Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni 02

Continuing with the same momentum of hilarity we witnessed last episode, Baka to Test moves forward with its unfailing, laugh inducing comedy. And I daresay that it never fails to keep up the running gags with Shoujo and Yuji that I so love. Since we had a cross-dressing yukata competition this episode, I was cackling like a fool.

Can I scream kawaii? No?

As we start off the episode, the guys have apparently just been through their life-threatening punishment, but they seem to think that they were let off easily. (Indeed they were, since the girls in this series are particularly and deliciously malicious.) So when the girls come in giddy and dressed in yukatas, the guys suspect they have something up their sleeve. Figuratively, of course.

Otherwise she might have misunderstood him eating Himeji's takoyaki.

Their suspicions seem to be disarmed when they go to enjoy the festival and all of the girls are being particularly accomodating and sweet. Well, save for Shouko, who is up to her usual antics, forcing Yuji into submission. But Akihisa’s sister is not jumping down his throat for interacting with the other girls. And when he spots a poster announcing a competition for girls wearing yukatas, he makes the off-handed suggestion that the girls take part.

Voyeur's choice of clothing for 800, please.

Only… all of the guys end up being the ones forced to take part – punishment for hitting on other women last episode. Their names are changed accordingly and as the girls dress them up and put makeup on them. The guys decide that the best way to get out of it, is to lose the competition without losing their dignity. Without raising suspicion as to the fact that they are men, they’ll just have to gracefully step down.

Shouko's yandere nature that I so love.

The plan doesn’t go very well, considering all the answers seem to earn them points, thereby moving them into the next stage of the competition. But when one of the judges starts hitting on Yuji, Shouko pulls out her taser in jealousy, claiming that she will not allow him to have an affair. So comes to an end their competition. The rest of the episode is spent in bliss, eating… Until Himeji starts talking about cooking, which sends the guys scrambling into the ocean with the excuse of catching crabs to eat.

Thoughts;

I really find myself at a loss for every episode – it’s funny, what else is there to say? I have never derived much joy from dissecting comedy. Perhaps because I don’t spend much time concerning myself as to why its funny, I am just more interested in the fact that it is a successful comedy.

But, as an off-handed way of saying, I think what makes Baka to Test so good is the fact that it plays up the stereotypes we see in other anime. (Primarily shounen.) There is the sister complex, the yandere, the big-breasted girl who happens to be brilliant but contrarily can’t cook to save her life, and the flat-chested foreigner – all of which, save for Shouko – have some romantic interest in our main character. Who happens to be the traditional idiot who not-so-traditionally lacks any redeeming qualities.

TL;DR – S***’s hilarious. 

-Lustri