Assassination Classroom season 2

Episode 19

Assassination Classroom has officially made the jump to space, and the results aren't quite as ridiculous as you might have feared. There are no space battles or laser cannons to be found, just an intricate plan to sneak Karma and Nagisa onto a rocket. After an infiltration scene that wouldn't be out of place in a spy thriller, the guys ambush the astronauts on the International Space Station and demand access to the research data on Koro Sensei. The standoff ends with Karma and Nagisa getting the data and returning to Earth, where they learn that there might be a way to keep Koro Sensei from exploding without killing him.

As you might expect from a story about junior high assassins sneaking onto a rocket and traveling to a space station, this episode plays fast and loose with the details. There are plenty of questions that the audience might reasonably raise as the plan unfolds, from how Karma and Nagisa survived what was supposed to be an unmanned flight (maybe the life support systems were operational for the test flight?) to how their capsule came back down to Earth without a swarm of military aircraft chasing after it. Your enjoyment of this episode will likely depend on how much wiggle room you're willing to give the series, though it helps that Assassination Classroom embraces the absurdity of the premise. By poking fun at itself here and there, the show encourages the audience to accept a little silliness in the name of entertainment.

Ultimately, the process of stealing the rocket and holding up the astronauts turns out to be less important than the adventure's significance to the overall story. While not everyone in Class E takes an active role in the heist, it still serves as the first obstacle for the newly reunited class to overcome. It makes sense that the show would pick Nagisa and Karma to take the trip, since they served as the faces of the “kill or save” debate. After going all-out against one another, they now have a dramatic opportunity to show what they can do when they cooperate. Nagisa's line about finally traveling faster than Koro Sensei is a little cheesy, but that doesn't stop it from driving home the idea of students beginning to surpass their teacher. Even the astronauts seem more interested in acknowledging Class E's achievements than dealing with history's first case of space piracy. It's certainly over the top, but I'll give Assassination Classroom points for finding a creative way to illustrate a common plot point.

As fitting of an ending as the landing scene may be, that's not where the episode leaves us. The last scene lays out the process of stabilizing Koro Sensei's volatile body before wrapping things up on a somewhat unexpected note. Rather than calling it a day, the students decide that they'll still try to complete their final assassination plot as a way of acknowledging everything Koro Sensei has taught them. It's sort of an odd call, and it feels like an attempt to find a compromise in a situation that doesn't have an obvious middle ground. If you're feeling charitable, then it's a case of Assassination Classroom embracing the mixed emotions and moral ambiguity that its premise inherently carries. If not, then it's more like a hasty attempt to keep the story interesting until graduation day. Only time will tell if the end of the assassination course means the end of Koro Sensei's life.

Of course, when a show manages to suddenly send its characters into orbit without going completely off the rails, you have to wonder if there's anything it can't get away with. Assassination Classroom has been on a roll lately, so I'm inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt for the moment. The good news is that the story is still open to a pretty wide range of potential endings from where it stands, so there's plenty to be excited about going forward. Genuinely unpredictable endings are a rare thing, but it looks like that's exactly what this series is building toward.

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.