Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts

Set in a high school where class rank boils down to test scores, the school's hierarchy is treated like a game. Each class fights for promotion through the ESB, a battle system that lets students summon avatars corresponding to their academic marks. The more your class wins, the higher your place on the ladder, and the more exaggerated the facilities and perks you enjoy. The focus stays on Akihisa Yoshii, a rather carefree but luckless kid in the lowest grade, alongside Mizuki Himeji, Minami Shimada, and Yuuji Sakamoto as well as Shouko Kirishima. The humor comes from the wild setups and competitive antics that erupt around campus, while friendships and loyalty keep the story grounded.

Directed by Shin Oonuma and produced for TV by Silver Link, it adapts Kenji Inoue's light novel. It aired in 2010 and features Hiro Shimono as Akihisa Yoshii, with Hitomi Harada, Kaori Mizuhashi, Tatsuhisa Suzuki and Tomomi Isomura among leads.

Fans remember it for blending a school drama with a playful battle framework. The Examination Summons Battles offered a punchy hook and helped the show stand out among anime that mix comedy with science fiction and fantasy tropes. Its light hearted tone inspired similar games within the genre.

Audience reaction leans positive, with an average of 7.383 out of 10 from 98 votes. The show blends brisk humor, quirky character dynamics, and clever parodies of testing culture. It explores friendship, perseverance, and teamwork under pressure, while letting its cast of misfit students find confidence through creative solutions rather than brute force.