3-E. In fact, it's SO clear that he's talking about young Nagisa, that he clearly ISN'T talking about him. So, who is the monster, hidden within the End Class?
Chapter five, "True identity time," sees Kaede's plan go into full effect. Can Koro Sensei defend himself, against such unchecked hatred? And, worst of all... has he actually earned this righteous revenge?
Chapter six, "Time for revenge," Kaede's true past is revealed, including her reasons for revenge on Koro Sensei, and I can't lie... they're pretty good reasons. But is everything as it seems, and are we finally going to get Koro Sensei's true past?
Chapter seven, "Time for Corrosion," Koro Sensei vs Kayano! Can Koro Sensei bring himself to kill one of his students, and can Kayano succeed where so many have failed before her? As the tentacles overwhelm her mind and body, everything is on the line.
Chapter eight, "Time for the coup de grace," Koro Sensei is doing everything he can to defend himself from Kayano's unrelenting assault. Knowing they'll only get one chance, he gives the students their opening. But can they save Koro Sensei's life... and Kayano's soul?
Chapter nine, "Time for a confession," Nigisa uses an unexpected tactic to win the fight and save the day. But, before the dust can settle, Koro Sensei makes a shocking pronouncement, which throws off everything we thought we knew.
HOW CAN YOU LEAVE IT LIKE THAT! Damn you Matsui, you evil monster. You can't just end the volume there, we need to know MORE! I was really hoping we'd finally get some backstory for Koro Sensei... and we got some for Asano and some for Kayano, but only the barest hints of Koro Sensei. But, I guess we'll have to wait for next volume to find out his full story.
Damn, that volume made me feel ALL THE THINGS.
Going by the set-up from last week, and even the volume description, I was expecting two or more chapters to explain why Principal Asano is the way he is, and try to make us feel sorry for him. Thankfully, we didn't get that. They gave us a bit of backstory... but honestly, it was pretty freakin weak and in NO WAY justifies Asano's actions.
Basically, he used to be nice, he taught his kids to be nice, and thought the world was nice. But, the world is NOT nice, it is in fact pretty shit. This lead to one of his students taking their own life, due to kids being little demons.
Asano did NOT take this well, and decided that the only way to stop this happening again... was to bully all his students. I don't really see his reasoning here, honestly. He was understandably very upset when one of his students took their own life, and his response was to encourage the horrific behaviour that led to this tragedy, and treat a whole class of students the way that his student was treated.
That is Severus Snape-grade bullshit, right there. That is quite possibly the worst justification for a teacher acting like an asshole I've ever read. Honestly, I don't know if this chapter was meant to make us like Asano more, but if anything it made my hatred of him feel more justified than ever before.
All this chapter did, for me, was prove once and for all that Asano is simply not cut out to be a teacher and needs to take a step back from the profession and go back to being a spoilt trust fund punk, because he is doing NOTHING to help the students of his school, and prevent the kind of tragedy that so scarred him from happening again.
That nonsense out of the way, we get an obvious filler chapter, that is somehow still preferable to more whiney bullshit from Asano. The class have to put on a play, despite the usual crappy conditions (set on them by Asano... just saying). They decide to make Koro Sensei the 'lead' and have none-more-goth Hazama write the plot. It's your basic "Getting to know you" chapter, where we see how former loner Hazama has learned to get along with her fellow classmates. It's not exactly a Tony Award winner, but it's a nice chapter to act as buffer between the chaos of Koro Sensei vs Asano, and the brutality that is to come. So, in that way, it's quite welcome. Even if it was a little dull.
It's interesting to note, though, that we get more examples this chapter of how the attitude towards 3-E is changing. Even though they're given less time, no budget and the worst slot on the bill... people seem oddly excited to see what they'll put out. Class 3-E, thanks to their many odd and outlandish victories over the past year, are starting to finally win the other classes over. Despite Principal Asano always being so horrible to them, because he's a dick.
Behind everything, underneath the smiles and the joy, darkness was growing.
Distracted by clean up from the play, Koro Sensei goes to help out Nagisa and Kayano. Two nice students, doing some cleaning. What could go wrong?
Well, for starters, Kayano could actually be a tentacle bearer, who has spent the better part of the last year waiting for her moment to strike and kill Koro Sensei for his part in the death of her older sister.
Yeah. Was NOT expecting that.
The chapter starts off with the mysterious Shiro talking about the "perfect assassin" that he met. Given how everyone else who has met Class 3-E talks about Nagisa in that way, it's clear you're meant to think Shiro is talking about him. However, it gets SO obvious, that it becomes too obvious and it's clear he's talking about someone else. Then, the trap springs, and Kayano reveals herself to not just be the perfect assassin... but also to have implanted herself with a stolen tentacle. CRAZY. I'm not going to lie, my mouth genuinely dropped when I read that reveal.
The rest of the arc plays out about how you'd expect it too. Kayano is revealed to be the younger sister of teacher "Ms Yukimura" who was 3-E homeroom teacher for a few months before Koro Sensei showed up and took over. She's also a lab tech in the evenings and has shown up in a number of Koro Sensei's flashbacks. The plot thickens!
But, while there's a very large chance that Koro Sensei actually didn't kill her, and there's far more to this story than he know, Kayano is intent on revenge, driven mad by the tentacle she stole and implanted into her own neck.
Fun fact, from the author's notes at the end of this chapter: If you go back and look at her various scenes throughout the series, you can actually spot her tentacle a few times. Now THAT is what I call breadcrumbing!
So, obviously Koro Sensei can't kill her, so he defends himself while Nagisa saved the day once more, through the judicious use of a little sexual assault. By distracting Kayano with a pretty hearty looking kiss, he manages to shock her senses long enough for Koro Sensei to remove the tentacle and her mind calms down once more.
It's a decent end to a very strong fight. The artwork was excellent and the weight behind all their actions made the fight so much more than the actual clash would seem, which is always the best way to write fights like these.
And while I was a LITTLE annoyed to see Nagisa swoop in to save the day again, he is as close to a 'lead' as we have amongst the students, so it makes sense I suppose. Although I would have like another of the students to get a chance to shine, seeing as there was no romantic connection between these two students up until now, and nothing to say it HAD to be Nagisa that kissed her. But it's a fairly minor gripe in what was otherwise a pretty strong arc.
But the shocks are still to come! As, with the battle resolved, Koro Sensei makes good on his promise: to reveal his real backstory and let Class 3-E know who he really is!
Yup! That punk that was killed off before, the face swapping noob? Turns out that's not the real Grim Reaper. As I initially theorised right back when Grim Reaper was first teased, he is none other than Koro Sensei. The guy from before must be a copycat, or maybe a protege. Because the real Grim Reaper has been right here all along.
But that's not all, he also reveals that he will be dead regardless, by the end of this term. No matter what the class do, he will die. The only thing they can decide: Does he die alone, or take the planet with him? I think this is a small but VITAL piece of information, for one very simple reason. Class 3-E love Shiro Sensei, it's pretty clear by this point. They also WANT to collect the bounty for killing him, but I can't help but suspect that when the time came to deliver that final blow, they would stay their hand, and try to convince him that they've "won." By letting them all know that he's dead regardless, what he's done is removed the spectre of mercy from their minds. By letting them know that he WILL die, and that the only thing they can do is kill him to stop him blowing up the planet, they've removed any potential guilt the students might feel. Whether it's true or not doesn't really matter. All that matters is that by telling everyone that he's dead regardless, he's essentially given them a free pass to "kill" him, without feeling bad about it after.
And that's where the volume ends, because life is pain.
Overall, volume 15 was INCREDIBLY strong. The Asano flashbacks were pretty annoying, but who cares, he's a dick. The filler chapter was nice enough I guess. and then BAM, great fight with the last person you'd expect, that gives us our first concrete info on Koro Sensei's past. He then doubles down and reveals that he's the Grim Freakin Reaper AND, because that's not enough, Shiro turns up and we finally get to see his creepy, partially robotic face. It seems that whoever Shiro is, he is deeply connected to Koro Sensei's past. Which means that he's more than likely connected with Kayano, which explains why he called himself her "big brother" earlier in the volume (although, I have a feeling that maybe be a case of 'lost in translation' and he didn't mean it literally).
It seems, as we move into the last phase of this series, we're finally getting the big lore dumps I've been waiting for. It's reached a point now where they have no option but to explain Koro Sensei's past, how he became the squid monster we all know and love, and just how he's connected to Kayano's big sister and the creepy cyborg now known as Shiro.
To say that I'm excited for the next volume would be an understatement. This series has proven to be surprisingly wholesome, but with just enough of an undercurrent of tragedy, that I suspect I'm going to need a box or two of tissues, for the next volume.
If, like me, you can't wait to sob your eyes out, come back next time for Assassination Classroom Volume 16: Time for the Past, collecting chapters 134-142. Koro Sensei tells all: his former profession, his nickname, the mad scientists responsible for his unique cephalopod physiognomy, the love of his life, and why he wants to teach the 3-E students. New light is shed not only on his character, but on the reason he vowed to destroy the Earth in March. Will these revelations change 3-E’s commitment to assassinate their teacher (and save the planet)?
