Assassination Classroom: Volume 9 manga review

Manga
Assassination Classroom: Volume 9 manga review
By Leroy Douresseaux
March 31, 2016 - 11:55

Viz Media
Writer(s): Yusei Matsui, Tetsuichiro Miyaki, Bryant Turnage
Penciller(s): Yusei Matsui
Letterer(s): Stephen Dutro
ISBN: 978-1-4215-8281-8
$9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, £6.99 U.K., 200pp B&W, paperback
Rating: T (Teen)

Assassination Classroom Volume 9 cover image

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

The outcast students of Class 3-E at Kunugigaoka Junior High have the perfect excuse for wanting to kill their teacher. That teacher is an alien octopus that recently destroyed 70% of the moon and then, traveled to Earth. This alien teacher, whom they name “Koro Sensei,” promises to destroy the Earth after 3-E students graduate. Thus, it is up to these students to kill their teacher in order to save the world. They are the “Assassination Classroom.”

The students of Class 3-E take their summer break to train for and to launch their most detailed and advanced assassination plot against Koro Sensei. On Fukuma Island, a resort island also known as “Pandemonium Island,” they almost succeed. However, there is another player in this assassination game, and he has left half of 3-E dying from a mysterious virus.

As Assassination Classroom, Vol. 9 (Chapters 71 to 79; entitled A Shocking Time) opens, it is a showdown on the roof of the Fukuma Denjo Hotel. The assassin has been revealed, and he is someone close to Class 3-E. Now, it is up to Shiota Nagisa to defeat him and to obtain the antidote to the virus that is supposed to be killing his classmates. Plus, a student exits Class 3-E for a higher class, but is the grass really green on the other side of the fence?!

THE LOWDOWN: The Assassination Classroom manga is reliably entertaining, as usual. However, creator Yusei Matsui is not really interested in reliable.

Assassination Classroom Volume 9 wraps up a long-running story line, in a kind of anti-climatic way. I'm not saying that the conclusion is poor; it has some inventive twists and turns. Maybe, I just wanted more fireworks. However, the rest of the volume offers delightful stories, including a heartfelt tale about class and social class. That is why Assassination Classroom is a killer entry in the “Shonen Jump Advanced” line.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE: Fans of comic sci-fi will want the Shonen Jump Advanced title, Assassination Classroom.

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Rating: A/10