Assassination Classroom: Tale of Wolves and Snakes
Assassination Classroom was aired in January 2015, and produced by Studio Lerche. The original work was adapted from the Manga of the same name created by Yūsei Matsui. Assassination shows the story of a group of students known as E-Class who have been forsaken by their teachers and seen as a lost cause. Their campus is separate from the main school’s campus as their peers ridicule them in other classes. However, their goals are beyond that of normal students as the Japanese government has tasked them to eliminate their teacher, a tentacle monster/alien who they have called Koro-Sense.
They need to work together to kill him before time is up and the world ends up being destroyed. All while Koro-Sensei helps them as their teacher.
While Assassination Classroom encompasses many characters each with their own quirks there are two key characters to focus on. Nagisa is a young student who has a knack for the understanding of killing and assassination. And Koro-Sensei, the unstoppable able to move at Mach 20 tentacle beast. These two characters are the ones that stick out. The reason is their extreme similarities. And I know it sounds absurd to think that a human would have things in common with a 3-meter-tall tentacle monster. But hear me out.
While watching this show I noticed how Nagisa is someone everyone goes to for answers. Whether he has them or not people rely on him. He is overlooked as just an info broker. Nagisa has paid very close attention to Koro-Sensei ever since he arrived jotting down every note possible. He writes down even the most mundane items about the teacher. From the color, he shifts to depending on his mood or other factors.
These are what are known as tells. With humans, they’re more nuanced. Far harder to decipher. Koro-Sensei wears his heart on his sleeve. Very rarely do we see him lie about anything. He’s typically very open with his students about how he feels and what he thinks. Nagisa is similar in this regard. He says what he thinks regardless of who hears it or how they take it. The kid is terrifying in his own right, and I will be delving into some of the spoilers for this anime. I won’t reveal too much about Assassination Classroom but it would be hard to show you the pure genius of this writing if I didn’t give the proper examples.
The best way to describe Koro-Sensei would be to call him a wolf. He’s quick, agile, strong, and exceedingly clever. He’s almost the perfect organism in a sense. Able to blow a hole in the moon which we see happen in the anime. 70%ish of the moon had been destroyed when he revealed himself. The average person doesn’t know about him in the slightest and he likes to keep it that way. He hides and disguises himself so he can enjoy what the world has to offer. Only the world leaders seem to be aware of him.
He is a loose cannon. He often uses missiles hurled at him as conversational or teaching points for his students bringing them into very close proximity of these dangerous objects. And yet he can still keep his promise of not hurting any of the students because he knows for a certainty that he is faster than any explosion, bullet, and any other object that may harm his students. He takes pride in that, and it’s a cocky type of pride.
Where Koro-Sensei is a wolf Nagisa is something arguably more dangerous. Nagisa is a snake. A very powerful one at that. We very often see Nagisa being taken advantage of and used for his skill and knowledge about Koro-Sensei. Everyone comes to him because he provides a one-of-a-kind valuable service. But that’s all they see him as. An info broker. And what is the most dangerous thing an assassin can be? A powerhouse? A thief? A Trained terrorist? None of these. The best assassin is the one that sits next to you at work, or in the classroom. The one everyone ignores pays no mind to.
You don’t pay attention to them in the first place. So why would you ever expect the knife to come?
That’s the beauty of Nagisa’s character. When confronted by bullies Nagisa is told by them that they would kill him. He responds by telling them “They don’t have the balls.” Those simple words made them back off immediately. Because they saw the snake behind the tall grass. And they realized just how massive it was. In a split second, we can understand a person exceedingly quickly. That’s why first impressions are so important. But make the person see the impression you crafted for them? You can hide a mountain behind a molehill.
In Assassination Classroom one scene sticks out to me showing Nagisa’s truest potential. In a situation with a rather unhinged teacher, Nagisa is instructed to fight the troubled teacher. He is told to get a single hit and the teacher will lose. Nagisa is chosen for the very reason that nothing grand is expected from him. So, he walks casually into the target and catches him completely off guard. The façade shatters as the snake jumps from the tall grass. He manages to pin and hold the teacher at knifepoint. In this shot was actually see the teacher wrapped in a snake with fangs at his neck.
This iconography in Assassination Classroom solidifies Nagisa’s new nature. Where everyone saw him as weak and unsuspecting, even from his own classmates, he proved he was probably the strongest there. Because he grew up hiding who he was because of his family troubles this boy knows how to hide his true self. The absence of true self makes you someone who isn’t worth looking at. And that means you blend perfectly into the crowd. It’s why we see spy movies with disguises work so well. It’s not how they look it’s the role they choose. A garbage man, a runner on set, a waiter. Roles we don’t suspect greatness from. The perfect cover.
I am reminded of a rather fun ability I seem to possess. I often find myself able to sneak up on friends and family quite well. It’s a particularly neat set of aspects when combined can be terrifying. My secret can also be learned, and I’ll show you how it’s done. Slow quiet movements and holding your breath. It seems so silly at how simple it is, but I’ve realized very quickly in my life that humans have instincts, we perceive things around us, even when our eyes are closed. Sound, feeling, taste, smell. Even the blind man sees.
But if you hide your presence. Eliminate at least two to three of these senses you become near invisible. And I learned all it takes is to come from behind and eliminate sight. Quiet your footsteps, and eliminate sound. And hold your breath, eliminate, feel, smell, and taste. And you become invisible. Almost every time without fail I can sneak up on even the most observant of friends.
I want to harken back to what I spoke about with the whole of Class E. Assassination Classroom works well because everyone looks at these kids as lost causes. They see them as filth that they scraped off their shoe. What this does is it puts these kids into a category that no one dares to look at. And what happens when the eyes are turned? Dark deeds flourish in the shadows. These kids are perfect for Assassination. Not because they’ve been trained from birth. Nor because they possess insane skills. They flourish because no one pays attention to them.
These kids shine in a box people have shoved them into. They don’t see the light because they thought they contained them. But that doesn’t mean they stop shining at all. Koro-Sensei sees this in the kids. He believes in their ability for greatness. Whether it’s for a normal life or for the Assassination world. He is training them to be their best selves. Training them to hide, and bide their time. And strike when they least expect it.
Assassination Classroom is one of my favorite shows. It shows how you don’t need to have great talent to succeed. You simply need to be nurtured. Even plants that grow in the shade still grow. They don’t need sunlight. They can make do without it. So just because you struggle to grow in the light doesn’t mean you’re incapable of it. Find your group, find your supporters. And go make a killing for yourself.