Assassination Classroom season 2

Episode 1

This episode is counted as #23 on the Funimation website

Sports commentators will occasionally use the phrase, “you're only as good as your last game,” when talking about an athlete who has been around for more than one season. The idea behind the platitude is that your past achievements mean very little unless you can continue performing at the same level. In the case of a popular show like Assassination Classroom, I'd like to offer a similar sentiment: you're only as good as your last episode. Having a strong first season is all well and good, but this follow-up will have to maintain that level of quality if it wants to stack up well against a new crop of would-be hit shows. The good news is that this first new episode makes a compelling case for itself.

Assassination Classroom's second season picks up right where the first left off, with Koro Sensei and Class E still on the resort island with one day left in their vacation. Everyone's favorite big yellow monster decides to organize a test of courage, since it wouldn't be summer in an anime series without one. When the not-so-spooky activity fails to produce any budding teenage romances, Koro Sensei and the kids set their sights on fanning the flames between Irina and Karasuma. Once everyone returns home from their island vacation, it's off to a summer festival before the new term begins. As it turns out, training to become an assassin has a side effect of becoming really good at carnival games.

This episode is as much as an epilogue to the previous season as it is an opening to the new one, so things don't kick off with a particularly big bang; the show is focused much more on comedy than it is on action. While it may not be the most exciting way to get the ball rolling, this laid-back approach makes it easy to get back up to speed after half a year away. Pairing the students off for the test of courage allows the series to reintroduce the audience to the main characters one or two at a time instead of unleashing the full ensemble cast and expecting us to get up to speed immediately. That approach carries on through the rest of the episode, and I felt like I remembered everyone clearly by the end. With all that sorted out, the show is free to take off running next week.

Besides serving as a useful refresher course, the test of courage and subsequent attempt to pair up Irina and Karasuma function as an assurance that Assassination Classroom's humor is still in fine form. Koro Sensei's attempts at spooking people into one another's arms are amusing, and the kids' unimpressed reactions take advantage of the chemistry that the first season was able to build up within the core cast. The awkward non-date between Irina and Karasuma is charming, if a bit predictable, and it sets up a potentially interesting relationship for the series to follow in future episodes. It's also nice to see a rare unguarded moment from Irina, who has been hit-and-miss as a character in the past. We see a similar effect from the conversation between Nagisa and his presumably estranged father at the beginning of the episode's second half, another small candid moment that makes the character feel more human.

Where the episode's first half serves as a reminder of how entertaining the cast can be on their own, the festival trip in the second half illustrates the humor that can be found in their interactions with regular people. Between Class E's pair of snipers looking dejected after being banned from the shooting gallery and Karma's merciless plan to blackmail a shady stall owner, this segment contains some of the episode's funniest moments. Looking back, it seems strange to think that most of the Class E students came across as relatively bland and uninteresting when compared to Koro Sensei in Assassination Classroom's early episodes. At this point, they can carry a scene almost as easily as the iconic grinning mutant.

Even the new opening and ending themes make it clear that Assassination Classroom doesn't plan on messing with a winning formula in its second season. Start with an energetic pop-rock number, end on something a little more laid-back, and give the audience plenty of reasons to laugh in between. There may be a new rival assassin on the horizon and a bigger bounty on Koro Sensei's head, but it's largely business as usual for this action comedy. Of course, it's hard to argue with that approach when “business as usual” produces such a fun and colorful piece of entertainment.

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.