Baka & Test Summon The Beasts: Series 1 Collection – Review

Title: Baka & Test: Summon The Beasts
Published by: Madman Entertainment (Australia / New Zealand), Funimation Entertainment (North America)
Based on: Light Novel series “Baka to Test to Shokanju” by Kenji Inoue
Genre: Romantic Comedy, Fantasy, School Life
Audio: English and Japanese Dubs
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen 16:9
Runtime: 325 minutes
Cost: $59.95
Classification: This title has been classified as M for Sexual themes and animated
Special Thanks: Special thanks goes to the Madman Entertainment PR Team for providing me with a review sample of this title.

I know this might sound a bit weird… but to me my High School grades were not all that important. Sure I studied my ass off and got the grades I needed but that final OP (Overall Position – Given to graduating students in Queensland) was practically useless to me as I was always guaranteed a place in the uni degree I wanted. Sure this is completely irrelevant information to this series…. however it provides a contrast as to how grades mean everything in this show…. where the (intellectually) strong will succeed with the best education and facilities while the (intellectually) lazy will suffer with substandard education and equipment…. but are grades everything? Read on to find out what this different concept on education is and my thoughts on how it is used in the series!

When a fight breaks out at Fumizuki Academy, nobody throws a single punch Instead, the students utilize the school’s technology to summon Avatars, pint-sized stand-ins with battle powers based on their academic ability. That “academic ability” part is bad news for Yoshii: he’s an idiot, stuck in lwly Class F with the slackers. If these misfits want to escape their dump of a classroom and earn some respect, they’ll have to fight their way up the ranks and take on Class A, the Academy’s brightest students. It’s going to be tough, that’s for sure, but once the under-achievers of Class F get motivated, they don’t give up – and Yoshii can’t even spell surrender!

When this series was first released in Japan, I thought it was a very ingenious system that used a great plot device in order to tear it away from the generic school-life action genre… and I still maintain that it is. The system as described above is essentially the ability to switch classrooms, teachers and amenities with other classes (With Classes A through F having progressively decreasing quality services) through all out wars with fellow classmates where your test score dictates how powerful your avatar… or more or less survival of the “fittest”. While this system is also used to quelch individual quarrels and to use a number of other plotlines to be discussed later – this is the primary focus of season one in order to topple the top class from the bottom, and is implemented well in the episodes it appears with a mix of comedy, battle strategy and RPG style action.

Unfortunately, there is a slight problem with the storyline which decends the storyline into fanservice, filler episodes and only the occasional use of the avatar system between episodes three and somewhere around eight or nine. Due to a plot device they end up unable to take part in a war for three months, meaning that with nothing to fill the plot with, they focus on some rather hit or miss comedy scenes, abusive girlfriends, the creation of a third gender which the whole town seems to pick up on and many love triangles and relationships between friends (Class F) and foe (Class A-E) alike. They do occasionally come up with some funny recurring comedy elements such as main character Akihisa getting beaten up every time after declaring a war, Akihisa’s logic behind food budgeting and essentially Akihisa’s existence is one of the main reasons to struggle through these episodes (and I suppose the Hideyoshi gender and abusive girlfriend plots are also pretty funny). They do occasionally remind you that the Avatar system hasn’t been removed from the school due to financial cuts such as Class F having to fix a malfunction, but if you are watching this solely for the battles… you  might be better off skipping to the second disc after episode 2.

On the same topic, at least the core character personalities are enjoyable and a mix bagged, if not some a bit imba for Class F. The two main characters could be considered Akihisa and Mizuki, both of which represent the smartest and dumbest of the academy (With Mizuki fainting through the placement exam) and together form a love triangle with Minami even if he is realistically not interested in either. Other characters include Yuji Sakamoto “The Strategist”, Hideyoshi Kinoshita “The Trap”, Kouta Tsuchiya “The Pervert” and class enemy Shouko Kirishima “The Abusive and Obsessive Girlfriend”. If the plotline didn’t have that awkward middle bit, I would say they were the perfect school comedy cast. But to their credit, most do get at least some development.

Overall, even having watched the series two times now, I am uncertain about what to think of this season as it both had some really awesome parts and some rather dull moments. Really depends on what type of storyline you are after I suppose.

Studio Silver Link was tasked with this series design, and I feel they did an above average job with it. The character designs themselves were of a solid quality, if not borderlining the generic mark however all characters are designed uniquely and they attempt to do more with the characters than just leaving them with the same hairstyle and outfit – even if that means swimsuits, fanservice or crossdressing. On that note, while they do have frequent fanservice, the design of these scenes are quite tame so only a little clevage is ever shown, and even breast pads are treated in more of a comical manner. Environment designs were perhaps a bit more interesting, as while I wouldn’t call them overly detailed, it felt like they were trying to go for more of a simplistic but fun design… meaning that background characters had the comical repetitive appearance (Usually with class name on their face or no facial features at all), quirky backdrop designs and stuff along those lines. In terms of the class battles design of both characters and the mock-RPG menu they present, it is very creative and is one of the main standouts in term of visuals. As this review was conducted on a DVD copy, I would be interested in seeing how the quality improves between physical media.

Opening Sequence
Perfect-area complete! by Natsuko Aso

Complemented with the animation, I thought this was a fun and uplifting opening sequence that got me excited about watching the first few episodes.

Ending Sequence
1. Baka Go Home by milktub
2. Hare Tokidoki Egao by Hitomi Harada, Kaori Mizuhashi, Emiri Katou and Tomomi Isomura

The difference between these songs is that one is very enjoyable and one to me at least is rather bland. The songs are different but in terms of animation it is more or less a Guys version and a Girls version. Baka Go Home which is played in 10 of the episodes is a fun rock number while Hare Tokidoki Egao is a more sofer and bland theme.

One of the newer artists on the scene, Nijine was responsible for the soundtrack and I think they pulled off a ranged and creative soundtrack for the genre. While you aren’t going to be getting Studio Ghibli inspired soundtracks, the musical score was more than appropriate for the battles and general scenes, but I thought they needed a more diverse range for putting across comedy, as bland music did kill comedic moments a couple of times through the episode. In terms of writing, evidently some of the humor was rewritten but I think what it was replaced with was more suitable for English audiences but still kept the Baka Test charm. Voice acting had a number of strong performers in the cast with highlights for me including Josh Grelle as Akihisa, Brina Palencia as the Kinoshita twins, Greg Ayres as Kouta and Scott Freeman as Yuuji Sakamoto. However, the entire cast did a great job at putting across their respective characters personalities and quirks.

The second disc is filled with bonus bits of extras which will certainly be an incentive in purchasing this collection. The bonus content includes:

• Mission Impossible: Baka Preview
• Baka-Only Cross-Dressing Contest
• Mission Impossible: Baka Mission 01
• Mizuki Himeji Girls’ Meal
• The King Game in Fumizuki Academy
• Special Christmas Footage
• Baka and Test Tales Episode

To wrap up this review, I think the series had a lot of potential and they used it to their advantage at points…. but I think they also underused it and resorted to going down the fanservice route for more than half the series. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable watch and I look forward to the eventual release of Season 2.