One of my favorite moments in Assassination Classroom occurs in episode three of the first season. Pushed to his final ace up his sleeve, Karma Akabane stands, back turned to a cliff, facing his teacher and his friend, gun in hand, he steps backwards into the dark abyss, his mouth curled into a twisted smile as the viewer sees his life’s defining moments flash before his eyes.
The nonchalant Karma isn’t exactly the first person to come to mind when talking about self deprecating characters in popular media. More than anything, his psychopathic nature is chilling and almost badass, and the fact that he is only in the dead end “E” class is due to his aggression toward his high ranking classmates only serves to strengthen this viewpoint. He’s a guy who seems to have everything, who chose to take part in the E class, a class filled with misfits and the school dunces.
But on closer inspection, there is much more to Karma than a genius psychopath. First, there’s him taking it upon himself to defend people from bullies. In a crucial show of character, Karma sees an E — Class member being bullied. In defense of that person, he enacts justice on the bully by punching his face in. He does resort to physical violence, yet he makes it a point to never use it on the worse off. Instead, he quenches his own bloodlust by beating up the oppressors, acting almost as a twisted symbol of justice and yet also hiding behind his psychopathic nature.
Then, there’s the insecurities. You see, Karma looks at things differently than a regular person would. His physical and academic abilities are already in the top percentile of his school, and he knows this. He knows that if he falls, the weak fall. His ultimate goal is to raise the weak up enough so they can defend themselves, a goal that is ultimately the same as the teacher they are trying to kill: Korosensei.
The problem is that Karma doesn’t see things this way with Korosensei. He sees Korosensei as another person to bully, another oppressor standing in the way of the E class, and forces him into a position where Korosensei either dies or shows his true intentions as another person looking to put the E class in their place.
Except that, and while Karma declares war on this octopus-looking thing, he never comes to stop and think that they might share the same objective. He attempts to use his often superior status to bully the bullies, but with a superpowered being that can travel at speeds of Mach 20, he stands no chance. He defaults to his surprise attack, but they render him useless, because a surprise attack only ever works once.
At this point, Karma is getting understandably frustrated. If there’s anything that he despises, it’s being looked down on. As a person who’s always looked down on people who are at the top of their class but never reaching his level, the moment he gets looked down on is humiliating, and all the more determined to make sure that nobody can experience that painful experience.
And so, with his back against the edge of the cliff, he uses his ace in the hole, choosing to forfeit his own life so that he can expose Korosensei as the true monster he is, and to make sure these outcasts can finally choose a life for themselves
But Korosensei outsmarts him. using his tentacles as a web, he’s able to save Karma without dying or sacrificing his reputation. And even if he’s able to kill Korosensei, Karma, in his twisted mindset, doesn’t care about his own value, but only that the people in the E class do get the same chance that he does.
And yet, even when Karma loses, even when Korosensei saves him without putting himself in danger, Karma, who just had the world end right in front of him, who was told that there was nothing he could to to protect the weaker from the humiliating defeat of this bully and that he was worthless, is reassured. Korosensei isn’t there to humiliate or make anyone feel any less human. He’s genuinely there to teach, to learn from kids who have never been listened to or respected their whole life.
It can be also interpreted that Karma finally accepts Korosensei because he sees the lengths that Korosensei went to save him and prove how serious he was in trying to teach. Korosensei valued his life, but he also valued teaching, a respect that he could provide, and in doing so, he created an opportunity where both could survive.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
As the story of Assassination Classroom progresses and as E class become more and more motivated, for the first time, Karma gets a taste of true competition.
Up until now, Karma has always been more powerful than his oppressors. He’s always been able to outwit them physically and mentally, but now, he’s locked into a battle with the Principal’s son, Asano. It’s here where Karma truly gets a taste of defeat, and it’s not from a superhuman being. It’s utterly devastating
But also for the first time, Karma doesn’t have to face it alone. Now, Karma has an understanding teacher, a teacher not better than him, but instead, who is equal to him. A teacher who is able to challenge the way Karma thinks without it having a hostile taste in his mouth, who is able to get him to see things from an entirely different perspective.
Karma is able to experience the true joy of learning for the first time. Instead of seeing academics as a tool to help his classmates, now, he sees it as a tool for himself to grow. He doesn’t have to feel the pressure of a million eyes on him, crying at him to save them. And while his ideas of defending the weak haven’t changed, he learns to enjoy the ride, to do something not because he has to, but because he chooses to.
Seeing Karma’s story of his own insecurities is a great inspiration to me. I might not have been the greatest student, nor the most physically built, but to me, I felt like I owed it to the worse off people to defend them. I wanted to prove that I could beat them, so that if people could understand me, they could understand other people. I would defend people to the death, like it was my own self I was defending, and every time I heard another insult being hurled at another person, a part of me felt like I had failed the people I was supposed to be defending. But Karma’s story is one of self acceptance, in order to truly help people in sticky situations, first, I had to help myself.
thanks for reading! :)
