Assassination Classroom by Matsui Yuusei

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Assassination Classroom
By: Matsui Yuusei
Genre: Action, School Life
Serialized In: Weekly Shounen Jump
Publisher: Shueisha

The students of class 3-E have a mission: kill their teacher before graduation. He has already destroyed the moon, and has promised to destroy the Earth if he can not be killed within a year. But how can this class of misfits kill a tentacled monster, capable of reaching Mach 20 speed, who may be the best teacher any of them have ever had?

By the Mangaka of Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro

Okay, just finished reading the first chapter. This series is arguably has the best first chapter compared to the other Jump's new serialization (in 2012) so far. Matsui still maintains his weird style from Nougami Neuro and I like the protagonist too (I thought the protagonist was a girl, oh well). I mistakenly thought the plot was about a class where assassinator-soon-to-be taught by a supernatural being instead of an unfortunate normal class which has to kill a supernatural being. It's nice to know that Koro-sensei's expression might be an important part of the story later on, since it seems the assassination plan are made based on his change of expression.

I definitely looking forward reading the next chapter.

I won´t believe that Nagisa is a boy until someone proves it in some way. (The translator for instance)
I mean look at the majority of the boys in this first chapter, their body-builds and faces are accurately defined, Nagisa looks nothing like them and Yusei Matsui is of my impression not someone who draws bishounen-looking characters.
The only thing that sets Nagisa apart from the girls is that he/she wears pants instead of a skirt.
And look at those pigtails.

Nagisa's appearance resembles Yako Katsuragi's appearance a lot. It's no surprise everyone thinks Nagisa is a girl.

Overall, it's an interesting premise, more than we thought. I'm definitely going to keep reading this one.

Wait...the main character ISN'T a girl? Talk about drawing traps...

Well...whatever. The story itself looks like it could get boring easily, but I'll with hold an actual judgement until it reaches chapter 15 or so.

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Originally Posted by Lyn685

I won´t believe that Nagisa is a boy until someone proves it in some way. (The translator for instance)
I mean look at the majority of the boys in this first chapter, their body-builds and faces are accurately defined, Nagisa looks nothing like them and Yusei Matsui is of my impression not someone who draws bishounen-looking characters.
The only thing that sets Nagisa apart from the girls is that he/she wears pants instead of a skirt.
And look at those pigtails.

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Translator here! And... yeah, it does seem that Nagisa is a boy (I thought he was a girl at first too, honestly). He uses the male pronoun "boku" and other characters refer to him with the suffix -kun. Granted, -kun can be used for both genders, and tomboys in manga are known to use "boku", but Nagisa is definitely not the tomboy type. Oh, and he wears the boys' uniform (though that's hardly good proof, since uniform swaps seem pretty common in manga).

I did find it a little strange that no one uses any pronoun words for Nagisa, but always refer to him by name (Nagisa or Nagisa-kun). I know it's very common to do that in Japanese, but there was one panel in particular that I translated as "Terasaka-kun and the others held no regard for Nagisa-kun's welfare" where the original Japanese looked like this: 寺坂君達は渚君を渚君は自分を大切にしなかった (terasaka-kun tachi ha nagisa-kun wo nagisa-kun ha jibun wo taisetsu ni shinakatta). As you can see, Korosensei uses Nagisa's name twice in the same sentence, rather than replacing one of them with a pronoun instead.

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Originally Posted by lynxian

Translator here! And... yeah, it does seem that Nagisa is a boy (I thought he was a girl at first too, honestly). He uses the male pronoun "boku" and other characters refer to him with the suffix -kun. Granted, -kun can be used for both genders, and tomboys in manga are known to use "boku", but Nagisa is definitely not the tomboy type. Oh, and he wears the boys' uniform (though that's hardly good proof, since uniform swaps seem pretty common in manga).

I did find it a little strange that no one uses any pronoun words for Nagisa, but always refer to him by name (Nagisa or Nagisa-kun). I know it's very common to do that in Japanese, but there was one panel in particular that I translated as "Terasaka-kun and the others held no regard for Nagisa-kun's welfare" where the original Japanese looked like this: 寺坂君達は渚君を渚君は自分を大切にしなかった (terasaka-kun tachi ha nagisa-kun wo nagisa-kun ha jibun wo taisetsu ni shinakatta). As you can see, Korosensei uses Nagisa's name twice in the same sentence, rather than replacing one of them with a pronoun instead.

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So there´s still a chance that he´s a girl. Cause I couldn´t take him seriously if he wasn´t.^^ (Or I´d need to get used to it over a very long time-span... Who knows, maybe "his" personality and actions will make up for his appearance)
Thanks for the information, let´s see what the next chapters say about it.

Considering the mangaka, and the content of the series, an effeminate male lead with a girls lead can not be that shocking.

Great first chapter, delightfully strange. I love how Matsui messes with genre cliches, mixing school life tropes with the surrealism. Class E had to be the worst in the school, Korosensei had to be the first teacher to reach out to them, and treat them like normal students.

Ok,I'm completely in love with this. I didn't read Neuro, which is why I didn't know what to expect, but what I got is great. Looking forward to reading more and hopefully JUMP's audience will appreciate this manga as much as I do.

The first chapter was a bit muddy to me, but its an absolutely fantastic premise. I mean.....everything about it was incredible!

I really like Korosensei's character design. Its so alien that we have no real way of understanding how "good" or "evil" he is to begin with, and thus the expressions and colors of his face are really important. I also love his backstory, thought we only got treated to a measly couple of panels.

Nagisa and Korosensei totally give off the same impression as Yako and Neuro did, but that's also probably Matsui's style as well. Having a boy human lead instead of a girl human lead was probably just a way to make it a little different.

I can't wait to read chapter two, and I hope it sticks around!

I read it and really enjoyed as well. It almost seemed a little goofier than Matsui normally is until Korosensei's face went completely black with anger. That shows to me that, like Nuero, there might be some very dark moments in this manga. :D

Just gave it a read. Doesn't seem like my thing so far.

The premise seemed creative but also somewhat overly elaborate for my tastes. Going on first impression the whole "assassinate me before graduation or I destroy the world" thing just doesn't appeal to me because I fear it will box all the characters into their roles. Students Versus Teacher. With teacher being nearly unkilliable and having no interest in harming the students. That seems like it would get old super fast unless the slice of life elements can be good enough to keep it fresh or some yet-to-be-introduced story element that can mix things up.

Though, obviously, it's very early so maybe that thing is there and it just has to be shown. But for the time being I feel like this series is missing something.:neutral

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Originally Posted by Teeba

The first chapter was a bit muddy to me, but its an absolutely fantastic premise. I mean.....everything about it was incredible!

I really like Korosensei's character design. Its so alien that we have no real way of understanding how "good" or "evil" he is to begin with, and thus the expressions and colors of his face are really important. I also love his backstory, thought we only got treated to a measly couple of panels.

Nagisa and Korosensei totally give off the same impression as Yako and Neuro did, but that's also probably Matsui's style as well. Having a boy human lead instead of a girl human lead was probably just a way to make it a little different.

I can't wait to read chapter two, and I hope it sticks around!

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I feel like Korosensei will be less abusive towards Nagisa than Neuro was to Yako.

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Originally Posted by Drmke

I read it and really enjoyed as well. It almost seemed a little goofier than Matsui normally is until Korosensei's face went completely black with anger. That shows to me that, like Nuero, there might be some very dark moments in this manga. :D

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I think the change of genre effected the tone. Neuro was a surreal closed room detective manga, Detective Conan on acid. As a coming of age school life manga featuring an invincible, tentacled alien, Assassination Classroom lends itself to uplifting comedy.

---------- Post added at 10:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:57 PM ----------

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Originally Posted by Jammin

Just gave it a read. Doesn't seem like my thing so far.

The premise seemed creative but also somewhat overly elaborate for my tastes. Going on first impression the whole "assassinate me before graduation or I destroy the world" thing just doesn't appeal to me because I fear it will box all the characters into their roles. Students Versus Teacher. With teacher being nearly unkilliable and having no interest in harming the students. That seems like it would get old super fast unless the slice of life elements can be good enough to keep it fresh or some yet-to-be-introduced story element that can mix things up.

Though, obviously, it's very early so maybe that thing is there and it just has to be shown. But for the time being I feel like this series is missing something.:neutral

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You may be approaching the manga wrong. Matsui's intention seems to be creating an uplifting school life story, Degrassi on drugs, if you will. Or maybe Welcome Back Kotter after a few hits of nitrous. Expecting the long arcs and linear story of an action manga would be a mistake, and unfair to Assassination classroom. Rather, it would be better to expect episodic chapters and a surreal, dada inspired take on storytelling more typical of school life manga. It should also be remembered that Matsui is a weirdo who's presence in Jump is completely inexplicable.

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Originally Posted by Kaiten

You may be approaching the manga wrong. Matsui's intention seems to be creating an uplifting school life story, Degrassi on drugs, if you will. Or maybe Welcome Back Kotter after a few hits of nitrous. Expecting the long arcs and linear story of an action manga would be a mistake, and unfair to Assassination classroom. Rather, it would be better to expect episodic chapters and a surreal, dada inspired take on storytelling more typical of school life manga. It should also be remembered that Matsui is a weirdo who's presence in Jump is completely inexplicable.

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No, I understand that. I'm not expecting anything conventional or adventure-ish obviously.

Even episodic stories need a plot structure which doesn't restrict the writers options. Take Gintama, Medaka Box, Beelzebub,and GTO for example. Each one is/was built in such a way that the writer has tons of leeway to do whatever they want without being restricted by the series foundation. That's my fear with Assassination Classroom setup. It's structure so far doesn't really seem like it allows much of that flexibility at all. This setup doesn't allow for much more than school themed character development and intricate assassination plans against the teacher(which are obviously going to fail). I think it needs more than that, unless the character part becomes really REALLY good.

My fear with this is that it's going to become too formulaic and could result into it getting shoehorned into cliché territory; which is the last place a series like this wants to be. To avoid that, I think it needs another variable to keep things unpredictable. Which it might have and just hasn't shown it yet; it's pretty early after all.

What an awesome way to start a series! I really enjoyed Neuro (despite the actual mysteries not being that great) and it looks like it will be the same with this series. I love how a lot of parts felt like an uplifting school drama (albeit a bizzare one at that). There were a few moments that were surprisingly serious. Here's hoping Japan enjoys the series as much as we do!