"Let's think."
Mr. Hiiragi's Homeroom (3年A組-今から皆さんは、人質です/3 Nen A-gumi: Ima kara Mina-san wa, Hitojichi Desu in Japanese, literally "Class 3-A, From This Moment, You Are All Hostages") is a 2019 psychological school drama written by Shōgo Mutō and directed by Naoko Komuro, Yuma Suzuki, and Itaru Mizuno. The series was released in NTV on January 6 with 10 episodes, and a two-part special was released afterwards.
Ibuki Hiiragi (Masaki Suda) is an art teacher at Kaio High School for two years, who then became Class 3-A's substitute homeroom teacher 6 months prior to the plot. Ten days before the students' graduation, on March 1, Ibuki gathers all his students to attend the homeroom for an important announcement: from that day onwards, everyone in his class is his hostages.
After convincing his students that his threat is real by bombing the hallway, thus closing them off from the rest of the school, he then assigns them a series of tasks to uncover the real culprit behind the suicide of their classmate Reina Kageyama (Moka Kamishiraishi). Each day begins with him announcing the tasks, and for each time they fail to do so, someone in their class will die. With the threat of death hanging above them (literally as he set up bombs everywhere in the school, including the ceiling of their classroom), Class 3-A is now forced to contemplate their interactions with Reina and how it would shed more light on her death, with Ibuki watching everything unfold as he completes his ultimate goal.
Let's begin the class! Today, these are your tropes:
- Absence of Evidence: Seo thinks this is the reason behind Hiiragi's barricade incident and why he cornered Takechi via public accusation. Hiiragi does have evidence, but all of them are inadmissible for various reasons.
- The Ace: Reina Kageyama was a record-holding varsity swimmer with no shortage of fans, the most obvious of whom were Kayano and Aizawa.
- Broken Ace: A false accusation of doping ruined her sports aspirations, and being bullied in and out of her class eventually led to her suicide.
- Affectionate Nickname: Most of Hiiragi's students call him "Bukki" from his given name, which is cleverly subtitled as "Bookie" in reference to his nerdy glasses.
- Arc Words: "Think". "Let's think" (in English) doubles as Hiiragi's catchphrase, but he also throws the Japanese equivalent when he wants to emphasize its importance to his students. It's also the signature line of Garm Phoenix, the hero of the tokusatsu Hiiragi was supposed to star in before he was diagnosed with cancer.
- Always in Class One: Mr. Hiiragi's Class 3-A.
- Author Tract: The entire series eventually plays out as a scathing indictment of social media and how careless people can be with their words when under the guise of anonymity. Its devastating effects on a person's mentality are exemplified by several characters shown throughout the story, including Reina Kageyama.
- Awful Truth: One moment where Hiiragi realizes that his students have started to learn empathy and thoughtfulness is when they passionately debate whether disclosing that the video of Reina and Takechi entering the building where she died is actually a deepfake made by him would cause more good or harm.
- Badass Teacher: Ibuki Hiiragi may look like a wimp who's easily disrespected by his students, but he can handle his delinquent students together with ease. It helps that he's a former suit actor — meaning he's agile enough with a suit on that he's even more effective without one.
- Beautiful Singing Voice: When things calm down a bit, Yuka randomly dances around while perfectly singing an Italian aria. She becomes a singer after graduation. Possible Actor Allusion since Yuno Ohara used to be a member of the pop group Dream5, although she wasn't their main singer.
- Brawn Hilda: Hana is the largest girl in class and a Big Eater. She also practices judo and is stronger than any of the boys.
- Break His Heart to Save Him: Suzune holds a grudge against swimming club coach Tsuboi for kicking her off the team for dating, and almost had a video posted to expose him, but actually he had to force her out of the club, because she had developed heart arrhythmia and would likely have died if she continued practicing. Hiiragi uses this incident to educate the class about the dangers of exposing people online without evidence.
- Casting Gag: Moka Kamishiraishi also appeared in the NHK historical drama Idaten - Tokyo Olympic Story, which actually started airing the same day as this one, where she portrayed real Olympic gold medalist swimmer Hideko Maehata.
- Chekhov's Gun: Kai's butterfly knife, to some extent.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The lead actor at the film studio Hiiragi used to work at. When Gunji is about to subdue and arrest Hiiragi, he suddenly shows up out of nowhere, wearing his hero costume, to turn the tables and allow Hiiragi to hold the detective hostage.
- Crazy-Prepared: Hiiragi always has an explosive or two prepared to keep his plan going and is almost never caught off-guard.
- Didn't Think This Through: When Aizawa reveals himself as Hiiragi's second, he instantly gets swarmed by the male students, as he's obviously a lot less likely to fight them off as Hiiragi did in the beginning.
- Dogged Nice Girl: Uozumi is shown as this towards Sunaga. In the Flash Forward, they eventually become a couple... only because she's confessed and forced herself on him a few times too many. Nobody thinks there's anything wrong with it.
- Engineered Public Confession: Hiiragi corners Takechi and agitates him into revealing his entire plan, while a hidden camera is recording.
- Ensemble Cast: Aside from the 30 main characters including Class 3-A and Ibuki, there are several other supporting characters involved in the story. To emphasize that the entirety of Class 3-A are main characters, the special post-series Distant Epilogue is a "graduation ceremony" focusing on all the students individually, regardless of how significant they were to the plot or not.
- Faking the Dead: All of Ibuki's murders were actually cleverly staged; emphasis on "staged," as he did work at a film studio.
- Flash Forward: The ninth episode starts on March 9... three years after the main plot. Class 3-A reunites to commemorate Ibuki, as well as view Aizawa's finished documentary on Reina.
- Hearing Voices: Reina and later Takechi start hearing voices after their cyberbullying intensifies.
- Instant Sedation: Ibuki uses a spray bottle of an unexplained liquid which instantly knocks out his "murder" victims. After they reunite with the rest of the class, he never uses it again.
- Intrepid Reporter: Aizawa shadowed Reina almost everywhere for his documentary, even recording conversations that might be better if kept off the record.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Takechi's reliance on fake videos to deal with both Fumika and Reina come back to haunt him as Ibuki does the exact same thing to ruin him.
- Mood Whiplash: The series literally runs on this. Several glaring examples include Takechi's blatant exploitation of the hostage situation to rise to fame, as well as Ibuki making the class do exercises the day after witnessing a murder before their very eyes which, to be fair, was eventually revealed to be fake.
- Must Make Amends: Kayano was with Reina when she jumped off the building and is convinced that she let Reina fall to her death. Hiiragi jumps off the school rooftop after his speech, knowing that Kayano will save him and then realize that she already did her best to hold on to Reina until the end and shouldn't blame herself.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Kayano is initially shown as timid and geeky, and even insulted by her classmates as a "slave." When Ibuki introduces his "game" of "Believe It or Not," she takes him at his word and is eventually able to catch on to whether he's telling the truth or lying to them. This eventually allows the rest of the class to understand the intent behind his actions.
- Otaku:
- Kayano is a pro wrestling nerd and became close to Reina because she'd listen to her endlessly talking about the subject.
- Hiiragi enjoys Toku shows and used to appear in them as a suit actor.
- Peer-Pressured Bully: Kayano was Reina's closest friend, but ignored her like the others after she was suspected of doping.
- Posthumous Character: Reina Kageyama.
- Secretly Dying: Ibuki is revealed to be suffering from pancreatic cancer midway through the series.
- Stockholm Syndrome: As the days progress, the class of 3-A become Ibuki's loyal allies as public opinion begins to turn on him.
- When She Smiles: Yuzuki Suwa is obviously pretty enough even while constantly looking annoyed (as befitting an aspiring model), but the one scene where she shows a genuine smile is a true highlight of the series.
- Workplace-Acquired Abilities: How could an art teacher have the physical strength to subdue a classroom of teenagers and knowledge about explosives? He used to work at a Toku production house as a stuntman.
- Would Hit a Girl: Downplayed; Hiiragi violently pushes the female students around at times, at one point with his foot.
- You Bastard!: When Hiiragi calls out the cyberbullies on his livestreamed speech, he's talking to both those in-universe and among us, the audience.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Hiiragi suffers from late-stage cancer.
