Baka & Test: Summon the Beasts (Baka to Tesuto to Shōkanjū) is a 2010 television anime series based on Kenji Inoue’s light novel of the same name. It was adapted into an anime by studio Silver Link with director Shin Oonuma, writer Katsuhiko Takayama and publisher Kadokawa Pictures. The series first broadcast in Japan on January 2010 as part of the Winter season.
The second season (Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni!) from the same studio, director, writer and publisher aired in Japan on July 2011 as part of the Summer season, and the OVAs (Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu: Matsuri) were released individually in Japan on February & March 2011.
Brief Unboxing Redux Note:
The first season of Baka & Test: Summon the Beasts was an important anime for my collection, because it was my very first North American Blu-ray import back in April 2013, and is among the first to be unboxed over on my Normanic Vault blog via Blogger. Now I did unbox it late in May 2013, but it’s still considered the first as I showed it off prior.
As for the second season, this was acquired & unboxed in March 2014 while the OVA collection arrived a short-while later in June 2014. This post here is a remaster, but mostly a remake (or redux no pun intended) & revisit to these unboxings all in one place, with better photos, updated information and any added extras. Enjoy!
Background:
“Yoshii’s a good-hearted goofball enrolled at a school where the students settle their differences by summoning Avatars, pint-sized stand-ins with battle powers based on academic ability. That “academic ability” part is bad news for idiotic Yoshii – he’s stuck in lowly Class F with the slackers. If these misfits want to escape their dump of a classroom and earn some respect, they’ll have to fight their way up the ranks and take on Class A, the brightest students on campus. It’s going to be tough, that’s for sure. But once the underachievers of Class F get motivated, they don’t give up – and Yoshii can’t even spell surrender!”
Season 1 Plot Synopsis via Funimation, August 2011.
A decade ago, anime was not as busy as it is in present day. Sure back then you still had roughly 20 new shows and about 10-20 continuations, but its nowhere near as messy as it is nowadays with 39 new shows plus 37 continuations and not to mention ONA series from China and Netflix that appear frequently. Anime is very oversaturated, which is why a decade ago with less shows available meant you can technically watch most new shows in one season without too much issue or in some cases burn out. Granted the UK anime scene back then was also messy, with Funimation unavailable outside of a few unblocked YouTube videos and Crunchyroll providing very little but slowly opening up. Anime on Demand was a thing that shouldn’t really exist for the UK.
Baka & Test: Summon the Beasts was adapted by Silver Link who have now adapted titles like My Next Life as a Villainess and The Misfit of Demon King Academy, and was written by Kenji Inoue who is more known for his current work Grand Blue Dreaming which shares the same comedic genre. Baka & Test for its time was a very fun comedy series and its English dub that Funimation produced was well-produced in my opinion. Even though one character’s trope is now outdated in modern times, the show overall is worth a watch if you have access to it. It did well enough to span a few OVAs and a second season during that timeframe, but with the light novel concluded in 2015 the anime never received any more content since outside of one mini-short for the Japanese Blu-ray Box in 2017.
Funimation released the first season with a limited edition combo pack and a standard edition on the same day back in August 2011. The limited edition sold out, and eventually its second season was released as a limited edition only combo pack in January 2013. The OVA collection that took place before the second season, was released as a regular Blu-ray sized combo pack the month following after. I should also mention during its time, Funimation had only slowly started to shift from DVD to Blu-ray so a number of their releases were presented as combo packs and in DVD-sized height. It took a year or two for the Blu-ray-sized format to take over with titles like Cat Planet Cuties and Steins;Gate.
In the UK, both seasons of Baka & Test: Summon the Beasts were released by Manga Entertainment on DVD but no Blu-ray or even the OVA collection were brought over. Blu-rays in the UK for the anime scene were not profitable at the time, so the distributor didn’t want to risk any of it outside of a few titles. This was during a time where even the Blu-rays for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood had been cancelled partway through its five volume release (with 2 of 5 released), though that did continue a few years later in order to release a two part collection box set.
Season 1 & OVA Collection Regular Edition, Season 2 Limited Edition Contents:
Before they got fancy with their packaging and items, Funimation released their limited edition box sets with a rigid box and two cases that feature extra artwork you wouldn’t usually see on the standard edition. Both seasons of Baka & Test: Summon the Beasts were like this, packaged with a rigid box at DVD height and came with two clear DVD-sized cases that houses the Blu-ray & DVD discs. However I was only able to get my hands on the second season’s limited edition release.
Funimation often liked to have the formats spread between the two cases than have one case dedicated to a specific format at times, so for Baka & Test: Summon the Beasts Season 2 we have one case housing the first disc for both formats, and the second case housing the second discs as well as the DVD’s third disc.
While my copy does not have this, Funimation did have a printing issue where the second DVD had the extras art that was used for the third disc, which confused people. This was fixed after a recall.
Both seasons of the limited edition were priced at SRP $69.98 each (while the standard editions were $64.98 and the OVA collection was $34.98) and sold out roughly a year later. While the franchise was re-released by the same distributor, it was downgraded as a DVD-only release as part of their Super Amazing Value Edition brand.
The reason why its DVD-only was not officially known, but I can speculate this was a reverse importation requirement by the Japanese licensor Kadokawa Pictures (after they acquired Media Factory) as Funimation kept trying to release Region A Blu-rays as soon as Japan had done the same which was not very good planning.
Physical Contents (Season 2):
- Rigid Box with two DVD cases packaging and clean artwork
- Info sheet for specification
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Funimation
Released: 2nd August 2011 (Season 1), 29th January 2013 (Season 2), 19th February 2013 (OVA Collection)
The first season of Baka & Test: Summon the Beasts contains all 13 episodes across two Blu-ray discs and two DVD discs, with an additional DVD disc dedicated to extras. The second season is very similar, containing all 13 episodes across two Blu-ray discs and two DVD discs, with an additional extras DVD disc. The OVA collection contains two episodes on a single Blu-ray and DVD disc.
Funimation encoded and authored all of these discs. The audio options available include Japanese with English subtitles and the Funimation English dub. The white subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the disc regions are playable on Region A & B for Blu-ray players as well as Regions 1, 2 & 4 for DVD players.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | Season 1: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 Season 2: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 OVA Collection: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 Aspect Ratio |
| Region | A B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | Season 1: 1 BD-50, 1 BD-25 Season 2: 1 BD-50, 1 BD-25 OVA Collection: 1 BD-25 |
DVD Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | Season 1: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 Season 2: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 OVA Collection: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 |
| Video | Standard Definition in NTSC format 16:9 Aspect Ratio |
| Region | 1 2 4 |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | Season 1: 3 Season 2: 3 OVA Collection: 1 |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Season 1 – Disc 2:
- Baka & Test Specials:
- Mission: Impossible: Baka Preview
- Baka-Only Cross-Dressing Contest
- Mission: Impossible: Baka Mission 01
- Mizuki Himeji Girls’ Meal
- The King Game in Fumizuki Academy
- Baka and Test Tales
- Special Christmas Footage (Mondai – Christmas ni Tsuite Kotae Nasai)
- Promo Videos
- Original Commercials
- Original DVD Spots
- Textless Opening “Perfect-area Complete!”
- Textless Closing #1 “Baka Go Home”
- Textless Closing #2 “Hare Tokidoki Egao”
- Funimation Trailers
Season 2 – Disc 1:
- English Audio Commentary for Episode 3
Season 2 – Disc 2:
- English Audio Commentary for Episode 13
- Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts Spinout! (Spinout! Sore ga Bokura no Nichijou)
- Beauty and the Beast
- Magical Hideyoshi, Hideyoshi, CM 1
- Karaoke Mix
- Magical Hideyoshi, Hideyoshi, CM 2
- Magical Hideyoshi, Hideyoshi (Mahou Hideyoshi Hideyoshi)
- Mission Impossibler: Baka
- Runaway Haduki
- Akihisa’s Inquisition
- Cherry Blossoms Viewing Party
- Promo Videos
- Original Commercials
- U.S. Trailer
- Textless Opening “Kimi + Nazo + Watashi De Jump!”
- Textless Closing #1 “Eureka Baby”
- Textless Closing #2 “Baka to Koshitsu to Kodoku Meshi”
- Textless Closing #3 “Hi-Ho!!”
- Funimation Trailers
OVA Collection:
- OVA 1 Split: Hideyoshi Kinoshita, Mizuki Himeji & Minami Shimada
- OVA 2 Split: Ending
- Promotional Videos
- Original Commercials
- Textless Opening “Renai Koujou Committee”
- Textless Closing “Getsuyou wa Kirai”
- Funimation Trailers
DVD On-Disc Extra Features:
Season 1 – Disc 2:
- Funimation Trailers
Season 1 – Disc 3:
- Baka & Test Specials:
- Mission: Impossible: Baka Preview
- Baka-Only Cross-Dressing Contest
- Mission: Impossible: Baka Mission 01
- Mizuki Himeji Girls’ Meal
- The King Game in Fumizuki Academy
- Baka and Test Tales
- Special Christmas Footage (Mondai – Christmas ni Tsuite Kotae Nasai)
- Promo Videos
- Original Commercials
- Original DVD Spots
- Textless Opening “Perfect-area Complete!”
- Textless Closing #1 “Baka Go Home”
- Textless Closing #2 “Hare Tokidoki Egao”
Season 2 – Disc 1:
- English Audio Commentary for Episode 3
Season 2 – Disc 2:
- English Audio Commentary for Episode 13
- Funimation Trailers
Season 2 – Disc 3:
- Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts Spinout! (Spinout! Sore ga Bokura no Nichijou)
- Beauty and the Beast
- Magical Hideyoshi, Hideyoshi, CM 1
- Karaoke Mix
- Magical Hideyoshi, Hideyoshi, CM 2
- Magical Hideyoshi, Hideyoshi (Mahou Hideyoshi Hideyoshi)
- Mission Impossibler: Baka
- Runaway Haduki
- Akihisa’s Inquisition
- Cherry Blossoms Viewing Party
- Promo Videos
- Original Commercials
- U.S. Trailer
- Textless Opening “Kimi + Nazo + Watashi De Jump!”
- Textless Closing #1 “Eureka Baby”
- Textless Closing #2 “Baka to Koshitsu to Kodoku Meshi”
- Textless Closing #3 “Hi-Ho!!”
OVA Collection:
- OVA 1 Split: Hideyoshi Kinoshita, Mizuki Himeji & Minami Shimada
- OVA 2 Split: Ending
- Promotional Videos
- Original Commercials
- Textless Opening “Renai Koujou Committee”
- Textless Closing “Getsuyou wa Kirai”
- Funimation Trailers
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Baka & Test: Summon the Beasts was licensed and released on home video by Funimation. This release came out over a decade ago and are no longer available to own, but was re-released on DVD only under the S.A.V.E. line-up which also seems to be discontinued. You can stream the series on Funimation if you live in the UK, Ireland, US & Canada regions.
The Normanic Vault 