Karma Akabane (赤あか羽ばね 業かるま, Akabane Karuma) is the deuteragonist of the Assassination Classroom series. He is a student of Kunugigaoka Junior High School, and one of Nagisa Shiota's best friends. He is posted to Class 3-E for his third year, after being suspended for violent behaviour. ADVERTISEMENT Appearance ADVERTISEMENT Main Series Karma has pale skin, short red hair, and sharp, golden eyes. He also has a slender, muscular build, toned through Mr Karasuma's physical education lessons and years of fighting experience. When plotting pranks or trolling his classmates, Karma is often drawn with devil horns and a cartoonish grin. Despite his personality, the girls of Class 3-E consider Karma as one of the most handsome boys in their class. Karma usually wears a black cardigan over his uniform shirt, and forgoes his tie. Karma has only been seen in his full school uniform once in the series, at Kunugigaoka's graduation ceremony. Timeskip Seven years after graduation, Karma is significantly taller (over six feet), and has slightly longer hair parted on his left. His eyes are also less sharp and threatening. Personality Karma is well-known throughout the school for his violent behavior and troublesome attitude where he is quite cunning, mischievous and somewhat sadistic, usually playing foul, tricking, and at times manipulating, humiliating and fighting others. He has been described by Tadaomi Karasuma as "at first glance, he comes across as being a lazy sort, but there's a strong sense of mischief in his eyes" and Itona Horibe has described him to have "certain vision" to Ryoma Terasaka. Karma is quite relaxed most of the time as he occasionally skips out on things he finds boring, such as the school assembly. However, he has become considerably more hard working at studying after the embarrassing exam arc although he hides it by making it look like he was playing video games. Unexpectedly, Karma is a fan of superhero movies, like Sonic Ninja. Despite his somewhat sadistic nature, Karma actually has good values behind his motives, and can be quite empathetic. The reason he was placed in Class 3-E was that he had rescued a senior from Class E being bullied by students from the main building. He is, unlike his former classmates, unprejudiced against Class E. He believes each and every one of them have their own special talents and will defend them, especially against Class A. When he was in the main building, due to the betrayal of his most-trusted homeroom teacher, Karma began to hate all people who called themselves 'teachers' and as a result, he had almost zero respect for any adults. However, Karma has become more objective after meeting Korosensei, now respecting more of his opponents' and teachers' strengths and weaknesses. Karma has shown to be more than capable of respecting and caring for other people, as he greatly cares for Nagisa who seems to be his friend, and has grown attached to his classmates and others: he is best friends with Nagisa Shiota, he gets along with Manami Okuda and Rio Nakamura, he often teases Terasaka and respects Gakushu Asano while he sees him as his intellectual rival. He also forms a bond with Korosensei, breaking down crying when he died. However, Karma also tends to be quite impulsive, to the point of becoming truly brutal and cruel when fighting with people who threaten him or any of his friends from Class E. ADVERTISEMENT History Karma comes from a wealthy family as his parents are successful financial day traders. They are "free people" who spend most of their time traveling around the world, and as a result, they spend little time with Karma. For a long time, Karma had been a rebellious student with a problematic attitude. However, due to his good grades, his homeroom teacher had supported him and proclaimed that "as long as Karma does what's right, he'll back him up." In his first two years at Kunugigaoka Junior High School, Karma had been friends with fellow classmate Nagisa Shiota where he first approached Nagisa when he saw the latter reading an article about Karma's favorite film director adapting a comic book and invited Nagisa to watch with him. For a short time, the two hung out together with Karma being able to be less guarded with Nagisa. One day at a fast food outlet though, Nagisa unintentionally was able to sneak up on Karma. This made Karma feel exposed and vulnerable since Nagisa could have struck and killed him in that moment and he wouldn't have been able to react in time - something the strong and capable Karma wasn't used to. Karma sensed a mysterious but sinister feeling from Nagisa, but as he realized that he does not know how to deal with this (having being used to beating his problems with his fists). As a result, Karma distanced himself from Nagisa. By the time of his suspension, their relationship reverted back to being just classmates. One day Karma had found a senior from Class 3-E being bullied and had jumped to his rescue, severely injuring the main building's 3rd year in the process. Convinced that he was still in the 'right', Karma was shocked when his homeroom teacher told him that he was in the 'wrong'. His teacher then further elaborated that he had no right to protect a "worthless piece of trash" from Class E and instead injured a fellow student with a "bright future", and told him that starting his third year he would be dropped to Class E. This caused the teacher's worth to 'die' in Karma's eyes, as well as causing Karma to stop caring about teachers in general and instead focused on doing what he wanted. ADVERTISEMENT Plot Introduction: Karma Time Aka Karma was still in suspension when Korosensei first arrived. However, he was briefed by a Ministry of Defence spokeswoman of the situation currently going on in his class. He makes his debut in Chapter 3, reuniting with his friend Nagisa Shiota, although the two communicated like visiting guests (adding the 'kun' suffix). Seeing Korosensei, Karma politely introduces himself and holds out his hand to shake. When Korosensei obliges, his tentacle fingers splatter, shocking him and the students. Karma reveals his hand to contain sliced pieces of the same material as that of the anti-sensei knife, making him the first person to have injured his unkillable teacher. Throughout his first day, Karma continually agitates Korosensei, one instance stealing the latter's Italian gelato and pranks him, but Nagisa Shiota worries that this will come back to hit Karma hard. The next day, Karma's next attempts backfire as Korosensei is now constantly on watch and gives Karma constant manicures. Eventually, Karma resorts to suicide by jumping off the mountain as a way to destroy Korosensei's reputation if he decided not to save him (based on his previous experience with his former homeroom teacher). Korosensei does save him, also avoiding Karma's hidden BB gun and gets Karma to see how far his new teacher will go to educate him. Karma concedes defeat for the time being and becomes another ally for Class 3-E. ADVERTISEMENT First Semester Karma saw the arrival of their new English teacher Irina Jelavić. However, her arrogance and self-pride would cause the class to initially call her "Bitch-neesan", of which Karma first came up with before they later settled for "Bitch-sensei" ("Professor Bitch" in the English dub). When the midterm exams were held, most of Class 3-E failed to get into the top 50 due largely to the principal changing of the exam scope. However, Karma effortlessly ranked 4th despite the changed questions and declared that he would not transfer to the main building as assassinations are much more enjoyable. During the Kyoto school trip, Karma was invited by Nagisa Shiota to join him alongside Kaede Kayano, Manami Okuda, Tomohito Sugino and Yukiko Kanzaki. While scouting for possible sites for assassinating Korosensei, the group was ambushed by high school delinquents. Despite Karma's desire for battle, the boys were overpowered resulting in Kayano and Kanzaki's kidnapping. With help from Korosensei's extensive guidebook, and the octopus himself, Karma got his vengeance as he, Nagisa, Sugino and Okuda (who hid herself during the ambush) defeated the delinquents and save the girls. That night, when the boys ranked their female classmates, Karma was asked which he liked and he answered Okuda, adding the reason being the opportunity to experiment around with questionable mixtures, much to the ire of his classmates. Also that night, Rio Nakamura proposed to the girls to talk about the ones they like in the class, Toka Yada later said that Karma would be on top with good looks alone then replied by the girls that if only he was a little behaved, Okuda layer said that; "He's not really scary, though" then Kayano immediately replied that: " He's usually pretty quiet" Karma saw the arrival of two transfer students (Ritsu and Itona Horibe) who both failed in killing Korosensei despite their enhanced abilities, although Itona notes that Karma was the strongest in the class. He participated in the baseball exhibition game against the skilled baseball club where he provoked the audience and the club members themselves as his contribution to Class E winning the match. Although not present when Akira Takaoka arrived in his short stint as PE teacher (skipping his class), he, later on, praised Nagisa's 'assassination', saying that he would have liked to see it. Karma played a vital role when Itona and his guardian Shiro made a second attempt at Korosensei's life, having created a strategy for Ryoma Terasaka and Class E to thwart their plan. In preparation for the end of semester exams, Korosensei promised to let any student destroy a tentacle provided that they place first in any subject. Karma adopted a lazy approach, believing he will ace the exams no problem. As such he ignored Korosensei's concerns and did not join his classmates in study sessions or in helping out win a bet with Class A. This approach causes Karma to bomb out in the maths exam against Gakushu Asano, dropping from 4th to 13th overall. Korosensei whimsically mocks him for his attitude, further angering Karma and causing him to storm off. Fortunately, Class E won their bet against Class A and won a holiday vacation to Okinawa. Yuma Isogai, Rio Nakamura and Okuda each scored first in their respective subject, however, Terasaka and his group demand their share, each tied for first place in Home Economics. At Ryunosuke Chiba's egging, Karma snaps out of his depression and calls out Korosensei's feeble bluff, horrifying their teacher that seven tentacles will be destroyed instead of three. ADVERTISEMENT Assassination Island Arc Arriving at Okinawa, Karma helped the class prepare for the upcoming assassination by scouting underwater to determine the location's suitability. When the attempt does happen later in the night, Karma was one of the four that pulled the hut apart via speedboat to trap Korosensei. Despite the perfect synchronisation of the class's plan, Korosensei pulled out his trump card when he detected the shots from Ryunosuke Chiba and Rinka Hayami mere milliseconds before they landed, and protected himself with an unbreakable crystallised barrier that will hold for 24 hours until he returns back to normal form. However, it costs him his mobility, which Karma uses to psychologically torment the teacher by showing him embarrassing pictures of himself or putting sea slugs on the barrier. Later when half of the class collapse from exhaustion and fever, Karma and the rest of the healthy students infiltrate the mountain hill hotel where the mastermind behind the illness is staying at to retrieve the antidote to the virus. Early on, Irina Jelavić stays behind to distract the numerous guards in the lobby while Tadaomi Karasuma is affected by a paralysis gas despite defeating the creator Smog, leaving the students to essentially fend for themselves. The group come across another assassin named Grip barring their way further. Initially wanting to fight bare-handed, his desire fell after seeing Karasuma incapable of fighting and elects to call for reinforcements. Karma however destroys his phone with a nearby pot plant, mocking the hit man for running away from a group of high school kids and goads him into fighting him. Grip obliges and the two begin combat. Karma uses the movements he learned from Karasuma to dodge Grip's attacks, knowing that a single grab means defeat. Eventually Karma goes on the offensive and kicks Grip in the groin. The hit man turns away seemingly stunned until he sneakily fires a gas spray when Karma prepared the finishing blow. Karma collapses and is caught in Grip's grasp. But when his opponent faces in the direction of the students, Karma retaliates with a second gas spray, revealing that he thought the exact same thing, having nicked a canister off Smog earlier. Grip gets angry and charges Karma with his knife, though the latter easily disarms him and had Ryoma Terasaka and other boys pin Grip down and tie him up. Korosensei and the class sees how far Karma has come since tasting defeat at the finals exams, although they take it back when Karma celebrates his victory by pouring spicy mixtures through Grip's nostrils. The class continues upwards until finally reaching the top floor. There they discover the mastermind to be Akira Takaoka, who wanted to claim the ten million yen bounty as well as revenge on the class (in particular Nagisa Shiota) for the humiliation he had to endure since returning to the the Ministry of Defense. Takaoka leads the group to the helipad, with Karma and the class forced to watch Takaoka humiliate Nagisa. He then blows up the antidote, making Nagisa rage in despair to fight and kill Takaoka. However, Terasaka and Korosensei manages to calm Nagisa down. When Takaoka and Nagisa are fighting, Takaoka easily lands hits on Nagisa, making Karma wanting to join the fray, though Terasaka stops him. Karma watched Nagisa defeat Takaoka using his newly-acquired nekodamashi technique. During the reformed Korosensei's Test of Courage, Karma admitted to Manami Okuda that he is afraid of not being afraid, and notes that Nagisa's calm attitude right after he defeated Takaoka was as if nothing happened at all. He then thinks that not being capable of being on guard nor afraid can be the scariest thing of all, but affirms that he will be the one who takes Korosensei's life. ADVERTISEMENT Second Semester Karma takes a backseat role for much of the second semester and takes part of Korosensei's Cops and Robbers game to test out their newly-learned free-running skills where he participates in a plan, along with Nagisa Shiota and Tomohito Sugino, to hide in the pool for the last minute, allowing the students to win as Korosensei unable to dive underwater without harming himself. Karma participates in the boutaoshi against Class A where Class 3-E's unconventional tactics and Yuma Isogai's leadership gave them the victory over Class A despite their numerical superiority. The free-running skills would later get the class into trouble as the mid term exams approached, and Korosensei had forbidden everyone from studying as a way to teach them humility. Only Karma studied in secret, enabling him to come second overall and save his classmates from total humiliation. During the God of Death incident, Karma's combat prowess earned him a spot in Team A, although the God of Death still took out everyone, including him, with little effort. Karma returns to the spotlight during the finals arc. With the exams approaching, Gakushu Asano asks Class E to kill his father Gakuho Asano's teaching philosophy by monopolizing the top 50 rankings. Karma confidently states that he will grab the top spot from Asano. Although he helped tutor the class in Maths (dealing out corporal punishment in the process), he virtually went up against Asano alone on the final Math problem with only a few minutes to spare. Initially perplexed by the question's complexity, he reflects on his surroundings and classmates and realizes that the answer is quite simple. As a result, Karma scores a perfect 500, grabbing the top spot from Asano and the rest of Class E being placed within the top 50. During the examination, he reflects that despite him being called talented, he believed his classmates to be talented instead (e.g. Nagisa as an assassin prodigy, Sugino for his endearment, Manami Okuda's concentration, Ryoma Terasaka's ability to function despite being stupid). The end of the semester takes a dangerous turn as Kaede Kayano made a second, more serious attempt to kill Korosensei, ambushing the target with hidden tentacles. Karma attempts to dissuade Kayano with no success and is forced to watch the two battle. Nagisa ended the fight by kissing Kayano, shocking her into passing out. Karma, along with Rio Nakamura, each took a photo of the kiss and teased their friend about it. After the fight, Korosensei reveals his past and how he came to be his present form. Everyone including Karma spent the winter break deep in thought and unable to make plans to kill their teacher. ADVERTISEMENT Final Semester Division Time: A Battle Against a Friend Two months before the March deadline, the class is still less motivated. However, when Nagisa Shiota proposes to find a way to save Korosensei instead of killing him, Karma is the most vocal opponent to it as he accuses his friend of essentially rejecting everything that Korosensei did for them and would dishonor their target of not wanting to kill him. Their argument quickly turns violent when Karma insulted Nagisa's appearance and, seeing Nagisa's face as he usually looks when he feels insulted, goads his friend into fighting him. Nagisa grabs Karma in a flying triangular choke hold in self-defense, but Karma's combat ability kicks in and is about to retaliate until Yuma Isogai, Hiroto Maehara and Tomohito Sugino pulls them apart (with Isogai and Maehara barely able to hold back Karma's strength). Korosensei himself intervenes to mediate the situation and offers the class to sort the schism out by playing a team death match, capture the flag style paintball match. Karma sides with the red team (who wish to continue killing their teacher) against Nagisa's blue (those wanting to save him). He unexpectedly takes command of the team, ordering Ryunosuke Chiba and Rinka Hayami take out Meg Kataoka and Kotaro Takebayashi respectively to deny the blue team tactical options from the start, ends Yukiko Kanzaki's early kill streak and has the other members employ hit-and-run tactics against the blue team's defensive strategy. As both sides have their strength cut in half, Karma ponders about Nagisa - not even their reconnaissance expert, Koki Mimura, was unable to detect him. Noting that Nagisa will always attack at the most unexpected time, Karma also tries to remember why he was so irritated at Nagisa. At the same time when the blue team takes control of the area with only Maehara of the blue team surviving, Karma witnesses Nagisa emerge from his hiding spot and take out Rio Nakamura, Ryoma Terasaka, Takuya Muramatsu and Taisei Yoshida in an instant, obliterating their whole attack strategy. After taking out Maehara, Karma challenges Nagisa to a one-on-one duel, and after reminiscing about their past friendship, their earlier fight continues. The two resume their melee duel, but Karma's knack for combat gives him the upper hand over Nagisa. However, Nagisa was able to disarm Karma of his knife until the latter returned the favour. His beatdown of his friend, and allowing himself to get hit, makes Korosensei hypothesize that for Karma to unify the class to kill him, he has to ensure complete victory over Nagisa and make him concede defeat. Karma eventually knocks Nagisa off balance with an uppercut and seemingly finishing him with an axe kick. Karma retrieves his knife and approaches his foe to end the duel, until Nagisa suddenly performs the stun clap technique. Expecting this, Karma bit his tongue to weaken the shock as Nagisa stands back up to retaliate. However, the latter catches Karma off guard by throwing the knife filled with his bloodlust at him, causing Karma to focus on it and get caught into an arm choke hold, intending to make Karma lose unconsciousness. In a vain attempt to throw Nagisa off, Karma finds his discarded knife but chooses not to strike him, much like how Nagisa chose not to gun him down when Karma challenged him. Instead he surrenders and Nagisa wins the war for the blue team. The two friends reconcile their friendship, dropping the honorifics they used for the entirety of the series in the process, although Karma still continues to tease him. Tadaomi Karasuma decides the honor the agreement but on the condition that come February the class resume their original goal to kill Korosensei should they fail to find a way to save him. ADVERTISEMENT Renewed Resolve Later in the month, the class came across information that could lead them to save their teacher. However, they need to obtain the data by hijacking the International Space Station. The students infiltrate a launch site and delegate Karma and Nagisa Shiota to replace the crash test dummies and hijack the space station. Launching into space, the pair successfully took control of the station but the inhabitants agree to copy their findings over on amicable terms. Karma also helped unload the supplies and was impressed enough to state that he will support an increase in the space budget when he grows up. With Ritsu and Korosensei's help the two boys landed back at their mountain classroom. The class then learn that Korosensei would not explode in March as initially thought, that the chances of it occurring is less than one percent. Although knowing of a solution to save him, they agree to at the very least continue their original mission assigned by the government until graduation. As the entrance exams approach, Karma decides to stay at Kunugigaoka Junior High School, knowing that with his academic skills he can get any job he wants and that he likes having to compete with equally academic students like Gakushu Asano. On Valentines Day, Karma and Rio Nakamura spot Kaede Kayano hiding a bar of chocolate underneath her desk. The pair slyly confront her about it, and asked if she intended to give the chocolate to a certain someone. While Kayano tried to brush it off, Karma's photo of Nagisa kissing her immediately embarrasses her into silence. He and Nakamura decide to help Kayano pluck the courage to confess to Nagisa, although their motive was so as to psychologically torture them as their pets. He takes Kayano to spy on other student couples for ideas. When seeing Kirara Hazama hand over her bar to Terasaka and his group, Karma lamented that he had not done so sooner as a trick, (which involved the chocolate he received from Manami Okuda). To ensure that Korosensei did not get any love gossip from Nagisa and Kayano, Karma secretly baited their teacher with a photo of Aguri Yukimura in a swimsuit. This worked well enough to be considered to use for an assassination attempt. After the completion of the entrance exams, Karma soon got into another fight with a couple of men. However, Korosensei intervened and apologised for his student's behavior. Korosensei lectured Karma about not letting pride take hold in a conflict that it was sometimes better to walk away, saying that it is a relevant skill in both assassination and in his future as a bureaucrat. When Karma, Nagisa and a few of Class 3-E students saw Toka Yada surrounded by a group of men, Karma was quick to provoke a violent response. However he realized that the men would easily overpower them, and instead bowed down his head as an apology for his hasty judgment. Both sides walked away with no harm on either side and Nagisa acknowledged that Karma had indeed changed. ADVERTISEMENT Assassination Time, 2nd Period Five days before the deadline, Korosensei is trapped by the government's Earth Shield and would be killed by its satellite weapon on the day of the deadline. Class 3-E including Karma were quickly captured by the same men that accosted Toka Yada and held in isolation by the government for their "safety". However, following subtle hints from Tadaomi Karasuma, the class begun planning and training for their entry into the mountains. Karma requests command of the class from Isogai should they enter the mountains, which Yuma Isogai agrees. On the night of the deadline, the class escape their confinement with the aid of Irina-sensei and quickly headed to the mountain to see Korosensei one last time. At the forest, Karma took command of the class, directing the students in taking out the mercenaries one by one. After recognising one of the men who insulted him, Karma personally tortured him with wasabi, sour spices and cockroaches, so as to lure more prey. The mercenaries' leader Craig Hojo proved to be more troublesome as Karma rushed in to take him out but was knocked back. However, the class' hit and run tactics began to wear Hojo down until Nagisa surprised him with the stun clap technique. Karma and Nagisa Shiota both attacked the stunned Hojo together, knocking him out. The two celebrated, but Kaede Kayano notes that Hojo is still moving and Ryoma Terasaka berates the two for celebrating too early. After tying the leader up, the class reunited with Korosensei inside the barrier. However, their reunion was brutally interrupted by Shiro and the faux God of Death, who is now a tentacled monster. The two begin battling Korosensei and their superhuman powers made Karma and the class realise how helpless they are despite an entire year's worth spent on training to become assassins. To exploit Korosensei's true weakness, Shiro orders the God of Death to attack the students. With Korosensei unable to counterattack whilst saving the students, Kayano intervenes, but she is quickly impaled through the chest. As Korosensei retaliates, Karma calls on everyone to run away from the fight. ADVERTISEMENT Graduation Time Eventually Shiro and the God of Death are defeated and Kaede Kayano is healed by an exhausted Korosensei who collapses afterwards. At their teacher's urging, the entire class reluctantly pin him down by grabbing all his tentacles (rendering him immobile) and Nagisa Shiota volunteers to perform the assassination itself. Before dying, Korosensei conducts a final roll call with Karma first to respond. After Nagisa finally kills him and Korosensei disappears in particles of light, everyone starts crying including Karma. Unlike the rest of his classmates, Karma chose to remain in Kunugigaoka Institution after the graduation ceremony, seeking to continue duelling against Gakushu Asano for the next three years. Seven years later, Karma had just passed his government official entrance exams and arrived to commence work at the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Investment. He slyly remarks to himself that this is where he'll start accumulating his wealth and continuing his ambition to become a bureaucrat. Abilities Intelligence: Karma is one of the smartest students in the series, and is capable of maintaining top grades with little effort. Keenly observant and quick-witted, Karma is also skilled at devising and executing plans in times of crisis, using whatever personnel and resources he has at hand. Academics: Karma is one of the top students for his year in Kunugigaoka, with a excellent understanding of all the core subjects. In the second-trimester final exams, Karma defeated Gakushuu Asano for first place with a perfect overall score of 500 points. Leadership: Karma is a capable leader in his own right, able to take charge of his classmates to accomplish common objectives. This was first seen when Karma devised a plan to rescue his classmates and defeat Itona Horibe. Karma's leadership skills were seen again in the Intra-Class Civil War, when he led his team against Nagisa's, and in the final engagement with the special forces soldiers guarding the Class 3-E mountain. [3] Combat Skills: Besides his intelligence, Karma has a knack for battle and physical combat. He is a capable fighter in his own right, with high levels of physical strength and agility. He has no problem holding back Ryoma Terasaka (the tallest, most muscular student in the class), and it took the combined efforts of Yuma Isogai and Hiroto Maehara to barely hold him back before he could seriously injure Nagisa, prior to the Civil War. Karma was also able to fight on equal terms with professional assassin Grip in the attempt to save their classmates, blocking and dodging the former's strikes using Karasuma's defensive technique. Marksmanship: Karma is ranked third for marksmanship among the boys, and fourth overall in Class 3-E. Kissing Techniques: Karma is ranked third overall in class in kissing techniques, according to Irina Jelavić. She notes that he seems familiar with this activity, and there is nothing for him to improve on, which makes him boring to teach. [4]