Review: Assassination Classroom: “Transfer Student Time”

Well, alright. Ritsu is the exact opposite of what I was expecting when I read the synopsis for “Transfer Student Time.” Generally, when I read “transfer student,” I expect a student. I don’t exactly expect a literal autonomous killing machine with the sole purpose of killing Koro-Sensei. Then again, with a teacher who’s a squid and has the power to blow up the Earth with relative ease.

Ritsu goes from killing machine to the class star in a night, because Koro-Sensei remade her to be more approachable. This is a better approach than a marble spewing death dealer. Part of me wants to go off the reservation here, and spew some venom about how Assassination Classroom is too reliant on Koro-Sensei’s “Talk-no-Jutsu,” especially since he used it to great effect last week. It’s there, trust me. However, I am going to focus more on the aspect of him doing whatever he can so the class can benefit from Ritsu being in the class, and actually helping.

The common theme going throughout Assassination Classroom is that Koro-Sensei goes above and beyond his own personal well-being so that the class has a has a fighting chance to succeed in killing him. I’m hoping that the end result doesn’t come in some sort of botched “Harrison Wells” story from The Flash. I’m now nine episodes in, and I think I can make a prediction. The season won’t end with the Earth blowing up. Something will happen to keep Koro-Sensei around so that the story will go. Ultimately, he will grow to love these kids, and want to save them.

I mean, this has some margin of error, considering I haven’t seen the last three episodes. I’m hoping that something more substantial happens that keeps Koro-Sensei around and teaching, because he’s the most interesting character, with Nagisa and Karma in a somewhat distant second. I really dig Assassination Classoom, but at least half of the episodes have been the same plot, the names have just changed. It may take a bit longer, since this season is already over in Japan, but hopefully the writing doesn’t rely too much on Koro-Sensei’s “Talk-no-Jutsu” during season two.