Been ages but I have finally got round to writing another anime review and I thought I would review some of the anime I have on DVD. Now I know I might get some new anime and I'll just do a review on them straight away if I have already went past it's letter. One last thing I won't be review Bleach or Naruto (which I also have on DVD) because those anime are so long.
The story centres around the main protagonist Akihisa Yoshii for attends class F at Fumizuki Academy in Japan. At this academy there is a divide among the students where they are put in to classes based on their test scores; A reserved for the best and F for the those with the lowest scores. What is also different about this academy is that the students are allowed to fight each other by summon avatars; mini versions of themselves whose strength is determined by their latest test scores. So we follow Yoshii and his friends as they try to prove to the rest of the academy that being in class F doesn't mean your a failure.
Baka and Test is a comedy anime and it is beyond a doubt really funny, probably one of the funniest anime I have ever seen. It is just the complete silliness of the whole situation and how class F deals with various challenges that usually ends in hilarious results. The setting is a typical for most comedy anime in that it is based in a high school however what sets this one apart is the characters can summon avatars of themselves to battle each other which kind of gives the series an RPG feel to it, especially in the way that they battle. The times in which the student's avatars are mostly used is during the Summoner Test Wars where one class can challenge another one to battle and it is really funny with the tactics involved. Unfortunately they don't use a STW as much as they really should have as it takes a back seat for most of the series which is a shame after seeing it for only the first episode. If there is one thing bad to say about the humour is that it is full of cliques; not that there is anything bad about that but you can basically find every character type in this anime. As for the episodes themselves maybe because it is a typical slice of life humour anime but the they are very inconsistent with each other; there is a main plot overall with the STW but it is hardly addressed when most single episodes are focused on other things like a bathing suit episode or (my least favourite episode) ep 7 when two main characters have to go through a wedding experience.
The main characters are all in class F and surprisingly they aren't as stupid as they appear to be and yet they have typical characteristics found in a lot of anime; there is the lead Yoshii, the good natured yet constantly portrayed as an idiot and then the two lead female characters the flat chested tsundere Minami and the well - endowed sweet Mizuki who both have feelings for Yoshii but of course like most main anime characters Yoshii is oblivious to it. Then of course there is Yuji who makes up the comedic duo with Yoshii, Hideoyoshi the feminine - looking character who even the boys find attractive and who a lot of humour focuses on and finally there is Kota who is the perverted photographer. I do really like these characters however there is not much that makes them stand out from typical anime characters in other comedies. My two favourites would have to be Yoshii because of his hyper and optimistic attitude and Hideoyoshi because of some of the jokes that questions his gender e.g. special bathing room was made for him because the other characters are confused if he is a boy or a girl. However the jokes surrounding these character get overused all the time like, as I mentioned above, Kota is the pervert one and that is it for him and when it comes to Hideoyoshi's gender. Maybe because of these characteristics being overused but it leaves no real time for any character development or backstory for them and the only one who really gets any is Yoshii. Finally the animation really does look nice and is one of it's strongest points; it uses a lot of bright colours and funny facial expression and body movement when it comes to it's comedy.
Overall this is a solid comedy anime that's only real focus is bring laughs to everyone who watches it.
SCORE: 7/10
Highlights: Summon Test Wars/Avatars
Animation
Humour
Let - Downs: Not enough STW
Lack of character development
Thought I'd mention I plan to review Sword Art Online again next since the last one was felt a bit rushed in my opinion (it was early days in my blog when I wrote it) and I may have been too harsh on it. When I reviewed it before I only watched it once and I didn't even have it on DVD at the time but now I have all the episodes and I have had the time now to really appreciate it, heck I cosplayed as Kirito at the last Comic Con I went to.
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