English Dub Review: Assassination Classroom “Assassination Time”
For being a show about assassination training, this show is pretty fucking hilarious.
Where do I begin with this? Going in, I thought Assassination Classroom was going to be the “throwaway” show of the Dubbletalk block on Funimation’s streaming service because Koro Sensei looked like the most nonsensical character on a show since Bo-Bo-Bo. Luckily, getting into the first episode, my opinion of the show quickly changed.
The star of the show is Koro Sensei, or better yet, Sonny Strait. That’s right, Mr. Usopp / Krillin himself is the star. While he did a wonderful job as those two characters, his talents are begging to get a starring role here. And star he does. I cannot get enough of Koro Sensei, and I actually went back to the show’s page so to check if I can watch episode two (spoiler: nope). The only problem I can see, is that “Assassination Time” was squarely on Koro Sensei, and Nagisa, with nothing of interest coming out of the rest of characters.
I am loving how Koro Sensei is such a powerful, fast character, yet he’s very whimsical. What’s more, he’s a GREAT teacher! You just wouldn’t expect that from someone powerful enough to turn the moon into a permanent crescent shape. The kids were actually learning, while trying to kill a teacher who is seems to be pretty unkillable. Nagisa, on the other hand, seemed to be willing to throw his life away so his “friends” can cash in. Koro Sensei was even compassionate when Nagisa tried to hill him, and got great marks for the effort. Unfortunately, the kids who set Nagisa up almost got their families killed for trying to get Nagisa to throw his life away, and got his super secret black face.
As of this writing, I have watched “Assassination Time” twice, and working on a third. As odd as this is going to sound, I am entranced by Sonny Strait’s work as Koro Sensei. The story works, and everything makes sense. There is a lot of potential here, especially with the voice cast. So far, the cast is phenomenal. There is actual emotion here, compared to a lot of other shows that Funimation has done. I cannot get enough of Class 3-E, and next Wednesday cannot come soon enough. This was close to the perfect Episode One for a show like this, and all roads lead to an awesome series. I cannot see anything wrong here.
