Gakuho Asano

"I have always acted rationally. Whether for the management of the establishment or a murder, I like things to be logical and conform to reason."

- To himself

Gakuho Asano (浅野 學峯) is the board chairman of Kunugigaoka Junior High School and the father of Student Council President Gakushu Asano who initially serves as an antagonist of the first half of the series, but he later acts as a supporting character.

Appearance
Gakuho has neatly combed brown hair and brown eyes (violet in the anime). He wears a formal business suit that is unique from the other staff members in Kunugigaoka as it's brown instead of the usual grey or black. He also wears a sawtooth leaf pin on his tie that was given to him as a present from his cram students.

During his life running a cram school, Gakuho's hair was unkempt and reached down to his ears, similar to his son's hair. Also, he usually dressed more casually than formal when teaching.

When he was younger, he used to have strawberry blonde hair like Gakushu Asano.

Personality
Gakuho's most prominent aspect of his personality is his strong fixation on perfecting his pedagogy. His obsession with education gives him an abnormal sense of prioritization, putting the maintenance of his educational ideals over the world's future. He prioritizes its maintenance even over basic morality, willing to suggest things that has made even his own son question him, such as when he suggested that Class A poison Class E's restaurant food. Additionally, he is also unafraid to get his hands dirty to make sure that his system stays intact, notably when he takes his educational methods to the classroom for the first trimester midterm exams, giving the entire main school building a personal lesson and purposely excluding Class E just to ensure that they do not pass. The maintenance of this system is his primary driving force throughout the series and as a result, shows disappointment when Class E surpasses the other classes.

Although he prioritizes the maintenance of his system above all else, he also seems to desire to prove his methods are indeed correct, so he never tampers with scores that have already been earned. For example, for the second trimester exams, he encourages the teachers to ramp up their difficulty to be akin to a college or university exam so that his students may compete with Class E on a level befitting their educational prowess. For those very exams, he allows the honest placement of the top students and grades without modifying or censoring them, showing the exact outcome of his educational bout with Korosensei, even though the outcome was unfavorable to him. Thus, although he's not above using underhanded methods to influence the final results, he respects whatever those final results may be.

His skewed sense of morality is also shown with his relationship with his son, with constant pressure to produce results and utterly defeat his foes, such as Class E, in perfect victory being a defining point of their relationship. He also uses his son for his own aims, never once treating him as his own kin and instead only as a useful tool for the maintenance of his system. He is also willing to mock his son's inability to produce the desired perfect victory over Class E, viewing his son's frustration with loss as a way to make him stronger, regardless of the emotional toll.

In the past, his personality and teaching methods were almost mirror images of Korosensei's. He allowed students to do mock assassination attempts on him only to evade them at the last moment, similar to Korosensei, during class time, saying that anyone who can land a proper hit on him can have free time. He also teased his students using his exceptional skills, much like Korosensei. Overall, he was a kind and caring teacher who wanted to raise his students to be "good". He particularly cared about three specific students who were the first to attend his cram school, which in ten years time will become what is now known as Kunugigaoka Academy. He kept a close relationship with them and even kept in touch with them after their graduation.

However, when one of them was driven to suicide from constant bullying in high school, Asano's worldview was broken and his personality flipped. He came to believe that his ideal way of teaching kids to become "good" adults instead of "strong" adults was the reason for his student's death and blamed himself for it. He eventually used his charms and manipulative skills to ruin the bullies' lives by turning them into gambling addicts. He continued to change his teaching methods and thus created the current Kunugigaoka system.

After his defeat at the hands of Korosensei, he appears to have somewhat reverted back to his old self after seeing that Class E follows his old principles of teaching; as a result Asano becomes more mellow; although Class 3-E still exists, he no longer encourages the students and staff to look down on them.

History
In the past, Gakuho had a teaching style very similar to Korosensei's. He raised them to become kind and well-rounded in the same building Class E studies in. However, one of his students committed suicide because of frequent bullying, as he couldn't defend himself due to being too kind. He believed he raised his students the wrong way and decided to raise them to become "strong" instead of "good."

The board chairman later sought to learn more about the concept of "strength", where he started by learning how to fight. Gakuho utilized his exceptional learning skills to defeat a blackbelt in karate on his 3rd day learning karate. The way he did this was after he was defeated on the first day, he observed his instructor and created a strategy on the second day, and then finally defeated the instructor on the third day.

He built a new building and left behind the old, which brought back memories of his failure. He would later use his brainwashing techniques to turn his student's bullies into desperate gambling addicts as revenge.

Asano eventually married and fathered a son named Gakushu Asano. Their relationship, however, was one of competitiveness, each wanting to control the other. Later on, Aguri Yukimura came to work as the Class 3-E teacher at Asano's school, and the chairman sensed her passion for teaching and implied to have a positive working relationship with her.

Between the time of Aguri's death and Korosensei's arrival, Gakuho and his assistant welcomed a student who had passed the transfer student exam on her first attempt. However, the student destroyed one of Gakuho's prized possessions, stating that she had heard about Kunigigaoka's renegade class. Gakuho promptly sent her there with a suspicious look on his face, scrutinizing her in an attempt to glean why she would want such a thing.

Test Time
Chairman Gakuho Asano's initial appearances had been obscured in shadow when Korosensei first arrived at Kunigigaoka Junior High. He had been briefed on the situation by Tadaomi Karasuma of the Ministry of Defense and allowed Class 3-E to attempt to assassinate Korosensei in secret in return for monetary compensation. After a school assembly, however, he witnessed Nagisa Shiota of Class 3-E scaring off two Class D students and began to realize that Korosensei's influence was disrupting his status quo. Chairman Asano met Korosensei for the first time at the old mountain building and subtly sized him up prior to the mid-term exams. Despite Korosensei attempts to motivate his students, Asano subtly intervened by inserting questions too difficult for Korosensei's students to solve.

Time for a Ball Game
Gakuho made another appearance in the exhibition baseball game between Class 3-E and the school baseball team. Seeing how the students' tactics had unnerved the team thanks to Korosensei's tutelage, Gakuho stepped in to coach the baseball team and proceeded to slowly brainwash the team's captain. However, Gakuho's efforts were countered by Korosensei, who had Karma Akabane purposefully provoke the audience and then had the class copy Gakuho's counter tactics. Gakuho left acknowledging his loss.

The chairman later approved of new PE teacher Akira Takaoka to teach Class E with a very demanding schedule. However, Takaoka's brutal methods as well as the man himself losing to a student in a mock knife duel resulted in Gakuho personally dismissing him from the school.

End of the Semester
When the chairman's son lost a wager with Class E during the finals, Gakuho taunted him for losing a simple bet. The wager also had the effect of energizing Class E while at the same time demoralizing the main campus. Chairman Asano later acknowledged that Class E's victory, while threatening his education philosophy, would spur the rest of the main campus to work harder so as not to feel as though they would be left behind by Class E's recent successes.

Watching Class E's rise
The chairman and his son conspired to divide Class E by persuading Kotaro Takebayashi into leaving his class and join Class A based on his finals performance, promising him the prestige that would make Takebayashi's father and older brothers acknowledge him. In the process, the two tried to get Takebayashi to recite a drafted statement that vilified his old classmates in front of the entire school. However, Takebayashi returned to Class E by smashing one of Gakuho's possessions (after hearing how another student was sent to Class E doing the same action as punishment) during assembly time. Since then, Gakuho witnessed his son's attempts to impede Class E's rise in the Athletic and School Festivals, and admonished his son for failing each time. Class E's victories over the more superior Class A gradually had the effect of turning the main campus students' discrimination into admiration, and Gakuho's philosophy was becoming increasingly threatened.

Teacher Malfunction Time - Finals exam
After the school festival, Gakuho's fear over the loss of his system began to weigh down on him and he resorted to personally brainwashing and feeding his students bloodlust to dangerous levels and executing an exam of such difficulty that even other teachers were shocked by how far he would go. He even personally taught Class A and brainwashed the students other than his son to "kill" Class E. When Class A failed to secure the top spots over Class E, his composure completely faded away and in its place was the first sign of anger towards his son he has ever displayed. However, when one Class A student offered to be transferred to Class E, Gakuho snapped and decided to completely remake Class E into a prison and dismiss Korosensei in order to preserve what he had left of his educational system.

He took matters into his own hands by forcing Korosensei into a drastic situation with a 20% chance of victory in his favor, which was far more than any of the Class E's previous attempts, using grenades on himself and the teacher to finally kill the biggest obstacle of his ideal. Instead, Korosensei protected Gakuho, who was prepared to be blown up, using his skin. Korosensei commented that he had an identical teaching style to himself years ago. Gakuho reflects on himself and leaves, asking if he could drop by sometimes to try and kill him again in a somewhat playful manner contrary to his usual intimidating impression.

After seeing the good Class E had achieved, he felt no need to discard the current system, but he was no longer discriminatory toward Class E. However, he sensed that a major event was finally beginning to happen as the end of the semester arrived.

Final Semester
Chairman Asano met with Korosensei on Valentines' Day after hours, though not before a light-hearted attempt to kill him. Learning that Korosensei would not self-destruct in March from Nagisa Shiota and Tomohito Sugino, Gakuho offered his former opponent the chance to continue teaching students at Kunigigaoka Junior High. Although flattered by the offer, Korosensei declined, wanting to see the world after his students' graduation. The two also talked about the late Aguri Yukimura with Gakuho admitting that her passion for teaching would have made her a great teacher to balance Korosensei and Gakuho if it were not for her untimely demise.

One week before the March deadline, Korosensei was fired upon by a satellite weapon dubbed the "Spear of Heaven" and immediately trapped by an unbreakable dome called Earth's Shield. The secret matter of the main culprit responsible for the moon's destruction teaching a class of students at Kunigigaoka Junior High became public knowledge and the media vilified Chairman Asano's decision to let him teach. Gakuho briefly considered shifting the blame from himself, but, remembering Rikuto Ikeda's words, he stood by his decision to hire Korosensei to teach Class 3-E, publicly acknowledging his abilities as a teacher and brainwashing a select few influential reporters to write positive reports about him and Class E. However, Gakuho privately thought that even his efforts are not nearly enough to help Korosensei, for the latter was being targeted by the rest of humanity itself.

Aftermath - Post-Graduation
The chairman presided over the graduation ceremony, telling Nagisa Shiota that he has good eyes as a result of his teacher's work.

After the ceremony, Gakuho was severely criticized by the community and vilified in the media for his involvement with Korosensei, 'endangering' his students in the process, and his cruelly discriminatory teaching methods. He is ultimately forced to step down and relinquish his position as the chairman of Kunugigaoka Academy. Just as he was preparing to leave the academy, two of his former cram school students, Mori and Nagai, came to visit him as a surprise. They sympathize for the death of Rikuto Ikeda and Gakuho offers wine for them to make a small celebration of reunion with the first batch of his own Cram School students. The three then celebrate their reunion, and for a new beginning that the three will start together. It is in this interaction that Gakuho Asano has regained some semblance of his former self as an educator. It's later revealed in the Graduation Album that he opened up a new cram school, named Asano Cram School, where he serves as its manager, office worker, and lecturer. He is also scouting Nagisa, recognizing his skill as an educator and hoping to hire him for his own school.

Powers and Abilities
Genius Intellect: Gakuho possesses a gifted intellectual mind that allows him to learn and comprehend any subject in a short amount of time, and then teach it to his students. He is also known to be "multi-talented" as Gakuho was able to amass enough wealth by performing other side careers to independently open Kunugigaoka Academy.

Athletic skills: Gakuho is just as athletic as he is intelligent. During his cram school days, he easily defended against the various mock assassinations from Rikuto Ikeda and beat said student at basketball. Another testament of his strength was when he lashed out against his son by hitting him, sending the latter across the room, crashing into the wall on the other side of the classroom before hitting the floor. In the Roll Book Time, it's revealed that Gakuho jogs for an hour.

Fighting skills:  Gakuho's fighting skills were shown when he challenged four athletic exchange students to a fight and won without receiving a single hit. As seen in a flashback, Gakuho had defeated his karate teacher after three days of intense observation.

Charisma: Due to his unique leadership and personal charm, Gakuho can easily brainwash children, teenagers and adults alike.

Gakushu Asano
Gakushu is the chairman's son who has been under the chairman's influence for the longest. Gakushu inherited Gakuho's ability to persuade others using just his voice. They both use their vast knowledge to control people. However, their relationship is rather strained, each trying to control the other. Gakushu intended to use his father as a pet of sorts, while Gakuho wanted to keep his son as a corporate slave. However, after the chairman was finally defeated by Korosensei and reminded of his early teaching career, father and son began to reconcile. Gakuho calls his son "Asano-kun" and Gakushu calls his father either "father" or "Chairman Asano".

Rikuto Ikeda
Much like how Aguri Yukimura turned around Korosensei's life, Ikeda turned around Gakuho's (albeit negatively). Ikeda was a former student of Gakuho, whom he was very close with. He enjoyed playing with Ikeda, allowing him to initiate surprise attacks (which always failed), and showing off his various talents to Ikeda and his other two students, Mori and Nagai. During this time, Ikeda had promised Gakuho that he would grow up being a “good” student. When news of Ikeda's death (from suicide due to frequent bullying) reached him, Gakuho snapped, believing Ikeda’s death derived from how he neglected to make Ikeda “strong” rather than simply “good", and as a result he altered his view of education to later create the Class 3-E system. He would later avenge Ikeda by ruining his bullies' lives through turning them into helpless gambling addicts.

Aguri Yukimura
They share a positive working relationship when it comes to teaching as Gakuho can sense Aguri's passion. Aguri is the only known character that Gakuho is on friendly terms with before meeting Korosensei. Gakuho believed that if she were alive for a few more years, she could have become a great teacher, perhaps even greater than all the teachers at Kunugigaoka's Main School Building.

Korosensei
Simply put, Asano is the antithesis to Korosensei.

Initially, the Chairman presented himself as Korosensei's superior and made it a point to show his educational ideals were also superior and right. He stood as a major block in Korosensei's goals as a teacher and major adversary to him in general. However, it was revealed that they share many similarities in how they want to raise strong and capable students and how they are both "monsters" that dedicate themselves to teaching. As of Chapter 126, their relationship has improved and the Chairman respects Korosensei as an equal as well as his teaching style when it is revealed Korosensei's methods take after his former way of teaching.

Later, he makes an offer to Korosensei, asking him if he would consider remaining to teach Class E at Kunugigaoka Academy in the case that he survives. However, Korosensei softly rejects his offer. Korosensei even tells him that having a rival like him in this school makes him able to enjoy his experience as a teacher. The Graduation Album also mentions that after their final confrontation in Chapter 126, their relationship became one where he would visit the Class E building to drink tea with Korosensei.

Quotes

 * (To Akira Takaoka) "Once you lose to a brute force weaker than your own, your lessons are stripped of all persuasive power."
 * (To himself) "I have always acted rationally. Whether for the management of the establishment or a murder, I like things to be logical and conform to reason."
 * "I took down a karate black belt on my third day of karate lessons. The first day, this thirty-something guy beat me but good. I fell over, vomiting. I had never tasted such defeat. Now, what do you think I did on day two? I watched, burning with the flames of extraordinary humiliation. If I lost my next match, too... I'd probably lose my grip on my personality and die of madness. And on day three... I took down my teacher without him landing a blow. That's learning from defeat."
 * (Remembering Aguri Yukimura) "She possessed an inexhaustible vitality and an extreme passion for education. A few more years and she would've be an outstanding educator."
 * (To Nakai and Mori, two of his First Batch Cram School student) "Will you both help me celebrate to fresh beginnings for myself and your juniors! And while we're at it... while you indulge my rants, fill me in on what's been going on with you guys."

Etymology

 * The name Gakuho means "study, learning, knowledge, school" (學) (gaku) and "peak, summit" (峯) (ho).
 * Gakuho's surname Asano means "shallow" (浅) (asa) and "field, wilderness" (野) (no).

Trivia

 * Gakuho's hobby/special skill is education and management.
 * Gakuho graduated from Harvard University.
 * Gakuho's motto is, "Live as though you were to die tomorrow. Learn as though you were to live forever." which is a famous inspirational quote by Mohandas Gandhi.
 * Some of Gakuho's other qualifications include: Being a vegetable sommelier after studying on a three day holiday to become eligible, color coordinator, and jumbo jet pilot.
 * At 183 cm, Gakuho is one of the tallest humans to appear in the series (the average height of a Japanese man is 171 cm to 173 cm).
 * As stated by Korosensei, there are various similarities between them.
 * Both of them want to raise strong and capable students, even at cost of their own lives.
 * Both lost one of their dearest persons, which fuels their devotion to teaching.
 * Both can learn and understand complex knowledge in a matter of minutes to few days.
 * Both are capable of single-handedly teaching all subjects and producing amazing results and students.
 * Both often "take care" of their students upon their own liking whenever anything goes wrong to them.
 * Both of them hate Takaoka's violently abusive teaching style.
 * According to Roll Book Time, Gakuho's schedule is listed as:
 * 1:00 - 3:00: Sleep
 * 3:00 - 4:00: Early morning jog
 * 4:00 - 6:00: Intensive reading of all world’s newspapers
 * 6:00 - 7:00: Breakfast (with Asano-kun)
 * 7:00 - 8:00: Leaves for work
 * 8:00 - 12:00: Various business processes concerning the school
 * 12:00 - 13:00: Lunch
 * 13:00 - 15:00: Speaking conference with the VIP school inspectors
 * 15:00 - 18:00: Detailed meeting with the school staff
 * 18:00 - 20:00: Dinner with politically influential people
 * 20:00 - 21:00: Returns home
 * 21:00 - 23:00: Education-related research
 * 23:00 - 1:00: TOP SECRET DATA NOT AVAILABLE
 * Gakuho is visually represented by a centipede.
 * One possible reason Gakuho only sleeps for 1/2 hours a night is because he still has nightmares about Rikuto Ikeda after his suicide.
 * During his life at cram school, Gakuho would sometimes brag about his income, which would make his students (Ikeda, Nakai and Mori) jealous. When his students gave him his tie pin, he casually mentioned that he earned seven million yen in just one day.
 * According to the Graduation Album, Gakuho's "hidden side" is that he is a doting parent. If you get him to start talking about his son, it becomes impossible to make him stop.