During its relatively brief run, Assassination Classroom captivated fans from the very first episode, with its original plot and ensemble cast of adolescent characters. After a tentacled monster destined to destroy Earth is assigned to teach Class 3-E, Kunugigaoka Junior High's group of underachievers, the students are given a mission to assassinate their teacher in one year.
Most episodes featured assassination attempts just as creative and out of this world as the show's general premise. With an overall IMDb score of 8.0, it's safe to say that this series has been an underappreciated anime hit with precise storytelling and episodes that don't deserve to be skipped. Here are ten that stand out the most given their high IMDb scores.
10 "Secret Identity Time" (7.9)
The students of Class 3-E were far from monolithic. While we didn't get the chance to delve into the backstories of every character, we understood who they were at their core by the start of Season 2, yet nobody expected Kaede, a student who'd seemed largely significant, to reveal tentacles of her own.
This episode ended on a cliffhanger, with Kaede's flaming tentacles posing the biggest threat yet to Koro-Sensei's life, and we couldn't wait to hear him talk himself out of the murder accusation that drove Kaede to the brink of madness.
9 "Discord Time" (7.9)
We'd gotten so used to seeing Class 3-E work together to take down their common foes, but "Discord Time" gave us the opportunity to see them use their skills to take down one another. After the class was divided between killing Koro-Sensei or saving him, he allowed his students to participate in a paintball game that would dictate how they'd deal with him moving forward.
Every student had their own unique reasons for how they chose to deal with their teacher, and it was anyone's guess as to which side would win as their numbers dwindled with every minute.
8 "Nagisa Time" (8.1)
After Nagisa defeated Takaoka in a previous episode, we thought we'd seen the last of him, but when we discovered that he was actually behind several of the students being infected by a deadly virus, we knew Nagisa had broken this man in more ways than one.
Caught between a desire to kill Takaoka for destroying the virus's cure, this episode centered around Nagisa's latent talents as an assassin. We not only got to see just how much he'd grown from the helpless boy he used to be at the start of the series, but we also got to see an awesome stunning technique that he'd soon make his own in no time at all. "Nagisa Time" served as a nice ending to Season 1 while training us to keep a close eye on Nagisa in Season 2 if he hadn't piqued our interest yet.
7 "Reaper Time, Part 2" (8.1)
After Class 3-E was kidnapped by The Reaper, it was up to Koro-Sensei and Karasuma to save their students, but after Koro-Sensei was trapped with his class, Karasuma was forced to take down an opponent shrouded in darkness and mystery. Though we went through much of this episode doubting if the students and Koro-Sensei would be able to make it out of this one unscathed, we were quickly proved wrong.
Our heroes were always two steps ahead of The Reaper, ultimately faking him out with tomato juice to turn what looked to be a dire situation around in an instant. Not only did this episode give us more of Irina's backstory, but we also got to see Karasuma without a shirt, Koro-Sensei comically chugging juice, and more of Sugaya's artistic talents that often go underappreciated.
6 "Outcome Time" (8.1)
"Outcome Time" consisted of the fight between Karma and Nagisa that would decide whether Class 3-E would kill Koro-Sensei or save him, and it definitely delivered. With Karma's prowess in combat and Nagisa's talents for exploiting his opponent's blind spots, we were left wondering who would walk away from this fight as the victor.
Amidst intense action sequences were flashbacks about how the two became friends and how their friendship developed over the years, and with Nagisa's win, we got the resolution to a conflict that was deeper than we initially thought.
5 "Confession Time" (8.2)
After Kaede nearly killed Koro-Sensei with her flaming tentacles in "Secret Identity Time", she was eventually subdued by a 15-hit kiss by Nagisa, reminding us that Assassination Classroom never ceases to switch between serious and silly in a heartbeat. This episode's high score comes from its excellent narration from Koro-Sensei as he took us through his final days as a human.
Not only did we learn that he used to The Reaper, a renowned human assassin, but we also learned how he became the tentacled-creature that we all know and love. We also got to see who was the dying woman we'd seen in flashbacks since Season 1 who's place he took as the teacher of Class 3-E.
4 "Final Boss Time" (8.5)
After Koro-Sensei had been trapped in an anti-tentacle laser barrier, it was only a matter of time before an orbital cannon destroyed him, sealing his fate despite his students' desires to save him. This episode centered around Koro-Sensei's battle against The Reaper and Aguri Yukimura's former fiance, Kotaro Yanagisawa, otherwise known as "Shiro", both of whom possessed tentacles of their own. After intervening, Kaede was killed by The Reaper, and we saw a side of Koro-Sensei we never thought we'd see.
In an emotional light show, he debuted a powerful new attack that not only took care of Kotaro, but allowed Koro-Sensei to put his troubled apprentice to rest, tying up the last loose end he had in this world. This victory was overshadowed by the loss of Kaede, until we discovered that Koro-Sensei could successfully bring her back to life. After seeing this, we wondered if there was anything this guy couldn't do.
3 "Future Time" (8.5)
The last episode of Assassination Classroom was just as satisfying as it was bittersweet. With Koro-Sensei gone, the students of Class 3-E were forced to graduate without the best teacher they'd ever known standing beside them. Many characters got nice conclusions to their stories, with Nagisa's parents even agreeing to give their marriage another shot. In a series where we followed Class 3-E throughout one year, viewers were stunned to see a time skip to several years in the future long after their high school days.
We were relieved to see that all of the students were doing so well, and were shocked to see that Nagisa's dream job of becoming a school teacher looked more like a nightmare. Still, the ending made it clear that he would become to those students what Koro-Sensei had been for him so many years ago.
2 "Past Time" (8.9)
"Confession Time" served as the introduction to Koro-Sensei's past life as a human, and introduced us to Aguri, the former teacher of Class 3-E and Kaede's younger sister. "Past Time" completed this dive into Koro-Sensei's past by shedding even more light onto his bond with Aguri during her last days while showing us why Koro-Sensei had to be killed within a year.
Not only did this episode bring tears to our eyes, but it changed our understanding of the series moving forward. Suddenly, Class 3-E's mission finally started to make sense, and we knew that Koro-Sensei's days were numbered, whether his students killed him or something else did.
1 "Graduation Time" (9.0)
The events of "Final Boss Time" left Koro-Sensei wiped out, and with the anti-tentacle laser preparing to fire, the students held their beloved teacher down while Nagisa prepared to stab him through the heart. We went through at least 3 boxes of tissues during Koro-Sensei's final roll call as he acknowledged every single one of his 28 students.
We'd come so far from the days where the goal was just to assassinate him for cash. Somewhere along the line, they'd become a family, and we could only imagine how it must've felt to kill a man who'd changed all of their lives for the better. Fortunately, "Future Time" showed us that while Koro-Sensei might be dead, his impact will live on forever.