Anime
I completed watching "Assassination Classroom" two months ago, I was about to write a review of the anime, but time constraints were there for me, I was in jolly of finishing an anime this amazing, & at times, surreal. I thought about a two paragraph-long review, then squandered back and realised it doesn't need a review, it's not worth it, Assassination Classroom is more than just a show, it's a manual for perfect education & inclusive growth of students, not only students, I'd wager, but about everything from the birth of us to our death.
Assassination Classroom revolves around a teacher and a class of students. The teacher is a genetically modified humanoid octopus, with amazing superpowers, abilities that aren't human at all, & a speed of Mach 20. The teacher, named Koro-sensei by the class he teaches, has promised to destroy planet Earth after he has already destroyed the Moon, & made it a Crescent-shaped Moon, he promised the security officials of Japan that after exactly one year of his students' graduation he'll destroy the Earth & till then he'd like to teach the "E Class" or "The End Class" of Kunugigaoka Junior High School. Without giving out any spoilers about the show, I'd like to highlight the amazing philosophical nuggets, or at least that's how I look at it, from the anime.
Koro-sensei's motive wasn't only about teaching the E Class but along with that teaching them assassination skills, & making them elite assassins, who'll, at each stage of this one year, try to assassinate him before he destroys the Earth, and Koro-sensei is bound by his will with the defence ministry that he'll not attack back, to teach his students, along with other teachers, how to improve themselves & assassinate him before the deadline comes nearer. Koro-sensei emerged as a teacher who'd never lose against any odds, & makes his students go any length to achieve what they aspire for. Koro-sensei isn't an orthodox teacher in any way, but a teacher who emphasises building bridges amongst the relationship he shares between him & his students, instead of the conventional way of being friends with your students on a very superficial level. Koro-sensei comes in the way of every harm, & every building block which lies ahead of the ways where his students walk, not only he's everything to his students inside the classroom, but outside of the classroom too, Koro-sensei is a reason students never cease to improve at every stage.
Kanzaki Yukiko, a student of his class, says, “I used to get so stressed about how other people saw me. I always second-guessed myself. But then Koro Sensei made me realize: It’s all about doing the best with what you have. Being true to the person you are on the inside.”
That you need not worry about what you don't have, and striving for the best with everything you have, is way better than ruining anything you have for the better or worse for your dreams. Dreams are unreal, & just a literary device to emphasise your fight for your ambitions, not much, and that's exactly what Koro-sensei has opined to his students.
Koro-sensei, along with teaching everything he can to his students, has also taught them not to rely solely on their talents & God gifted crafts which you have acquired & mastered along your way but defeats and improvements as well. One of my most loved characters from the anime, Karma Akabane, has this to say, “People with talent often have the wrong impression that things will go as they think.”
Koro-sensei, on practice & perseverance, says, “The difference between the novice and the master is that the master has failed more times than the novice has tried.” Which is veracious. Later in one of the episodes, he says, “Exams are an opportunity to teach correctly the meaning of winning and losing, of strong and weak. Students soak up heaping helpings of successes and setbacks. Take in now what it means to win, what it means to lose!”
Koro-sensei don't want to put academic pressure on his students for the sake of it but want his students to enjoy their results & along with that their defeats too. He wants them to taste the fruit of triumphs after tasting the meal of defeats, & enjoying the process in between.
Koro-sensei, on the enjoyment of teaching his students & reasons to teach his students, says, “Broadly speaking, there are two reasons a person feels the desire to teach something: Either he wants to pass on his successes or he wants to pass on his failures.” Koro-sensei seems determined, & perfectly fine with extensions achieved by his students during the process of learning & growing. Koro-sensei adds on competition, that without competition the skills you have learned won’t ever be tested when it is most needs to be, “It’s dangerous for them to grow up without experiencing true competition. Because they’ll keep whining, even without taking the matter seriously. For those with a high level of aptitude… The sooner they know the frustration of defeat, the greater their growth will be."
Another character who gives in his hundred per cent, for the betterment of his students, albeit for an altogether different motive, is principal Asano. His means to the ultimate end are different and stands stark against Koro-sensei's ideas. His idea of education is polar of what Koro-sensei believes in, principal Asano believes in a hierarchy of competition, where the top 95% needs to learn from each other, & look down upon the rest 5% (which is the End Class Koro-sensei teaches) so that the ensuing competition reminds them of not failing or else they'll be thrown into the End Class. Those 5%, the least achievers, the delinquents, are a fear motivation for the top 95%. Principal Asano says, “Did you know, I once took down a black belt on my third day of Karate lessons? The first day, I was soundly beaten you understand, by some 30-something… There was so much pain I vomited. I’d never known such an agonizing defeat. What do you suppose I did on day 2? I observed. Consumed by flames of my humiliation. Certain were I to lose again, I would be mortified to a point of insanity, that I would, in effect, die of madness. On day 3 I crushed my sensei without him landing a single blow. That is the lesson of defeat.”
The top student of the End Class, & the best assassin Koro-sensei has taught, Shiota Nagisa, is that character you must look out for, the most, in the show. Defeated by his will & determination in the previous year, he starts a new journey with Koro-sensei in the End Class, learning, relearning, & unlearning things, working with his friends, helping communities, falling & getting back into his form, and most importantly, rooting for his friends, teaching them & learning from them, these educational qualities are what makes Nagisa a force to reckon with. He, after conquering over his fears, says, “If that treetop is school, and the ground is this place here… we all found our strength down on the ground. While looking up… and getting looked down on… we learned plenty about how scary heights were before we started climbing. That’s why we can go our own way now. Still… Somewhere along the way, we forgot our fear of heights, so we do still fall to the ground now and then. So learn here. You can go on to school once you have a game plan. That’s my secret lesson, from me to you.”
Friendship, defeats & triumphs, teamwork, relearning, embracing competition, experimenting with their thoughts, scrutinising their subjects, examining their fears, teaching each other, and standing by their teacher, Koro-sensei, these aren’t the only strengths that make Assassination Classroom an adventure, but its emphasis on embracing vulnerabilities, & challenging one’s weaknesses, each time it looks at you. Of course, Koro-sensei is a dream teacher, a product of magical realism, a part of literary creativity, but, we surely need to imitate some of his ideas, just for the sake of that show.
