School Rumble

“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.” -Tony Robbins Miscommunication happens often in our everyday lives. When we miscommunicate with each other there are several outcomes that can happen. People may laugh, they may cry, or they may become angry and unhappy. Now what do you get when those miscommunications mixed with high school crushes? Well you end up with the insanity that is School Rumble. This comedy anime is one built around the two main characters, Harima and Tenma, as they attempt toconfess to the ones that they love. Unfortunately, the entire cast, including themselves, are as dense as stone. Story Now the story of School Rumble is interesting in how it’s told. It’s an episodic comedy in the sense of Seitokai Yakuindomo, but also has an overarching story of a love triangle mixed in with subplots galore. Each episode has three scenarios which are conjoined at times in a continuous story, yet at the same time it feels like several different comedy skits. At the beginning, the show is all over the place with only one setting in mind, but quickly progresses to an intertwined story that builds on each part. We see Harima's journey to find himself along with trying to win the love of Tenma, while Tenma tries to the win the love of Karasuma, while Karasuma...is just Karasuma. That's the basics of the main story in a nutshell. Sadly, the ending leaves a lot to be desired, and we hope the producers were planning on a second season when they made it. The show left off on one of the best episodes of the series with a cliff-hanger that ultimately could change the story's main purpose completely... But rather than produce a satisfactory conclusion, the episode zooms out giving a sales pitch for another season. This ending left us, as viewers, unsatisfied and slightly perturbed. Characters The characters, with the exception of a few, were quite interesting. Harima evolves as a character through all of his crazy antics, yet at the same time, he manages to retain his usual thick-headedness. He grows from the people he interacts with and shows himself to not be a delinquent, but rather who treats those he values with care. Characters like this are common and well-developed throughout the story. Though in every great cast there will always be a few characters that feel like they don’t fit for people. Tenma and Karasuma are the two we agreed upon as those outliers for School Rumble. Tenma is thick-headed to the point where it isn't funny anymore. Karasuma, though, is the main offender. His character was made to be a bland stereotype, however, the producers went too far, or rather, left too much lacking. He was, to put it mildly, just a weird focus for Tenma’s affection. The writers even realized this and stated that they will have to bring him back at some point since they've had him in the background him for too long. Despite these flaws with two characters, they do go well with the overall group dynamic, and help to produce a few extremely funny scenes at times. Animation School Rumble had a generic animation, with rough lines at times. However, all the while the anime never takes itself too seriously, which does show When they want to show an important or touching scene, everything gets brighter and the scene seems to have more work put into the drawings of the background. This animation style branches out into other types like a comedy does at times—going from realistic, to simple, to rough lines, to smooth lines. With these constantly changes, it will keep your attention fixed on the show. Music All in all, excluding the music during important scenes and opening and ending, there is nothing memorable about the background music. The more sappy music has an enjoyable soft pop feel to it that is emotional yet uplifting at the same time. This results in not a somber atmosphere, but allows the listener to be happy with a tear in their eye. The opening is a quite catchy song, and easily brings you into the anime as a whole. The opening allows you to see both the serious and comedic nature behind the show. The ending is merely fan service with a surprisingly realistic song. If you pay attention to the lyrics, it talks about what happens throughout the entire show, "Boys will not understand girls." which is how an ending should tie in. Enjoyment The comedy was fun and did a lot to give to the overall impression of the anime. The number of Japanese jokes was large, which was both simplistic and funny ranging from cultural to stereotyping; as well as school humour and various religious references. We enjoyed it thoroughly as we followed this tale of growth for a young man. School Rumble was an enjoyable romp of miscommunication. It was able to entrance you through the characters crazy antics coupled with their relationships with one another and their struggles with said relationships. This cast didn’t need the most well detailed story to bring themselves to life. Despite being well planned with a basic overarching story, we felt that it needed more impact in order to bring out the show’s full potential. The comedy was refreshing and executed, with very little characters giving hiccups in execution along the way. The songs are quite catchy as well, but are certainly nothing remarkable. School Rumble is an exceptional comedy, but if the producers had made some tweaks here and there, it could have been one of the best comedies currently made. Value “It takes time to understand people.” And in this show, the cast all seem to have a pre-conceived notions of the ones they love. This anime shows the negative side of crushes—for even if you are attracted to someone, you should never assume you know them entirely. As this series shows, making that mistake will lead to pain in the future, which is a message that everyone can relate to. A VIA rifle review written by: Schizoidmouse Co-reviewer: Imabooterfly Scores Story: 8.3, 9 = 8.6 Characters: 9.3, 9 = 9.1 Animation: 8.2, 7 = 7.6 Music: 8.6, 8 = 8.3 Enjoyment: 9.3, 9 = 9.1 Overall: 8.7, 8.4 = 8.5

Hate watching those anime that drag on for too long with boring storylines? Then try School Rumble, each episode is totally random, even though it does try to follow a main storyline. As the story goes on, it becomes more and more hilarious! I wished my high school was as fun as this. It portrays as guys being very pathetic and always going after girls, this makes them very funny to watch! The jokes are very humorous; some is just silly. The animation is very beautiful, although it has more beautiful girls and the boys are all very weird. Theanimals drawn are very cute and the main character is such a klutz, her face turns fat all the time. The background sounds are funny, adds comedy to the scene. The soundtrack is just as good, the music is very soothing. The voice characters are just funny and the voices are exaggerated very much, which give the impression that the character is very dumb. The characters are very distinct; I get confused sometimes because there are many characters and a lot of names to remember. I only remember Harima Kenji because the English version of this name is Harry McKenzie. But his character was the funniest out of all the boys in the class, he is supposed to be a delinquent but then turns all soft and lovey dovey, and the girl he falls for is an average looking slow girl, which makes it all so much funnier because he is dumb as well. This is very enjoyable if you like to watch comedy genres, and don't mind the occasional half naked scenes. There were many scenes where I was cracking up; this anime has to be the funniest I’ve seen and the most random. Highly recommended for boys more than girls because it has a lot of big breasts involved. It’s just too damn funny!

This review is for the entire School Rumble series.That includes both seasons and all of the OVAs. I don’t believe in dividing up series by seasons and I firmly believe series should be treated as a whole and therefore rated and reviewed, and judged in the same manner. School Rumble is basically the story of a love triangle. The hyper, slow-witted, dense and yet extremely nice and lovable character Tsukamoto Tenma is in love with her strange and seemingly dull classmate Karasuma Oji and at the same time the misunderstood delinquent Harima Kenji is madly in love with Tsukamoto Tenma to the point that he hasbeen transformed into a new man because of it. The series best fits in the comedy genre and anytime you feel the story is about to take a serious turn, it swings back to its comedic nature faster than you can blink. The characters are probably the best part of this series. While there is really only three or four main characters, on numerous occasions, the series turns its attention to some of the backgrounds characters and lets the viewers get to know them better through some interesting side stories. Tsukamoto Tenma is extremely cute and lovable, Harima Kenji is a brooding delinquent you will love to root for, and Karasuma Oji is the character you will love to hate. The background characters such as Tsukamoto Tenma’s sister, Yakumo (quiet, reserved, and gorgeous girl that almost all men fall in love with at first sight) , Sawachika Eri (the seemingly shallow rich blonde girl sought after by many guys), Suou Mikoto (the athletic and cool tomboy that seems to be good at just about everything), Takano Akira (the quiet, calm, and mysterious girl that seems to know everything) are also very well developed and quite entertaining to watch. There is a character type to suit any viewer’s tastes. The Japanese voice acting is absolutely fantastic and the voices match the characters well without exception. The most notable are the voices Tsukamoto Tenma which is done brilliantly by Koshimizu Ami (The very talented voice actress who does the voices of Kallen in Code Geass - Hangyaku no Lelouch /R2 and Horo in “Spice and Wolf”), and the voice of Harima Kenji which is done by Takahashi Hiroki (the voice of Kikumaru Eiji in Prince of Tennis and Hisoka in Hunter X Hunter). I can’t comment on the English voice acting due to the fact that I have not watched the dubbed version of the series (…and I have no intention of doing so). The art and animations are not quite as noteworthy as the character design and voice acting. The art is average and the animations are done well most of the time with a few exceptions here and there. That is about all that needs to be said about the art and animations. The story itself and the way it’s developed are both very interesting. However, I did find it quite irritating at times where I felt the story should perhaps take a more serious turn. The show is a comedy and above all else it should be funny and in that area there is definitely no shortcomings. The show is absolutely hilarious. However, while it is a comedy, its subject matter is not, and I would have found it quite refreshing if the writers had not shied away from including some serious elements as a complement to the comedy. Instead, they chose to completely slam on the breaks and put it in reverse whenever there was even the slightest danger of any serious development. The only part where things get even in the least bit serious is in the final two-episode OVA where they attempt to conclude the story. Another area where this show suffered a bit had to do with filler episodes. There are not too many filler episodes and some of the fillers even contribute a little bit to the story. But, fillers are still fillers. While they are not abused to extremes as with some other shows such as Bleach, their presence still adds some annoyance for the viewer. ATTENTION: The next paragraph talks about the ending. While I will not include any specifics about what happens at the end of the series, I will talk about the style and quality of the ending. If you feel this might spoil things for you, skip over the next paragraph. This is where the show lost the most points from me. While, I did not know the specifics of the ending, I had a very close guess formed by the second or third episode of the first season regarding how the show would conclude. I knew I was in for at least a bit of a letdown at the end simply based on the nature of the show and how it completely shied away from getting even slightly serious. The ending doesn’t really leave you hanging which is good. However, I did not get the ending I wanted and I am fairly certain most people who have watched the series in the past and those who will watch it in the future have felt and will feel the same way I do about this. It will not catch you off guard. You will know it is coming fairly early in the series. But it is still a letdown. Perhaps, an alternate ending episode might have remedied this. The two places this series lost marks from me were the filler episodes and the ending. Without the fillers and with the correct ending this show would have scored full marks.

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