[Anime] Baka and Test

http://animeyume.com/blog_images/baka_test_review.jpg

Type: TV Series - 13 episodes

Genres: Comedy, Romance, School, Super Power

Plot Synopsis
The story of Baka and Test is centered around Akihisa Yoshii and his fellow classmates. The academy he attends splits up the student body in classes A to F based on their test scores. The smartest students go to class A with air conditioning, a nice classroom, and top quality equipment. While Akihisa and the least smartest students or "baka's" are in Class F, with old, worn-out, tea tables for desks(which eventually turn into cardboard boxes), a dusty, broken down classroom, and old-straw mats for sitting on. A girl in Akihisa's class named Mizuki Himeji, is one of the smartest students in the sophomore class. But she had a fever during testing and wasn't able to take the test, resulting in a zero and being placed in Akihisa's class. Besides Mizuki, all of Akihisa's friends are in his class as well like Yuuji Sakamoto, the class president and Akihisa's closet friend, Akihisa's childhood friend Minami Shimada, and many more.

The school has developed experiments of summoning digital creatures called Avatars, the students use the avatars to go to war with one another(each students avatar looks like them, but chibi). Your avatar's strength is based on your test scores for each subject e.g math, english, history. So, A having the strongest avatars, while F the lowest. Akihisa and Yuuji, decide to rally their band of baka's to take on the higher classes to claim their perks such as equipment like chairs, desks, etc. Class F aims for beating Class A in a war for ruling the school.

Story (9/10)
The story of Baka and Test is very creative and humorous. It has comedy, action, and even a bit romance. The idea of having Avatars fight, and their strength based on student's test scores is a really cool concept, as well as splitting up the students based on test scores. And the war to be the best in school was exciting to watch, being the underdogs, rising from below to take on the smarter students. But I think the quality of the story does not come from the plot development, but from the hilarious story line that keeps you in tears. The jokes in this show ranged from the boys' nosebleeds, to Akihisa's getting the crap beat out of him(usually by Minami) for saying the wrong thing or for having 2 of the cutest girls in the school like him(by the other Class F boys).

Characters (10/10)
The characters in Baka and Test we have an idiot or "baka" protagonist, moe, tsundere, yandere, lolicon, both yuri and yaoi situations, a pervert with a LOT of nose-bleeds, overly sized breast and also the flat chest, a lily trap and even the incest sister. They have all kinds in this series. The characters is the thing that really makes this series unique. It has some of funniest and most memorable characters I've ever seen. All the characters have development one way or another, and you don't see that often. Each character has their own attributes that give them more of a personality as well.

Art/Animation (8/10)
This anime is very interesting to look at and the backgrounds are great. The character designs are nice and the animation is very fluid. The colors have a large variety, and are great to look at. It always keeps an upbeat, bright colored feel to it. Never sad/depressing or any of that. The battles between the avatars are fun to watch, but not amazing. Almost every episode Akihisa and Yuuji, have these little, short one-on-one talks when Yuuji says something deep or explains something important to Akihisa. They turn into drawings, with no color. It's pretty funny.

Voice Acting/Music (10/10)
The best part about Baka and Test is the voice acting. It was great. The english dub was also very well done. It has a good cast of voices that knows how to deliver. The music wasn't bad. The opening was alright, but I for one prefer the ending which was upbeat and is really fun to listen to. The background music really wasn't anything special, but not bad. It always did an alright job setting the mood or going with what was going on.

Overall (10/10)
Baka and Test was one of the funniest school/action anime I have seen. I loved the plot, and the characters that really made the show special. Once I started watching I couldn't stop. I'm glad there's a season 2 I can start watching too. I recommend this to all who love a good a laugh, and not have to worry about sad/tense or dramatic moments. You can just sit down and enjoy. If your looking for something like that, this series does not disappoint.

This series shows that even idiots, given the determination, can do anything they set their minds to.

Reviewer Comment
First of all, I want to thank you for taking the time to read this review. It's my first, so please be gentle. But I hope it has influenced you to check out this awesome series. Thanks again for reading and I hope to do another review soon!

Great review. Excellent detail. I love this series and look foward to the next season. I hope it comes soon.

I would also mention to people who have not seen this yet to watch the dubbed version if possible. There are a lot of visual jokes that will be missed while trying to keep up with the subtitles.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PalaeOtaku

Great review. Excellent detail. I love this series and look foward to the next season. I hope it comes soon.

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Thanks a lot, it's appreciated. I too hope a third season is announced sometime soon. The second was equally funny as the first.

I love this anime but have to give it a 9.5 / 10 because of the ending

Loved Baka to Test, watch the whole thing in one day, and I couldn't stop laughing.

Akihisa Is Very funny XD
Love This baka To test

Bought the Season 1 DVD the other day, this review justified my purchase as I was unsure about it at the time ahahah XD

Thanks for the review, look forward to watching it, looks really funny ^.^

Voted for great not for masterpiece simply cause they didnt make the art style in anime as great as in the original novel~which was masterpiece~

Sweet im gonna give this anime a try although i prefer more action based and less romance type of stuff but looks awesome thanks ^^

i liked it it was cool. The characters were great.

My favorite anime C:
I made it a rule to watch it once a month :p

baka and test is a epic show do u think there will be a season 3 of it?

Todd, you did an amazing job with this review of the show. I am currently watching this series and this review is spot on. I feel that to have a anime show that really stand out more than the rest is to really make sure not just one element, but ALL the elements of the show need to be perfect. This a show that does that. From the concept of the storyline, to the voice acting, to the character design the entire staff did a great job with the show. The flow of the storyline is not too fast or slow, and the audience is able to follow along with what is going on without having to ask many questions or rewatch the show to grasp the storyline and understand what is going on. There is a bit of romance, lots of laughs, action, and a wide variety of situations that the characters are put in which I think makes the show more appealing to watch, and more importantly, makes the show more appealing to KEEP watching.

I still havent watched all of season 2 (oh so very guilty)

I thought it was a great show hopefully they make more episodes.

I love this show! Yoshii is so funny! I hope he ends up with mizuki. I like the review

I really enjoyed the show, it was funny and the characters were likable, and I really loved that Avatar system. I wish my school had something like that. The school scenario is just getting a little old for me and I wish I would see something new with comedies other than another high school setting. However, Baka and Test definitely managed to stand out amongst the rest of them.

I figured since there was already a thread with a review of it I would post this here. It’s a slightly edited version of my review on MAL (Mainly for language) for the second season of Baka to Test. I’ll probably post a couple more reviews soon too. When I review; I review, in other words I regardless of how much I love a show for any particular reason, approach it at a new objective angle, and try to find the flaws. As I would hope most people know this is what reviews are for, so despite my ratings overall the review may or may not reflect that.

Story: 6

For the most part the show is what you would expect from Baka and Test, light hearted silly and fun to watch with loads of comedic tid bits that will have "ROFLing" your butt off, but with more to it this time around.

The series starts where it left off, a weak (Story wise) love triangle between Akihisa, Minami, and Himeji that is and really isn't the main focus of the show. However this season changes that a bit in the second half and gives us the much needed character development that was virtually (More literally) nonexistent in the first season. During these episodes we learn a lot more about the characters pasts which makes the triangle more interesting and is definitely paving the way for a third season.

Unfortunately there are some problems with it as well. The main one being the arc centered around peeping on the girls. It lasted way too long and should have been at least an episode shorter. It simply didn't bring much value to the show as a whole, and to me felt like a filler arc.

Art: 10

This is my favorite part of the show, everything from all the various character designs to the sometimes simple, but unique backdrops. The entire style of this show is just fun to look at and really fits the mood of the show. I'm particularly fond of the way they treat the shading by putting little circles inside everything in the backgrounds. Animation is solid and consistent throughout the entire show and never fails to just look good and fluid. Simply put I think this show looks awesome and have yet to adore any other show as much as this.

Sound: 8

I'm a dub lover so please forgive me dub haters but it is what it is.

The dub for Baka has always been good to me, and it definitely has one of the better dubs that much is for sure. The cast sounds pretty decent without any (Maybe one or two) annoying sounding characters, and all the voices fit the characters pretty well. The music in the show however is really nothing special; in fact I can't even recall any BGM that I can even replay in my head which is a little disappointing because I felt the music for the show could have been great given the art style.

The opening and ending are nothing that special either but that's really just personal preference more than anything. I will say that the ending is fun to watch though and grew a little on me after I had watched it a few times.

Character: 8

The cast itself is not very large compared to some shows and is relatively easy to follow, relate to, and recognize at a moments notice. Each is designed very well and looks great. The only problem is other than the main characters not much is discovered or explored in the way of back story or development. Many of the characters just always act the same as they have and don't really change. Which given the show is mostly a comedy is not necessarily a bad thing either. Each brings their own amount of oomph to certain jokes in the series, but I felt they could have explored the others, at least some; a little.

Enjoyment: 10

It's hard to not enjoy this show there is plenty of comedy (Most of which is slightly clever, but not as much as the first season.) to keep you laughing and character development is never a bad thing as far as I am concerned. Everything looks great and sounds good so there's nothing distracting and it's just an overall good experience.

Overall: 7

Baka and Test is just an all around good show with a lil’ of something for almost everybody. It looks great and has a wide variety of comedic elements that can really make you laugh and it's at times hard to stop watching. Even when it gets serious about its characters they find a way to keep it light hearted and yet still emotional while being fun to watch. I think if you sat down and watched it with a close friend you would have an unforgettable time laughing it up just as I did with season one. This is one of those must try series that almost everyone can enjoy and it’s not very long so you have nothing to lose giving it a try.


I would like to note that I don't take into consideration the enjoyment category as part of the overall ratings.