First Impressions: Assassination Classroom

I stumbled upon this by accident in all honesty but in the past that has led to some real gems. Assassination Classroom (known as Ansatsu Kyoushitsu in Japan) by Yūsei Matsui is a really bizarre but really good title and could well go on to become one of those said gems.

From the first few pages it is off to a fantastic start instantly hooking you. A bunch of school kids shooting at an alien who appears to be a teacher. It gets odder. The moon has been destroyed by this alien and he is threatening to destroy the earth in a years time. He agrees to teach a class while they attempt to assassinate him and consequently save the earth as well as earning a nice 10 billion yen.

It really is fascinating and while the reasons behind the aliens (later named Koro-sensei) remain unknown with only tantalizing glimpses of why he is doing this. There are plenty of students in the class all offering a variety of personalities while regularly introducing new and equally fascinating characters.

It is also genuinely funny, throughout the 16 current chapters I laughed on many occasions, not many manga I read make me laugh like this, Fairy Tail and Is this a Zombie? are the only two that spring to mind. What's more as the relationship between the pupils and the alien grow you become more interested in learning the reasons behind Korosensei's strange demeanor.

Sure the art style is nothing out of the ordinary for a shonen but the uniqueness of the premise more than makes up for it. The series can go one of two ways, ascend to greatness of falter with a lack of ideas. From what I've read so far I have no doubt that Yūsei Matsui will indeed make sure it is the former.