also known as Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts is a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese light novel

Light novel

A is a style of Japanese novel primarily targeting junior high and high school students . The term "light novel" is a wasei-eigo, or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language. Light novels are often called or for short...

 series created by Kenji Inoue and illustrations by Yui Haga. The first novel in the series was released on January 29, 2007, and as of June 30, 2011, a total of thirteen volumes, including volume 3.5, volume 6.5, volume 7.5, and volume 9.5, have been published by Enterbrain

Enterbrain

is a Japanese magazine publisher established on April 1, 2000. Enterbrain magazines are generally focused on video games and computer entertainment as well as video game and strategy guides. In addition, the company publishes a small selection of anime artbooks. Enterbrain is based in Tokyo, Japan...

 under their Famitsu Bunko publishing imprint

Imprint

In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...

. A manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 adaptation by Mosuke Mattaku started serialization in the manga magazine Shōnen Ace

Shonen Ace

is a monthly shōnen manga magazine in Japan published by Kadokawa Shoten, started in 1994. Unlike the big shōnen weeklies with circulation figures in the millions, Ace is aimed at a less mainstream audience, and has a particular emphasis on anime tie-ins...

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

Media Factory

is a Japanese publisher. It was founded on December 1, 1986, and its headquarters are situated in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of Recruit Co., Ltd...

 was announced the same month. A promotional trailer was released for streaming in August 2009. An anime series adaption 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. The second season began airing in July 2011.

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. 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). 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 year), 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).

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)
• Baka to Test to Shōkanjū 8 ISBN 978-4-04-726727-5 (August 30, 2010)
• Baka to Test to Shōkanjū 9 ISBN 978-4-04-727031-2 (January 29, 2011)
• Baka to Test to Shōkanjū 9.5 ISBN 978-4-04-727332-0 (June 30, 2011)

Anime

A 13-episode anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 adaptation produced by the animation studio Silver Link and directed by Shin Ōnuma

Shin Onuma

is a Japanese animation and theatre director. He has also provided key animation for many anime. Most prominently he has directed Ef: A Tale of Memories. and assisted Akiyuki Shinbo in directing three anime by Shaft: Pani Poni Dash!, Negima!?, Natsu no Arashi!.-Anime:*Baka to Test to Shōkanjū *Baka...

 aired in Japan between January 7 and March 31, 2010. On March 4, 2010, Funimation Entertainment announced that it had acquired the anime and streamed simulcast subtitled episodes days after they aired in Japan under the title Baka and Test – Summon the Beasts. Two OVA episodes under the title Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu: Matsuri. were released in two BD

Blu-ray Disc

Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...

/DVD volumes: the first on February 23, 2011 and the second on March 30, 2011. Both OVA come with 2-3 different ending sequences. A second anime season under the title Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni! begin airing in Japan in July 2011.

The first anime season had three pieces of theme music: one opening theme and two ending themes. The opening theme is "Perfect-area Complete!" by Natsuko Aso

Natsuko Aso

is a Japanese actress and singer.- Biography :Aso began her career playing the role of Chisame in the Negima drama and as a member of the band pRythme. Later, she has appeared in a number of TV dramas and began a solo music career. Her single "Perfect Area Complete" was chosen as the opening song...

, composed by Kenichi Maeyamada

Kenichi Maeyamada

is a Japanese composer and musician. His primary work is composing anime theme songs and for J-pop musicians. He contracts through SUPALOVE, a Japanese record label. Under the pseudonym , he has released a number of anime and video game music remixes, as well as original songs...

. 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

Hitomi Harada

is a female Japanese voice actress and singer from Yamaguchi, Japan. She works for Production Baobab.- Anime :* Amagami SS as Manaka Hiba, Mika Makihara* Baka to Test to Shōkanjū as Mizuki Himeji...

, Kaori Mizuhashi

Kaori Mizuhashi

is a Japanese voice actress who is employed by Arts Vision. Her debut was in 1998 with the game First Kiss Story.-TV anime:*Ai Yori Aoshi *Ai Yori Aoshi ~Enishi~ *Angelic Layer...

, Emiri Katou and Tomomi Isomura. The Matsuri OVAs had one opening theme and one ending theme. The opening theme is by Natsuko Aso, and the ending theme is by Milktub. The second anime season has one opening theme and one ending theme. The opening theme is by Larval Stage Planning, made up of I've Sound

I've Sound

I've Sound, or simply called , is a Japanese techno/trance music production group based in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan. Led by Kazuya Takase, it features the talents of seasoned "sound creators" and many different female vocalists, known as to their fans....

 singers Airi Kirishima, Nami Maisaki, and Rin Asami. The ending theme is by Natsuko Aso. Funimation has also licensed the second season and the Matsuri OVA's, as with the first, they will simulcast the second series, followed by a Blu-ray and DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 release in 2012 .

The series made its North American television debut on August 1, 2011 on the Funimation Channel

FUNimation Channel

The FUNimation Channel is a 24-hour cable network which broadcasts anime series in the United States. OlympuSAT was chosen as the exclusive distributor of the network....

.

Season 1

No.	Title	Original airdate

OVA

No.	Title	Original airdate

Season 2

No.	Title	Original airdate

External links

• Official website
• Official website at Funimation