Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts

Genres: comedy, fantasy, romance, slice-of-life




Well...huh....where to begin?! Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts (Baka to Test to:Shokanjuu in japanese) focuses mainly on a boy named Akihisa Yoshii a.k.a "Idiot". He attends Fumizuki High where they believe your grades should reflect your high school life. "Do better live better," so to speak. The classes are divided up based on rank from A (class with best facilities and grades) down to F (class with all the crap). The students take an exam at the beginning of the school year to decide where they will be placed. Those with exceptionally high scores get placed in A class and it continues down to class F "the losers".


Like most slice-of-life anime the trace of a plot is almost non-existent, but who cares!! With this anime being chock-full of so many running gags and more jokes than a...than a...I don't even have anything to compare this to! The point being that this anime, being a slice-of-life, comedy, does exactly what it's supposed to do...MAKE YOU LAUGH. A plot? Who needs it!, This anime'll keep you so busy laughing that whenever they do concentrate on the plot you'll just be tweaking for your next laugh.

One very important thing about this anime is the school employs a little thing called "Summoner Test Wars" where classes may fight each other using state-of-the-art avatars the class that loses switches equipment with the class that wins...sounds cool right?...well no. I mean, the avatars themselves are only as strong as the grades the students make on tests, what's more is the fight scenes are ridiculous to say the least. Sure, this isn't a fighting anime but the attacks have no explanation and are borderline childish. To be honest though that was my only complaint.

Well, you see, the story starts off with the students taking their exams at the beginning of the year to decide in what class each will be placed, but out of the blue one of Akihisa's old friends named, Mizuki Himeji, suddenly faints. Well, being the kind-hearted fellow he is, he is about to take her to the nurse'e office, when (again) out of the blue the teacher informs Akihisa that if he leaves the classroom their tests will be void. It skips ahead from there but later we find out that Mizuki is in the F class along with Akihisa and it is revealed that he did in-fact take her to the nurse's office.

Due to her fragile nature Akihisa doesn't think the disease-infested equipment in F class isn't the best for her. So he and Yuji decide to kick the school year off by starting a Summoner Test War so they can get better equipment for Mizuki and the first step is the E class.

The mix of characters in this show is the perfect combination of quirky personalities to ensure hilarious moments at every opportunity.

Hideyoshi Kinoshita

Hideyoshi is a baby-faced boy who often gets mistaken for a girl. He also seems to wear girl clothes throughout most of the series.

Kota Tsuchiya

Kota Tsuchiya is one hardcore pervert. His camera at his side, he is ready to capture any panty shot, nude pose, or bra slip at a moments notice. Also, his inability to control his geiser-like nosebleeds in a perverted situation is just one of the many running gags previously mentioned.

Minami Shimada 

Minami Shimida is an underdeveloped girl and because of her lacking physique she is often a target for a lot of Akihisa's jokes. And what happens when one of those jokes slip out? Does she cry? Nuh-uh. Before he can even finish she puts him in a bone-crushing submissive hold, resulting in phrases like, "You don't have to worry about that your chest is so flat that you can't even SPLIT MY SPINE IN HALF!!". She also has a crush on Akihisa.

Yuji Sakamoto

Yuiji Sakamoto is the class rep of F class and can be considered Akihisa's best friend and worst enemy. Putting Akihisa in harm's way more than a few time and also giving a pep talk with a hand on the shoulder and a pencil drawn screen he is very hard to read.

Mizuki Himeji

Finally, Mizuki Himeji. She has a very innocent nature and friendly personality and, because of Akihisa's help during the exams, has developed a crush on him. She is very smart and if it wasn't for her fever she would have easily made it into A class.

The animation is surprisingly good for a slice-of-life. The dub is nothing special but it fits the characters and the emotions are conveyed clearly.

This anime is awesome in terms of comedy. That being said there is an "AWW" moment or two, but when everything is said and done it's impossible not to like this anime. I don't give ratings, but if you're looking for a laugh then look no further! Baka and Test:Summon the Beasts is the anime for you.

You can watch the entire series english dub here.