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Assassination Classroom season 2
Episode 10

by Paul Jensen,

How would you rate episode 10 of
Assassination Classroom (TV 2) ?
Community score: 4.4

I don't know if this is still a common practice, but newspaper comic strips have occasionally used “throwaway panels” in their larger Sunday installments. These usually consist of a couple of panels that tell a quick joke, and each newspaper running that comic can either keep or ditch them depending on how much space is available. That's how I've typically looked at the single-episode stories that fall between larger plot arcs in an anime series: often amusing, but rarely vital to the show as a whole. Leave it to Assassination Classroom to take one of those disposable episodes and find a way to have it influence a major plotline.

The school festival serves as the stage for the latest competition between Class A and Class E. Though there's no official wager this time around, it's still obvious that both classes have every intention of coming out ahead in the battle for customers. Class A goes all out with an array of corporate sponsors and celebrity appearances, while Class E takes advantage of their remote location to run a café with ingredients gathered from the surrounding woods. As old friends and enemies alike come out to support Class E, Nagisa gets a chance to find some closure on a couple of past conflicts. Class A ultimately makes the most money, but Class E's strong showing gets the rest of the student body talking. The narrative of Class E being full of the school's weakest students isn't as widely believed as it once was, and the principal is far from pleased with the situation.

We aren't treated to any major surprises as Class E's friends and foes stop by the café, but it's still amusing to see all of these characters in a fresh context. The most entertaining visits come from the villains of past story arcs, from the school trip's high school delinquents to the trio of assassins who challenged the students in the island hotel. Something about watching these dangerous antagonists sit down and calmly slurp down a bowl of noodles is inherently amusing. Considering that shows like Cromartie High School and D-Frag! have successfully used the “mostly harmless bad guys” gimmick as the premise for a full series, it doesn't come as a huge shock that Assassination Classroom is able to make it work for a single episode.

The middle of a school festival episode seems like an odd time to tie up some loose ends in Nagisa's character arc, but I'll admit that it works. I had all but forgotten Yuji after Nagisa ran into him during the ascent through the island hotel, so I hardly expected the series to bring him back as an unlikely ally for Class E. As much as the show plays his mistaken infatuation with Nagisa for laughs, the dorky rich kid provides a useful introduction for the theme of turning weaknesses into strengths. For all the drama we went through with Nagisa's mother last week, her arrival late in the episode also works out rather nicely. The brief conversation between her and Nagisa serves as a much more satisfying way to close the book on their turbulent relationship. For once, Assassination Classroom actually succeeds at dealing with conflicting emotions in a short amount of time.

Between the chuckle-worthy comedy and the nuanced interactions between characters, this would have worked just fine as a standalone episode with no real connection to the overall plot. Instead, it ends up tying nicely into the ongoing conflict between Class E and the school administration. The ending of this episode finally addresses the inevitable effect that Koro Sensei and his students have had on the school's system of winners and losers. As the supposed misfits continue to defy expectations, they slowly undermine the structure that the principal has poured so much time and effort into building. It makes sense that he would eventually grow impatient, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this renewed conflict plays out in the coming weeks.

This episode serves as a good example of how a series can take some time off to crack a few jokes without losing the big picture. We're mostly here to be entertained as Assassination Classroom pokes fun at previous story arcs, but the characters' actions aren't completely devoid of consequences. If there's a big “Class E against the world” conflict on the horizon, it will likely benefit from the groundwork that's been laid here.

Rating: B+

Assassination Classroom is currently streaming on Funimation.

Paul Jensen is a freelance writer and editor. You can follow more of his anime-related ramblings on Twitter.


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