Assassination Classroom (S1 1, 5, 16, S2 11) Reflection
I'm not gonna lie. I'm not really in the best state of mind to be talking about anime right now when I've spent the past 13+ hours brainrotting and feeling violently ill over This One Other Thing but this is the last one... So I'll do it anyways. God this tastes terrible but I'll do it for you [sacrifices].
I can't remember if I watched the entirety of Assassination Classroom before, but I do believe I read all of the manga when I was in elementary school. The story follows Class E's journey as they try to assassinate their yellow octopus teacher, Koro sensei. They don't understand why the government would ask this of them, but they stop questioning once they hear the reward: 10 billion yen. As students accepted to be societal rejects and with no inherent value for the sole reason of not being good at school, this bounty money seems like the only chance they have at accomplishing something with their lives when no one else believes in their ability to accomplish great things in life. Unsurprisingly, hilarity and shenanigans ensue, along with some interesting notes about students who are failed by the education system and prejudice.
It's very clear to see the educational discrimination that occurs in Assassination Classroom between members of Class E and the rest of the school. They're thought to be the lowest of the low for not achieving high enough grades in school, to the point of being completely alienated by the rest of their peers. Their inability to perform as well in school is treated like a contractable disease that encourages all the other "good" students to stay away until they are inevitably sent away to the old campus on top of the mountain and effectively "abandoned" by the education system. In the eyes of the principal, Class E is a scapegoat to encourage competitive and high-achieving students in the main campus to do even better as to not fall to the same level as the "failures". In doing so, Class E was almost completely deprived of an opportunity to properly learn with teachers who cared about their educational growth. Faced with the constant repetition that their efforts will always amount to nothing, just about all of the class had given up and accepted their fate. However, they were able to find their drive to succeed and push past the prejudices with Koro sensei's help, all because he believed in their ability to persevere and learn despite all these extraordinary circumstances pushing back at them.
Yeah, The End Class are like forced to be abandoned in order to become the motivation for other "good students" to learn. It's bad because as we can see, students in Class E are still talented, they just don't suit the regular education system.


















