User:FanOfAniManga

Hey Wikians. My username is FanOfAniManga, or FOAM for short. As you can tell by my username, I'm a fan of anime and manga series.

I mainly like to work on anime and manga-related Wikis on smaller series that I personally like and think have the potential to become extremely popular. With a renowned author starting what'll definitely be a sure-fire hit, I knew right away I'd be hooked with Assassination Classroom.

My Thoughts on Assassination Classroom
Last Updated: March 30, 2014

Since I formally began Wiki editing in August 2010, I've also began on a quest to search for the next big manga in the magazine. For many months, it's been a depressing run, with no major hit having been produced from May 2009 with Medaka Box until November 2011 with Nisekoi. Still, I wanted to settle on something I liked, not a romantic comedy or sports manga, but an action manga, so I had to wait a little longer. When the first new action manga of 2012 came across the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, I became very hyped with all its special preparations, but it turned out to be just a mediocre false start. Little did I know that the very next manga to be released on the magazine would be what I was looking for (the short story Koganeiro in between doesn't count, but I enjoyed it too).

Right when I heard that Yūsei Matsui would be creating this new manga, I had to check it out. I already stumbled across his previous work, Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro, and I loved it. At that point, I wouldn't have cared about the name of the manga, but it too caught my attention: Assassination Classroom. The juxtaposition of two completely unrelated words was an eye catcher. It made me wonder: What could a story about an assassination classroom be like? After reading the first few chapters, I felt attracted to the manga not just from its action and comedy, but especially from how relatable its story and characters are to real life.

The main challenges of the story and certain aspects of the setting are too imaginative for real life, but everything else, including the morals of the story, the smaller challenges, and the characters' personalities are very realistic. The students of class 3-E seem like very normal people who come from all walks of life and have come across different misfortunes or have different imperfections placed on them to emerge. By placing them in a social environment of so-called world elites where they're condemned for not being elites already, it brings to us a recurringly fresh perspective on how people can change when they face certain obstacles in life.

What I find really interesting about this manga is that while it's extremely popular in Japan, to the Westerner, it's a very lacklustre work. I believe it's because we were all expecting it to be more suspenseful and action-packed. As Westerners, we all grew up accustomed to the likes of Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto or Bleach, leading us to believe that a bestselling manga or anime must always be a constant thrill ride, where action-packed adventure and combat is always afoot. After all, this manga has the word assassination in its title. For this series, a thrill ride is only half its answer to its success, if not less.

Instead, this manga takes a unique approach, exploring the techniques behind assassinations through more deconstructive, logical analyses that can be applied within an everyday, slice-of-life setting. Instead of creating just a typical shonen manga of battle sequences and power ups to try to keep readers' suspension of disbelief afloat, Matsui chose to create a work that actually speaks out to the very demographic this magazine is supposed to target: middle school students. Indeed, this manga is highly relatable to real life, as I've mentioned earlier, but it's designed to relate much better to middle school students than to young adults, unlike a more typical action manga that'd easily cater to a much wider demographic, by culture and age. Given that the demographics of Western anime and manga fans are significantly older than their Japanese counterparts, it's easy to see why this manga would appeal a lot more in Japan than elsewhere around the world.

Whether or not you like its storytelling, you have to admit, the series is very creative. If this story lasts longer than the one year span before Korosensei destroys the Earth, I can imagine the students in the manga will develop significantly over time, correlating with a stronger following among middle school students as they get older in real life, and a growing following among Westerners, if only a little. For the moment, however, I believe this manga's main obstacle to gaining popularity in the Western world is not becoming lost in translation (it is somewhat), but rather, lost in demographics.

Still, after witnessing Assassination Classroom and it's outstanding performance in terms of volume sales, magazine rankings and overall popularity in its home country, I think it's finally safe for me to call off my search for the next big manga... for now.

Having been enthusiastic about this series and unable to find an existing Wiki for the series prior, I started this dedicated Wiki. I am very excited to contribute to this Wiki, giving you the latest information in a concise and organized manner. I'm confident the series will stay alive for awhile and I can't wait to see it develop further. I also look to develop Wikis of new, potentially groundbreaking series to the same standard as those of well-established Wikis of manga/anime series.

Help us contribute!