Final thoughts on "Baka to Test to Shōkanjū"

The most grandest "battle" (Yuuko vs. Minami)

BakaTest (バカとテストと召喚獣) is a 13-episode Winter 2010 anime that has ended recently.

Well, as mentioned in the Winter 2010 anime post, is is about a school named Fumizuki Academy with contrasts between classrooms, with those with better grades getting the better classroom facilities. This, however, focuses on the worse class, F, and proving to everyone that they are not lazy people.

Why is my similar-looking dumb twin brother more popular than me?

Throughout the anime, we see Himeji failing to give a love letter to Akisa, but also the diminishing importance of the battle the anime is about and more nosebleed, fan-service (including the emphasis of how much Hideyoshi is a trap), and a lot of filters.

Until Akisa's sister returns from university somewhere halfway, Akisa is portrayed as a lazy student who spends a lot on games and photos of girls (including Hideyoshi when cross-dressing) that he has barely enough money to afford a decent meal to the point that he even resorts to eating leftovers, cutting cup noodles to 1/64 of its size, and even raw sugar. There's also the one-sided love of Shouko and Yuuji.


As for the battles, we rarely see non-2nd year students being involved and the high desire of the battle between F and A and almost no mention of the classes in-between. Battles systems are not illustrated well: the battlefield area is triggered by having an Iron Bracelet or a teacher. I don't get how this is triggered by simply raising their (right?) arm into the air in the school grounds. Health points depends on the subject triggered (literature, history, mathematics, physical ability, etc.), which puts F-class people at a big disadvantage for most subjects. Avatar-like things called summoned beings have this feedback system where the owner feels the pain "the thing" feels.

The last scene in the last episode featuring everyone (except Akisa)

Overall, this anime seem to have the potential to become popular, but sadly, I've rarely come across anime that stayed consistent from the start to the end with no-nonsense in between. Beach/pool/amusement-park held in summer are too common. It's not easy for an anime to want me to watch more but things like character-design, plot, amount of filters, fewer fanservice, and other things. (Highly promoted in media ≠ good) Bakatest does make me want to watch another episode, but filter episodes and how the last episode ended degrades it. It's still good if you just want to pass time as it's one of the better anime in the Winter 2010 anime lineup.