Episode 2

Baseball Time is the second episode of the Assassination Classroom anime series. The episode first aired on January 16, 2015.

Overview
Sugino is a member of Class E who uses baseball in his assassination attempts. However, he failed and has lost confidence in himself causing Nagisa to worry. Because of this, Korosensei offers advice to Sugino in his time of insecurity.

Summary
One day before school, Korosensei is reading a newspaper from Hawaii about the moon. Behind a bush, Sugino and Nagisa have prepared an assassination attempt, with Sugino using Nagisa’s notes and then throwing a baseball imprinted with anti-sensei BBs at Korosensei’s head. However, though Korosensei notes its creativeness and stealth, it gives him enough time to go to the sports shed and catch it with a glove. As he leaves, Sugino lowers his head in humiliation.

During class, Nagisa tells Kayano about it, while Sugino appears to still be dismayed. Before the lunch bell rings, Korosensei grabs a photo of him that Sugaya was drawing, then proceeds to go to a baseball game in New York City. While the classmates fantasize about what food (or girls) Korosensei can bring them as souveniers, Karasuma appears and asks the class if they have made progress. The class complains about the difficulty, but Karasuma refuses to hear it out. This leaves Nagisa confused.

The next day during lunch, Sugino goes outside to eat, but puts his food down. Korosensei then comes and gives him the ball back (while eating a whole coconut). He asks if Sugino is on a team, but he says that, since they are in E Class, they can’t participate in sports, and when used to be on the team, he never struck anyone out. Korosensei finds this to be discrimination, and asks if he can give Sugino “advice”.

Nagisa briefly goes outside to turn in some papers, only to see that Korosensei has completely wrapped Sugino in tentacles. Thinking that he is trying to taunt him for the assassination attempt, Nagisa runs out to stop him, but instead Korosensei is testing out Sugino’s physique. He realizes that Sugino is attempting to replicate the style of the New York Yankees’ pitcher, but says that because his shoulders are not as strong, that is impossible. Nagisa immediately protests that Korosensei is insulting them because they are E Class, but Korosensei says he is misunderstanding. After showing them that he is the same tentacle thing to Sugino’s idol (and got his autograph), he then explains that Sugino should instead work on becoming more flexible than the pitcher and develop his own style. Sugino is immediately cheered up by this. When Korosensei goes inside, Nagisa follows him and asks why he would go so far. Briefly thinking the same flashback, Korosensei says that he is just here because of a promise. He then proceeds to edit Nagisa’s diary essay, but the touching moment is ruined when Nagisa discovers a bonus question on why a picture of a tentacle isn’t “moe enough”. Korosensei reluctantly obliges, then proceeds to eat his pen while Nagisa narrates that Korosensei’s main strength was his motivation. And pretty soon, Sugino creates his own curveball style.

Sometime later, Korosensei is having lunch by himself in the forest, shaving some ice that is presumably from the North Pole. Six of the students then run out of the bushes, happily offering to eat with him. Korosensei is immediately touched, but then realizes that they are trying to stab him with anti-sensei knives. He quickly proceeds to take the knives and jokingly replace them with tulips. As Korosensei tries handing the knives back, Kataoka realizes that the tulips in question are actually ones that the class had planted months earlier. Horrified at what he has done, Korosensei grabs some new tulip bulbs and tries to plant them as an apology, to the confusion of the class. Meanwhile, Nagisa continues jotting notes on Korosensei and assessing his “weak points”, which are actually just flaws in his character, leaving Kayano and Sugino suspicious of its value.

Over in another building outside of the forest, where the main school is, Karasuma meets with the school principal. It is revealed that Karasuma will become the new PE teacher, hoping that he can teach the students proper assassination tactics. As he and his accomplice leave, they overhear two students talking about raising grades to avoid getting sent to Class 3-E, as those kids are failures who practically will never go to college. After a brief showcase of the school’s nut mascot Kunudon expressing a hypocritical message of equality, Karasuma says that him becoming the PE teacher has more benefits since it is the perfect assassination spot.

As Karasuma heads to the old campus, he meets with Kayano, who tells him that Korosensei, as additional apologies, has allowed the students to tie him up, hang him from a tree branch, and repeatedly shoot and stab at him while he dodges at a reduced speed. With the students still having no luck, Korosensei starts to act cocky, but soon the branch snaps under pressure (Weak Point #1: When he shows off, things get shaky). As Korosensei falls on the ground, the students quickly take the initiative to attack him from there, forcing a panicked Korosensei to roll around on the ground comically (Weak Point #2: Freaks out easily), before eventually jumping on the roof. As he taunts them from there, Korosensei gives them extra homework (Weak Point #3: No tolerance) then flees. Despite this turn of events, the students immediately seem undeterred and are even joking about it. This puzzles Karasuma since the system has pretty much given up on them yet they are so happy.

Meanwhile, in the Ministry of Defense, a young boy is in the middle of a suspension. He will have to join E-Class, so the government fills him in on everything that is going on. This student, Karma Akabane, does not seem to mind murdering a teacher – or anyone else.

Episode Notes

 * During the episode, students in the background are shown in 3D CGI.
 * Chairman Asano makes a cameo debut in this episode.

Differences Between the Manga

 * The scene where Nagisa goes off at Korosensei's note of Sugino's lack of skill compared to pro baseball player Arita is not in the manga. Rather, in the manga he only asks Korosensei how he can say that about Sugino's skill level with such certainty.