Japanese Reviews Reviews

Fantasia Review: Assassination Classroom: Graduation (2016) by Eichiro Hasumi

Fans of slapstick humor, preposterous script and beautiful women will definitely have a blast with this film.

The sequel of “” is an equally great adaptation of the manga/anime and concludes the story.

Assassination Classroom: Graduation screened in Fantasia

All the absurd characters of the first part return, including the yellow creature with the smiley face as his head and the body of an octopus, the killer robot that has become a “regular” student, the student with the tentacles, the talented assassin, the overly sexy teacher, and many more. This time, however, there is also conflict among the students, as Koro Sensei reveals his identity, and the time that he is about to explode destroying the earth, is near.

The main concept behind the anime is, once more, the passive-aggressive notion, as exemplified by the teacher, who, on the one hand, is a great educator, but on the other, prompts his students to kill him, because he believes that, through this effort, they will become better students and individuals, and a deep bond will be formed between them. The hilarious and preposterous themes and aesthetics are once more present, but this time, the film has a darker tone, as Koro’s tragic past is revealed in a lengthy flashback, the students fight among them, and the final fight ensues, with dramatic repercussions.

manages to stay very close to the original’s aesthetics, retaining its slapstick nature. The special effects are great and exemplified by the various forms the teacher takes, and the battles, most of which are spectacular, particularly due to their pace. The knife fight among the students and the final one, definitely stand apart. The only fault in the direction and the script (if you can call it a fault) is that Hasumi assumes that his audience have already read the manga or watched the anime, thus resulting in a slightly incoherent movie for those that have not.

Most of the actors have a secondary role, with the teacher being the definite protagonist. However, as Shiota and as Karma are quite good in their parts. The new additions are even greater, including as the God of Death, as the evil genius and gorgeous as his fiancé. Also gorgeous are as Rio and as the sexy teacher Irina Jelavic, who is even sultrier than the first part.

“Assassination Classroom: Graduation” was created to entertain and to achieve commercial success and it fulfilled both of its goals. Fans of slapstick humor, preposterous script and beautiful women will definitely have a blast with this film.

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

Panagiotis (Panos) Kotzathanasis is a film critic and reviewer, specialized in Asian Cinema. He is the owner and administrator of Asian Movie Pulse, one of the biggest portals dealing with Asian cinema. He is a frequent writer in Hancinema, Taste of Cinema, and his texts can be found in a number of other publications including SIRP in Estonia, Film.sk in Slovakia, Asian Dialogue in the UK, Cinefil in Japan and Filmbuff in India.

Since 2019, he cooperates with Thessaloniki Cinematheque in Greece, curating various tributes to Asian cinema. He has participated, with video recordings and text, on a number of Asian movie releases, for Spectrum, Dekanalog and Error 4444. He has taken part as an expert on the Erasmus+ program, “Asian Cinema Education”, on the Asian Cinema Education International Journalism and Film Criticism Course.

Apart from a member of FIPRESCI and the Greek Cinema Critics Association, he is also a member of NETPAC, the Hellenic Film Academy and the Online Film Critics Association.

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