At first glance, Okano Hinata might be your usual tomboy girl character who is somewhat serious and kind of concerned in being a bit more feminine. In the early episodes and chapters of Assassination Classroom, Okano was only given a slight, even if constant, spotlight—mostly seen together with Maehara Hiroto (who is revealed later to be her love interest) or Kataoka Megu—but she is notable for being one of the most agile (as well as a flexible acrobatic gymnast) member of the Class E.

Okano is also known as one of the four best Class E students in knife-wielding, and is very skilled in close combat. She might not look as impressive as the more prominent Class E members, but once she gets into action, your jaw might just fall off. When she gets mad, she definitely gets very stubborn, and you might not want to get on her bad side, considering she’s able to knock even Nagisa down when she gets mad.

Being the first known vessel of the tentacles, other than Koro-sensei, automatically puts Itona on the list, courtesy to how much suffering and difficulties the tentacles pose. Itona was the second assassin who transferred into the Class E after Ritsu, who hated losing and wished to prove that he was the strongest, even against Koro-sensei. He appeared to be angry and self-centered in the beginning, but after befriending Terasaka and his group, he learned to accept others and became more sociable with the rest of the class.

Not only does Itona has a rather amazing physical abilities left over by the powers of the tentacles, he’s also notably smart—the intelligence that was hindered by the tentacles when he was a vessel manifested in how he designed and engineered RC vehicles for spying and reconnaissance purposes. Itona was also Class E’s secret weapon in the match against Class A at the sports festival, becoming one of the major aspect that brought victory to Class E at the time.

Perhaps the one character with so much screen time who remained to be one of the passive ones, the ones suited more for supports, until the plot revealed who she actually is, with a nice bang to it, too—trapping Koro-sensei and attacking him in one single swoop. Kayano isn’t actually Kayano; she turned out to be a prodigal actress, out in bloodlust seeking revenge for her older sister. Even though everything ends well later, Kayano did prove to be a rather formidable opponent against Koro-sensei, thanks to her high mobility and determination.

The fact that Kayano could handle the extreme pain that the tentacles gave her while maintaining her cheerful persona every day in class shows her fierce determination. It doesn’t end with the detachment of the tentacles from her, though—Kayano proves her badassery even after her arc ended: in the last arc, she bravely stepped forward to challenge No. 2, resulting in her near-death as she got impaled by No. 2’s tentacles before the eyes of her classmates and Koro-sensei. Determined, brave, mentally strong and extremely smart—that’s enough reasons contributing to how badass this girl could be.

Perhaps it’s less fair to put Ritsu in the list, considering she isn’t actually human, but she is still, after all, one of Class E students. Being an AI, Ritsu is extremely resourceful, and extremely likeable once Koro-sensei had remodeled her and she had integrated into the class. Not having an actual body for classes outside? Doesn’t matter, she’d just upload herself into everyone’s phone and create a mobile version of herself. Need a plastic tool be made? She could manufacture it—or clothes—in her box. Need programs to hijack Japan’s launch station? Ritsu’s your girl!

Other than her amazing capabilities as an Autonomously Thinking Fixed Artillery, Ritsu’s special point lies in how she constantly improves and upgrades herself, with the intention of working together with the rest of the class. Her capability in hacking had helped Class E members time and again—and protected them in at least one occasion with the unknown virus.

Being the source of gag materials and the one teacher Class E makes the most fun of doesn’t mean Irina Jelavic—nicknamed “Bitch-sensei” by Class E thanks to Karma—is less badass (and dangerous) in her own way. She is, after all, a professional assassin who was sent to kill Koro-sensei in the first place. Her flawless acting skills and her seductive ploys commanded the amazement of Class E when they saw it in action time and again, and at one time, an unexpected and troublesome enemy when she worked by the God of Death’s side against the rest of the class.

As a professional assassin, Irina is ruthless and resilient. She’s also great with linguistic skills, as she speaks ten different languages fluently, though perhaps it had came with the expectation of assuming the role of infiltration assassin. Don’t underestimate her when it comes to hand-to-hand combat or melee either. It’s also great that after the whole ordeal with Class E and Koro-sensei ended, Irina could still make use of her skills and assets, this time as Karasuma’s trusted wife, and was assigned to handle the situation in Middle East.

Here comes Class E’s class representative! Isogai Yuuma, the first son of a struggling family who drools hilariously at the sight and prospect of having enough food ingredients to last his family a year, is a very reliable and actually pretty badass boy. It’s not very apparent, not when Isogai is extremely modest about his achievements and skills, and prefers to highlight the skills of everyone else under his lead. Koro-sensei even noted that in terms of leadership, Isogai surpasses even Asano. Isogai commands the respect and approval of his friends and classmates; he is considered as an ikemen by the girls and a nice guy by the boys.

He’s even more amazing if we noted his family’s condition and how Isogai has to do part-time jobs to help cover his family’s financial condition. Even with that, he managed to score the highest rank for Social Studies in school. Assassin skills-wise, Isogai is the best in knife-wielding and marksmanship among all the male students of Class E, and has extremely good reflexes and responses.

If there’s a student in Class E who looks (and acts) like a badass that he is, Akabane Karma is the person. Even though he’s easy to resort to violence and very good at fighting, Karma is actually a good person, if extremely mischievous as he loves to prank his friends, and would turn rather brutal if someone threatens him or his classmates. He might seem just a lazy boy at a first glance, but others had noted his peculiarity throughout the series, hinting that while Karma doesn’t specialize in anything, he’s extremely good at what he does and very strong at that. In the beginning, due to the incident that kicked him down to the Class E, Karma hated teachers. But being taught by Koro-sensei and interacting with the rest of the students had changed this bit by bit, and by the late episodes and chapters, Karma is seen more as a pranksters rather than the troublesome delinquent he once was.

Karma is also extremely smart—he’s perhaps one of the smartest characters in the series, as he could get top grades even when he cuts class all the time. He’s also great in utilizing and leading everyone, as proven in the war that divided Class E, though later he relented and gave up to Nagisa. No one could beat him in hand-to-hand combat; Karma is so strong he could go against a professional assassin. He’s the type to breeze through whatever hurdle life throws his way, as commented by his friends at the end of the series.

Our main character seemed to be the support type in the beginning of the series; he’s calm, observant, and yet very friendly—he’s the only one who wasn’t wary of Karma, though their relationship had dated back even before the two of them got kicked down to Class E. Nagisa is the weakest among the male population of Class E, but from the very beginning, it was hinted that Nagisa is something else entirely. In his own way, Nagisa is full of surprises and quite dangerous—he has the most natural talent for assassination, as noted by Koro-sensei, and was the one to take down their enemies, professional assassins or no, time and again despite the odds. Nagisa is the snake subtly looking for chances to attack, a natural talent he wasn’t even aware of in the beginning, but had frightened people like Karma to the point that Karma put a fair distance between them back after they started being friends.

Nagisa’s determination and bravery are definitely another aspect of how badass he is. He’d stepped up to face Takaoka and the God of Death, later also gone up to stop Kayano and then against Karma to stand up for his choice to look for ways to save Koro-sensei instead of killing him. At the end, Karma noted that if Class E had a valedictorian, it would probably have been Nagisa—a statement to show how much respect Nagisa had gotten throughout the series.

Is Karasuma-sensei even human?, is one of the questions most often blurted out by various students of Class E in the series. He is originally sent from the Ministry of Defense to supervise Koro-sensei, making him uncomfortably stuck between defending the students’ decision and obeying his orders a lot of times, but Karasuma would always prioritize the safety of his students as well as giving them the freedom to choose and make decision. Before working as a PE Teacher for Class E, Karasuma was an Elite Soldier of the Air Force. He’s extremely powerful in combat that sometimes it seems like no one could take him down or kill him—he even managed to go up against the God of Death and, with a little help from Koro-sensei, won.

Both his enemies and allies had considered him to be one of the strongest humans alive, and is terrifyingly effective in both combat and teaching. He’s also very well-versed in weaponries—no matter what kind of weapon it is, he’s able to bring it to its full potential to bring down his enemies. The only weakness he seems to have is how dense he is, especially in regards to the matters of hearts. Time and again he’d come to Class E’s rescue, like the time with the God of Death, or how he planned out how to break Class E from jail so they could go and save Koro-sensei.

Naturally, the title of the most badass character falls to the main character of the series, who has become the inspiration for the whole Class E to be better both as students and people; the Teacher who could do literally anything, and would do literally anything to protect and teach his students the important things in life.

Koro-sensei retains his eccentricity from the time he was a God of Death—if nothing, being a teacher only makes him even more eccentric. The whole series is basically an ode to how awesome and badass Koro-sensei is despite his many weaknesses—not because he’s almost impossible to kill, but because he’s determined to be a good teacher who could guide his students to a better future. Not only is he extremely smart and fast, he’s also determined to see his class happy and to carry education better, resulting in him using his abilities to best support Class E’s growth. He handles each student individually, connects with them, and earns the respect and love of his students because of how much he cares for them.

So Koro-sensei is fast. Extremely resilient and strong, technically impossible to kill. Even when he was a God of Death, he was already amazingly smart, terrifying, and badass. Big deal—all that pales when compared to how much effort he puts into teaching Class E, into treasuring the students of his and protecting them. For all his love and care, only Koro-sensei deserves the title first in this list, as he is perhaps the best teacher that Class E has ever had!