When thinking about the anime’s I have watched recently and enjoyed very much, there has been a clear recurrence of serious and mature animations filling my collection; Akira, Tekken BV, Evangelion, countless Ghibli’s; so on and so forth. When tasked with watching a Shonen anime, I must admit it was going to be a tough watch; large beady eyes and cutsie dialogue are not per ce, ‘my thing’.
However, I was pleasantly surprised and very impressed that my insatiable lust for fight scenes, complex character divulgence and overall quality had been quelled enough by Baka and Test.
Set in Fumizuki Acedemy high school, we can already deduce that this is no ordinary learning establishment. Fighting in my high school was forbidden and punished very highly, so it came as a shock that this academy is promoting fighting; mixed with an excellent twist. Here, the students grades are their strength, with higher test scores in particular studies being made the ammunition which fuels the students fighting avatars (Shokanju, ‘Beasts’), in battles named ST wars; battles approved by teachers whom can open special fighting grounds for our students to fight in using their avatars, which look wonderfully reminiscent of the characters in final fantasy 3 et al, coated in cool armour and wielding close combat weapons.
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The Anime Chronicle 