Baka to Test to Shōkanjū

Baka to Test to Shōkanjū (バカとテストと召喚獣) is a Japanese light novel series by Kenji Inoue with illustrations by Yui Haga. The first novel in the series was released on January 29, 2007, and as of February 27, 2010, a total of ten volumes, including volume 3.5, volume 6.5, and volume 7.5 have been published by Enterbrain under their Famitsu Bunko publishing imprint. 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. A promotional trailer was released for streaming in August 2009. The anime began airing on January 7, 2010. Funimation has licensed the anime for release in the United States under the title "Baka and Test - Summon the Beasts""Baka and Test - Summon the Beasts".

Plot
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. 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, huge spaces, etc.), while the state of Class F is the complete opposite of that, leaving much to be desired.

This academy has something special, where all the students manage to call forth Summoned Beings (Shōkanjū, or "Avatars" in the official English translation ). These Beings are used for battles between the classes to capture the facilities of the classroom. Since Class A is filled with prodigies, they all have strong Summoned Beings, while Class F has drastically weak ones in comparison. These beings are supplied in health by the matter of knowledge in a certain subject. Points vary and could even be supplied greatly in a F student if when calling a 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 reigning in a score of zero. As a result, she is pigeonholed into Class F together with Akihisa Yoshii. Akihisa, who worries for her health, 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 year), there is also the class representative Yūji Sakamoto, the bishōnen Kinoshita Hideyoshi, the perverted Tsuchiya Kouta, and the tomboyish Shimada Minami (who, as Akihisa claims, is his worst enemy).

Class F
The worst class with the worst facilities, including decrepit tables (later changed into upturned cardboard boxes then to large clipboards with rope to hold it up) and under-stuffed sitting cushions. Comprises 48 male and 2 female students. There is a total of 149 boys enrolled in the second year class, so it equates to approximately 1/3 being in F Class.


 * Akihisa Yoshii (吉井 明久)

Voiced by: Hiro Shimono

Akihisa Yoshii is the protagonist of the story and carries out the first person narration view in the novel. 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 novel, his friends make fun of his idiocy by turning his name, by appending suffix '-ful', into an English adjective; "He is so Akihisaful" essentially means "He is so stupid" in the context of the novel. 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 a 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 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 will accrue during the battle. However, because he is very much accustomed to controlling his Shōkanjū as compared to other students, as his Shōkanjū is unmatched in speed, 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. His Shōkanjū's ability to touch corporeal objects was also instrumental in helping his class to defeat Class B in volume 1. Akihisa's parents are on long-term overseas work assignments and send money back regularly. However, he always spends this money on the latest games and as a result, he has to live on merely salt, sugar, and water. In the anime, he is depicted to survive on a sub-divided piece of cup noodles which can be as small as 1/64 of the entire piece. Akihisa has many romantic admirers, both female and male, including Mizuki Himeji, Minami Shimada, Hazuki Shimada, Toshimitsu Kubo, and Akira Yoshii (his sister) but is oblivious to this due to his idiocy while everyone around him is aware of this, shown when his older sister showed the two girls his fetish and Mizuki tried to attract him by tying her hair but was stopped by Minami but still he was thickheaded about their feelings. It is also suggested that both Mizuki and Minami are acting like his girlfriends, unknown to him, in the anime, and as they do they will try to burn any R18+ magazines he has. Though he frequently claims that he is energized by just looking at the feminine-looking Hideyoshi Kinoshita, his real love interest is Mizuki Himeji. He cares deeply for Mizuki and is always thinking of ways to improve class F's condition for her health's sake, but he thinks that she is in love with Yūji Sakamoto. Despite the fact that they always sabotage each other's reputation, Akihisa has a close friendship with Yūji and can communicate with him just by glances and without any words. Akihisa also has excellent cooking skills, as a result of having to fend for himself because he lives alone, and is good at housework. His favorite dish, to make and eat, is paella. After the tournament in volume 2, Akihisa acquired the platinum bracelet that lets him perform dual summons, allowing him to have two Shōkanjū in a battle. Since Akira started living with Akihisa, his grades have seen a significant improvement from what they were before since he has more incentive to study. His Shōkanjū wears a school uniform and wields a bokken.


 * Mizuki Himeji (姫路 瑞希)

Voiced by: Hitomi Harada

Mizuki Himeji is one of the smartest students in Fumizuki Academy and would have probably ranked second of 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, being 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 had some costumes with him. Towards the end of volume 2, Mizuki changes her way of addressing Akihisa from Yoshii-kun (吉井くん?) to Akihisa-kun (明久くん?). Even though she has both brains and beauty, Mizuki possesses lethal cooking skills and in the novel, anyone who eats her handmade cooking goes into a coma, including Hideyoshi Kinoshita who is known for his strong stomach. However, she is completely oblivious to the lethality of her own cooking because she does NOT taste her cooking, and as stated in the novels she adds several chemicals that will create even more potent acids such as the Aqua Regia and hydrochloric acid, also when asked by Yoshii when Yuuji, Hideyoshi and Kouta went nearly out cold due to her cooking. She is on particularly good terms with Minami Shimada, and calls her Minami-chan (美波ちゃん?), despite the fact that they are love rivals. Often, she will emit a killing intent aura and yandere-like eyes whenever she hears that Akihisa is with some other woman like when Yūji claimed that Akihisa was with a college girl and will be in extreme denial if she finds any evidence of a girl in his life such as when they saw his sister's clothes hanging in the front door is not his size to claiming that the cotton puff on the table is a fish cake. This side of her tends to increase more and more as the series goes on. In the anime, it is sometimes suggested that she is acting like Akihisa's girlfriend and will try to burn any R18+ magazines he has. Her Shōkanjū is clad in heavy armor and wields a large sword.


 * Minami Shimada (島田 美波)

Voiced by: Kaori Mizuhashi

Minami Shimada is one of the only two female students in class F. She is a Japanese who 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 speak 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 towards Mizuki's bust. She is in love with Akihisa, but due to her inability to express herself and her tsundere nature, she acts violently towards him, often causing him to misunderstand her intentions. During the class battles in volume 1, while executing a delay tactic, Akihisa indirectly defamed Minami and caused her to enter the list of "Top Ten Women Not To Date" among the guys in Fumizuki. In the novel and manga, during a battle in which Akihisa's survival depended on Minami, he was blackmailed to address Minami by her first name, and from then onwards, she started calling him Aki (アキ?) instead of Yoshii (吉井?) and he would refer to her by her first name as well. In the anime, this took place when she threatened to break his bones. It is a running gag in the light novel series that whenever Minami expresses genuine concern for Akihisa through her actions or words, Akihisa always draws the conclusion that he is going to be killed or sabotaged by her in some obscure way. She is on good terms with Mizuki, being the only two girls in class F, and calls her by her first name. She is good at cooking, due to the fact that her parents are not at home most of the time. Like Himeji in the anime, it is also suggested she acts like his girlfriend and will try to burn any R18+ magazines that Akihisa has. Her Shōkanjū is clad in a blue naval military uniform and wields a sabre.


 * Yūji Sakamoto (坂本 雄二)

Voiced by: Tatsuhisa Suzuki

Yūji Sakamoto is 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 had 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, and 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. After the tournament in volume 2, he acquired a platinum bracelet which allows him to control the size of the force field of his Shōkanjū, allowing him to form a one-man army choke point since humans cannot pass through this force field. He bears no ill intention towards Shōko, but due to her unyielding obsession with marrying him since their childhood days, he sees her as having a few loose screws in her mind, and fears to even think of his future if he does marry her. In the anime, its suggested that they act like a married couple though she tends to treat him as a slave in order for him not to escape her. Dispite this, he does actually think well of Shōko and it is implied to have feelings for her himself though he denies this. Yūji is close to Akihisa to the point where they can actually communicate without any words. A gag in the series is that Yūji will attempt to decipher a complicated expression on Akihisa and comment on a series of events that must have taken place. While he meant it as a joke, he is always a spot-on when this happens. His Shōkanjū wears a long trench coat that makes it look like a punk, and is armed with brass knuckles. During the ESB field error, his shōkanjū becomes a handsome adult version of himself wearing a school uniform, much to Shouko's delight.


 * Hideyoshi Kinoshita (木下 秀吉)

Voiced by: Emiri Katō

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 his own gender. Hideyoshi has a helpful personality and is willing to support any activity his friends embark on. He uses the term 'Washi', 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. In volume 2, he was instigated by Akihisa to mimic Yūji's voice to propose to Shōko during their tournament, confusing her and ultimately setting up the stage for a win for Akihisa-Yūji Team, but this move caused Yūji all manner of problems later on. His Shōkanjū is clad in Hakama and wields a Naginata. His shōkanjū turns into an adult but changes gender and wears a dress that parodies Little Red Riding Hood during the ESB field error.


 * Kōta Tsuchiya (土屋 康太)

Voiced by: Kōki Miyata

Kōta Tsuchiya is the ultimate pervert in Fumizuki. He has a dark taciturn personality, and as such, he's given the nickname Morose Pervert (ムッツリーニ Mutsurīni?), implicitly derived from Mutsuri (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. In the novel, he is also shown to be an expert in sneaking, gathering information, cunning, and many forms photography, whether it be hidden or not. In the anime, he has a habit of taking panty shots whenever the opportunity arises and to record all the girls' bust sizes in Fumizuki Academy. His Shōkanjū wears a ninja outfit and dual-wields Kodachi. His Shōkanjū wears a modified hakama and sports a short ponytail during the ESB field error.


 * Ryō Sugawa (須川 亮)
 * Ryō Sugawa is a minor supporting character in class F. He is the only class F student outside of the 'inner circle' whose Shōkanjū is described in the novel. He is also part of the FFF inquisition and might even be their leader. His Shōkanjū wears a martial-arts robe and wields a staff.


 * FFF Inquisition
 * A group in class F who once punished Akihisa for getting attention from the girls, to the extent of 'sentencing him to death'. They also seem to be Hideyoshi's fans. When agitated, like when they learned of Class B's representative having a girlfriend, they would turn into "Messengers of Genocide", using their Shōkanjū as sacrifice, suicide-bombing their opponents effectively.

Class A
The best class with best equipment. Comprises 24 males and 26 females. The top 10 of class A are said to be so strong that they are in a league of their own compared to other class A students.

Shōko Kirishima (霧島 翔子 Kirishima Shōko?)

Voiced by: Tomomi Isomura

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 poking out his eyes in order not to see other girls' underwear, applying a strong grip w/ lock while they are together, using a handheld taser if he is being 'unfaithful' to her, and even to submit a marriage certificate to the civil registrar (but fails in the anime due to the 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.

Aiko Kudō (工藤 愛子 Kudō Aiko?)

Voiced by: Yoshino Nanjo

Aiko Kudō is another elite student in class A. She is portrayed as a green haired, friendly, easy-going, and mischievous girl. She uses 'boku' (僕?), commonly used by boys or young men, to address herself. She is extremely skilled in electronic gadgets and carries a micro-recorder for recording lessons, which she also uses to cause mischief to other people by recording, cutting and re-joining parts of their conversations, creating lots of misunderstandings and woes to others, especially towards Akihisa. She especially likes to mess around with Akihisa and Kōta often stating perverted things to arouse them and cause them to nosebleed. It is weakly implied that she likes Kota due to her messing with him at times. Her Shōkanjū is clad in a schoolgirl sailor uniform and wields a battle axe. It carries an accessory that increases the electric strength of her axe.

Toshimitsu Kubo (久保 利光 Kubo Toshimitsu?) Toshimitsu Kubo is a calm and cool man with glasses and the second ranked student in his level. He lives in a relatively tight and structured schedule which is reflected in his high grades. However, he easily misinterprets situations and because of this, he thinks that Akihisa was trying to hit on him. As a result, he ends up having a crush on him despite both of them being male. When it comes to Akihisa, he can be just as crazy as Himeji and Minami when Akihisa is implied to be involved with other women OR with other men. His Shōkanjū uses dual scythes.

Yūko Kinoshita (木下 優子 Kinoshita Yūko?)

Voiced by: Emiri Katō

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 the 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.

Class B

 * Kyōji Nemoto (根本 恭二)
 * Kyōji Nemoto is the class representative for class B. He is cunning, scheming, and one who will resort to underhand tricks to win. He is going out with Yūka Koyama, class rep for class C, and attempted to set up an alliance with C during the war with F in volume 1. This was later foiled by Yūji's contingency plan. After he was defeated, he was forced to wear the female school uniform and had his photograph taken, which was used as a blackmailing leverage by Yūji.


 * Ritsuko Iwashita (岩下 律子)


 * Mayumi Kikuiri (菊入 真由美)

Class C

 * Yūka Koyama (小山 友香)
 * Yūka Koyama is the class representative for class C, and going out with Kyōji Nemoto. However, when she sees him wearing the girl's outfit, she immediately dumps him.


 * Tōru Kurosaki (黒崎 トオル)


 * Isshin Noguchi (野口 一心)

Class D
Voiced by: Ayana Taketatsu
 * Miharu Shimizu (清水 美春)
 * A girl who holds a Lesbian attraction to Minami Shimada, whom she addresses as onee-sama (お姉さま). Her Shōkanjū is clad in a Roman legionary's armor.


 * Genji Hiraga (平賀 源二)


 * Miki Tamano (玉野 美紀)

Class E
The second worse class in terms of grades next to class F. However, unlike class F, who is primarily populated by idiots, class E's students are comprised mostly of athletes meaning that they can last longer in a summoning battle than most other students.


 * Hiromi Nakabayashi (中林 宏美)
 * The class representative for the E class. Her Shōkanjū appeared as a baseball player.


 * Ayumi Furukawa (古川 あゆみ)


 * Yoshiko Mikami (三上 美子)

Year 3 students

 * Yūsaku Tsunemura (常村 勇作)


 * Shunpei Natsukawa (夏川 俊平)

Fumizuki's teachers

 * Kaoru Tōdō (藤堂 カヲル)
 * Principal of Fumizuki. Her name is never spoken in the anime.


 * Shin Fukuhara (福原 慎)
 * The first homeroom teacher of class F, who in the anime became the narrator after the first classroom wars, and was replaced by Nishimura.


 * Sōichi Nishimura (西村 宗一)
 * Disciplinary master who also became class F's homeroom teacher after the first classroom wars when the Class F was lost to Class A. Nicknamed Ironman (鉄人) or Tetsujin, he is extremely strict and drags people off to remedial classes whenever they lose a battle, regardless of location, often saying, "those who are KIA must receive supplementary lessons!". He is also said to possess godlike physical abilities. He has once shown a considerate side when Yuji and Akihisa apologized for leaking out test copies.


 * Yōko Takahashi (高橋 洋子)
 * Yōko Takahashi is the Head Teacher of Year 2 and the homeroom teacher of class A. She is bespectacled, probably the smartest person in Fumizuki, but is really bad at baseball. Her total score on all subjects is 7800, nearly twice as much as Shōko. Her Shōkanjū is clad in a black military officer's uniform that resembles a bit of a German officer of WWI and armed with a whip.

Students' families

 * Hazuki Shimada (島田 葉月)
 * Minami's younger sister. Grade 5. Calls Akihisa Stupid Brother (バカなお兄ちゃん). She has also expressed her wish to become Akihisa's bride in the future.


 * Yukino Sakamoto (坂本 雪乃)
 * Yūji's mother.


 * Akira Yoshii (吉井 玲)
 * Akihisa's elder sister. 23 years old and a Harvard graduate in education. Has E-Cup breasts and is horrible at cooking, evident in Episode 9 when Yoshii finds all the attempted Paella dishes in the fridge and when all the band-aids are shown on her hand. Seems to have a huge brother complex as she really tries to seduce Yoshii into a kiss, reducing his allowance by her own volition such as deducting 100 for every girl that Akihisa encounters and blushes extremely red when Yoshii admits he loves her as a sister. She seems to also want relations with Akihisa too. Both her and her brother are complete opposites in terms of their skills, Akira is smarter and much more perceptive than Akihisa but is a terrible cook while Akihisa is an idiot but is a much better cook than Akira.


 * Yoshimitsu Kubo (久保 良光)
 * Toshimitsu's younger brother.


 * Miharu's Father
 * Full name unknown. Runs a popular coffee shop at the station.

Light novels

 * Baka to Test to Shōkanjū 1 ISBN 978-4-7577-3329-9 (January 29, 2007)
 * Baka to Test to Shōkanjū 2 ISBN 978-4-7577-3505-7 (April 28, 2007)
 * Baka to Test to Shōkanjū 3 ISBN 978-4-7577-3682-5 (August 30, 2007)
 * Baka to Test to Shōkanjū 3.5 ISBN 978-4-7577-3979-6 (January 30, 2008)
 * Baka to Test to Shōkanjū 4 ISBN 978-4-7577-4236-9 (May 30, 2008)
 * Baka to Test to Shōkanjū 5 ISBN 978-4-7577-4518-6 (November 29, 2008)
 * Baka to Test to Shōkanjū 6 ISBN 978-4-7577-4827-9 (April 30, 2009)
 * Baka to Test to Shōkanjū 6.5 ISBN 978-4-7577-5040-1 (August 29, 2009)
 * Baka to Test to Shōkanjū 7 ISBN 978-4-04-726195-2 (December 26, 2009)
 * Baka to Test to Shōkanjū 7.5 ISBN 978-4-0472-6313-0 (February 27, 2010)

Anime
A 13-episode anime adaptation produced by the animation studio Silver Link and directed by Shin Ōnuma began airing in Japan on January 7, 2010. The anime's opening theme is "Perfect-area Complete!" by Natsuko Asō. The first ending theme is "Baka Go Home" by Milktub and BakaTest All Stars. The second ending theme is "Hare Tokidoki Egao" by Hitomi Harada, Kaori Mizuhashi, Emiri Katou and Tomomi Isomura. On March 4, 2010, Funimation Entertainment announced that it has acquired the anime and will stream and offer simulcast subtitled episodes days after they aired in Japan under the title Baka and Test – Summon the Beasts. An announcement has been made on the official website bakatest.com on April 1, 2010 that the second season is under development and will be released in January 2011. It is noted that some elements of other anime are present in the series.