Assassination Classroom 映画 暗殺教室

An empty attempt in bringing one of the most joyful anime to the big screen.

Ansatsu Kyoshitsu

Directed by Eiichiro Hasumi

Starring: Ryosuke Yamada, Masaki Suda, Kippei Shiina, Kang Ji-Young

Approx 110 mins

Japan, 2015

Assassination Classroom the anime series is one of the most joyous anime series you will watch, sure it’s undertones of world destruction and killer intent is present but the way its packaged into a neatly compiled story of redemption, loyalty, trust and friendship along with one of the most fun teacher makes for one enjoyable series. The popularity of Assassination Classroom meant the inevitable will happened and it has in the form of the life action adaption.

In Assassination Classroom the moon has become a permanent crescent shape after the majority of its mass being obliterated by an all-powerful creature. Not long this creature appears in front of a classroom known as Class-E, which is class of misfit students at Kunugigaoka Junior High School, this creature is introduced to the classroom as their new teacher and they are tasked with killing it and failure to do so the earth will be destroyed by March. Overseeing such task is Karasuma (Kippei Shiina), a military officer who also becomes a teacher at the school teaching assassination skills to the students. The creature is soon christened as Koro-sensei (Kazunari Ninomiya) by the students who on a day to day bases attempt to kill their teacher while engaging in his teaching. Also joining the school is professional assassin Irina Jelavic (Ji-young Kang) who too joins as a teacher in languages. Koro-sensei uses unorthodox methods to teach a class of misfits and soon sees the students enjoying success meanwhile countless individuals appear with the attempt to take Koro’s life.

Now the live action adaption has the impossible task of bringing the joyous nature of a big smiling emoji to live and by most parts the CGI creature is well conceived and remains joyously voiced and acted with his signature laughs ever present. Tasked with bringing this to the big screen is director Eiichi Hasumi and as a director he has demonstrated deft ability in character driven action drama in the highly successful Umizaru films. Yet during its transition to the big screen Hasumi tries to cram the entire first season into one two hour feature film without making any logical exorcising of the source material. With such a small runtime to cram so much its questionable why the film makers felt the need to introduce almost every plot point that appeared with in the series and the need to bring all the random characters in this without really making the experience worthwhile.

Live action films also have the difficult task of casting, do they go for someone to emulate the look or someone more fitting for the role, in Assassination Classroom’s case it’s heavily miscast. First let’s look at Karasuma, in the series he’s been seen as the ultimate cool and handsome teacher but highly skilled and at top physical condition, the film opts for an actor that seems the opposite of this. Kippei Shiina is a versatile actor and has a huge resume to boot but for Karasuma they needed an actor to match the character traits as well, it is not helped that his character is removed of a lot of his attributes in this adaption. No longer do we really see Karasuma witness the gradual growth of the students or how his views on Koro-sensei changes or his relationship with Irina, here he never develops beyond his already established persona which is hazy at best. Next is Irina Jelavic whose sex appeal has always been a big part of her assets and possess something that makes Koro fawn over but here as beautiful as Ji-young Kang is she lacks the raw charisma or physique that would make Koro-sensei’s weak. It is not helped how she is introduced in such a random manner and not really impacting the overall story. Now the worst offender is the casting choice of Nagisa Shiota, a major character trait of Nagisa is his unassuming nature, looking feminine and harmless to all but casting of Japanese idol Ryosuke Yamada is just an insult. Ryosuke Yamada does not look like an ordinary school student, his wavy immaculately gelled hair with chestnut highlights make him look more like a rebel and what is with the atrocious black eyeliner around his eyes. All would have been forgiven if his performance was up to scratch but he possess none of the qualities that should be afforded to the character, his awkward expressions feel forced and his wide eyed look feels unnatural. Finaly there is the villain Takaoka played by Masanobu Takashima who goes overboard with the amount of face pulling and absurdly cringe worthy performance. Kazunari Ninomiya tries hard to emulate Jun Fukuyama’s iconic performance as Koro-sensei, though largely he does a reasonable job he does lose some of its charm that was present in the anime that Fukuyama possessed.

While the series had the benefit in dealing with its heft of characters the film does not have that luxury but instead of working with its constraints the filmmakers goes the opposite route of throwing everything in, so in the process none of the characters maintain any interest and that includes the aforementioned lead characters who are lost in the host of characters and events. The creators also try to bring in all the side plots that featured throughout and again they are heavily streamlined to the point of unnecessary, each plot point was always a learning initiative but the film never conveys any of this instead it’s a checklist of items that take place for so called fan service. It soon becomes apparent of the limitations of their scope, where once the class would venture outside, whether it’s at the main school campus or to a holiday resort or a new town, the film makes everything take place within the confines of the abandoned shack that is there classroom. The moment where the class participates in there important midterm exams was a highlight in the series but the film forgoes and quickly cuts to them already passing while the viewer never see them taking part in the exam. There season finale elaborate plan was a major plot point taking place at a prestigious holiday resort now takes place at the classrooms back yard and the villain just waltz in with their maniacal scheme. The final moments almost feels like an afterthought and it’s like the director realized they have hit there run time and felt they needed to cram the last moments in the film somehow. Oddly it’s here where the most changes are apparent, where the series saw the majority of the class contribute their talents in thwarting the villains scheme the film decides to ignore this and makes Karma (another important character in the series) and Nagisa pointlessly scale a cable tower to fight the tentacle being, Itona.

The film ends with To Be Continued obviously to capitalize on the second season and director Eiichiro Hasumi returns once again to take the helm.

Assassination Classroom is another failed attempt at bringing a live action adaption of a popular anime to the big screen. Too much is crammed into a relatively short run time without making anything meaningful or worthwhile. The film also makes some very questionable casting choices that ruin their respective roles. To those uninitiated to the series may find minor enjoyment with Koro’s fun nature but everything else will make little sense.