Anime: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni! 1b4gw

I honestly didn’t enjoy the first season of this show, but with the high marks on the anidb.livresgratuits.org information page, I figured I would give the second series a chance.

For courtesy's sake, I’ll also provide a brief overview of the first series since I watched it before the review blog was live.

Baka and Test season one introduces us to a unique school where students are able to use holographic avatars to compete against other students. The strength and stamina of these battle pets are determined by their test scores in different subjects. Entire classrooms wage battles against each other in order to procure classroom resources such as nicer books and desks. This puts the different classes into a distinct class system where A is the best and F is the worst. Naturally, our oafish protagonist and his friends are in class F, trying to eke out a better existence.

The first series was rife with student-versus-student battles. Although the cute factor of the “summon beasts” diminishes the drama or danger of such a premise, it worked all right for the comedy setting and the objectives of the characters made it all worthwhile.

The second season begins away from school and sets the pace for the rest of the series. The entire summon monster premise is greatly diminished in the second series, which is a shame as the first left me wanting that aspect fleshed out. Instead, we get backstory for a few characters and greater definition to the flimsy love triangle brought forth in series one.

On the plus side, this is one of the prettiest series I’ve seen in of various video effects. It honestly seems like the animation budget was more than they could’ve ever used, so they threw on superfluous filters and video effects throughout.

While this makes some scenes more atmospheric and others simply more interesting, it doesn’t detract from the fact that nothing seems to happen in season two besides a confession of affection. No meaningful battles take place, no new cast is introduced, and every episode feels a bit like filler for an ending that never materializes.

Rating: Not worth the

The original Baka and Test was a funny, entertaining ride that I happily gave a 7.5 due to that fact. With the second season I didn’t expect the original formula to really change, but what I did expect was some form of plot or progression or something of the like. Not that Summon the Beasts had a fantastic story or anything, it was kind of weak in that regard. But the second season just doesn’t go anywhere or do much of anything. Now, I’m not saying things don’t happen, because things do happen. But the problem I have is that it mostly feels like filler. And when you have a whole thirteen episode season of a show and eighty percent of it feels like filler, you know you’re doing something wrong.

The beginning of this season feels like an episode of the Powerpuff Girls or something along those lines with the show divided into two halves, telling two different stories. So I figured we were dealing with just a silly straight up comedy, the show understanding where its strengths lie and exploiting them. The problem was, it wasn’t that funny. Especially compared to the first season, we were getting pretty much the same jokes from before. After that we get a story arc about a summer camp and peeping and some generic trivial business to that extent. This arc did provide a bit of a story, but once again I found that the comedy wasn’t really there. What I did like from this part was the romance (though accidental) that began to develop. The series was missing any form of romantic development in the first season, and it seemed to be moving along quite nicely at this point. After that we get two episodes of backstory. The first is about how Minami transferred to Japan from and met Yoshii. This was a really good, heartfelt episode. It is a good first person narrative on a stranger in a strange place. It helps Minami come across as a good, three dimensional character as opposed to her counterpart (we’ll get to that later). After that we see how Yuji and Shoko wound up together (or more precisely, how Yuji got stuck with Shoko). This episode seemed a lot more like filler. It went on, and on, and on. I could feel the heart, I could understand its purpose, but the internal dialogue Yuji goes through when watching Shoko get bullied is pretty unbearable and he comes across as a complete ass. I get the feeling I’m supposed to like this guy and have sort-of feelings for Shoko. But that episode makes me feel like Shoko is really the more likeable character, despite her violence and craziness.

Then there are about three episodes and *SPOILER ALERT* Minami and Yoshii appear to finally be getting somewhere! But nope, the writer doesn’t want to piss off anybody so continues to leave Yoshii’s romantic interest open. The continual cockteases of Yoshii liking either Minami or Mizuki more and wanting to be with her is annoying. And that’s the problem with love triangles like this, most of the time the writer won’t get the main guy together with either character because he/she doesn’t want to enrage fans of the other character. For me, I want to see Yoshii get together with my favorite character, but that’s where the series really finds it has problems. I mentioned that the romance doesn’t go anywhere in my first season review. Well, the romance does get somewhere here, but it’s quickly shot down before it goes anywhere and played off as Yoshii being an idiot.

And this opens up another can of problems. The first season really made me feel like Yoshii and Mizuki were closer to dating than Minami and him. But, this season it makes it feel like Minami is the real romantic interest, focuses on her a lot more, and then turns around and makes Mizuki once again seem like the main love interest.

And I’ve got a variety of problems with Mizuki that I’ll get to in a moment.

The animation is the exact same quality as the first season. It’s got that manga look and sometimes it can be resort to still images for a few seconds. It’s not fantastic quality and none of the character designs really stand out in the crowd.

And with sound you get a really childish opening that I guess fits the show but isn’t that fantastic. The closing is another study in basic. There is a second closing that they use once for whatever reason. I never figured that one out.

Now to the classic characters section where I complain about romances and bad characters. The romances won’t go into my overall score because that’s bias beyond belief but characters are always a good portion of the scoring.

I’m just going to start where I left off a few paragraphs ago. Why does Mizuki seem to be the main romance interest? What am I supposed to see in her that makes me root for her and Yoshii to get together? Is it the study in contrasts, one being an idiot, the other smart? Is it the fact she’s cute and girly and has big boobs? I mean, I don’t understand wherein I’m supposed to find her likeable. She can’t cook, she’s smart, and she’s pretty much the polar opposite of Yoshii. So why does he go after her? Because they’ve known each other since grade school? She seems more like a friend than a lover.

Meanwhile Minami actually gets a lot more time as the focal point of the romance, yet is thrown aside later on. Despite the fact she is violent, she is totally likeable. I thought she was one of the best characters in the show, especially due to the fact we see her past and we see her outside of school talking about her feelings a lot more than Mizuki. She genuinely likes Yoshii, loves him even, and we can tell that really easily, we see that she is mad about the fact he keeps choosing Mizuki over her. Meanwhile Mizuki has no character definition and just gets jealous and bitches about his feelings about her and we never see a clear definition of her feelings or why she feels that way. The series never shows exactly how she met Yoshii and why she really likes him. She’s completely two dimensional and basic and the series never does anything to show any other side of her than the “I like Yoshii” side. Minami on the other hand is shown as having a lot of troubles, as having problems with jealousy, of really trying to get together with him but failing.

I just have a feeling that I’m supposed to root for Yoshii and Mizuki because she’s got big boobs and is cute and girly. But boobs do not a good romance make.

And Yoshii as a character is annoying at points, likeable at points. He swings back and forth. He’s so stupid and oblivious to everything but that’s his character. But he’s usually unbearably stupid. His stupidity is the reason romances go nowhere. Though I must say that a heartfelt moment he shares with another character about Minami does come across as the most heartfelt lines of the whole series. I felt he was so much more likeable and in his element when he itted his liking Minami, but then it reverts back to the love triangle thing and ends in utter dissatisfaction for the viewer.

I’ve already talked about Shoko and Yuji. Shoko is cute, she’s funny, and while she may come across as crazy I feel like Yuji is a total ass to her. Though the series does throw out some hints that Yuji does like her too, maybe even loves her.

Other characters such as Kouta and Hideyoshi resume their positions as the exact same characters from the first season. Hideyoshi as the boy everyone thinks is a girl is so overplayed by the time the summer camp happens, it gets to be totally unfunny. Kouta as a pervert and nosebleeding everywhere gets old as well.

That’s just another fault with this second season is that there is very little character development aside from Yoshii and Minami. Otherwise, everyone is the same old, same old, and acts the same and has the same character gags we laughed at during the first season.

In summary, Baka to Test’s second season is pretty much filler. It goes somewhere, then steps back to the start to keep fanboys/girls happy. The comedy of the first season is here, but is very rarely funny and the reuse of jokes becomes almost painful. Not that I didn’t like parts of it, some of the characters I genuinely like and enjoy watching. But overall, I feel like the second season is pointless most of the time. Minami’s character may be the only thing that saved this from being anything less than merely “meh”.

Critic’s Log - Earthdate: August 17, 2013. Review #55: Baka and Test: Summon The Beasts II

If there is an anime that I end up not liking while I’m in the middle of it. It’s not a chore for me to watch the rest of it. It’s a test. A test to see if I can last long while I’m watching an anime I don’t like before I drop it. I just finished an anime that was quite a test. That anime is Baka and Test - Summon the Beasts II.

Yoshii Akihisa is now in his third year in Highschool, and his misadventures continue with his best friend Yūji, his childhood friend Mizuki, and his other friends in Highschool. Akihisa, however, is enrolled in a rather unique highschool. In Fumizuki Academy, all of the students are given avatars with fighting abilities whose power reflects the student's academic success. With their avatars by their side, our characters explore deeper into what it means to be a friend and how they treat each other and why. While Shoko, the school's #1 student, endlessly tries to woo Yūji. Minami and Mizuki try to capture the romantic attention of the oblivious Akihisa.

To be technical, this is a Silver Link production and the animation is okay in this show, but this show uses a lot of animation shortcuts, either it’s recycled animation or cheap animation effects. This might have been in the first season of Baka and Test and I might have overlooked it at that time. Sue me. But the point is that I do have something to gripe when it comes to the animation. My big complaint with the animation is the over-usage of a “polka-dot” effect. I ed when I reviewed Ef: A Tale of Memories and there was a visual gimmick that was thrown in quite often in the show. Well, Shin Oonuma directed both seasons of Baka and Test and maybe these “visual gimmicks” are part of his style I guess.

Dear Shin Oonuma,

I know you’re trying to be unique, but you should not overuse certain visual gimmicks because it gets tiresome to watch after a while.

The animation isn’t perfect and I didn’t expect it to be, but it looks alright I guess.



As far as Music goes, Nijine composes the music for the second season of Baka and Test and the music is decent, but nothing too special. I really don’t have much to say about it. The opening is ok, and the closing theme isn't special. That's all I can say about the music.

When it comes to voice acting, It’s pretty much the same from Season 1, so I won’t go into much detail about it. The Japanese cast is alright in this show, but I listened to bits and pieces of the English Dub of Season 2 and all I can say is that the dub could have been better. It may be extremely fitting to watch this Subbed because of the settings, but if you want to watch this Dubbed, be my guest. Just go with what you prefer.

As far as characters go, this was a slight disappointment. The characters did make the show funny at times in the first season, what is a slight disappointment is that they are not funny at all in this second season, and they also didn’t develop as much.

The biggest lowpoint for me is the plot. Katsuhiko Takayama is responsible for the composition in the writing department. He also was involved in Ef: A Tale of Memories and Ef: A Tale of Melodies which the story to both seasons of that show could have been better. But Season 2 of Baka and Test suffers from being too different than the first Season. It is also slow to begin with as well. I will give the show some credit that there are a couple episodes that were nice to see. But what made Baka and Test a decent viewing is that it was a comedy with a little Slice of Life in it. In this second season, There's more Slice of Life in it and rarely is it funny. When it tries to be funny. Certain gags are overdone and it just isn't funny after a while. Some of the jokes from Season 1 remain and this season was just hard to get a good laugh from. The show picks up a little halfway, but it is boring half the time. It also all leads down to an ending that is kinda stupid. If you liked Baka and Test, Feel free to give this second season a try. But I can tell you that it is quite a test to watch.

Baka and Test - Summon The Beasts II is available from Funimation.

With all that said, Baka and Test Season 2 is not as funny as Season 1, but there are a couple of nice episodes that involve interesting backstories, but Season 2 suffers from lack of comedy, animation shortcuts, and a lack of character development that would have been needed (save for the ones that did get backstories). This should only be viewed for those that like Baka and Test or for those that are viewer completionists that have seen the first season of Baka and Test.

I give Baka and Test - Summon The Beasts II a 4.9 out of 10. it is NOT REALLY GOOD!

Feel free to leave a comment.

Also, this will be on the test.