School Rumble (season 1 and 2 review)
Storyline:
8. Harima Kenji is a high school delinquent with a crush on his classmate Tenma. But Tenma only has eyes for the mysterious and ever so absent-minded Karasuma. What follows is a funny story about unrequited love, where Harima and Tenma both try their best to get the attention of the one they love, but fail at each attempt and unwillingly get in each other's way as the story progresses. A typical love triangle/school life story you say? Perhaps, but School Rumble is much more than that. There's a certain flow in this series that I can hardly describe. The humor is priceless and the creators make sure that you often get mislead.
Plot and pace:
6. The story is a follow-up of events that give Tenma and Harima the chance to get the attention of the one they love. However, they always fail in the most ridiculous ways, often because of misunderstandings. Although the story doesn't seem to be more than this and nothing ever changes, you still keep cheering for your favorite character. While they do get more sympathy for each other as the story progresses, neither of the main characters ever get what they want. That's still a bit disappointing.
Cliffhangers:
6. The story starts at the beginning of a new school year and after that mainly takes place at or around school. Some episodes are linked or follow-up, but most can be put in another order without anyone noticing. Cliffhangers are rare and mostly negligible.
Satisfying ending:
6. As I already mentioned in the 'plot and pace' department of this review, you quickly start to notice that eventually nothing will happen in the end, and that's always a let-down in a romantic series. But if you're a seasoned Anime viewer like me, you'll predict that nothing will changer very early in the Anime, so you're already kind of prepared for what's coming. Also, for some reason, School Rumble's third season never aired (which is a BIG shame. The manga has only been fan translated so you'll have to check that one out online if you want to see the real ending of the story). In stead, they made two final episodes that show almost literally everything that happened in the third season. I, from my part, never found that annoying, but it certainly felt rushed. But hey, you can't blame them for trying to wrap it all up. At least they still made an attempt to give the viewer an appropriate conclusion.
Rewatchability:
9. School Rumble was very enjoyable to watch. The comedy value was higher than Toradora, to make a comparison between another school life series I watched (but the romance and ending was better in Toradora). As most of the episodes can be seen seperately and contain lots of comical situations, the rewatch value is high.
Characters:
8. As always in Animes like this, all the main characters are parentless. Tenma lives together with her younger sister, who'd ironically make a much better match with Harima than Tenma herself. Tenma is airheaded and ignorant, but has a sweet personality. Her sister is the shy one that looks after Harima. Then there's Harima, the bad-ass guy with a softer core that you just have to feel sympathy for. Other notable characters are Tenma's friends and classmates. Some get introduced early in the series and become an important part of the story or seperate episodes, others get introduced later and aren't that important.
Conversations:
9. Most of the conversations consist of Tenma and her friends having some sort of weird conversation, while in the background Harima sees a different meaning behind what they're saying (mostly to his advantage). When eventually the real meaning becomes clear, you can't help but laugh about Harima's stupidity.
Art style:
7. The drawing is a bit old-fashioned, even outdated perhaps, but never bothersome. It fits the overall feeling of the series. There were some parts that really cracked me up, like when Harima Kenji was feeling depressed over something and his face was all white and wrinkled like an old man. The characters are the most important part of the series, so the creators didn't pay a lot of attention to the scenery.
Music and sounds:
9. This is where School Rumble really shines. The first OP was amazing and even months after watching this Anime, it's still stuck in my head. The Japanese voice acting is great and fits the characters well. the English voice acting takes time to get used to. I especially liked Harima's and Tenma's Japanese voice, especially Harima's cries of astonishment were hilarious.
Personal enjoyment:
9. School Rumble was one of the most entertaining watches I've had this year. It's never ground-breaking and doesn't shine out in originality, but the humor and cast make up for that. If it had a better ending and plot development, it'd have certainly received higher marks concerning the ending verdict.
Total score: 77/100