Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

~*Idiots and Tests and Summoned Creatures*~

~Intro~
I figured it'd make sense to start off with the last series I watched all the way through (temporarily). I say temporarily, because there's supposed to be a second season coming out, which is a good thing, because at first I was like, "Wait, where's the ending?"

Since it's a romantic comedy that oddly enough wasn't all too plot-driven, it's awfully hard to spoil anything. Especially given that it's only the first season.



~Story~
Episode 1: So, this dumbass Yoshii and the pink-haired girl Himeji are taking a placement exam. Well, Himeji passes out due to being sick during the test. Yoshii...is just a dumbass. Seems that in this school of the future, they have a system in which the classes are divided into Class A (Those who score highest and get the best equipment.) all the way to Class B, C, D, and F. Yoshii's dumb ass is stuck in class F, and poor Himeji ended up failing and got shoved in there too.

Setting: It seems that there's a high-tech system of testing in which you're given the ability to summon a creature in sort of a fully PvP MMORPG sort of sense whose stats are determined by your test scores. Classes can challenge other classes to battles every three months, presumably to exchange rooms and facilities with the other classes. Class F gets into one with Class D and is slowly loosing until p-pow! Himeji (who was taking supplementary exams in the beginning) comes in with new points and blows them out of the water. But they don't exchange classrooms.
I forget which episode it is, might be 2 or 3, but Class A challenges Class F to a battle. And things just get going from there.

Characters:
Let's meet the rest of the class!
Kouta. Nobody remembers the name Kouta. He is simply known as Voyeur-san, as he constantly has his camera out, trying to take pictures every time there's fan-service. In fact, as you can see, in the picture above, his summon creature is a ninja.
Minami? She's your classic tsundere with a crush on Yoshii, who is seriously too stupid to figure it out. She constantly gets pissed off when Yoshii says something stupid about her delicious flat chest and literally throws pro-wrestling moves at him (which of course, Voyeur-san gets pictures of).
Hideyoshi. IT'S A TRAP! He's a special trap at that, which I'll speak of later.
Finally, in Class F, there's the Inchou (Class Rep.) Yuuji. Turns out Yuuji was a child prodigy who apparently wants to show the world that grades aren't everything.
Well, onto Class A characters.
Yuuko is Hideyoshi's sister (who is a complete bitch).
There's also Aiko who is the biggest tease of all time to the point of making Voyeur-san lay in a pile of nosebleeds.
Shouko is the most awesome character ever. Think Yandere without the death who (after winning the battle) forces Yuuji (her childhood crush) into a 4 hour movie with her...twice...by tazing him. She also pokes him in the eyes in the pool episode (yay boobies!) so that 'he won't look at other girls'.
[As to why I find Shouko to be a Yandere rather than a Tsundere, I posted a comment below.]
Kubo. He is gay. Awesomely gay. Hilariously gay. Enough said.

Oh. Yoshii's sister comes in later. To put it simply, best quote of the series: "How dare you have these things under your bed! There's no incest hentai!" *Ahem*

~Review~
Characters: This series is incredible. I can't remember the last time I've seen a series where I actually loved every single character. Usually there's someone in there that I can't stand, but every single one of them was great fun. Okay, I hated Yoshii, but I tend to hate idiot main characters all-around, because they're just so common-place. "It doesn't matter how stupid you are! Just be stubborn as a damn bull with good intentions!" I honestly tend to dislike this, but in this case, I feel that they're making a parody of it, so it's alright in this case. But being that dense?
Himeji reminds me of Mutsumi from Love Hina mixed with 'Where the hell did the smart come from?' Genius Idiot.
Hideyoshi is the opposite kind of trap as Jun from Happiness!. Whereas everyone kept having to remind Jun that he's a guy when he tries to hit on the main character, Hideyoshi is constantly reminding people that he's a guy, because everyone else is drooling over him. The funniest thing in regards to Hideyoshi is the pool episode in regards to changing rooms: 'Men', 'Women', 'Hideyoshi'.

Humor: With the mixture of trap jokes that give you 'unwanted fan-service that makes you question yourself'', the myriad of gay jokes (both yuri and yaoi), and incest jokes, and Tease and Voyeur's exchanges, one really has to question just who this show was made for. But when you're a fan of British humor, or simply someone who sees the taboo as something worth giggling at to diminish its annoyingly negative connotation, the humor is pretty great. Or maybe I'm just a pervert.
Along with this, there's the parodies, among them being references to Code Geass, Evangelion, Darkstalkers, and even the Nintendo Powerglove. The nerd in me was overjoyed.
And of course, there's also the yandere Shouko and her stalking and her blatantly abusive form of love, Minami's blatantly abusive form of shyness, Himeji's airheadedness (especially when she 'goes into denial'), and Yoshii's constant Three's Company-esque misunderstandings that he gets into, one really has to love the humor.

Plot: Sadly, humor, fan-service, and romance seems to be all it has going for it. Not too much in terms of plot, and there's no explanation as to why the setting is the way it is; it just is. I understand that there's a philosophical questioning of theoretical intelligence and practical intelligence, or simply luck and improvisation -- along with idiots with good intentions being just as powerful as geniuses who run on greed, but that's about as far as it goes. Hopefully the sequel will give it some plot.

Music: Also, while the music fits the series pretty well, it's really nothing that I'd consider saving to the iPod, as it just doesn't seem to work as a song on its own when taken out of context.

Overall:
I'm not in the habit of assigning scores, but as it currently stands, I'll go ahead and rate it an 8/10.
For what it is, it's awesome. I loves me some Shouko more than anything else. But due to the lacking in plot or any real substance, and just tossing you in there without proper back story of the setting (it just seems random), it has its limits. But it's still something that I highly recommend watching, and I'm patiently awaiting season 2.