Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu – 08

Runaway, Maze and Summoned Beast Instrumentality Project – I hope you’ve all seen Neon Genesis Evangelion, because if you havent a lot of the humour in this episode will be lost on you!  This week BakaTest comes over all EVA and remembers the ESB system – prepare for chibi chaos!

We get the usual Shimada Vs Akihisa wrestling lock out-of-the-way first as they argue over pictures of last weeks waitress cosplay.  Shimada wants to know why Akihisa has her pic (being not so secretly delighted) only to hear that he wanted Hideyoshi’s pic 😆

Cut to Akihisa and Tsuchiya meeting covertly so Akihisa can hand over all his food budget in exchange for Hideyoshi cosplay pics.  Does Tsuchiya feel no guilt that he’s cleaning Akihisa out?  The fella is now living off salt water!!

Shimada's pic is fired in as a BOGOF with Hideyoshi's changing pic! 😀

Once the boys move on some randomer tries to hack into the school’s computer system but ends up screwing up and tripping a connection causing the Summoned Beast System to go haywire.

Many, many more EVA references to follow!

First clue that something isn’t right with the ESB system is when Akihisa’s summon won’t appear where he wants it to, instead hundreds of the little buggers pop up all over the school – throughly freaking many people out in the process.

Poor Ironman-sensei - having Akihisa pop out of your nostrils and ears must have been freaky

Much cosplay fanservice ensues when the other members of Class F (and Shouko) decide to summon their avatars just to see what will happen.  First off their Summons take on adult forms in fanservice costumes, which was amusing – had to laugh at Hideyoshi insisting his only appeared as a bishoujo because the system was faulty.

Then Yuuji summons his, and Shouko promptly latches her avatar onto his arm – just to see what a nice couple they make 😆

But then Tsuchiya summons his avatar………only to have Yuuji’s avatar end up molesting it 😆  Oh the yaoi-service, how my Inner Fangirl delights in it 😀  Tsuchiya and Yuuji on the other hand, where completely flabbergasted by the antics of their Summons……well they were until Shouko turned her stun-gun on the two of them 😈

Of course Shouko wasn't as entertained as me!

All the summons then revert to their chibi forms, turn evil and run amok in the school.  Fun and games end when Gendo The Principal decides to summon the elite forces of Class F (and Shouko) to help fix the ESB system.  Her reasoning is that only a Summon can fit through the vents to the server room, and only Akihisa’s Summon is still under his control (due to his handy portable summon bracelet) and able to interact with physical objects – time to brainstorm!

The fate of the school rests in the hands of these lot - god help us all

Tsuchiya volunteers his personal surveillance equipment, which Hideyoshi blithely asks the purpose of; putting the fear of god into Voyeur-kun and his best customer Akihisa….

Taken out of context this picture could look oh so different :P:

Anyway on with the mission!  Akihisa sends his chibi off into the air vents, which are filled with ‘security measures’ and laid out like a maze.  Luckily(?) he has his friends guiding him from the impromptu control room (in yet more EVA references)…….unfortunately he doesn’t get too far before running into the out of control Summons of Yuuji and Tsuchiya, who completely destroy Akihisa’s Summon forcing him off to remedial classes.

Yuuji's Summons Stats claim he's a former 'Infant Genius' 😯

Phase one was a failure - back to the drawing board

Himeji offers to tutor Akihisa before he takes his remedial class, in order to get this score as high as possible so his Summon will be strong enough to make it past the other rogue Summons.  However I don’t think Akihisa was really thinking about that when she offered 🙂

Yuuji has a better plan though – in a rare stroke of genius he has the teachers give Akihisa the easiest questions ever driving Akihisa’s score up to never before seen levels to allow his Summon to power up.

HP meter refilled Akihisa sends his chibi back into the vents.

It’s not long before he runs into Yuuji and Tsuchiya’s Summons again and this time they’re joined by chibi-Hideyoshi.  However the power of Akihisa’s newly modded Chibi overwhelm the three of them easily.

Those KIA must go to supplementary classes!

Akihisa finally reaches the server room, only to discover the final bosses are Shimada and Himeji’s Summons (well mostly Himeji since Shimada gets KO’d when her Drill-hair stalker shows up).  Chibi-Himeji knocks seven shades out of Chibi-Akihisa, until Akihisa in an inspired moment gets Himeji to take a make-up test – where she gets a score of zero allowing Chibi-Akihisa to take her avatar out with ease.

Gotta love The Principal's 'Gendo Pose' and evil Chibi-Himeji's transformation sequence

With all obstacles now dealt with chibi-Akihisa easily reconnects the loose wire and returns to Akihisa.

However now everyone bar Akihisa and Shouko are in supplementary Classes…….although the Principal soon fixes that by hitting chibi-Akihisa on the head wiping out his remaining points, and Shouko voluntarily heads to Yuuji’ side Supplimentary Classes too.

So that was a pretty fun episode – this show is at its best when playing around with parodies, cosplay and the ESB system – afterall its these chibi avatar battles that set BakaTest apart from similar shows – they should make more use of that concept really.

I enjoyed all the EVA references, even the eyecatch was a nod to EVA 😆

Looking forward to next week, but think its going back to the love triangle again……hope its entertaining, there aren’t many episodes left!