Tear Jerker / Assassination Classroom

You were the one who understood us far better than anyone in this world - your lessons from now on and forever will be our guidepost...

"A brother and sister separated their whole lives! What a cruel fate! Waaaah!..."

— Koro-sensei's Weakness #14: Hackneyed plot developments make him cry.

WARNING: Spoilers Off applies to Tear Jerker pages. All spoilers are unmarked.

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• Bye Bye Yesterday, the last opening, is straight-up tearjerker material compared to the previous three openings. It's no surprise that the series will end with Koro-sensei's assassination, but the opening really drives forward the fact that they're running out of time, especially with Koro-sensei having explained his background. The ultimate tearjerker occurs near the end, where Nagisa looks back to see Koro-sensei bidding farewell, before vanishing.
• The second half of chapter one reveals Koro-sensei in his previous form with a woman, in a wasteland that looks like it was torn apart by some kind of disaster. She's the one who encourages him to be a teacher and seems to care for him and see him as beautiful despite not being human, but she's clearly dying. Knowing the full context on Koro-sensei's past in the last semester as mentioned below makes this moment even worse.
• In the chapter 2 of the manga, when Koro-sensei tells Sugino that he'll never reach Arita (Sugino's idol) level at fastballs, Nagisa asks "how can you be so sure?". Nothing sad here. But in the anime...
  Nagisa: "How? How can you be so sure? Because we're misfits? The E as for End Class? SO WHY BOTHER, RIGHT?!"
  • And the sad piano doesn't help...
• Chapter 84. After losing to Koro-sensei yet again, Itona starts screaming in pain that his brain feels like it is tearing open. Shiro reveals that whenever Itona loses, it causes him great pain and he has to be brought back to a special facility for a few months to get it under control. Yet after stating this, Shiro tells him that he is abandoning him to move on to a more successful assassination strategy. The chapter ends with Itona lashing out before running away from Koro-sensei and the others, still screaming in unbearable pain.
  • And then again, when Koro-sensei and the class finally find Itona a few days later. The kid's in horrible pain, seemingly hasn't slept in days, and he just looks up at Koro and says in this ragged, broken voice, "Come at me. Right now." Hard to tell if he's actually still trying to win, or if he just wants it to end.
• We learn that Nagisa, the viewpoint character for the most part, has a mother who is downright abusive to him if he defies her and who sees him as a girl. Given until chapter 112 we didn't know about it, it makes all of those moments mentioned about it Harsher in Hindsight.
  • For anyone who recognizes the hallmarks of an abusive situation, it is utterly gut-wrenching to see how Nagisa reacts to one of his mother's temperamental screaming outbursts: he blames himself for "defying her at the wrong moment".
    • Not only that, when she responds to his pleas by grabbing his hair and violently thrashing him around, he doesn’t even seem surprised in the slightest, showing that she likely often resorts to physical violence as well as emotional manipulation to get him to do what she wants.
• It says a lot that Karma was willing to pull a Suicide Attack just so he could get a chance at killing a teacher. He must have really admired that teacher who turned on him.
• The reason why Mr. Asano is the way he is. He blames himself for the suicide of one of his cram students, because they were bullied. The kicker is that the student never fought back, because he'd become much more kind, as a result of Mr. Asano's teaching.
  • In retaliation, Mr. Asano's descent into darkness was to use his brainwashing techniques to utterly destroy the bully's life. When we see the bully as an adult, he's filthy, homeless and desperate for money to throw away gambling, just as the principal wanted him to.
• Yukimura Aguri's death. Everyone knows that it will happen but her parting with Koro-sensei still brought enough tears. Made even more heartwrenching in anime with this piece playing all the while.
• After learning Koro-sensei's backstory, everyone, including Karasuma and Irina, were saddened that they must kill him before he destroys the Earth after all the good times they had with him. Killing Koro-sensei would mean killing the teacher that had been through so much with them.
  • Just the looks on everyone's faces. Karasuma and Irina look ashamed, Karma and Kayano (especially her when you consider that her actions revealed this horrible truth and when she found out her revenge was All for Nothing) like they're going to be ill, and Nagisa like he's gone into shock. Hara looks like she's trying not to throw up and everyone else is at least cringing. The magnitude of doing this has finally hit them. No one plans an assassination attempt during their break.
    "And there wasn't a single student who intended to blame Koro-sensei for Yukimura-sensei's death... because everyone knew that both of them were teachers who would never leave someone in trouble behind."
• Seeing the class, who have generally been True Companions, draw up battle lines over where to kill Koro-sensei or try to save him. Especially the harsh words traded by Karma and Nagisa, who seemed to previously respect each other, and their subsequent fight.
  • Even worse, Koro-sensei doesn't even care what they decide to do, so long as they don't break apart because of him.
    "If I have to be killed... I at least want to be killed by you, and not by someone else."
  • And everyone in class voicing their reasons for taking a particular side.
• The Valentine's Day arc is mostly a cute Breather Episode before the finale, but after the cute, shippy shenanigans of the Class E kids, we get a brief moment of Koro-sensei gazing at a picture of Aguri.
• Chapter 164: Koro-sensei's existence is now public knowledge, and the Japanese government declares to the world that he's the being who destroyed the moon, as well as corrupting Class-E. Koro-sensei is now Public Enemy #1 over false charges, and the only people who know of his innocence are Class-E and the board chairman. With all of his extremism that borders into downright evil, Asano Sr. expresses his sympathies over his employee's situation.
  Gakuhou Asano: Koro-sensei... It seems that the final assassin you're up against is all of humanity.
• Chapter 170: After the class has overcome the odds and several powerful foes to reach Koro-sensei one last time, he encourages them with one final lecture to help raise their spirits. Rio reveals that she brought a special cake in celebration of the fact that this was the date established by Aguri Yukimura as Koro-sensei's birthday. The class happily sings Happy Birthday for him and, just as Koro-sensei is about to blow out the candle, the cake is destroyed by Yanagisawa and the Second God of Death as they declare their intention to give Koro-sensei the cruelest death imaginable.
• Regardless of what you think of her, Irina has a pretty rough time of it in the God of Death arc. First, the class attempts to cheer her up after missing her birthday by having Karasuma present her with a bouquet of flowers, but when he coldly points out that her feelings are just getting in the way of assassinating Koro-sensei (because they'll either be dead by March or split up when the job is done), she thinks the students were just playing around with her and storms off. Then she gets abducted and, sometime off-screen, receives a Breaking Speech from the titular assassin about how she's only playing at having a normal life and will never accomplish anything. So she defects and helps the God of Death capture everyone, even taking a shot at the man she loves, only to be used as a diversion and end up buried under rubble. Then we get a series of flashbacks about her past, and given her age (she's on her early 20s) and the year this series happens, it's likely that she lived her childhood around the The Yugoslav Wars. To cover up the trauma of her first kill, she desensitized herself to death at the cost of childhood or any meaningful relationships - while she thinks that Karasuma letting her die would be fine since it'd stop her from re-experiencing any true affection or loss. Thankfully, she is rescued and told that the students still want her around.
• More Fridge Sadness, but when everyone is gathered around the God of Death after the first fight with him, Koro-sensei says that the one that put him on his path was an utter fool. Then you learn Koro-sensei's past and realize he was talking about himself. Heroic Self-Deprecation and My Greatest Failure don't begin to cover his hatred and grief about his failures. And it can't be denied that some of them were his fault, particularly about the God of Death.
• Chapter 173: Kayano takes a fatal blow while trying to hold off the second God of Death. It gets even worse when you realize that once again, Koro-sensei is witnessing someone he cares about getting impaled by a tentacle trying to save him. And her sister at that.
• Chapter 174: As Koro-sensei closes in for the killing blow on the second God of Death, both of them remember the time they spent with each other as a proper student and teacher. instead of merely allowing the anti-tentacle field to finish him off, Koro-sensei uses a tissue to hold the anti-tentacle knife and concisely stab his pupil in the heart, an action that resembles more of a hug than it does anything else. Koro-sensei's last words to him are those of pride and regret that he hadn't been more attentive, and promising that if they meet again, he'll treat him better. Comparing The Reaper to the Class 3-E, it's sobering that the former didn't get the same fair and loving treatment that Koro-sensei gave to the latter, especially all The Reaper wanted was to his mentor to acknowledge him that also extends to the wish that he made when he contacted with the tentacles. Despite his resentment to him that lead to his betrayal and multiple attempts in his life and to his students, he still longed for his mentor's approval, to treat him more than just a mere extension of himself.
• Chapter 176: Both Koro-sensei and Class E resign themselves to acceptance that it's time to kill Koro-sensei before the Kill Sat does it for them.
  • And they begin by kneeling down around him, each student taking a hold on Koro-sensei, to "restrain" him. It seems a lot more like a tearful group hug than restraint.
• Chapter 177: Koro-sensei is finally assassinated by Class E after performing one last roll call. Nobody is happy about this.
  • Karasuma calls Koro-sensei by his name, for the first and last time. Sad.
  • Then he takes roll call one final time, and everyone is on the verge of tears as they respond, if not already over it. Double sad.
    • The anime version makes it sadder, all thanks to a Lonely Piano Piece by the name of "Sayonara no Jikan".^note lit, "Goodbye Time"
  • Nagisa completely snaps as he's about to make the final blow, until Koro-sensei stops him and reminds him that an assassin should not kill in rage, or out of control. Triple sad.
  • Finally, he tells Nagisa to smile, and somehow he manages it. He stabs Koro-sensei in a way he likens to bowing, and the best teacher there will ever be disappears in a million motes of light. Forever sad.
  • What drives the knife in? His assassination is an act of love from both them and him. Koro-sensei is fully at peace with his unavoidable fate and encourages them to go through with it. None of them want to do it, but know it's the end he wants. Koro-sensei reflects upon the year he's spent with them and all know how much they've come to mean to one another as teacher and students. In the end, Koro-sensei is teaching them one last thing: the value of life. And he's happy to go out that way, a teacher to the end...just as the woman he loved wanted. Infinity+ sad.
    • The song playing in the background is "Tabidachi no Uta"^note lit, "Song of Departure", sung by Class E themselves to their favourite octopus teacher, about the fact that he was the only one who understands them and the pain of putting him down, it continues playing over the kids crying to drive the point home.
  • What really kicks it is the kids crying their eyes out as Koro-sensei fades away. Even Karma, Terasaka, Itona, and Robot Girl Ritsu were in tears. Karasuma is the only one managing to hold back the waterworks; even Irina can't stop herself from sobbing a little. Nagisa seems to take this the worst, as seen in the page image.
    "Koro-sensei's entire body glowed brightly in the dark... and calmly fluttered away... as tiny particles of light. Though we had been grasping onto him like our lives depended on it... he gently slipped away from us."
  • All of this is made extremely painful to watch in the anime as you can actually hear the plaintive keening the students let out after Koro-sensei finally dies - all due to the remarkable performances by both the English and Japanese VA's. Nagisa's anguished scream as he prepares to strike down his teacher was a notable moment, but everyone does a truly wonderful job in selling the grief these children feel as their beloved mentor passes on.
  • In the manga, the final page of this chapter (at least in the bound editions) shows an illustration of Aguri and Koro-sensei, reunited at last. The final chapter also shows them watching over the Class E alumni, sitting on the roof together and smiling at how well everything's ended.