Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu (バカとテストと召喚獣) Episode 7 Impressions

Episode Title: "Me, Shouko, and Kisaragi Grand Park"

PICTURE OF THE EPISODE:

"Rare Smile"

The last episode blew me away with repetitive but effective extreme humor. Well, this episode showed us that they have other things up their sleeves as well...

HEART. As you can probably tell from the title alone, this episode focused on Yuuji and Shouko's date at Kisaragi Grand Park. They finally got to use their premium ticket that they won in episode 5.

The first half of the episode is what they usually do best, the comedy. Then the second half showed us why Yuuji and Shouko make such an adorable couple. Being acquainted with each other from childhood certainly is an advantage. What is special in this episode is that we get to see that Yuuji actually cares about Shouko. He is a total ikemen (check my KimiTodo 19 impression for the meaning of this word or Google it). I never cared for Yuuji much but this episode has completely turned that around. This episode is definitely my favorite now.

Of course there were more references in this episode as well, which I will go into with pictures below. As well as other pictures that captured the special moments. Sorry not much fan-service shots in this episode. LOL Regardless enjoy:

"IRONCLAW!"

If you didn't notice, this is Himeji in a mascot costume. I almost picked the above picture as my favorite for the episode but, in the end, it couldn't compare with Shouko's rare smile. This scene was absolutely freakin' ADORABLE, though! Yoshii and Minami can also be seen in a mascot costume in this episode.

Hideyoshi fans will kill me if I didn't include a picture of him so... here it is. This is taken from the NEW ending; which I will talk more about later.













Again, they are so FREAKIN' ADORABLE! They are so perfect together. Yes, the "childhood into lovers" cliche has been done many times before. But it's a formula that will continue as long as fans go nutz for it. And it's no exception here.

Now for the references I was able to spot:

"Metal Gear Solid"

"JoJo's Adventure"

"Ashita No Joe"

There was a new ending this week. The new song is named "Hare Tokidoki Egao (晴れときどき笑顔 )". Loose translation would be something like "Come Down Occasional Smile", which is just the perfect name for Shouko's mile in this episode! I still have to get used to the new song so I'll give it a few more listen before my final verdict.

The ending animation recycles certain shots of the previous, as you can compare above. It's brilliant I tell you.