Baka Test Matsuri OVA 02
Gotta love yandere Himeji.
Oh man, Himeji just made it difficult to decide which yandere is my favorite between her and Shouko. There’s just something mesmerizing about those crazy Yuno Gasai eyes~
They stare into your soul.
If you were one of those people hoping for a bit more action, then you’re in luck because the focus of this OVA is on the Summoned Beasts tournament! In order to prevent Himeji’s father from transferring her to another school, the bakas of class F have no choice but to study like crazy in hopes of winning the tournament, but it’s not that simple when the competition consists of students from class A and B. Determined not to let being an idiot stop him from winning anyway, Akihisa shuts himself in his room and devotes himself to his studies until the day of the tournament arrives, but not before suffering through his sister’s instant ramen.
Akihisa and Yuuji form one team for the tournament while Himeji and Minami form the other, and Yuuji hints at having some secret plan in motion that he needs Hideyoshi and Muttsurini for. Akihisa is confident that he’s fully prepared, but much to his dismay, it turns out the main subject he studied isn’t even on the point-replenishing exam. “OTL But if that weren’t bad enough, it turns out their opponents are Mayumi and Ritsuko from class B right off the bat. It almost seems too unfortunate to be true, but is crappy luck really behind it or is there something going on in the shadows?
At first it seems like it will be a one-sided match, but somehow despite having less points the main duo use their agility to beat the crap out of their opponents as though it were nothing, and end up invoking the hatred of everyone in the audience by making themselves look like merciless bullies that beat on girls. I don’t even…how did that….whaaaaat?
Everybody was kung fu fighting~
The next match is against that crossdressing guy Nemoto and his girlfriend Yuuka, who are also in class B. I wonder if you can even call it a “match” though since Yuuji, being the clever person he is, has already prepared for this by bringing a photo album of Nemoto’s habits and blackmailing him into forfeiting. This results in Yuuko brutally dumping him on the spot. Ouch….
Yuuji and Akihisa are then moved into the next round where their opponents are Shouko and Hideyoshi’s twin sister who I just call “the Hideyoshi that’s actually a girl and therefore less awesome.” Once again the duo have some dirty tricks up their sleeve as Yuuji planned on having Hideyoshi impersonate his sister, but that plan is thwarted by Shouko, who foresaw such a move coming from her beloved and tied Hideyoshi up. Just when it seems like they’re going to have to fight the practically invincible team, Akihisa quickly thinks up a brilliant plan: to trick Yuuji into promising to propose to Shouko if they win by knocking him unconscious and manipulating him like a doll as Hideyoshi impersonates his voice….err, wait a minute, isn’t Hideyoshi supposed to be tied up somewhere?
Well there's no way anyone would actually belie-
...wait...
I stand corrected.
In case you were worried that things were going a bit too smoothly, the computer reveals that the next match will be between both teams from class F. Yuuji and Akihisa originally plan to withdraw so that Minami and Himeji, the admittedly smarter team, could advance instead, but a combination of Hazuki’s support and Shouko’s threats force them to take the match seriously. Minami, who has gone 100% tsun and Himeji, who has gone 100% yan after Hazuki promises to bathe with Akihisa if he wins are also determined to win to prevent this from happening at all costs (not that it would anyway though, since Aki loves Himeji.)
Although the duo seem to be doomed to fail, Akihisa uses his avatar to grope Himeji (all for the sake of the plan, mind you), which is enough to distract them both while Yuuji attacks, once again providing them with an easy victory.
GEASS ACTIVATE!
At last it’s time for the final match that Akihisa and Yuuji miraculously managed to make it to. But this time, the enemy is none other than the Tokonatsu duo from the first OVA (who I guess are now going to be recurring characters….) Weirdly enough, the one guy is still wearing that bra on his head, claiming he can’t get it off even though it’s not even strapped on or anything…and these guys are supposed to be in class A apparently.
After being accused by Yuuji of foul play, the two admit to having been manipulating the matches so that they would have to fight more difficult opponents early on. However, this doesn’t bother Yuuji, as just when the subject of the match seems to be English, he has Muttsurini, who has successfully hacked the system, switch it to Japanese History, the subject that Akihisa has the best grades on. Now everyone is a cheater! An epic battle takes place, and for a while the Tokonatsu duo seem to have the upper hand, but in the end through their incredible teamwork Yuuji and Akihisa manage to emerge victorious.
Now, here’s where things take a turn for the “WTF”, because the Tokonatsu duo, bitter after their loss, decide they’re going to go around telling everyone they cheated to win, so Yuuji decides that the absolute best way to deal with this would not be to ignore it because they have no proof, but to shoot firework BOMBS at them through the windows of the school. But instead of shooting just one, they accidentally send off a whole bunch by knocking them over, which results in blowing up half the school, which I’m pretty sure warrants some legal action. But no, instead their only punishment is being forced to use the funds from the school festival to repair the building instead of on new equipment.
Oh, but it’s all good! Himeji’s father, moved by their dedication to his daughter and not at all disturbed by their blatant acts of terrorism, decided that he won’t force her to transfer after all! Yay!! A happy ending!
Thoughts:
I have to say, I’m a bit disappointed. The first OVA was so good! But this….what the heck happened? Because I feel like writing three pages of rant and I don’t want to get too tl;dr, these are pretty much my main gripes right now:
-They used the “females in this show can’t cook” running gag AGAIN and it was never funny in the first place.
-Himeji’s dad has issues. What kind of parent says “you have great friends” after just watching them blow up a building? Plus, the ending was just too convenient.
-And hey, wait a minute, where the hell are the police?
-Come to think of it, how was that supposed to stop them from telling on them anyway? If anything, you’d think it would make them MORE pissed off. Unless the intention was to kill them, in which case, that’s pretty screwed up.
-Everything was just way too easy. Akihisa and Yuuji mopped the floor with people who probably should have been able to kick their ass with ease. They beat enemies that they had no business defeating. Even the final fight just wasn’t exciting in the least.
-NO KUBO AT ALL!!!!! WTF?!
-Why did Nemoto care about the blackmail when Yuuka already saw it? I thought the whole reason he wanted the cross-dressing to be kept a secret was because of not wanting her to find out.
-The jokes just seemed to fall flat for me this time. There was a lot of reusing the same basic ideas from the first OVA, and while I get that the characters are supposed to be idiots, some of the jokes made them seem absolutely retarded.
It’s kind of a shame, and I really hope the second season ends up being more like the first OVA and less like this one, which didn’t even try to make sense. On the positive side, Hazuki offering to bathe with Akihisa followed by yandere Himeji and that cult trying to kill him was just great, and probably the single most hilarious thing that happened. The animation was also incredibly smooth and nice (though that’s sort of to be expected now with this show) and the art was, as usual, gorgeous. I just hope the writers can get their acts together for the second season instead.
To be fair, it is only an OVA, and to squeeze an entire tournament into 30 minutes isn’t exactly easy. That’s why I thought this episode would be more about their preparation with the actual tournament taking place in the second season, but apparently that’s not the case. This was just a side-story that’s already been resolved, so it has no relevance at all to the second season. For a random side story, it could have been worse.
Overall, because of the first OVA being so awesome, I’m going to give Matsuri an 8/10. It’s not particularly outstanding, especially in the second OVA, but it’s not terrible, and it’s a great way to kill time. I definitely recommend checking out the anime though if you haven’t.
Bonus Fanservice (A little present for some of the guys who fell for our yaoi April Fool’s joke and want their eyesight back):
"NO KUBO AT ALL!!!!! WTF?!"
I honestly can't get over that name. And how you can say that like it's a bad thing. xD
I still haven't watched the show, though I spot a redhead. If he can spout fire, I might have to watch after all.
Haha I know, that name should be outlawed. XD But I love his character~
It's worth checking out for some laughs. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who really likes comedies.
Plus, there are TWO redheads~ ;) Though Minami is admittedly probably the weakest character in the show (and most annoying aside from the crazy lesbian stalker)
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If anything, the dad sounds cool for having that mindset. I would think so too if I was an anime dad and I saw my kid's friends blow up a building haha.
And no Kubo is good, not bad. Good >:3
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It just seems so unbelievable. I mean, if her dad is so upset about her being in the lowest class and having bad equipment that he's willing to transfer her away, why on earth would terrorism and chaos be the thing to change his mind? XD lol
You know what, from now on I just won't even call him that anymore. >w> Actually, I don't even think that's his first name now that I think about it. I'm pretty sure it's Toshimitsu Kubo….*FAIL*
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Part of the problem is how the TV series mixed up events from the first and third novels, but Matsuri was all from novel 2, yet in the TV show takes place afterward. And there was a lot of story left out.
I've never read the novels, but that's too bad :< I guess they had to cut stuff out to fit it into two ova's.
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Actually I enjoyed this second OVA more than the first one, probably because I love the Summoned Beasts battles.
I think you are taking things too seriously. Blowing up the school is meant to be funny, the violence is cartoonish and never has consequences in this show (otherwise Yuuji should be blind and demented already from all the abuse he takes from Shouko!).
Himeji's father was moved by Akihisa's words "I won't let Himeji-san transfer at all costs!"
P.S. Kubo was too busy writing Bleach.
If you can call what he does writing…
I know it's not meant to be taking seriously, and if blowing up the school had been a complete accident and not intentional, it probably would have been funny. But to have them intentionally throw a bomb at the school for really no reason just seemed stupid. What did they hope to achieve? It didn't make sense. That's not good writing- it's throwing in random stuff for the sake of having it without coming up with a proper reason.
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It’s not really a “girls in this show can’t cook”, it’s just Himeji. Minami’s pretty good at cooking if I remember correctly from the first season. And yeah that yandere scene is probably the best XD You prefer the male Hideyoshi? :3
Akihisa's sister can't cook either. :<
lol yes, I love Hideyoshi!! XD I think his twin is kind of…unnecessary I guess.
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