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Baka to Test to Shōkanjū Light Novels to Be Animated (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
On Thursday, the May issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Dragon Age magazine published an ad that announces that an anime adaptation of Kenji Inoue's Baka to Test to Shōkanjū (The Idiot, the Tests, and the Summoned Creatures) fantasy romantic comedy light novels has been green-lit. The announcement appears in an ad for the June issue of Monthly Shōnen Ace magazine, which will ship on April 25. In the same June issue, a comic adaptation of the light novels will launch and adorn the cover. Yui Haga draws the original light novels' illustrations which are being adapted into both the manga and the anime versions. Enterbrain has published five volumes of the light novels since 2007.
The story centers around Akihisa Yoshii, the "baka" of the title. His academy rigidly divides up the student body into classes based on the results of tests. The prodigies are in the A class with reclining seats complete with air conditioning, but Akihisa is in F class, the lowest rung of the school ladder which is furnished only with low, decrepit tables and worn-out straw tatami mats. A girl named Mizuki Himeji is actually one of the smartest girls in Akihisa's sophomore year, but she had a fever on test day and was pigeonholed into the F class. Besides Mizuki (who Akihisa secretly adores), the F class also has Yūji Sakamoto, the class president who has been Akihisa's friend and partner-in-crime since the freshman year.
The school happens to have developed experiments to summon fantasy creatures, and Akihisa decides to rally F class to take on the higher-tiered classes and seize their perks. The F class uses the summoned creatures in an all-out battle for school supremacy.
The Moon Phase Comments blog reports that the anime will premiere in January of 2010. Shin Oonuma (Natsu no Arashi!, ef: a tale of memories, Pani Poni Dash!) will direct the animators at SILVER LINK and Miwa Ōshima is adapting Haga's character designs for animation.
Source: 2channel, Moon Phase Comments
Update: Story information and reported production staff added.
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