Are you a Baka?! -- Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts

I am watching an anime series currently. It is very funny and hilarious. This anime series is called : Baka and Test : Summon the Beasts". This anime series is showing on the Astro Animax channel (ch.715) from 11pm to 11:30pm on every Monday to Friday.

Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts is a Japanese light novel series created by Kenji Inoue and illustrations by Yui Haga.  A manga adaptation by Mosuke Mattaku started serialization in the manga magazine Shōnen Ace on April 25, 2009. Another manga adaptation by namo started serialization in the male oriented web comic magazine Famitsu Comic Clear on October 30, 2009. An anime adaptation by Media Factory was announced the same month. This anime series has 2 seasons with 13 episodes for each series.

Title         : Baka and Test : Summon the Beasts
Genre      : Comedy, Romance, School-life, Fantasy, Parody
Episodes  : 13 episodes for each series
OVA       : 2 episodes
Story       :
The story centers around a boy named Akihisa Yoshii, also known as the idiot or "Baka" of the titled anime. He attends Fumizuki Academy, a school where the staff rigidly divides the students based on the results of their academic scores. At the start of the school, students are academically sorted by entrance exam test grades. The higher the grades, the higher the class, and the better the benefits. In this case, Class A is filled with the highest-scoring students; therefore, their classroom was filled with many prestigious items (air conditioners, fancy seats, laptops, a free snack bar, etc.), while the state of Class F is the complete opposite of that, representing the "bottom of the barrel" amenities. This academy has something special, where all the students manage to call forth Summoned Beings (Shōkanjū, or "Avatars" in the official English translation^[2]). These Beings are used for battles between classes with the goal of capturing (or retaining) the best classroom facilities. Since Class A is filled with prodigies, they all have strong Summoned Beings, while Class F has drastically weak ones in comparison. A teacher must authorize/supervise each battle, and the health and strength of each summoned being is based on the student's last test score in that teacher's subject (i.e. Math, History, etc.). The beings lose points when struck by an opponent, and should the point count reach zero, the being and student are disqualified. However, if the student can leave the battle before reaching zero, these points can be replenished by taking a supplemental exam. The student's being may then return to the battle.
On the day of the placement test, an intelligent girl named Mizuki Himeji suffers from a fever and is unable to complete her test, hence her reining in a score of zero. As a result, she is pigeonholed into Class F together with Akihisa Yoshii. Akihisa, who dreams of the day when the academy would no longer be divided by grades, pitches an idea to his class to rule over the higher-level classes by doing a Summoned Being War for both Mizuki's sake and to get more and more privileges. Aside from Mizuki (who happens to be the second-ranked student in the school), there is also the class representative Yūji Sakamoto, the bishōnen Hideyoshi Kinoshita, the perverted Kota Tsuchiya, and the tomboyish Minami Shimada (who, as Akihisa claims, is his worst enemy).

Characters Description :

Akihisa Yoshii (吉井 明久, Yoshii Akihisa)
Akihisa Yoshii is the protagonist of the story and act as the first-person narrator in the novels. He is portrayed as the Ultimate Idiot (Baka among all Baka) and is implied to have the worst grades among his peers of the same level. In the novels, his friends make fun of his idiocy by turning his name, by appending the suffix "-ful", into an English adjective; "He is so Akihisaful" essentially means "He is so stupid" in the context of the novels. Because of his absolute idiocy, he is also given the title of Punishment Inspector (観察処分者, Kansatsu Shobunsha) and his Shōkanjū (Summoned Being) is the only Shōkanjū given the ability to touch corporeal objects in order to help the teachers with chores as punishment for being the Ultimate Idiot. Because Shōkanjū are many times stronger than humans, Akihisa can help the teachers perform tasks that would normally require the strength of many people. The flip side to this "special ability" is the "feedback", which means that any damage taken by his Shōkanjū will be transmitted to himself as well. Thus, he is always reluctant to fight Shōkanjū battles due to the pain he would receive during battle. However, because he is accustomed to controlling his Shōkanjū, compared to the other students, his Shōkanjū is unmatched in speed, is more agile, and can execute many unorthodox moves (such as sliding attacks), and this has enabled him to win battles otherwise thought to be impossible due to his poor grades.

Mizuki Himeji (姫路 瑞希, Himeji Mizuki)
Mizuki Himeji is one of the smartest students in Fumizuki Academy and would have probably ranked second in her level if not for her inability to finish her placement exam due to her fever. In Fumizuki Academy, leaving in the middle of an exam gets a student zero. As a result, Mizuki was placed in the worst class, class F. Despite the poor conditions of her class which were unfavourable to her fragile health, she claims to be happy because her love interest, Akihisa Yoshii, is in the same class. Mizuki is also portrayed as a shy, timid, innocent, but determined girl. Akihisa and Mizuki used to be in the same elementary school, and since then, she has long admired Akihisa for his thoughtfulness and caring personality. Mizuki also finds Akihisa cute, especially in maid costumes, and was overcome by some sort of weakness when she first saw him wearing a maid costume (when he was chased by Miharu and bumped into Hideyoshi who had some costumes with him). Even though she has both brains and beauty, Mizuki's cooking is lethal.

Minami Shimada (島田 美波, Shimada Minami)
Minami Shimada is one of the two female students in class F. She is Japanese but spent most of her life in Germany before coming to Fumizuki Academy, and as a result she is especially weak in kanji. Because of this handicap, the only exam in which she can do well is math (which still isn't as good as A class's due to the presence of word problems). She will also revert to speaking German when in shock. Minami is the tsundere of the series. Physically, she is slim and has long legs but somewhat lacking in the 'chest department', often being envious of Mizuki's bust. She too is in love with Akihisa, but due to her inability to express herself and her tsundere nature, she acts violently towards him, often leading him to misunderstand her intentions. During the class battles in volume 1, while executing a delay tactic, Akihisa indirectly defamed Minami and landed herself the list of "Top Ten Women Not To Date" among the guys in Fumizuki.

Yūko Kinoshita (木下 優子, Kinoshita Yūko)

Yūko Kinoshita is the attractive elder twin sister of Hideyoshi Kinoshita. Due to their disparity in academic abilities, she feels superior to her younger brother, whom she thinks is trash. Yūko is also very prideful, arrogant and easily agitated unlike Hideyoshi who is always calm. During the classroom wars in volume 1, Hideyoshi, while acting on a strategy of Yūji, masqueraded as his sister and branded the whole of class C as filthy pigs, sowing discord between class C and class A, saving F from a potential alliance between class C and class B. And the proud Yūko bears a deep grudge against Hideyoshi and class F for the incident. In episode 12 of the anime, it is revealed her weakness is yaoi manga. However, in the last episode, it is shown that she can be honorable as well, refusing to acknowledge their victory and that it was 'cowardly'. It may be hinted that she, along with Shōko and Aiko are already in Akihisa's inner circle of friends in the school. Her Shōkanjū uses a jousting lance.

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Yūji Sakamoto (坂本 雄二, Sakamoto Yūji)

Yūji Sakamoto is a red-haired boy and the class representative of class F. In the series, the class rep position is assigned to the smartest student of that class. He is cool, collected, and exhibit surprisingly high intelligence and foresight unexpected of a student from class F. In volume 1, his strategies and tactics helped class F to attain victory after victory, until the duels with class A in which he overestimated his ability in elementary school-level Japanese history. Yūji was once known as a child prodigy in his childhood. The only reason why he ended up in class F was because he did not study at all and he holds the strong belief that grades are not everything. However, due to the consequences he 'suffered' from his defeat from Shōko Kirishima, his childhood friend and also the top student of his level, he became motivated to study again. In the later volumes, his Shōkanjū became reasonably strong in just a few months due to his test scores improving by leaps and bounds. It is implied that he is actually smarter than his childhood friend, Shōko.

Hideyoshi Kinoshita (木下 秀吉, Kinoshita Hideyoshi)

^{Hideyoshi Kinoshita is a very feminine-looking bishōnen and is the younger twin brother of Yūko Kinoshita of class A. Despite being a fraternal twin, except for his male body, he looks almost identical to his twin sister. Because of that, his male peers, and many of his female peers, see him as a female, which upsets him though he doesn't express it strongly. In the anime, his feminine looks are often the subject of fanservice, going so far as to make him strongly appear as a female. Hideyoshi has a helpful personality and is willing to support any activity his friends embark on. He uses the term 'Washi (儂)', used by old venerable men to describe himself. While he is bad in academics, he has unquestionable talent in acting, and can not only replicate the behavior and mannerisms of other people but also their voices as well. He also can dress instantly on the spot.}

Kōta Tsuchiya (土屋 康太, Tsuchiya Kōta)

^{Kōta Tsuchiya is the ultimate ecchi in Fumizuki. He has a dark taciturn personality, and as such, he's given the nickname Morose Pervert Muttsurīni (ムッツリーニ), implicitly derived from Muttsuri (むっつり) to form a parody for Mussolini (ムッソリーニ). But even though he is very perverted, nobody, even the girls, seem to mind this side of him. While Kōta is uncommunicative by nature, he is part of class F's inner circle group of Yūji, Akihisa, Mizuki, Minami, and Hideyoshi. He is terrible at all subjects except for Health Education, in which few students, if any, could come close. Because of Kōta's extreme high score in Health Education, partly attributed to his wealth of knowledge of the human anatomy, especially that of females, his Shōkanjū carries an accessory, during battles in Health Education, that allows the Shōkanjū to perform an accelerated move. During Season 2 he is also shown to have achieved a score higher than the Health Education Teacher's.} 

Shōko Kirishima (霧島 翔子, Kirishima Shōko)

Shōko Kirishima is the childhood friend of Yūji Sakamoto. She is the top student in her level and the class representative for class A. In the story, she is portrayed as a soft-spoken, but highly assertive and intelligent girl. In the novel, her dialog always starts with ellipses. She is described as elegantly beautiful and very popular like a typical Yamato Nadeshiko, but yet has no boyfriend, which initially created the impression to others that she is a lesbian. Later, it was revealed that the reason for this is because she is crazily infatuated with Yūji since childhood and acts possessively towards him, to the point of frequently poking out his eyes in order to prevent him from seeing other girls' underwear, applying locks and chains while they are together, using a handheld taser if he is being 'unfaithful' to her, and even attempted to submit a marriage certificate to the civil registrar (but fails in the anime due to them being underage). Despite being tricked multiple times, she still shows a trusting nature towards Yūji and practically believes everything he says. Shōko is also shown to be someone who is a very long-term thinker, and has already decided on her children's names (Shoyū for a girl, and Koshō for a boy). She is also "hopeless when it comes to gadgets" (機械音痴) and is known to spoil any electronic gadget that falls into her hands, although in the novels she brings one that contains Yūji's supposed voice proposing to her and claims its 'normal music'. While she is a part of class A, Shōko often hangs around Akihisa's inner circle of class F only because she wants to be around Yūji. Her Shōkanjū is clad in Samurai armor and wields a Japanese longsword. During the ESB field error, her Shōkanjū also becomes an adult version of herself wearing only an apron and lingerie.

From left: Yūji, Shōko, Kōta, Yūko, Hideyoshi, Minami, and Mizuki

In this anime series, i like the characters of Mizuki and Minami. Both of them are very cute and lovely, especially, Mizuki. I like her pink-hair so much as she is a very sweet and smart girl. As for the protagonist, he is a bit idiotic sometimes and he is a very funny guy. The mini beasts in the series are also very adorable.

OK, Let us take a sneak peak of the sccenes of "Baka and Test : Summon the Beasts".

Well, if you would like to catch this interesting and funny anime series, please click on the respective links below.

Baka and Test : Summon the Beasts (S1)

Baka and Test : Summon the Beasts (S2)

Baka and Test : Summon the Beasts (OVA)

OK, enjoy your watching and have a lovely weekend! :)