The 17 Weirdest And Most Unconventional Anime Schools

One of the teachers at Kunugigaoka Middle School of Assassination Classroom, Koro-sensei, is literally consists a tentacle and a smiley-face head. Koro-sensei, which translates to "unlikeable teacher," claims to have blown up the moon and will soon follow that up with the Earth itself, unless a specific group of middle school students (who he will spend the year teaching) can assassinate him first. The school runs on a model of 95% productivity, 5% laziness, with the 5% comprised of the lowest-scoring students. This class is undesirable, ensuring that students strive for their best in order to avoid an E class distinction. Not exactly a standard curriculum, but at Kunugigaoka you learn the basics of assassination alongside mathematics and social studies.

In the world of My Hero Academia, 80% of the population boasts a "quirk" or a superpower. Some use these abilities to become crime-fighting heroes. To do that, they need a proper education, available to them through UA High School. At UA High, kids develop their quirks, train in methods of combat, and learn to rescue civilians from dangerous situations. A highly selective school with a rigorous curriculum, UA High features some of the world's most accomplished (ridiculous) hero training courses, some of which feature giant robots.

Soul Eater's Death Weapon Meister Academy offers an unusual curriculum. The school (run by Death itself) raises scythes for Shinigami to wield against a wide variety of evildoers. Instead of physical objects, these Scythes are actually humanoid students who transform into weapons at will. At the academy, Scythes pair up with Shinigami to help them collect the 99 evil souls and one witch soul needed to achieve their Death Scythe potential.

Hyakkaou Private Academy of Kakegurui follows a strange curriculum you won't find anywhere else. Because the students are the sons and daughters of the elite, the focus falls less on their academic skills than it does on their ability to read people, disguise their intentions, and make business deals. How do they train these qualities? Gambling. Students at Hyakkaou Private Academy spend their school day on casino games, living like royalty when they win, and suffering severe penalties when they lose.

Ask any culinary student or graduate about their time in school, and they'll likely talk about how challenging it was. But unless their experience stems from the set of Hell's Kitchen, most have it much easier than the cast of Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma. At the Tootsuki Culinary Academy, the rigorous academics and high expulsion rates mean young chefs get thrown out at every turn: for every 1,000 students, less than 10 will reach graduation. Additionally, attending Tootsuki means watching people react to your delicious food by screaming, having their clothes evaporate, and climaxing.

In Blue Exorcist, True Cross Academy is the place to be if you want to learn how to fend off Demons. Exorcists are individuals who protect humanity against Demons with their magical abilities. Many of the best exorcists train at True Cross. And while it works as a regular school, they also offer an Exorcist "cram school" which you can only attend with a magic key. This school is like the Hogwarts of anime with its grand dining halls and mysterious, magical doors and passages.

An institution featured in Prison School, Hachimitsu Private Academy is an all-girls school with its very own prison, controlled by the Underground Student Council. Said council possesses the authority to incarcerate students. After five boys are admitted to the academy, this authority gets used and abused. The premise has liability issues written all over it, but for an anime, it's certainly an entertaining concept.

Kids in the Naruto-verse don't go to school to learn about math, science, history, or how to read and write. Or if they do, most of that takes place off-screen. Instead, viewers watch a bunch of children learn to fight with kunai and ninja stars, defy gravity by channeling chakra into their feet, and master the art of hand-to-hand combat. After students graduate from Ninja Academy, they divide into groups of three and get assigned a teacher, a working ninja who helps bring out their full potential.

Honnōji Academy of Kill la Kill feels less like a high school and more like a military fortress. Satsuki Kiryuin, the tyranic student council president, rules the school with a small cadre of soldiers she calls the Elite Four. Through a series of violent competitions, students win status and wealth for their families, as well as uniforms made from "life fibers," fabric from space that either grants the user supernatural powers or kills them. Honnōji Academy only appears to have one actual class - homeroom - but viewers focus more on the half-naked scissor fights than they do the academics. The class events get even more bizarre, ranging from No Late Day, where students must dodge deadly obstacles on their way to class, or the Tri-City Schools Raid Trip, established by Satsuki as a means of attacking rival schools.

While most of the schools in Death Note are pretty ordinary, one sticks out as more than a little bizarre. Wammy's House, the orphanage where L, Mello, Near, and Matt were raised, doubles as a school. The mission of said institution isn't to provide a well-rounded education for the orphan children. It's to figure out who will be the next L. L is a detective with poor posture constantly stuffing cake in his face and trying to find out superkiller Kira's identity. But L isn't his name, it's his job title. Back at Wammy's House, a group of children compete to take over the mantle when he dies. Wammy's House produces genius detectives, but it also produced Beyond Birthday, who was so hellbent on becoming L he dressed up exactly like him and started murdering people to get the great detective's attention. Wammy's bears responsibility for many broken people.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX mostly takes place in and around Duel Academy, a boarding school on a remote island where kids learn how to play Duel Monsters. If this sounds weird, realize that in this universe, Duel Monsters is not only a viable career, it's also a means to save the world from mind-controlling space light. Duel Academy combines an appalling lack of supervision and actual attempts by faculty on their students' lives with lots and lots of card games (only some of which involve muscular, sentient dolphins).

If you thought sex-ed got uncomfortable, wait until you hear what they teach at the Setouchi and Suruga Keijo Training Schools. Keijo!!!!!!!!, one of the strangest anime to come out of 2016 and really any other year, follows a sport where women body-slam each other off of small islands using only their butts and breasts. To teach this highly specialized skill, there are two major schools, Setouchi and Suruga. There's a fierce rivalry between the two institutions, each trying to produce Keijo players with successful post-school careers. Practice at these schools includes learning how to hypnotize people with your breasts and lectures on "asstronomy" and "boobology."

In Bleach, the Shinigami Academy, also known as the Shino Academy, is where Souls are trained before entering one of the three military arms of Soul Society. These military branches consist of the Gotei 13, the Kido Corps and the Onmitsukido. Students at this school learn how to protect and guard the Society from evil Hollows as well as ensure the safe crossing of souls.

Much like Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Charlotte's Hoshinoumi Academy is an academy for students with supernatural abilities. It serves a dual purpose: providing the kids with an appropriate education, and providing shelter from scientists who want to do unethical experiments on them. The student council's job involves tracking down teenagers using their abilities and convincing them to stop and enroll before they get caught by the aforementioned scientists.

Before Goku from the Dragon Ball franchise was one of the most powerful warriors in the universe(s), he was a student at Turtle School. A martial arts practice founded by Master Roshi, its pupils include Goku, Krillin, Yamcha, Grandpa Gohan, and Ox-King. At Turtle, students are taught timeless and useful subjects such as Jan Ken and the Kamehameha wave. Despite Master Roshi's predilection for hot girls, he tells his students,"We do not learn martial arts to pick fights or to impress girls who will say 'Oh beefcake, you're so strong, I want you.'" You probably also recognize the school's colors definitive insignia, worn on Goku's lapel in the above photo.

Yomiyama North Middle School appears to be an ordinary middle school, but it hides a terrifying truth. Ever since a student in class 3-3 died in the '70s, other kids, faculty, and family members have dropped like flies. There's a mysterious curse on the school, which might have something to do with the girl with an eye patch who no one besides the main character of Another ever seems to notice.

In Silver Spoon, Sapporo-born Hachiken enrolls in Ooezo Agricultural High School. There, he learns how to milk cows, drive a tractor, ride horses, culture cheese, and wake up at 4am to do all of these things before a normal school day involving math, history, and literature. Schools like this do exist in the real world, but for those who grew up in an urban or suburban environment, they can seem as far out of reach as Ninja Academy or Turtle School. Ooezo looks quite different from the standard suburban anime school audience's so often see.