Let's get to it!
Story
Baka to Test (BtT) follows Akihisa Yoshii, a high school student attending Fumizuki Academy, a school in which the students are divided into classes, based on their academic scores. At the start of the school year, all students take an entrance exam and, based on the score they got, are sorted into the different classes, going from A to F. Class A has laptops, gorgeous and expensive desks, armchairs, fancy furniture and a free snack bar. On the other hand, Class F only has dirty mats and low wooden tables, and is filled with idiots. Yoshii has some of the worst grades, so as a result, he gets into F class, with the class representative and best friend Yuji Sakamoto, the often-mistaken-for-a-girl Hideyoshi Kinoshita, the perverted Kouta Tsuchiya and the tomboyish tsundere Minami Shimada. Mizuki Himeji, a beautiful and very smart girl, also finds herself into F class due to her inability to finish her exam because of a strong fever; as a result, she got a zero and ended up in F class. This covers the "Baka" and "Test" parts; how about the "Summoned Beasts"?
Fumizuki Academy has a special and unique system. All students can summon Summoned Beings (Shoukanjuu or "Avatars" if you prefer). These Avatars are used in battles between the different classes, with the goal of getting another class's better equipment. These battles must be declared by one class to another one and be supervised by a teacher, who summons a special battlefield. The power and health of each Being is based on their last test score in that teacher's subject. In these battles, the Beings fight each other, until one side surrenders or if the Avatar of the class representative is defeated. Whenever one of the Avatars reached zero health points, the student has to take supplementary classes, with the very strict remedial teacher, called "Iron Man" because of his power and stature. Also, if a student leaves the battle before he loses, he can take a supplemental exam in which he can replenish lost points.
So, an example. Let's say that Class D challenges Class C to a battle, in order to switch rooms. The battle is supervised by the Math teacher. If a student got a 78 in the last Math test, when he had lost of his points before, his Being's health and power will be of 78. If another student got a 85, a 92 and a 79 on the last 3 Math tests without the Being reaching zero, its power-health will be of 256. If Class D manages to beat Class C's representative, they win and can switch rooms if they want. However, if Class D loses, they won't be able to declare any Beings War for 3 months.
That's it about most of the rules going around the school system.
We follow the characters into their school lives, while they do Class Wars and we, the viewers, die from laughter. This is, in my opinion, one of the funniest anime ever. I was constantly laughing while watching it; and my laughter didn't decrease one bit for my 2nd viewing. The comedy is so damn hilarious, without being ridiculous. However, even if comedy is covering like around 65% of the anime, there is also some good romance at some points. In the 2nd season, there is a higher focus on romance, and some very touching scenes appear, including the ones where some of the characters' backgrounds are revealed. The battle scenes between the Avatars were also interesting and amusing, and added a charming trait to BtT.
Amazingly hilarious comedy, good romance and character interraction.
Characters
There are quite a lot of characters in BtT, since there are at least two characters with names per class, + the teachers, + a few family members, + of course, all the main and main-supporting characters.
-- First is the male protagonist, Akihisa Yoshii, a very nice, kind and caring boy, who is however a complete idiot. Actually, he is so stupid I sometimes wondered if he is doing it on purpose. However, unlike certain other characters - namely Ichika Orimura (Infinite Stratos) and Makoto Ito (School Days) - his stupidity and "density" are much less annoying. The producers very effectively took advantage of that and turned it into an entertaining character and major comical relief. He is implied to have the worst grades among everyone in the same year as him, and also being the most stupid. Because of that, he was given the title of "Punishment Inspector" and his Being is the only one (aside from the teachers') to be able to touch and interract with corporeal objects. This was done to make Akihisa help the teachers do chores as punishments for his stupid actions; and because Shoukanjuu are much stronger than humans, he is able to help the teachers with tasks that would normally require many people. However, there is a "feedback", which means that any damage taken by Akihisa's Avatar will be transfered to his real body (if the Avatar gets punched in the face, the Akihisa will feel the exact same pain on his real body). [...] Pretty harsh, isn't it?
-- Next come the two main girls. Mizuki Himeji - who is considered the primary female character - is a beautiful, kind, cute, highly intelligent girl, with a very well-developed bust size, who found herself in Akihisa's Class F, because of her incapability of finishing the entrance exam, due to her fragile health. She has a big crush on Akihisa, but is too shy to confess - and Akihisa's dumbness doesn't help at all. Despite her shy, innocent and timid nature, she can sometimes be very determined when she is serious. Despite all of her qualities, nothing is more dangerous than her cooking, which is awful and inedible. She also often gets into yandere-mode, in which cases the reason, target and victim are always Akihisa.
-- Minami Shimada is an energetic, tomboyish and quite attractive girl, who however is completely flat-chested. She is only good in maths, due to her very big difficulty in the japanese language, due to her living in Germany for a very long time. While Mizuki is the yandere, Minami is the tsundere. She also has feelings for Akihisa, but her shyness and tsundere nature don't help her confess.
Other main characters include:
- The class representative Yuji Sakamoto, Akihisa's best friend with whom he most of the time share punishments for their actions. He is cool, athletic and quite intelligent for a student of Class F. Him and Akihisa are so close that they don't even need words to communicate.
- Hideyoshi Kinoshita, the overused internet gag and meme. He is a helpful, supportive, but very feminine-looking boy. The common gag is for both boys and girls to consider him a female, and even become jealous of him, because of his attractiveness. He has unmatchable skill in acting, both in behavior and voicing.
- Kouta Tsuchiya, the ultimate pervert of Fumizuki. Because of his skills in hiding, getting information and sneaking, he is called "Pervert Ninja". He is often seen with a camera, with which he takes pictures of the girls and Hideyoshi, then selling them. Despite his perverted nature, he will always get a nosebleed whenever he sees or hears something perverted. He is bad in all subjects, except Health Education.
- Shouko Kirishima, the childhood friend of Yuji, with whom she is crazily infatuated with. She is a gorgeous, elegant and soft-spoken girl, who is also the class representative of Class 2A, meaning she is the most intelligent student of 2nd year. She is so obsessed with Yuji, she sometimes threatens him to deposit a marriage certificate to the Town Hall, if he doesn't listen to her. I consider her to be a yandere as well, since she won't accept Yuji looking at any other girl (especially if she is in a swimsuit), going as far as to poke his eyes, use chains to prevent him from escaping, or use a taser to stun him.
Some supporting characters include: Aiko Kudou, a friendly, easy-going and mischievous girl who enjoys teasing Akihisa and Kouta; Miharu Shimizu, a girl in love with Minami; Hazuki, the younger sister of Minami; Akira, Akihisa's older sister; Kudo Toshimitsu, a boy from Class A who has a crush on Akihisa; and Yuuko, Hideyoshi's twin sister.
Every single character (almost), is enjoyable and likeable is some way. They all have their comedic moments, and the interractions between some of them are very well-done, either they are funnier, cuter or more romantic. As you saw yourself, BtT has a very large cast of characters for a RomCom; however, it is handled very well, and each character has more or less the screentime they need. Each of them also adds something more to the show. I mean, I think this is the first time I see a tsundere, 2 yanderes, a gay, a lesbian, a cross-dresser, cosplayers, fanatic forever-alone boys, a yaoi-lover, a perverted photographer and a character of unknown gender (Hideyoshi) in the same series.
My favourite characters are Shouko, Kouta and Aiko.
My favourite characters are Shouko, Kouta and Aiko.
Sound
I think what I was the most surprised about (after how hilarious I found this anime), was the music. It actually very good. It is not a audio masterpiece, but each soundtrack fitted the scene it was used in. During the Beings wars, there was an energetic music playing; when coming up with a strategy, having a more challenging music with tension in the air; light-hearted music for the comedy; sweet melodies for the romantic scenes. The 1 opening and 2 ending themes for the 1st season are "Perfect-Area Complete" by Natsuko Aso, "Baka Go Home" by Milktub and BakaTest All Stars, and "Hare Tokidoki Egao" by the voice actresses of Minami, Mizuki, Hideyoshi and Shouko. The opening and ending theme for the OVAs are "Ren'ai Koujou Committee" by Natsuko Asa, and "Getsuyou wa Kirai" by Milktub. As for the 2nd season, the opening is "Kimi+Nazo+Watashi de Jump!!" by Larval Stage Planning and the ending theme is 'Eureka Baby" by Natsuko Aso again. My favourite of these if "Perfect-Are Complete", because it has a lighthearted tone which also portrays the high comedy and romance very well. The voice acting is good, without being exceptionnal, but all voices matched the characters' personalities greatly, and were able to portray emotions very well.
Animation
The studio in charge of producing BtT was Silver Link, a studio that appeared in 2007. BtT was their second production only, but it was already very good. However, considering that some people from Silver Link had connections with J.C. Staff and Shaft, it is much less surprising that it is good. Anyway, the animation was well done,and was changing a lot depending on the situations. Most of the time, it was normal, colorful and smooth. Sometimes though, it was changing to either funnier with the characters being chibi-ed, or only black and white in some scenes with Akihisa and Yuji, or becoming very simple but funny/touching depending on the emotions of the characters at that moment. Just from the animation, I could say it is something funny. It simply isn't amazing either; but still good. I also really enjoyed the reaction faces of the characters; they were priceless! - the best ones being Yuji trying to escape from Shouko, or the four main boys when facing Mizuki's handmade cooking.
Final Verdict
Story: 8.2
Characters: 8.7
Sound: 7.4
Animation: 7.7
Enjoyment: 9.8
Total: 8.36
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu is probably the best comedy anime I have seen! It also has good romance associated with some touching moments, a wide and great cast of characters where everyone knows their place, good animation, good music and good voice-acting. It brings a lot of laughter and relax, while still remaining able to make the viewer hyped for the next episode, something that not many almost pure Comedy anime are able to pull out effectively. The first season has more comedy and Beings Class Wars, while the 2nd season has more romance and touching moments; of course, both seasons have both. If you enjoys RomComs, you must definitely give Baka to Test a watch. The only "dislikers" would be those who don't like RomComs or anime without epic stories.
This ends my 12th anime review. I hope you enjoyed it. Make sure to like if you enjoyed it and to comment in the comment section below, if you want to express your opinions on this anime. Thank you for reading.
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