Hello. . . and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Today, I stand on the battlefield where good souls died in a mass genocide. After discovering my plans to mass produce the Chibi Isis behind Isis’ back in a fit of rage she not only brutally attacked me her master but laid waste to the AIs. Those poor creatures their lives cut short and I hundreds of dollars and hours lost. All I can do is sit here and grieve for my lost, remembering their faces. The horror. The horror! (Chibi Isis): Here’s your Kool-aid Nii-chan. (Nitsuj): Oh, thank you. *Grabs Kool-aid* okay so I exaggerated, Isis didn’t destroy them in fact I only got around to creating one. After beating me within an inch of my life she saw how cute the Chibi Isis was and decided to let it live if I promised not to make anymore. It’s been a big help around the house, it keeps the place clean, helps me with the laundry, plays games with me and Isis, it’s like I got a cute reliable little sister. (Chibi Isis): Thank you very much Nii-chan *flies off*. (Nitsuj): Looking at this little AI girl gets me thinking back to my youth when I was in school. Looking back I was considered a smart person in school I got straight As in all my subjects including Cisco which is odd seeing as how I failed every test given to me in that class and even in college despite my struggles at the beginning I think I finished strong. However if high school was anything like today’s anime I would gladly failed on purpose just to join this class. The anime I’m thinking about is Baka and Test. Baka and Test also known as Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts is an anime that came out in 2010, it’s based off a light novel under the same name by Kenji Inoue. There’s also a manga of the series written by Mosuke Mattaku. In the series we follow the story of a group of students who go to an advanced school where they’re in the failing class and try desperately to battle their way to the top for their class. Along the way they have all sorts of adventures, problems, and romance with each other throughout the school year. When this anime first came nobody knew what to think of it, this series was pretty much unknown to the world but by the end of the first episode audiences were laughing their heads off saying it was one of the funniest animes they’ve seen for its clever writing, characters and story. But, anybody can make one episode and have it be funny; to make an anime constantly funny for an entire season that’s a milestone. Let’s see why folks say F stands for victory. This is Baka and Test.
Opening and Ending theme
Our opening for this season is Perfect-area Complete by Natsuko Aso. At first I didn’t really care for it but after hearing it a few times I started to like a little bit. It’s cute, the singer sounds happy and energetic, we get a look at all of our characters and it even gets a good chuckle out of you from what’s going on in the opening. The ending for this anime is Baka Go Home by milktub. It’s a heavy rock song with good drums and guitar. I listened to this song multiple times but just couldn’t get into it. Although, I will say I like the animation in the ending. The ending shows all of the guys and they do a good job with the shadows and backgrounds here. It’s like we entered a whole different anime.
Episodes 1-4
So we start the anime off with a narrator giving us a brief background into the academy known as Fumizuki Academy, a prep school that uses a special system called the Summon Test War a system where students each get these AI creatures called avatars that look like chibi forms of themselves whose power levels depend on how a student does in school. If a student has high grades their avatar will be strong and if their grades are low the avatar is weak (they also wear different costumes and have animal features like tails, ears, etc.). While this is all being told to us the students who are in their second year of high school are taking a placement test to decide which classroom they’ll be in. Classes A and B are the top classes, where the top students study and are seen as the future leaders of Japan, Classes C, D, and E are the average classes, where student who get mediocre grades get placed in and are seen as the workers of Japan; and Class F is where the failures go, those who fail greatly in all subjects and were seen as people who will make good television. As the test is going on one of the students collapses from sickness and our main character Akisha aka Aki voiced by Hiro Shimono (Keima from The World God Only Knows) tries to help her to the nurse’s office but the teacher says that if she leaves she’ll receive a 0 (man, Japanese schools are harsh and people complain about our schools). We then cut to Aki running late to school the next day where he runs into his teacher Nishimura or Iron Man as the students like to call him, who hands Aki a slip showing that the results of his test put him in Class F and he walks off calling Aki an idiot (geez are we in the 60s, if a teacher were to call one of his students an idiot he be fired right on the spot in today’s society). But to be fair Iron Man is right when he calls Aki an idiot, you’ll quickly find out that Aki is an idiot, a lovable nice guy but an idiot (well, we’ve seen Hiro at his smartest now we’ll see him at his dumbest). Aki reaches his class where he sees that it is a shithole, the floor is made of tatami mats, the chairs are raggedy cushions, and the desk are low tables that break easily (wow, and they say public schools are cheap). Yeah as you can see Fuzumiki academy is very strict when it comes to academics, the higher classes get better equipment and an enjoyable school life while the lower classes get crappy equipment and have a harder school life (one could say this is the school encouraging students to study harder so that they can have a better school life but I see it as the school being cheap).
After the teacher leaves, we get introduced to the main cast of the show. We have Aki’s best friend and class representatative Yuuji voiced by Tatsuhisa Suzuki, who is actually very smart and tactical but because of his laid back attitude doesn’t study a whole lot (kind of reminds of Shikamaru from Naruto). Minami voiced by Kaori Mizuhashi, a flat-chested tsundere who has a crush on Aki but is too embarrassed to admit it and tends to put Aki in wrestling moves whenever he angers her, she comes from Japan but grew up in Germany so she has a hard time reading Japanese and is excellent in math. Kouta commonly known as Muttsuriini (roughly translates into someone with a dirty mind) voiced by Kouki Miyata (Prince Kriem from Fairy Tail and The Phoenix Priestess), a photographer who is a huge pervert, gets nosebleeds easily, doesn’t talk much, stealthy as a ninja, a genius in health and physical education, and hands down one of the funniest characters in this show. Himeji the girl who collapsed at the beginning of the anime voiced by Hitomi Harada who has big breast, secretly has a crush on Aki, and is possibly the smartest student in school. Finally, we have what I and many others consider to be the best trap character of all time Hideyoshi voiced Emiri Katō (Blair from Soul Eater), a boy who everyone mistakes as a girl because of his looks, has good acting skills, and is in the theater club. I mean it, he is a great trap character, he’s so cute and girly looking that the author gave him his own gender “Hideyoshi” just so all the guys wouldn’t feel awkward liking him. Look no matter what you call him Hideyoshi is still a boy on paper and that fact that you gave him his own gender doesn’t change that. It just means you’re covering your own sexual preference. This is creepy stuff people and you should all be a shamed for falling for an obvious . . . http://www.zerochan.net/653204, oh my God that’s hot. No! Focus! Boobs Nitsuj, you like boobs!
Okay, after seeing that the class environment isn’t good for Himeji’s health (geez, I can’t imagine why? I mean, we have crappy equipment, broken windows, and dust this class is a healthy man’s paradise) Aki tries to get Yuuji to declare a summoner test war on another class. In the school classes can declare war on other classes to trade classrooms but if the lower class loses they get even crappier equipment. The wars are fight using avatars who as I said before, their powers are based on the grade of a school subject and the fields that they battle on are fields that the teachers approve such as math, science, art, and other subjects. In the end, there’s a lot of strategy to these wars and depending on what teacher and subject you get to approve a battle could ultimately decide the fate of the war (in all honesty this sounds like it would be a good video game). Yuuji is all game for it because he wants to prove to everyone that academic ability isn’t the only thing that matters in life (I couldn’t agree more). He rallies the class up and sends Aki to class E to declare war, they respond by beating the living crap out of Aki. The next day comes and they attack class E with Math (ahh~ my kryptonite) where Minami takes command while Himeji goes to replenish her points by taking recovery tests since she has 0 points from her last test. Minami holds her own against the students defeating their avatars where Iron Man comes in and carries them off to remedial lessons. Oh yeah I forgot, when an avatar’s points reach 0 the student of the avatar has to take remedial lessons taught by Iron Man. We never see what goes on in these lessons but for some reason all the students fear them. As time goes on Minami’s points start to fall and she’s force to retreat and take recovery tests to get her points back up. While that’s going on Class E manages to break into Class F’s classroom where Aki reveals his true talent. He’s a probationary student a student whose grades are so low he has to help out the teachers with their chores as punishment. Because of this his avatar has special abilities, it can touch objects (something the other avatars can’t do) and the summoner receives the same pain his avatar receives (telepathic bonding I assume). This explanation distracts Class E long enough for Himeji to come in and cleans house (figuratively) with her high score crushing everyone in Class E and Class F wins the war. Rather than trade classes Yuuji decides to let Class E keep their class because he wants Class A’s equipment (that’s good and all but dude you are studying in a room that even sweatshop workers would be complaining about. Take Class E’s equipment now and then work your way to Class A. I guess he doesn’t want Class E to come back and fight them but still your strategy worked out perfectly here I think you can take them down again). The episode ends with Yuuko the ambassador of Class A and the twin sister of Hideyoshi (who is a huge fan of BL novels) coming in and declaring war on Class F (mess her up boys! Mess her up real good).
In episode 2 the group goes to class A where Yuuji request a duel between the class reps in which one of my favorite characters in the show Shouko voiced by Tomomi Isomura who is the class rep, highest ranked student, and childhood friend of Yuuji agrees to the duel and raises the stakes saying that the loser has to do whatever the winner says (and the losing class has to sit through the entire saga of Twilight movies). But Yuuko wants to be cautious and turns the duel into a 5 on 5 duel. Up on the roof top Hideyoshi talks about rumors flying around that Shouko is in to girls more than guys which gives Aki the idea that Shouko is after Himeji (boy that would be a hot couple). This in turns leads us to the introduction of Miharu a girl from class D who has a lesbian crush on Minami and constantly tries to rape her on school ground. The day of the war comes around with Aki, Minami, Himeji, Muttsuriini, and Yuuji representing class F and Hideyoshi as the cute round card girl dressing in cute and seductive outfits (Chibi Isis): Your drooling Nii-chan. (Nitsuj): Damn it! He’s a man, he’s a man, he’s a MAN!). Aki and Minami lose their matches but Himeji wins her match and Muttsuriini wins his match against a girl name Aiko who is hinted to have a crush on him because she’s constantly using seductive talk giving him nosebleeds and says she doesn’t mind him peeping on her (Isis): Or she could just be a horny sadist who gets off on teasing cherry boys. (Nitsuj): Yeah that too). In the final round Yuuji takes on Shouko but employs rules that instead of using their avatars to fight they take a Japanese history test that is elementary level and whoever scores the highest will win. Why does he want this? Well because when he and Shouko were little he told her that the Taika Reform took place in 625 (it took place in 645) and she has grown up believing that the Reform took place in 625. Yuuji is hoping for that question to be on the test in which Shouko will answer incorrectly and Yuuji will score a 100 and win. They take the test and the question pops up, Shouko answers it wrong and gets a 97 but in the end Yuuji only got a 53 meaning Class A wins. After the credits we see that because of their lost Class F has lost their crappy tables and now have cardboard boxes as desks now (careful, Snake could be in one of those boxes). We also find out later that they can’t do a summon test war with other classes for 3 months. Shouko shows up to claim her prize which isn’t Himeji but instead Yuuji because she has always had a crush on him since childhood (she’s suffering from childhood love syndrome). Yuuji tries to get out of the deal but Shouko knocks him out and drags him off. Inspired by this Himeji and Minami drag Aki off to go on a date with them (two girls? I like this guy’s style).
In episode 3 we see Aki go to the movies with Himeji and Minami which he is terrified because he doesn’t want to spend what little money he has left (we find out later he lives alone while his parents work abroad and he spent a majority of his allowance on videogames and manga. Money well spent). At the theater they run into Yuuji who’s in medieval handcuffs while on his date with Shouko (alright where did she get those and why did she do that to him? I’m starting to see why Yuuji didn’t want to date her she’s obviously crazy but then again aren’t all women?). The next day on his way to school Aki runs into Kubo a member of class A who is the only person besides Shouko, Yuuko, and Aiko (what’s with all the o’s?) in class A who has a personality. He’s also gay and has a crush on Aki (wow, a straight couple, a lesbian, and gay character that have crushes on the main characters not to mention Aki having slight romantic feelings for Hideyoshi, this anime is covering all of its bases in the couples department) in class they find out that their homeroom teacher is now Iron Man and their old teacher is now the narrator for the series (who I’m not gonna lie, does a better job than the first narrator. His voice is a little more soothing and good for exposition). The weekend comes around and Aki goes on a date with Minami and Himeji coming as well since he promised to treat Minami to crepes back in episode 2. They get interrupted by Miharu who chases them to the school where they have a teacher setup a practice war where Miharu and Minami both get defeated and are forced to take remedial classes together.
In episode 4 class F gets finish taking remedial lessons on Sunday (going into school on a Sunday, just sounds wrong). When its lunchtime and they see that all Aki has to eat is a small piece of cup noodles Minami offers to share her spare lunch with him but she left it at home. Luckily, her little sister Hazuki who also has a crush on Aki and even goes as far as saying that the two of them will be married someday comes in to deliver the spare lunch Minami made. While their talking the jealous boys of class F known as the FFF (mean guys in purple hooded outfits) attack Aki for committing the terrible act of getting close to women (that bastard! Crucify him where he stands). Hazuki spills the beans that Minami made the bento for Aki but Minami’s tsundere kicks in and denies the accusation. So because of this, Aki decides to accept food made by Himeji whose food is so terrible that it almost kills Aki and the other boys (you’ve heard of food poisoning we’ll meet the next worse thing Himeji poisoning). Aki not wanting to upset Himeji decides to eat the food and passes out like the others from how awful it taste. Throughout the rest of the episode Minami tries to give her spare lunch to Aki but something keeps stopping her or getting in her way. At the end of the day she’s finally able to give some of her lunch to Aki which makes him happy since he hasn’t been able to eat anything all day.
Episodes 5-9
In episode 5 the principal of the school holds a scavenger hunt with exciting prizes such as meal tickets for a year and exchange tickets for new videogames (and there’s probably a prize to have Hideyoshi be your maid for a day). All these prizes are good but the prize Aki wants are special cellphone straps of some popular mascot character named Fi the Fox (no doubt the Hello Kitty version of this anime) to give to Hazuki since her other phone strap got destroyed by a car. In the hunt students are put into teams of 3, the only way to find the location of prizes is to answer school questions (well, Aki’s screw), and if teams cross paths with each other they can fight each other using their avatars to steal prizes (and now’s he really screwed). Yuuji, Hideyoshi, and Aki are put in a team together and use Aki’s pencil dice to find the locations of the prizes but they all turn out wrong. Shouko’s team is trying to find premium tickets to an amusement park because she wants to go there with Yuuji (her husband as she likes to call him) and Minami, Himeji, and Muttsuriini are a team where they find a ticket item in the girl’s locker room which gives Muttsuriini multiple nosebleeds because he can’t handle the atmosphere (how’s is this man still alive? The amount of blood he lost should have killed him. Full scene here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrbChVJp-Hc). After a few fuuny situations Aki gets the brilliant idea that he doesn’t have to answer the questions correctly since the questions are all multiple choice and that since there are 3 of them they can each check all the locations for the prizes. So they each check the locations and eventually find the ticket on the school roof where Shouko’s group shows up and challenges them but the school bell rings drawing an end to the scavenger hunt (it’s all right because I’m saved by bell~). Aki gets the cellphone straps and the group gets the secret prize which are iron bracelets which allows them to create a summoning field without the teacher’s approval. Yuuji and Hideyoshi’s explode but Aki’s is okay since only idiots can use it (the flaws of technology).
In episode 6 it’s summertime which means only one thing. . . FANSERVICE! After getting caught taking a shower at the school pool Yuuji and Aki are punished with cleaning the pool however they’re free to use it for the weekend. So they invite the whole gang including Shouko and Hazuki for a swim in the school. There Aki and Mttsuriini get constant nosebleeds checking out the swimsuits of the girls (scene here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WFf5vCs_GY, boobs of mass destruction on Himeji I tell you what). They partake in all sorts of games such as waterdevil where Shouko tries to kill Yuuji (scene here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoNxbSRWdaM, the cute ones always turn out to be the crazy ones) and relay races to decide who won’t taste Himeji’s food. Aiko also shows up and tells the boys that if they want to peep try not get caught (scene here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmMRYk8cyAc, she is just begging to get rape isn’t she). After Muttsuriini and Aki see a topless Hideyoshi and drown the pool in their own blood (scene here: https://youtu.be/SeRZHjwzX3k, he died the way he lived, peeping at girls and getting nosebleeds). After that they go to a bathhouse where we get fanservice of Hideyoshi (ISIS! (Isis): Yes master? (Nitsuj): *grabs her boobs* Ah, manhood returning. (Isis): *grabs crowbar and clocks Nitsuj upside the head* Tell me troll, did that beating from last week somehow make your balls bigger or have you finally snapped. (Nitsuj): I. . .probably deserved that). Aki and Muttsuriini try to peep on the girls using Aki’s iron bracelet but the girls summon their own avatars which beat Aki’s avatar and Iron Man shows up out of nowhere and carries Aki off to remedial classes to end the episode.
In episode 7 we focus on our favorite couple Yuuji and Shouko. Shouko breaks into Yuuji’s house on a Sunday morning and forces Yuuji to take her on a date to an amusement since Aki gave her the premium tickets he got from the scavenger hunt in episode 5. They go to the amusement park where Aki and everyone else are in disguises trying to make the date a success. Near the end they have the two go through a wedding experience (scene here: https://youtu.be/7dVHs-B9F5I) where Shouko reveals that all her life her dream has been to become Yuuji’s bride (aww, that’s kinda sweet). After that this douchbag couple mocks her and calls her dream stupid and worthless which upsets Shouko so much that she runs out of the building crying (these guys are assholes but to be fair they do deliver this one funny line:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NVDljx-XWs). They try and search for her while Yuuji goes to have a few words with the couple who insulted Shouko (and by that I mean he went to beat the living hell out of them. He loves her). He catches up Shouko where he says her dream isn’t stupid at all and that he will never laugh at her dream (there’s no turning back now, Yuuji is now in a romantic relationship with Shouko). As he proceeds to walk off he tells Shouko that she’s got the wrong guy to have feelings for but Shouko assures him that she’s found the right guy.
In episode 8 the summon test field is out of order, it goes berserk, covers the whole school in the field and the avatars are acting on their own. Because of this we get a good shout out to Darkstalkers, Little Red Riding Hood, and manage to work in a Code Geass reference. All the avatars eventually go off on their own except for Aki’s because it runs from a different area on the system. The principal decides to use Aki’s avatar to fix the system since it can physically touch objects and he has the iron bracelet which allows him to create his own field. Using the vents he tries to make his way to the server room but he gets jumped by the avatars of his friends who bring his points down to zero and he’s forced to take remedial classes (so even in a crisis punishment is still carried out. School authority at its best folks). Yuuji comes up with the idea that if Aki takes recovery test that even an elementary student can pass he’ll be able to increase his points easily. The plan works and he’s able to take out Yuuji and Muttsuriini, and Hideyoshi’s avatar with ease (this game’s winner: Aki). He makes his way to the server room where he runs into Minami and Himeji’s avatar who tie him up bondage style and begin to whip him (man high school girls are in to some freaky stuff these days aren’t they). The avatar manages to beat Minami’s but Himeji’s is just too powerful but Aki comes up with the idea that if Himeji takes test and does horrible on them her avatar’s power will decrease (a smart idea, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0ekeIZu3VI). The plan works and Aki defeats Himeji and restores control back to the system. At the end they all go to remedial classes since they all lost in battle.
Going on to episode 9 Aki receives a visit from his big breasted-sister Akira. She’s voiced by Kikuko Inoue (Lust from FMA: Brotherhood) whose returning from college (I assume it’s never really explained where she’s been) to check in on Aki and make sure he’s living healthy and responsively otherwise she’ll move in with him (Isis: What’s so bad about that). She also has an incest crush on Aki and tries to push herself on him (Isis: Okay, this has become bad. Lock the bedroom door and sleep with one eye open at all times). The next day he sells his manga and videogames to earn money for food so as to look healthy while his sister is in town. He also tries to stay over at Yuuji’s house but through a weird text message that Shouko sees she thinks Yuuji is in a sexual relationship with Aki and uses a stun gun on Yuuji (this serves no relevance to the story I just find that scene funny). In class Aki even starts to begin studying which shocks the teachers so much that they think he’s sick (clearly, they have given up on him). Wanting to know what he’s hiding the group decides to hold a study group session at his house for the upcoming midterms. Once they get to his house they see his sister’s underwear hanging, cosmetics, and food that women eat lying around but Himeji remains in denial on the whole obvious situation until Akira comes back home where Aki explains that Akira is his older sister and not his lover (though I’m pretty sure she’s wishing to be his lover). While at the house we also see that Aki is quite the chef and can cook better than Minami and Himeji (he may be an idiot at school but when it comes to home economics he’s a genius). The next day he gets into a fight with his sister seeing as how she wants him to focus on his studies and not use her as an excuse for his failure but he misunderstands this and just studies non-stop. The day of the test arrives and he manages to answer all the questions correctly but he accidently puts Alexander the Great in the spot of his name thus putting all of his answers up one spot and him ultimately getting a zero (oh~ what cruel idiotic irony). After getting insulted and humiliated by his sister from the test he finds out that his sister has been practicing cooking his favorite meal behind his back which is a big deal because she doesn’t know how to cook.
Episodes 10-13 and OVAs
In episode 10 Himeji is trying to deliver a love letter to Aki but all of her attempts fail. While this is going Aki is asked to put prep test papers in the school vault and uses boxes from F class to carry the papers. Because of this the main gang loses something they value in the vault. Yuuji loses a marriage registration form that he stole from Shouko (why he didn’t burn it is beyond me), Muttsuriini loses his data on the bust sizes of all the girls in school, Minami loses photos of Aki wearing a maid outfit (0_0 whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat), Hideyoshi loses his nurse outfit from the theater club, and Himeji loses her love letter. They all team up with Nemoto the class rep of class B who is a sneaky bastard that uses underhanded tactics to beat his opponents. He uses them to get the key to unlock the safe and get the answers to the prep test saying that the group can’t tattle on him otherwise they’ll be in trouble as well. Later on we find out that 3 months have passed which means class F can declare summon wars again and Yuuji and Aki decide to teach Nemoto a lesson. They use Aki’s avatar to break the vault and spread the answer sheets around school meaning that the questions won’t be on the test which makes Nemoto’s efforts worthless and pointless (the lesson of this episode: never backstab an idiot). As you would expect they get in trouble but it was all worth it.
Going on to episode 11 with the class being able to do summon wars again they start a war against class D to build momentum for when they go to take on class B. Through a good strategy they manage to beat class D’s rep and we also see that Yuuji’s scores have gone up big time to the point where they rival a class A student. The next day they take on class B and at first they seem to be losing until Aki reveals to the boys of class F that Nemoto has a girlfriend who makes him lunch everyday (he also makes her wear a sexy cat outfit on the weekends). This angers them so much that they transform into the FFF a group of boys who ditch out punish to guys who have girlfriends out of jealousy (this group is so wrong yet funny at the same time because I’m pretty sure in high school there are boys who wish they could do what the FFF does). They begin committing kamikazes on the class B students which manages to take a majority of them out (is anybody else getting flashbacks of Worms during this scene). On the battlefield Nemoto confronts Himeji where he tells her to backoff otherwise he’ll tear apart her love letter that he stole from her the other day (you can write another one, beat the guy now and win the war). Aki overhears the conversation and says that he’ll takeout Nemoto himself. So he goes into class D to launch a surprise attack where in an act of badassery he uses his avatar to punch a hole in the wall which leads him to class B where Nemoto is. They surrounded him but he has bodyguards on standby to guard him but this was all a part of Aki’s plan. With the guards distracted Muttsuriini comes flying in through the window with Iron Man who can approve a war in any subject. Muttsuriini chooses to battle Nemoto in Health education and beats him making class F the winner. Instead of exchanging equipment they instead force Nemoto to wear a schoolgirl outfit and Aki gets back Himeji’s love letter. After the credits we see Aki return the love letter back to Himeji where she rips it apart and asks Aki if she can start calling him by his first name (oh yeah, first name bases, he’s moving up in the world).
Going on to episode 12 the group plans their strategy to wage war with class A. After Hideyoshi shows his sister’s work books (which are really BL novels) Aki goes to deliver them to her and declare war on class where she response appropriately (and by appropriately I mean beat the hell of him for exposing her love for BL novels. (Isis): Never expose a girl’s secret passion. (Nitsuj): Something you wanna tell the audience Isis? (Isis): You want another crowbar to the back of your head *points crowbar at me*. (Nitsuj): I’ll be quiet). After getting Yuuko worked up they commence stage 2 of their plan by having the classes they defeated do a mock war against class A to lower their points and make them too weak and tired for tomorrow’s war. They also have Hideyoshi dress as Yuuko and taunt class C which makes them do a mock war with class A as well (I gotta admit this is a good strategy. You make your enemies wear down your opponents and then take them down. Genius). The next day the war between Class A and F begins. They take the fight outside where Class F takes out members of class A one at a time through a barricade. Class A eventually breaks the barricade and they move on to the next step of plan where Aki’s avatar removes the belts of the boys causing their pants to fall which makes them embarrass (quit acting like women and fight). The plan works but Aiko shows up to put a stop to their plan since she’s not wearing a bra (okay that’s it, she wants to get rape). The final battle takes place on the school roof with Aki, Yuuji, Minami, and Himeji taking on Shouko and Yuuko (this is getting pretty exciting). Thanks to Aki’s iron bracelet the group learned how to control their avatars and are able to move them around freely like Aki. They also use the iron bracelet to block reinforcements from showing up. As Yuuji closes in for the final hit on Shouko Aki’s bracelet begins to malfunction because the bracelet only works for idiots and since Aki has been studying a lot recently he’s no longer seen as an idiot (and yet he still fails test, so where’s the logic in that). The field breaks which causes the roof to collapse and Shouko and Himeji fall through but are caught by Yuuji and Aki. Yuuji manages to pull Shouko up but Aki falls with Himeji only to be saved by Iron Man. In the confusion Yuuko comes up from behind and defeats Yuuji making class A the winner.
In the final episode we see that class F is now using clipboards instead of cardboard boxes now (Snaaaaaake~). Aki, not accepting the way the class lost goes to the principle to demand a rematch but is denied. Shouko and Yuuko come in and also demand a rematch (honor among honor students. Interesting). The principal finally caves in and gives them the rematch they want but instead of it being a summon war it’ll be a one on one test battle between Aki and Shouko where if Aki wins he’ll get one wish he wants (I wish for all girls to wear. . .tiny miniskirts *Isis takes crowbar and whacks Nitsuj upside the head* a man *right hand reaching to the sky*. . .chooses) and if Shouko wins Yuuji has to give back the marriage registration form he somehow stole from Shouko in episode 10. They go through a series of questions with both of them getting the correct answer each time until they reach the 30th question which is to name the year the Taika Reform took place. Using his pencil dice he writes down 645 and Shouko writes 625. The correct answer. . .645! Aki wins and Shouko loses. As she walks out silently accepting her lost Yuuji meets her in the hallway wanting to know why she missed that answer on purpose. She replies by saying because of the promised she made with him as a child to never forget (wow, so she knows that the Reform took place in 645 but because of the promise she made with Yuuji as a kid she’ll keep saying that the Reform took place in 625 just because she loves him. Really Yuuji, you don’t wanna marry this girl? Sure she’s a little crazy but at least she’s loyal and kind). After his victory Aki gets his wish which is to have Himeji retake the placement test where she manages to answer all the questions correctly but forgot to put her name on it resulting in her failing and being put back into class F. Aki, being the idiot he is can’t see that Himeji wanted to stay with him because she likes him goes to complain at the principal where he calls her an idiot (said the pot to the kettle). Everyone else comes in and calls Aki an idiot to end the season.
There are two OVAs of this anime that came out roughly a year after the final episode after the 1st season ended. In the first OVA the school festival is starting and all the classes are determined to make the festival a success to earn money for their classes especially class F because Himeji’s parents are talking about transferring her to another school. The class decides to open a Chinese café (good, maid cafés are so 5 years ago) and have the girls (yes, including Hideyoshi) wear Chinese dresses to attract customers. They get a lot of customers but after receiving a horrible service, two third-year students named Natsukawa and Tsunemura start spreading rumors around the school about the Chinese café that makes them lose customers. Aki and Yuuji go to take care of them and find them in class A where they have maid café going on (damn it, didn’t you hear me? Maid cafés are outdated, get more creative. Class F has the right idea). They disguise Aki as one of the maids and make it seem like the two sexually harassed him (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqL9KE3AqZQ). The plan works and the Chinese café starts to get customers back (also Hazuki is a waitress at the café now) but the Wario and Waluigi troublemakers aren’t giving up and decide to kidnap one of the maids. They use Muttsuriini’s surveillance system to find them and Aki takes them out (Fist of the cross-dressing maid star~!) only to find that the maid they kidnapped was Hideyoshi. At the end we have a few what if scenarios where the students decide on who was the best maid was and all of them get a good laugh. We also find out that the next day the school will be holding a summon beast tournament and the principal says she’ll allow class F to use the money they’ve earned to buy new equipment if the winning team comes from class F. Seeing this as an opportunity Aki and Yuuji along with Himeji and Minami form teams and enter the tournament.
In the second episode of the OVA all we see is Aki and Yuuji fighting in the tournament and winning until they reach Shouko and Yuuko where through the “persuasion” of Aki, Yuuji agrees to propose to Shouko once he wins the tournament. They win and move on to the semifinals where they meet Minami and Himeji and decide to back out since those two have better chance at winning but after an announcement from Hazuki and constant threats they get forced into fighting them and win (our two heroines are jealous over a little girl? Talk about low self-esteem, I mean, what else do they get jealous over?). They move on to the final where they face Natsukawa and Tsunemura who we find out has been manipulating the whole tournament and putting the two against opponents they should have lost to. At first, it seems like the battle subject will be English but thanks to Muttsuriini it get changes to Japanese History Aki’s best subject. They have a very good fight where the director just says screw the rules and have the animators go all out in the final battle and Aki and Yuuji win. Not wanting to admit defeat the wicked duo go to expose their cheating but Aki uses his avatar to grab one of the firework cannons and fires one of fireworks at them while they’re in the school causing a few more cannons to fire on the school thus destroying a small part of the school (and that should get them expelled or at least thrown in jail but this is an anime so no harm done). Instead of getting expelled or thrown in jail they’re force to use the funds they earned from the café to fix the school (bye new school equipment) but there is an upside to this story, Himeji isn’t transferring because her father sees she has great friends (yes, friends who destroy school property and cheat to win tournaments, truly these are the best friends a smart and innocent girl can have). We end the OVA with a big bonfire where instead of dancing with Minami or Himeji (you know, like a normal guy would), Aki decides to dance with Hazuki (oh Aki, I was sure I wasn’t gonna have to call the cops on you, damn it).
Final Thoughts
Baka and Test is a great anime, it is hands down one of the funniest animes I’ve seen in my life. Each episode manages to get good laughs out of me at how funny and ridiculous the anime can be. The characters are funny as well, Aki being your typical but likable idiot who always does the right thing but has a shadow of misfortune and pain bought upon him because of his stupidity. I like how Minami and Himeji do like him but when he does something stupid or is seen being with another girl they go crazy on him and aren’t afraid to hurt him. As I said before Muttsuriini is probably the funniest character in this series as everytime he’s on screen you’re guaranteed to laugh at him and can be kind of cool at times. Hideyoshi will probably get the least amount of laughs out of you because the only joke they use with him is that he’s a boy who was blessed with the looks of a girl and is constantly being mistaken as a girl. Yuuji is by far my favorite character in the series because I agree with his ideas and philosophy, life isn’t all about academics and it shouldn’t be, some of the most successful people in the world did poor in school and yet they turned out alright because they had a dream and worked hard to make it come true. I also like his relationship with Shouko, I think the two make a funny and lovely couple and it’s obvious Yuuji has feelings for Shouko as we see him worry about her and stand up for her in the anime. I just think he wishes Shouko wasn’t so crazy but I still think that craziness makes her funny and cute.
I do love the summon test wars, I honestly think this system would work in a real school setting. I can totally see students studying hard to get their grades and start wars against each other to become the number one class in school. Yeah, it might start a little competition between classes but sometimes a little competition is good for people, it encourages them work harder, strive for a goal, and encourage teamwork with their fellow classmates. I think however the crappy equipment as punishment for the lowest class might be a little overkill and might hinder their studies but then again that crappy equipment might encourage them to study harder and work towards better equipment.
The animation style is alright, it’s nothing special and they do use all funny animation styles for different situations. Like in some scenes they’ll zoom in on the head area of some characters and have the other characters appear below the screen in chibi form. There have some characters show realistic and serious faces during times of shock or horror, sometimes they’ll be shots where the screen is all white and the only color showing is that character’s respected color, and sometimes they’ll just do parodies of other animes or videogames. While this is all funny it can sometimes be annoying for how inconsistent and out of nowhere it comes in some scenes especially when it’s a scene that has a lot going on. The music is also good, they have wide range of music for this anime that ranges from soft country, pop-rock, and orchestra music that match up well with the scenes and the characters.
The side characters don’t really play that big of a roll besides Shouko but they’re pretty funny like the main cast. I will say however that for the short time Nemoto was the antagonist he was pretty menacing and mischievous to the point that you want to see him get what’s coming to him and Iron Man can be quite funny for how much he picks on Aki but he can still be a fair and respectable teacher. I guess my only complaint besides how inconsistent the animation can be at times is that we don’t get a lot of character background such as why does Minami have a crush on Aki (Himeji I can understand because she finds out that all the things Aki is doing has been to make her school life more pleasant), what’s the deal between Aki and Hazuki how did they meet, and why does Shouko love Yuuji so much that it’s almost borderline obsession (yeah, they’re childhood friends but so are Houki and Ichika from IS and they didn’t have an obsession over each other. Their relationship was in a sense normal). We never get answers to these questions and we’re left wondering how these relationships came about.
Final Score
Baka and Test earns a passing grade of 7.5/10. The anime is great and funny to watch and the OVAs are also funny and follow the same formula as the anime. Despite my complaints which are very minor this anime does a solid job at introducing its characters, story, plot, and comedy which provides a great anime worth watching at least once if not multiple times. And luckily all the questions I had about the relationships of the first season are answered in the second season which we’ll be looking at next week. Why? Because I feel like laughing some more and the world can always use laughter. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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