It’s the beginning of a new year, and things are looking all shiny and colorful and new. It also means that a good portion of you are heading back to school, so why not celebrate with another comedy set in high school? …wait, I don’t think you’re supposed to celebrate that…
Baka and Test – Summon the Beasts (Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu)
Episodes: 13
Original run: 6 January 2010 – 31 March 2010
Production: Silver Link
Director: Oonuma Shin
Genres: Comedy, Romance, School, Super Power
Rating: PG-13 – Teens 13 and older
Licensed and distributed by FUNimation
Synopsis:
Fumizuki Academy houses world-class academic standards and state-of-the-art equipment for the students to study with…if you are smart enough. The academy segregates students in their second year by results of a placement test, putting them into different classes based on academic performance. Those with the best grades get placed in Class A and have the best equipment. Those in Class F? The knucklebrain class, they get the worst equipment and the worst treatment. Members of each class, however, to swap equipment, can take part in a summoner test war against another class, fighting with an avatar whose strength is determined by previous academic performance. The story follows Class F and Akihisa Yoshii, who scored near the bottom and is determined to be the biggest idiot in the academy. He and his classmates, including the Class-A-worthy Mizuki Himeji, now deal with their daily lives as the class considered to be the scum of the academy. Hijinks, obviously, ensue.
Review:
You know what? Comedy critiques are difficult. Every time a comedy is reviewed, the critic has to be conscious about handling the humor, because there is honestly no worse thing when dealing with something hilarious than spoiling the joke and/or punchline. The comedy in question might not also appeal to the viewer’s sense of humor, thus making it more difficult to form a neutral stance on it. With all of that being said, though, I will remain as spoiler-free and neutral as possible.
So, how exactly is Baka and Test?
To start, yes, this is most certainly a screwball comedy. Leave your brain at the door, this show is not out to tickle at your thinking capacity. No, this is a consistently silly show, and expects to be taken as such. The comedy runs the gamut of wordplay, slapstick, perverted humor, and occasionally black humor. The show is not random, no, and the writing usually works, but there will be something in this show guaranteed to make you chuckle. What is rather annoying is that the comedy writing is nothing new (usually relying on hit-or-miss running gags to start things out), and a lot of the perverted-comedy-centric episodes did not work for me (but that is neither here nor there). However, despite these factors, when the series was truly funny, I found myself laughing quite a bit.
And you thought your high school had no budget.
The plot is pretty linear and easy to follow, usually running through a predictable series of events while being both self-aware and cheesily serious at the same time. The adventures of Class F are usually pretty interesting to watch, and provide decent amounts of laughs. Summoner test wars are intriguing to watch strategically, and provide a good twist onto standard action fare. However, there is a single problem with the story: when it decides to get serious. In true anime comedy fashion, there are moments where Baka and Test decides to ditch its goofy nature and tries to be serious. This does not work, not in the slightest, and comes off as very cheesy and unnecessary. What’s intriguing is that the pacing became much slower in these segments, being very wonky and disorienting compared to the decent pacing of the rest of the show. Despite the cheesy nature of some of the comedy, it never got to the level of the drama. The ending suffers from being a cheesefest and being open-ended, but the screwy nature of the last few minutes make up for it and make it satisfying.
The characters in Baka and Test are most certainly archetypal, but for the most part are still fun to watch. There is little to no character development in this, but in a rare turn of events, the characters that receive the majority of development are the guys. However, the characters are still pretty much tropes of high school stereotypes with one or two running gags attached to them. Whether or not these jokes work are dependent on the viewer, but most of the running gags have been seen and done in other shows, especially in Himeji’s case. I also have problems with Himeji as a character, as, without really spoiling much, she’s the reason why a lot of the cheesy drama is in the series. Everyone else usually works, and is usually entertaining to watch. There are a few exceptions in my personal set of preferences, but really, it’s a funny cast. Some might be turned off by the lack of character depth, but it’s still not the show’s main goal.
They captured the realistic apathy of high schoolers in this one scene.
The art in this show is bright, crisp, and colorful. It occasionally uses bloom to make itself look like a higher-budget production that it really is, but those moments are thankfully few and far-between. The general bright colour palette is pushed to extremes in some cases, but it helps more than it hinders, and definitely fits in this type of show. The character designs are all distinctive and big-eyed moe, but it really does look cute, more often than not. The avatars the students summon are basically what compose the show’s actions scenes, and the avatars are adorable chibi versions of themselves. This makes fights interesting, adorable, and cheap all at the same time. The fight choreography was pretty okay most of the time, but the animation took a few shortcuts when it came to the summoner test wars at points. Heck, this show used shortcuts quite often, but still managed to time them well to make it look like they weren’t trying to cover up for budget problems and using them for comedic effect. It’s in this manner, when the show cuts towards dotted patterns and pastel close-ups, that the budget problems are apparent but handled swiftly in a manner that is still aesthetically-pleasing. It’s certainly not the prettiest show out there, but the animation covers up its cheats nicely and presents zany, hectic comedy rather well. The opening animation definitely employs both of these, hectic animation and some pretty pastel still shots. The endings are much more lazy and there’s not much to talk about with them.
The sound in Baka and Test is more of a mixed bag. The score is forgettable, only being used to support the comedy and not much else. The opening and endings are both rather generic, but they all grew on me (sans the second ending), especially the opening, when matched with the cutesy animation. The voice acting is where Baka and Test truly shines, being hilarious in both languages. The dub definitely excels more than the Japanese, though, thanks to everybody being perfectly cast and a well-written dub. With Josh Grelle delivering every one of Akihisa’s lines perfectly, Alexis Tipton gives Himeji a faux-sweetness, Leah Clark makes Minami an enjoyable listen, Brina Palencia owns Hideyoshi, Anthony Bowling is the perfect deadpan narrator, I could go on. The dub here is really solid, and definitely worthy of any accolades it may get.
In the end, Baka and Test is one giant mixed bag. On one hand, you have generic comedy, but there will be at least one thing that will make you chuckle. The dub is great, but music is forgettable. The art is cutesy and the animation knows how to cheat, but sometimes it cheats a bit too much. The plot is easy to follow and rather funny, but it suffers at points from being overly cheesy. Overall, I would recommend trying out Baka and Test to see if it is your thing, and heck, you might have yourself a few laughs.
Verdict: Try
+Pros: Legitimately funny; fantastic dub and dub script; good comedic timing; well-implemented animation
-Cons: Cheesy drama; minimal character development; forgettable score; humor is not very innovative at points