Assassination Classroom Anime Review (Part 1): A Christian Perspective
In Part 1 of our Assassination Classroom Anime Review, we will discuss the show from a Christian perspective. An Assassination Classroom parent guide will be available in Part 2.
Quick Facts
- Rating: 14+ for flashing lights, profanity, smoking, sexual content, sexualized imagery, violence
- Streamable: Crunchyroll (as of Feb 2026)
- Manga Published: Shonen Jump
Quick Content Guide
Language: Frequent use of foul language including but not limited to d*mn, sh*t, b*tch, *ss, and b*st*rd.
Sex and Nudity: Frequent fanservice, suggestive situations, etc. Irina often dresses immodestly. Characters like p*rnographic magazines, and Koro-Sensei often crosses boundaries.
Violence and Gore: Frequent violence and assassination attempts. Blood occurs as well.
Frightening and Intense Scenes: Characters in danger. Some sustain injuries that are serious and sometimes fatal. Children often in perilous situations.
Substances: Alcohol, drinking, and smoking occur. A character drugs their child. A minor character is offered alcohol.
*This just scratches the surface. View our content guide in Part 2 of our Assassination Classroom post for more information.
My Rating
Assassination Classroom Anime Review: Synopsis
The students of Class 3-E are the academically challenged and problematic students of Kunugigaoka Junior High. Yet, the fate of the world lies in their hands.
Their mission: assassinate their teacher, Koro-Sensei, before graduation in March. If they fail, the world will be destroyed.
However, while his students are plotting to kill him, Koro-Sensei takes his role as a teacher very seriously and refuses to let harm come to his class despite their constant assassination attempts.
The question is, will Class 3-E succeed in killing their teacher, or will the world end?
Assassination Classroom blends action, dark comedy, and themes of redemption and growth.
Assassination Classroom Anime Review: A Christian Perspective
What would happen if you put the fate of the world in the hands of middle school students?
I have very mixed feelings on this show. From a Christian perspective, the anime’s storyline is problematic: kids are enlisted by the government to kill their teacher, a yellow octopus-type creature the students name Koro-Sensei. If Koro-Sensei isn’t killed, he will blow up the entire Earth at the end of the school year.
Assassination Classroom is a Shonen
The manga was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump. Shonen stories are aimed at adolescents, but the content pushes the boundaries for a teen demographic.
I haven’t read the manga, but the anime made me uncomfortable as a married adult woman. There was excessive fan service, cursing, and morally questionable situations that, from a Christian perspective, make the anime rather problematic for a shonen audience.
Assassination Classroom Encourages Children to Kill
Murder and assassination are wrong, period. Enlisting a child to do evil is morally unacceptable from a Biblical perspective. Matthew 18:6 (NIV) says:
If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
We should protect children and their innocence, not subject them to becoming assassins to save the world and earn a bounty.
Yes, the students have explicit permission from their government to do this, but it’s still morally wrong to pull children into it.
Is Assassination Classroom Appropriate for Christians?
So, why did I watch the show? I got somewhat far into the anime and wanted to review it for my blog.
Do I recommend Assassination Classroom for Christians? Probably not.
After finishing the show (which I watched over the course of 5 months) and going back through my notes, I became uncomfortable knowing that I sat through the entire show. I did enjoy parts of it for sure, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to write a content guide, but this anime has a lot of questionable content.
Our Assassination Classroom Anime Review is Split Into Two Parts
At first, I planned to write one post on the Assassination Classroom anime.
But as I began drafting, I realized that combining both seasons into a single post would be overwhelming.
Instead, I chose to split this into two parts: a review on the show itself and a reflection on the content, where my Assassination Classroom parent guide will appear.
Assassination Classroom Anime Review: English Dub Cast
Assassination Classroom has a great English dub cast. The Assassination Classroom English dub stars Sonny Strait as Koro-Sensei (Orange, Romeo x Juliet), and Lindsay Seidel (Steins;Gate, Steins;Gate 0, Spy x Family) as Nagisa Shiota.
Other notable voice actors include Austin Tindle (Snow White with the Red Hair, Link Click, Nina the Starry Bride) as Karma, Monica Rial (Yona of the Dawn, Steins;Gate 0, Chaos;Head) as Kaede Kayano, J. Michael Tatum (Steins;Gate, Steins;Gate 0, Summer Wars) as Shiro, Chris Burnett (Romeo x Juliet), Ian Sinclair (Yona of the Dawn, The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent), and Jeannie Tirado (The Promised Neverland, Ascendance of a Bookworm, Tower of god*).
*I intentionally kept “god” in lowercase to distinguish between the title and The God of the Bible
Note: When I highlight certain voice actors in my posts, it isn’t meant as a ranking or judgment of who did the “best” job. I usually point out actors I personally recognize from other series, or those who connect to shows I’ve already covered on Renewed Mind Reviews, or sometimes I try to highlight leads—it really just depends. Sometimes that means I’ll mention a side character over a secondary one, or get excited about a VA with just one line while skipping others I’ve written about before. That doesn’t mean I don’t like or respect them—it’s simply a random, not-at-all-formulaic process based on what comes to mind while I’m writing.
Assassination Classroom’s Controversy
It’s not a surprise that Assassination Classroom is controversial.
Some school libraries faced controversy and eventually pulled the manga from their libraries due to complaints about the manga’s sexual and violent content. I’m quoting one example below from Anime News Network:
The Elmbrook School District in southeastern Wisconsin added five books from the series in its e-library starting with the 2021-2022 school year, but removed it last month after a parent raised concerns that the district might be promoting gun violence against teachers with the series. Elmbrook’s Director of Library Services Kay Koepsel-Benning said the claim is “inaccurate.” Another parent raised concerns about the depiction of violence and the sexualization of minors in the series. Source
I don’t blame them at all, and honestly, I wouldn’t want this manga available at schools, either. My information is based solely on the anime content, but it’s not something I could in good conscience recommend to school-aged kids.
Nagisa Shiota: The Class’ Most Talented Assassin
Nagisa Shiota is the main character, narrator, and talented assassin. He’s able to fight enemies much larger than him and win, and he even considers becoming a professional assassin (which, from a Christian worldview, is concerning because children should not be assassins).
*Major Spoiler* He’s the one to initiate the idea of saving Koro-Sensei instead of killing him, leading half his class to join him in a fight against the other half of the class, who want to kill Koro-Sensei. Yet, at the end, he’s the one who actually kills Koro-Sensei. It’s an emotional scene that actually made it on the 15 Saddest Anime Scenes of All Time list on Ranker (spoiler alert), the Top 10 Saddest Moments in Anime (spoiler alert), and Screen Rant’s 10 Saddest Anime Moments, Ranked (spoiler alert). It’s really hard to watch, and even worse knowing that Nagisa, despite trying to fight for Koro-Sensei’s life a few episodes beforehand, ended up assassinating him anyway.
*Major Spoiler Alert* In the future, Nagisa becomes a teacher, not an assassin, but he still uses his assassination skills as a teacher since his students are problematic. And, using skills he learned as an assassin is questionable at best.
Nagisa: Androgony and Gender in Assassination Classroom
Is Nagisa gay? Is Nagisa trans?
As a conservative Christian who holds to what the Bible says about homosexuality and transgenderism, I take the portrayal of these topics very seriously. Assassination Classroom does have a fairly feminine looking character, Nagisa, who is a biological male. He is easily mistaken for a female. His hair is long and on multiple occasions, his classmates push him to wear girls’ clothing or even masquerade as a girl.
He knows he’s a male and accepts it. He’s uncomfortable whenever he finds himself wearing girls’ clothing, and believe it or not, his mother is actually one of the biggest reasons he looks more feminine.
We discover in Season 2, Episode 8 that his mother wanted a girl, so she puts Nagisa into uncomfortable situations due to her desire for a daughter.
Nagisa eventually plans to cut his hair (which is currently long)–so no, Nagisa is not gay or trans. His mother is forcing him to be someone outside of his God-given biology, and that’s not okay.
Assassination Classroom Anime Review: Koro-Sensei Character Analysis
Koro-Sensei is oddly likable despite his framing as the anime’s villain.
Koro-Sensei does truly care about his kids and their wellbeing. He takes their safety seriously, and does not hesitate to take risks in order to protect his students.
He also helps the students grow academically and improve their grades. However, the lessons aren’t just academic; he teaches them life lessons, too.
For example, when the students take a shortcut, they knock an elderly man off of his bike. This man ends up with a fractured femur, and Koro-Sensei becomes extremely angry with his students (he even slaps them). The injured man happens to be a principal for a daycare, so the students fill in for him as punishment.
Turns out, this principal helps kids on the waitlist for primary school by offering them extremely cheap rates at his school, and since he doesn’t make much money, the school is in bad shape. The E Class students totally rebuild the facility and help the school, the students, and even the principal. Despite the problematic start, it serves as a great lesson for the students of E Class.
However, one of the oddest things he does is actually try to get them to become good assassins. Considering their success results in his death, this seems rather odd.
Koro-Sensei: Sympathetic Villain? *Major Spoilers Ahead*
Koro-Sensei may be framed as the villain, but the situation is more nuanced.
As the story progresses, it’s easy to stop viewing Koro-Sensei as the true villain—he cares about his students and refuses to let harm come to them. He helps them grow into smarter, better people. E Class also respects him. He does plenty of good things. However, our actions cannot redeem us—only Christ can.
Koro-Sensei is easy to like, but through most of the show, our opinion of him is two-sided, and it’s meant to be two-sided: the show’s writing and framing is intentional.
Near the end of Season 2, the anime reveals that Koro-Sensei did not, in fact, destroy the moon, and he isn’t trying to destroy the Earth.
He is a bioengineered human, and turns out, bioengineering people isn’t a good idea. He ends up with a “death date” because the scientists messed with his biology. His death date will unintentionally cause the destruction of the Earth—unless he dies.
Koro-Sensei is an example of a redemptive character. When we meet him, he’s already started on his path to redemption, but we don’t realize it at first. He was once an assassin who, after being captured, became close with a teacher. During this time, he’s being experimented on, but the teacher helps him to become a better person, and he eventually takes on a teacher role himself.
Koro-Sensei may not be perfect, and he may teach his students how to be good assassins, but he does experience redemption.
And, perhaps most importantly, he’s not intentionally blowing up the Earth.
Koro-Sensei’s Biggest Weakness *Major Spoilers*
Koro-Sensei sincerely cares about his students. He refuses to let harm come to them and is willing to risk his life for them.
Once, after a particularly dangerous situation, Koro-Sensei requests that the students get put into a safer position (they’ve been endangered by outside assassins too many times) so Karasuma, one of the government officials, adds a condition to a contract in order to protect the children.
Then, we have the very end when Koro-Sensei fights his final battle. His opponent, Shiro, claims that Koro-Sensei’s biggest weakness is his students, but Koro-Sensei rejects this idea, claiming that he will “give his life to protect” his students. Koro-Sensei also admits how proud he is of every single student. It’s a beautiful moment that solidifies the student/teacher bond once more.
These are just a few examples of Koro-Sensei putting his students first, but there are many more.
Redemption in Assassination Classroom *Major Spoiler Alert*
Despite the concept of teaching students how to be good assassins, there are many redemptive characters in the Assassination Classroom anime other than Koro-Sensei.
Ritsu, who was once a computer bent on assassination, is modified by Koro-Sensei. Despite still being a computer, she gains some human-like traits and becomes helpful, smart, and a welcome part of the class. She was created to destroy, but she finds sincerity.
And, of course we can’t forget the small but impactful moment when Koro-Sensei “Convinced A Bona Fide Assassin To Change His Career.”
Then there’s Itona, who’s initially fueled by revenge, but after the influence of his classmates, he becomes an important part of the class.
And finally, we have Kayano, who was consumed by hate and a desire for revenge. However, she learns to listen and Koro-Sensei even puts his life on the line for her sake despite her trying to murder him. After she leaves behind her desire for revenge, she shows her redemption.
There are many, many other examples of redemptive characters in Assassination Classroom.
Karasuma: A Government Official With Common Sense
Karasuma isn’t your typical government official. Not only does he have common sense, but he has a huge heart, too. He joins E Class as a teacher, has a huge heart, and actually cares about the children.
Once, he expresses that he isn’t willing to sacrifice the lives of the students—even if it saved the world.
*Major Spoiler Alert* And, at the end, it seems like he’s put his duty above the relationships he’s made with the students, but he remains a solid ally despite seemingly betraying them.
Forgiveness, Second Chances, & Reunification *Major Spoiler Alert*
There are plenty of examples of forgiveness, second chances, and reunification, and in our Assassination Classroom anime review, we will explore a couple.
There’s a time when Irina betrays the members of E Class, including Karasuma. She ends up in jeopardy, and the students beg Karasuma to save her despite her betrayal. They remind him, “You forgive us when we screw up, right? What’s the difference with her?” It’s a beautiful moment—and an example of forgiveness. Karasuma forgives Irina, as does the rest of the class.
And, at the end of the anime, Nagisa’s parents have decided to give their marriage a second chance, which is a beautiful moment.
Even E Class’ rivals step in to protect the students from the paparazzi at the end of the anime.
These moments may seem small, but they’re really impactful.
Assassination Classroom Anime Review: Class E Fight *Spoiler Alert*
In Season 2, Episode 17, E Class splits into two groups.
One group wants to save Koro-Sensei and the other wants to assassinate him. I was having a hard time finding a good, reliable source about which students joined the Blue Team (save Koro-Sensei) and which joined the Red Team (Kill Koro-Sensei).
I eventually learned that it’s available here as well, but it was unfortunately difficult to find, so I watched the scene myself, took notes, confirmed them, and now have an accurate list of where each student landed.
Here’s a list of Assassination Classroom students who joined the blue team, and the Assassination Classroom students who joined the red team.
Ritsu chose to remain neutral (although I personally wish she had joined Blue—then it would have been even).
I prefer the blue team, not the red team. Most of my favorite characters are on the blue team, and I support their choice to stop assassinating Koro-Sensei.
FAQs for Assassination Classroom Anime Review
Who are the characters in Assassination Classroom?
The Assassination Classroom characters include Nagisa, Koro-Sensei, Irina, Karasuma, Kaede Kayano, Itona, Ritsu, Shiro, Karma, and Sugino.
There are so many characters—Koro-Sensei has 28 students including Ritsu (a computer), and there are also government officials, assassins, other students, Principal Asano, and Shiro among others.
Where to watch Assassination Classroom
Assassination Classroom is available to stream on Crunchyroll as of February 2026.
Can Christians watch Assassination Classroom? Is Assassination Classroom safe for Christians?
Our review site isn’t here to tell you whether you can or can’t watch something; we exist to inform you about the content in a particular story so you can make your own decision. But we don’t recommend Assassination Classroom for most Christians because it contains a lot of suggestive content, language, and other content that is morally questionable from a Christian worldview.
Assassination Classroom Anime Review: Conclusion
In our Assassination Classroom anime review, we discussed the show from a Christian perspective. We focused on Koro-Sensei’s rather complicated status as villain/teacher, explored redemption, and discussed many of the characters.
So, is Assassination Classroom safe for Christians? Can Christians watch Assassination Classroom?
Potentially, but I hesitate to give a “yes” because there are a lot of morality issues (assassination, teaching kids how to murder, etc) plus content flags that make this show questionable from a Christian perspective.
We will discuss the content flags in Part 2 of our Assassination Classroom anime review.
So, what age would we recommend the anime for? If someone were to watch it, we’d recommend it for 16+ due to the content flags we will discuss in our next post.
Photo Credits: Screenshots from Crunchyroll YouTube. Under fair use for review/commentary/education/criticism. All rights retained by owners.
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