[AFASG 2016] Assassination Classroom Feat. Nobuhiko Okamoto

Assassination Classroom or “Ansatsu Kyoushitsu” in Japanese language, is a science fiction manga series written and illustrated by Yuusei Matsui. The series was serialized on Shueisha’s Weekly Shounen Jump magazine from July 2012 to March 2016 and is licensed in English by Viz Media. The series follows the daily lives of an extremely powerful octopus-like teacher and his students dedicated to the task of assassinating him to prevent Earth from being destroyed. As of July 2016, twenty-one tankoubon volumes have been released in Japan with a circulation of 20 million copies. A single original video animation adaptation by Brain’s Base based on the series was screened at the Jump Super Anime Tour on October to November 2013. This was followed by a television anime adaptation by Lerche, which began airing on Fuji TV in January 2015. This adaptation has been licensed by Funimation for release in North America. The series was obtained by Madman Entertainment for digital distribution in Australia and New Zealand. A live action film adaptation was released on March 21, 2015. A sequel, Assassination Classroom: Graduation, was released on March 25, 2016.

Earth is threatened by an enormously powerful monster who destroyed 70% of the Moon with its power, permanently sliced it into the shape of a crescent. The monster claims that within a year, Earth will also be destroyed by him, but he offers mankind a chance to avert this fate. In class 3-E at Kunugigaoka Junior High School, he starts working as a homeroom teacher where he teaches his students not only regular subjects, but the ways of assassination. The Japanese government promises a reward of ¥10 billion (i.e. 100 million USD) to whoever among the students succeeds in killing the monster, whom they have named “Koro-sensei” or just “Korosen” for short (from korosenai “unkillable” and sensei “teacher).

However, this has proven to be an almost impossible task, as not only does he have several superpowers at his disposal, including the capacity of moving at Mach 20, but he is also the best teacher they’ve ever had, helping them not only to improve their grades, but also their individual skills and perspectives for the future. As the series goes on, the entire situation gets even more complicated as other assassins come after Koro-sensei’s life, some coveting the reward, others for personal reasons, and the students eventually learn the secrets involving him, the Moon’s destruction and his ties with their previous homeroom teacher, including the true reason why he must be killed before the end of the year term.

This time AFASG presents stage event for Assassination Classroom and Nobuhiko Okamoto, cast of Karma Akabane will appear on stage! Nobuhiko Okamoto, who usually called Nobu or Pikorin is a male seiyuu from Pro-fit seiyuu agency which notable from his role as Rin Okumura in Ao no Exorcist. He is debuting as voice actor in 2006 from anime NHK ni Youkoso and got his first main character role in same year from anime Ghost Hunt (Akuryou Series) as John Brown. After 3 years working in voice acting field, he won Best newcomer Seiyuu on 3rd Seiyuu Award in 2009 for his role Accelerator in A Certain Magical Index, Shin Kanzato in Persona : Trinity Soul, and Ryuji Kuhoin in Kure-nai. Following two years in 2011 years after that, Nobu won Best Supporting Seiyuu on 5th Seiyuu Award for Takumi Usui in Kaichou wa Maid-sama!, Eiji Niizuma in Bakuman, and of course Accelerator in A Certain Magical Index. After voiced many roles and including his skill to sing for character song & insert song, in 2012 Nobu steps up his career and become a singer under Kiramune, male seiyuu entertaiment record which labelled under Lantis and Bandai Visual. This seiyuu who said inspired become a voice actor because of Slam Dunk, finally attend AFASG for the first time! Kojacon Team is very happy to join this stage! Let’s take a closer look to anime Assassination classroom and of course to know Nobuhiko Okamoto better!

Hi Nobu! Thanks for coming today! Please say something to audience! 
Hi everyone! I’m Nobuhiko Okamoto, cast of Karma Akabane in Assasination Classroom. Nice to meet you all today! Please enjoy the stage, okay! I love Singapore!

Is it your first time coming to Singapore?
Nope! This is my fifth times! I really like Singapore LOL. I love local food, I like to eat Chilly Crab, Chicken Rice, and Kaya Toast. I came here for works and holiday too. Beside that, I like to play iFly in Sentosa island so much! I’ve been there 3 times! Anyway, I also like the good service of Singapore Airlines! You know, I never go to USJ but I went to USS several times previously! I want to live in Singapore actually! I often go to Marina Bay Sands for relaxing. In recording session, if my colleague talk about Singapore I just explain to them about this and that, to go here and there, and so on OMG! I just like the representative of Singapore Tourism board!

Let’s proceed to Assassination Classroom topic! So this anime is ended with a very beautiful story, right? Is there any interesting moment which you never experienced before?
Of course. I’ve never face any situation in recording session that makes me want to start crying. However, this anime is my first time that I cried wholeheartedly. In episode 24, it was when Koro-sensei is held down by his beloved students, he takes one final attendance before Nagisa deals the killing blow. Afterwards, the students check their classroom to find their diplomas, graduation albums, and personalized guidebooks left behind by Koro-sensei. It’s an emotional, really emotional episode. I was crying. A lot.

Between all students, maybe Karma Akabane is the most popular guy. We know he’s the ideal guy whom every boy wants to be, but on the other side he is a chuunibyou [A Japanese slang term which roughly translates to “Middle School 2nd Year Syndrome”, a person which manifests delusional behavior, particularly thinking that one has special powers that no other person has], right? Please give us a comment about him!
You know that! LOL. Yeah, Karma is actually a chuunibyou, oh no! the correct one is chuuni-han-byou. He is a half chuuni, hahaha. He gains so much effort to improve himself, and thanks to that he could strike a lot of cool pose like you all already know. I’m sure he really knows how to pose well so everyone will see Karma as a very cool male student, isn’t he? But it’s very embarrassing if I should do the same pose like Karma. Anyway, is it true that Karma’s face nearly like me? LOL

You should answer that, is there any similarity between Nobuhiko Okamoto and Karma Akabane?
Beside face? LOL! Yeah, what to say.. You know Karma is a skillful student, yet so chuuni-han. When I was in High School back there, I always wanted to be a cool boy and kakkoii just like Karma. And I often posed like Karma actually, LOL! But that’s not mean I was a chuunibyou! And because of that, I really love Karma.

From all student in class 3E, who is your fave classmate?
Kinda difficult question! Each student is very attractive. They have different skill and their own charming point, so I like them all! But if I have to choose, my favorite student is Tomohito Sugino. He used to be a baseball player in their school’s baseball club until he was assigned into class 3-E, kicking him out of the club. His story became more interesting in the anime version. I like his acting so much in episode 20, about valentine! If I could answer aside from the student, I really love Koro-sensei actually. Not only the character but also Fukuyama-san (cast of Koro-sensei) acts so well to express all emotion. His sadness, happiness, sorrow, and so on from Koro-sensei himself, he really mastered this skill, how should I say it? Emotion on demand?

So you like Koro-sensei better than the students actually?
Well…. beside the background story from manga and characteristic of himself, I don’t know whether my reason related to anime Assassination Classroom or not, but I already had recording session previously with Fukuyama-san in anime Ao no Exorcist. We also attended both anime stage event in Japan. In that anime, he was a scary and strict sensei, but in this anime he became an angel! Just like an angelique sensei that is very kind and nice to his students, am I right? And I learned a lot from both Koro-sensei and Fukuyama-san. I learned how to ad-lib! A lot. For example, he taught me how to separate the first hatsuon and second hatsuon in “PACHINKO” word, oops I’m sorry I said that  LOL!

OMG! He is really a great teacher indeed! LOL How about girl student? Any fave one?
Oh yeah, based on recording session, Karma’s fave classmate is actually Manami Okuda (who uses aspects of chemistry to her advantage in assassination. Okuda is naive, guileless and honest; when she has hands bottles of poison over to Koro-sensei, she informs him of their intoxication, but begs him to drink them anyway). But beside her, if I look from the entire series, I also like Kirara Hazama (the only female student of class E who hangs around with Terasaka’s group. She enjoys creeping people out on purpose, and seems entertained by the subsequent reactions), because I like her charming aura after 7 years, she became mature after the series is ended and I like it.

How about Karma after 7 years?
Karma also grows a lot. I feel the difference from the very first time I’ve recorded as Karma until the last episode and the movie also. You know, Karma passed a lot of emotional conflicts between himself and his surroundings from the beginning when I voiced Karma as junior high school student, and it continues until 7 years later. Karma in the movie is more mature indeed; his voice became heavier and more manly. I hope its close to the directed task from the director. Hopefully.

The previous talks related to Assassination Classroom the movie right? Do you want to say a word about it?
Assassination Classroom the Movie : 365 Days (Gekijouban: Ansatsu Kyoushitsu 365 Nichi no Jikan) is launched already in Japan, and it is also aired in several cinemas in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The story is just a compilation movie of the Ansatsu Kyoushitsu TV series, featuring anime-only epilogue scenes which are not originally in the manga. Unfortunately it won’t be available in South East Asia, so sorry. If you have time please watch the movie in Japan or Hong Kong or Taiwan! LOL

Do you have interesting story regarding this anime movie?
My mom heard that this movie is booming and she went to cinema to watch it by herself. But because she came on weekend, the tickets is already sold out and she was complaining to me via LINE “After long waited and finally I can’t see you!”. I just said “nothing I can do, Mom.” And there’s no compensation or discount either even if she asked the staff and said that she is my mom LOL. But maybe she watched already on following weekdays.

For the last part, Nobu did nama-afureko (alone) just like the previous stage event, this time for 3 scenes from 3 episodes of anime series. After that, Nobu had little chat about following meet and greet session right after this stage ends later. He also said he wants to eat a lot of local food which he never eats before, such as “Ice Kacang” and many more. He asked anyone about recommended food or tourism spot so he can enjoy his free time. Then audience asked him back to make an SNS.

It’s about closing time, Nobu! Kindly say goodbye to audience here!
I’m very touched watching anime Assassination Classroom, TV anime and also the movie version. I hope you like this works also and please keep supporting Assasination Classroom. I’m really glad to come to AFASG today and meet you all at this stage. Thanks a lot for coming and having fun with me. We’ll meet again for sure in other occasion. Goodbye from Karma Akabane and see you all very soon! Once again, I LOVE SINGAPORE! Bye bye!

Special Thanks:
SOZO PTE,. LTD
AFASG 2016 COMMITTEE
PRO-FITS OVERSEAS STAFF

Photos Credit: ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM OFFICIAL TWITTER
Image Credit: ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM OFFICIAL WEBSITE