Foreword:
The painful irony of this FOF Project is that although I have had this idea for a while, I only started putting pen to paper on the day I finished a Final Exam for a very difficult class. With everything that takes place in the world, for those who enjoy the luxuries of this medium, I implore you to find something in everything you consume that you can take into your everyday life. Even if the pleasure is mindless, mundane, or vulgar, you take into your life the lesson of learning when and where to delve into something mindless in order to balance yourself in a world of chaotic circumstances.
Yet another irony is the subject matter of this feature; another one of my FOF Rants.
FOF Project: Character Analysis of Yuji Sakamoto
The Quiet Genius
Every year since about 2011, I have always come back to the anime “Baka & Test.” For some reason it has a magical pull on me considering that every time I watch it, I am immediately flung back to 8th grade year. A lot of stuff happened within my family and more importantly, my school life, in 8th grade year. To keep it simple I had to move to 3 or 4 different schools within the span of 3 months as a result of an incident that resulted in me having to move from one state to another. It was kinda depressing, having to move to so many different schools and also being unsure of where it was I was going to finally end up; yet again I was in a situation where I was struggling to get my bearings and establish a functional routine.
Normally I would have an easy time watching this anime for the purpose of this project, but due to my lack of proximity to my S.A.V.E DVD edition of both seasons and the OVAs and not having access to a Premium account to view the entire series out of sheer laziness, I’ll try to piece the evidence together from my impeccable memory and the clips I was able to find.
Although I will break the chronological order of this project by doing a Character Analysis before I do a general series overview of the anime in question, I find the strength to do so based on the result of the analysis itself. Today I will be discussing a character that makes powerful statements about society by attempting to break its conventional rules, and while I do not have a full title for him, I resolve to give Yuji Sakamoto of “Baka & Test” the moniker of “The Quiet Genius.”
SPOILER ALERT FOR THE ENTIRETY OF THE ANIME “BAKA & TEST”
Part 1: Fumizuki Academy
I’ll be very brief about the setting and how it frames the way “Baka & Test” portrays, although in subtle fashion, a very harsh look at the world that I believe most of us can relate to. Keep in mind that “Baka & Test” is a high-school slapstick comedy with a hilarious action twist fit with every character trope and comedic gag that modern anime is known for, so take this with a pinch of salt.
Fumizuki Academy is an academic institution where students are ranked in Class A through Class F, where the highest-scoring students of Class A enjoy the luxury of having state-of-the-art equipment and a comfortable life. The quality-of-life drops from Class B to C to Class F where the students suffer in what Kent Williams described as “an indescribable hell” in a class where they can’t even sit in chairs or use have to use desks that are broken. To cement the Food Chain circumstance, students are given an Avatar, a miniature version of themselves with a Power Level determined by their test scores on various subjects—these Avatars are used to fight one-another and if a lower-ranking class usurps a higher-ranking class in a Summoner Test War, they have the opportunity to have a lifestyle change.
Once you put it straightforward, it’s a perfect allegory for life. We were always (or at least I was) told that education—test scores and academic awards are the key to living a comfortable life. The order of service was: (a) do well on tests, (b) go to college, (c) get a good job, (d) make good money, get married, and life happily ever after. While I am not one to say school doesn’t matter, when you segregate the characters based on their grades and then pit the characters against one another via ST Wars for the ability to retain or improve their level of comfort in life, you can see how much that drives a wedge between people.
The entirety of Season 1 of “Baka & Test” made Class A out to be the antagonists. While an antagonist is essential in any anime or work of fiction, it is staggering to observe the members of Class A looking down at Class F from their ivory tower and berate them as “idiots” and “scum” who deserve every degree of punishment and pain they experience. Furthermore Class A’s students are portrayed as star athletes and prodigies with the ethical and moral high ground in their disdain for those beneath them while Class F’s students are portrayed as losers who indulge in meaningless hobbies such as theater and photography or total slackers who won’t get anywhere in life.
It almost reflects dystopian tropes where the elite view the lower-class citizens as if their lives don’t matter. I’ll let you choose whether you compare it to “The Hunger Games” or whatever trendy dystopian book/movie series is popular…I don’t know, I don’t really like dystopian stuff (except for the movie “Equilibrium,” which I will do another project on soon).
This is where the side-character Yuji Sakamoto fits in. While he is the leader of Class F and has a sterling reputation for horrible test scores, he is the most idealistic person and throughout the plot he displays both the academic and social aptitude to shake the foundation of Fumizuki Academy and make the statement, as he does in episode 5 of Season 1: “Let’s show this school idiots can think outside the box too.”
Part 2: There’s More To Life Than Grades
There aren’t many episodes that delve into Yuji’s character, but he does get a lot of exposure as the foil to the main character, Akihisa Yoshi, who is the definition of a lovable idiot with a heart of gold. While both Akihisa and Yuji share the quality of showing compassion and care for other people, where Akihisa is a complete idiot who wears his heart on his sleeve, Yuji is laid-back , nonchalant and keeps his care for others hidden beneath his veneer of laziness and his past, since there is an episode addressing Yuji’s past towards the end of the series.
Where a majority of the cast continues to remind the audience that Yuji is a total failure at school who doesn’t deserve anyone’s respect as a member of Class F, Yuji continues to spout about the subject of warfare and tactics in their application to ST Wars. Furthermore, he does more than just spout theory, as he spends Season 1 as Class F’s leader slowly defeating the higher classes through the application of different techniques, leveraging the individual abilities of Class F’s students to achieve victory and coming within arms reach of toppling Class A. Although he loses by a hair, he certainly made it an entertaining spectacle to watch. I’ll continue to list off the spectacles in my General Overview of the anime.
What makes it more convincing is Yuji’s hidden genius. I think the best way to summarize Yuji’s character in relation to this Character Analysis is to tell the story chronologically, even though the anime doesn’t.
The Story of Yuji Sakamoto
Episode 11 of Season 2 takes place in the past, but provides an immense amount of context for the circumstances that set up Season 1. Yuji starts off as a prodigy, everyone called him a gifted child based on his academic performance (who can relate)? The boy who was smarter than everyone in his class and also intimidated those in higher grades, but there was one problem…He was a total jackass…I almost feel like I’m talking about myself, but that’s not what this is about.
Enter Shouko Kirshima…A new kid in class and someone who is just as smart and talented as Yuji. Where Yuji wants to be left alone, Shouko just wants a friend, and she chose Yuji to be the target of her attention.
XYZ, shit happens, and Yuji is put in a situation where he can either choose to stick up for both him and Shouko and risk his reputation or turn a blind eye at something that is morally wrong. I won’t divulge all of the details because I think you should watch the anime yourself…Or I’ll spoil it in my overview, I don’t know yet.
Yuji makes the brave, but foolish decision to risk his reputation and fight, and he loses his reputation as the gifted child by acting so foolhardy. While it is not overtly stated, it is heavily implied that this decision either caused people to fear him or cost him an opportunity in academics.
In my opinion, this probably caused Yuji to start this crusade into Fumizuki Academy. It is likely that in Yuji’s mind, status ascribed through academics and reputation failed to matter in a world where people are too morally bankrupt to do what is right. Students in higher classes wouldn’t think twice about cheating, stealing, blackmailing, or being cruel to their fellow man to get a leg up…in the name of academics and status. Have we seen that somewhere? I know I have.
Taking this crusade into Season 1, we see Yuji assemble the dregs of Fumizuki Academy in Class F in order to show that he is smart and capable of making an impact even without having high scores. Except, he can. Throughout the series Yuji shows the ability to raise his grades at will to where he can overpower the person in front of him, but throughout the majority of the series, he accepts the title of Class F rep and lets his scores plummet to keep up appearances.
The Heart and Soul of Sakamoto
I will have to address the romantic comedy nature of “Baka & Test” whenever I discuss it, so I’ll have to bring up Episode 2 of Season 1 and Episode 7 of Season 1. I’ll also have to go back to Episode 11 of Season 2 to bring it full-circle.
In Episode 2 Yuji surrenders in his initial duel against Class A. He managed to help lead Class F into a stalemate where he was given another moral quandary: He could either use Shouko’s devotion to him to his advantage and defeat Class A or he could spare her feelings and lose the duel, correcting the mistake of intentionally giving her false info.
His decision to inadvertently lead on his Yandere stalker aside, Yuji has to stick to the principle that there is more to life than grades. Being a good person, a good friend, and a good leader matter to him more than being praised for grades.
In Episode 7 Yuji is dragged into a mock wedding with Shouko. For the majority of the episode it is slapstick comedy of having Yandere Shouko force him to capitulate and play into her delusion, there is one scene at the end that brings the side of Yuji from Episode 2 and Episode 11 back.
After Shouko spills her guts about her (sweet but also a little creepy) dream to marry Yuji at the amusement park, she gets mocked by another couple at the park and runs away. While Yuji shrugs it off in front of everyone else and acts as if he doesn’t care, he secretly has “a little talk” with the couple before reassuring that he actually does care for Shouko.
[COMPUTER ACTED UP AND I LOST A BIT OF DATA HERE SO THIS MAY NOT SOUND CORRECT]
After watching the anime for probably the 10th time, I interpreted this to be Yuji delving into his role as a delinquent or a thug that everyone perceives him to be in order to spare Shouko the stigma of being involved with him…
…Or he’s like me and cannot develop romantic relationships because of issues with his mother…Sorry…Freudian slip…
If you think about it, there’s a lot to unpack there:
Yuji is a smart person, but he has to live with the dark cloud over his head because he tried to do the “right thing.” He and Shouko are two sides of the same coin, with Yuji’s quiet genius of being able to impact the world through his wit and cunning and Shouko being the ideal of a perfect student that represents the values of an institution.
Yuji identifies with idiots like Akihisa, but knows how to use their potential to prove something while Shouko and the other brutes of Class A can essentially brute force their way into intimidating other people. It’s kinda funny to see how the environment they are in intentionally pits them against each-other, a sort of “Might Is Right” hierarchy…Sounds eerily similar to the world we live in, does it not?
Bringing it all back to the second-to-last episode of the series, I am certain that my point of Yuji being on a crusade to show other people that there is more to life than merely grades is correct based on the amazing back-and-forth seen between Yuji’s past and present self.
Episode 11 had one of those technical story-telling marvels that I’ll try to not spoil too much because I think it’s a great episode to watch on its own, but essentially Yuji and Shouko’s perspective on themselves from both the past and present are the focus of the entire episode—switching back and forth to view the same scenario through different lenses. However, there is one scene where the Older Yuji argues with his younger self about what is right.
Not many characters get that in the series—even though it is just a stupid slapstick comedy, seeing that interesting intellectual exchange (as dumb as that sounds) was a nice scene to break the monotony of dumb comedy anime tropes.
To take a break from the main argument: Season 2 does have a few character episodes that flesh out a few characters and I think they are really good because the highlight of this anime are the characters.
Conclusion
I’m going to try to not be more long-winded about this than I already have been about this…Yuji Sakamoto is a character who represents defying the established order because he is a character who has seen the gaps in the system…the glitch in the matrix of Fumizuki Academy. What good is having stellar grades if you’re a piece of crap as a person? What good is having stellar grades if you achieve it at the expense of others? (SPOILER) What good are you as a guy if you turn away from two guys assaulting a girl? (SPOILER)
So if being a delinquent means that you get to treat people with respect, then Yuji will accept that. But what everyone else will have to accept is that he is the idiot who took down Class A…well, almost…
Epilogue
Why do I do this shit?
Is it because I’m a loser with no life? Possibly.
Is it because I love anime? Possibly.
Is it because I have more time on my hands because of the quarantine? Possibly.
Is it because I have a habit of over-analyzing everything and I love looking at interesting details of almost every piece of media that I consume and trying to derive some deeper meaning from it? Hell, that’s the reason I have this board, so that’s a yes.
I plan on doing a General Overview of the anime “Baka & Test” because it is one of my all-time favorite comedy anime and ever since I watched it way back in 8th grade, I still come back to it and find something to laugh at and something to think about at the end of the day—even if it is a slapstick comedy romp with too many dumb anime tropes.
P.S: I will have to update this post soon with an artwork commemorating the completion of this project. Stay tuned.
