Anime Review: Assassination Classroom the Movie: 365 Days’ Time Page 1

Anime Review: Assassination Classroom the Movie: 365 Days’ Time

Assassination Classroom the Movie: 365 Days' Time (UK Rating: 15)

Assassination Classroom was one of the best of the post-big-three generation of Shonen Jump, coming as Naruto and Bleach were reaching their conclusion, and one of the few from that generation that succeeded on both sides of the pond. The series concluded in 2016 and on its own terms, not dealing with editor interference, forced extensions, or a rushed ending due to cancellation. Now, as with many popular series, it's receiving the recap movie treatment. This movie adaptation of the popular shonen series comes courtesy of Manga Entertainment and has available from 17th December.

Those who haven't read or watched the original series would be doing themselves a disservice to watch this movie. The series is wonderful, genuinely funny, heart-warming, and charming. The story goes that some unknown being that has destroyed three-quarters of the moon has made a deal with the Japanese government. He's going to destroy Earth, but he offers a deal to the Japanese government. This being will act as a teacher to a particularly difficult class in a prestigious school. He will train the kids not just in their regular studies - they will be trained as assassins; trained to kill him. There's more than just survival on the line for the kids, as they will get the bounty on his head, too - a decent amount at 10 billion yen.

Over the course of the series, each "Delinquent" in the class is shown to be not so bad after all, each just hormonal teenagers with their own struggles… and the being, affectionately dubbed Koro-sensei, is shown to not really be the monster he was originally thought of. There's so much greatness in the series, it can't be summed up in a paragraph, or in a single recap film. For the fine details on the series, check out Cubed3's reviews of each part: Season 1 Part 1; Season 1 Part 2; Season 2 Part 1; and Season 2 Part 2.

The film opens after the conclusion to the original series, with grown-up versions of Karma and Nagisa arriving at their old classroom. They have shown up early before a big class reunion and reminisce of their time together. This part is great; it shows a little more of the epilogue to the series than it originally received. The rest of this movie is made up of clips from the series, the majority from the second season and conclusion. As good as these parts are, they are understandably heavily edited. Trying to fit an entire manga series into a single 90-minute movie will do that. The result is a bit of a mess, one that jumps around to some of the big plot points but leaves out all the character development, along with tons of pertinent plot development.

Being pretty much a clip show, the quality of the film is the same as that original series - a solid show, better than most Shonen series actually get to receive. Not to mention, it also delivered a fantastic dub in both English and Japanese. The new scenes filmed specifically for this conclusion have the same voice actors returning, too. The bonus features for this release are a handful of promo videos, along with a video commentary, which runs for only 25 minutes instead of the full film, from dub director, Apphia Yu, along with the English dub voice actors of Koro-Sensei and Karma.

4/10

Subpar

There's nothing especially wrong with the actual quality or production of Assassination Classroom the Movie: 365 Days' Time; the problem is trying to fit it all in. It's hard to see just who these films are for. Newcomers will be confused and the story lacks much of its depth and punch from the edit. Long-term fans get a fun clip show but they will prefer re-watching the original. One of the best things to come out of Shonen Jump in recent years deserves to be seen in its best possible form, not in this heavily cut abbreviation.