Episode 34

Think Outside the Box Time is the thirty-fourth episode of the Assassination Classroom anime and the twelfth episode of Season 2. It premiered in Japan on 24 March 2016.

Summary
Karma Akabane and Gakushū Asano go head to head in the final maths problem. The end result leads to Class 3-E taking all the top 50 spots from Class A and Chairman Asano resorting to drastic measures to keep his educational philosophy alive.

Plot
With most of the grade either unable to reach the final question in time or simply too exhausted to attempt it, only Karma and Gakushu have enough time to try to solve the problem. Both students realise the complexity of the problem and approach their solutions in a different way. While Gakushu tries to answer the problem with complex formulae after only reading the last sentence of the question, Karma ponders on how everyone has a hidden talent (Nagisa, Sugino and Okuda to name a few). He finds a crucial line at the beginning of the question and realises the solution is quite simple. Karma writes down a simple formula as his answer, scoring a perfect 20. Gakushu scores 17 out of 20, having just run out of time before needing to write one more line.

The next day, Korosensei unfurls a large poster showing students that were in the top 50. After seeing that Terasaka (the last of Class 3-E in terms of academic ranking) is ranked 46th overall, the whole class rejoice that everyone has monopolised the top 50 spots. The Five Virtuosos have been knocked out of their previous mid-term rankings and Karma overtakes Gakushu as number one. Korosensei is proud of his students, though Karma admits that he may not have solved the last math problem if he had not spent the year socialising with Class 3-E. When Korosensei states that Class A did well in the first portion of the exam period, they were not able to handle the growing difficulty in the questions of the later subjects. Nakamura reasons that cramming can only take you so far, and their bloodlust had not been nurtured as long as that of Class E.

At the main campus, Class A and the Five Virtuosos are thoroughly depressed at their performance. Gakushu, although humbled by his defeat at Karma's hands, promises to use this frustration to make future victories a certainty. He states to his friends to use their defeats as a learning experience to better themselves in the future. At these words, Chairman Asano confronts his son stating that there is still the graduation exam to come for him to perfect his teachings but the whole of Class A realises that the principal's methods had caused them to lose, finding that the methods used to teach Class E have been a lot more effective. They bow their heads to the chairman as they request that they transfer to Class E. Gakushu turns to his father saying that the class gave their answer but is back-handed by his father in reaction. The glitched look on his face is the first time Gakushu has seen him expressing a fatherly reaction, as the class leaves the room.

At the mountain building, Korosensei states that every student is now eligible to return to the main campus. However the class are unanimous in staying so that they can kill their teacher. Korosensei decides to tell them another weakness as a reward but is interrupted by a loud noise that shakes the building. The students find that a bulldozer has torn down a part of the building with Chairman Asano standing in the background. He tells them that the board has decided to demolish the building and that the students will move to another premises akin to that of a prison. Furthermore, he pulls out Korosensei's dismissal papers and claims that he came to terminate him, prompting Korosensei to comically protest. He clarifies, meaning that he came to kill him. Asano though proposes a challenge to him. Should he wish to stay, he will need to solve a random problem in four of the workbooks Asano brought with him, before the anti-sensei grenade hidden in each of the books explode. Asano will solve the fifth problem in his workbook that contains a real grenade should Korosensei solve all of them alive. Everyone knows that the gamble gives an unfair advantage to Asano, and Terasaka points out that Korosensei only has a 20% chance in successfully pulling the challenge off. Terasaka claims that this is unfair, causing Asano to counter that life is unfair and filled with injustice. Nevertheless, Korosensei opens the first workbook and becomes flustered by a math problem involving planes. Asano has revealed that this had been calculated from the time when the two had first met, where he surprised Korosensei with a problem to be solved in one second. Until Korosensei is killed, Asano will be free to use the money blackmailed from the Ministry of Defense and the bounty to create branches around the country for his education philosophy to take effect. The episode ends with Korosensei taking a direct hit but still alive, as he tries to solve the remaining workbooks.

Differences between Manga and Anime

 * The grenades set up by Gakuho do not have the S.A.A.U.S.O. acronym in the manga.