School Rumble - Reviews

I have to admit to a bit of a bias. Any genre of work containing the word "romance" generally disgusts me and romantic comedies are no exception. I have a tendency to not even get through first episodes. This was true for my first two or three attempts at getting into School Rumble, I just didn't find the first episode funny enough to justify watching a genre I disliked.

Don't just a book by its cover, looks can be deceiving, etc. All of these cliches are true because works like School Rumble exist. Once I had two or three episodes under my belt, I was hooked and over the next three days watched both seasons and the 2 OVA series. So, what's to love? I'll try to keep it concise by quoting The Princess Bride, "Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles." Like saying that sentence out loud, School Rumble just takes your breath away. It'll leave you gasping for air by making you choke back sobs or laughing out loud. It's simply undefinable. The introductory episode sets up a romantic comedy, but what you get differs from episode to episode. Affectionate parodies of Dragon Ball Z and Battle Royale to straight up heartbreaking drama. Take your pick, this has it all.

The cast, not the gags, are what make this series truly great. This series has more memorable characters than I have fingers and toes. Delinquent Harima, martial artist Hanai, airhead Tenma, motherly Yakumo, spoiled Eri, the bizarre Karasuma. These are just a few of my new all time favorite characters. All of the characters are connected by the sometimes tenuous bonds of friendship and an incomprehensible love dodecahedron (look this one up on TvTropes).

My only real criticism for the series are the status-quo maintaining non-endings for both seasons of the anime (the manga isn't that big of a help either). Look away now if you don't want to read a spoiler. Nothing really gets resolved. Harima and Tenma are luckless in love and have yet to say the three magic words to their respective crushes. I suppose some of the episodes can also be accused of being filler (parts of the second season), but they aren't the typical "why should I care?" type of episodes that plague other series that overtake the manga. Instead of seeing the main characters on vacation and meeting expendable characters, we see more of the supporting cast in the fillers. We learn about their peculiarities, hobbies, and loves. And it makes the series even better by getting the viewer to sympathize with their lecherous triumphs and epic failures.

 No anime has made me laugh as hard as School Rumble. The hijinks and misadventures of the cast make lines like "love makes you blind, accidents happen, and ignorance is bliss," sage advice. If the notion of a battle between an animal loving facial hair obsessed zen master former gangster with a heart of gold doing battle with a curry loving martial arts master alien mangaka doesn't faze you, School Rumble is just what Dr. Harima (see episode 2) ordered.

"I love you. Just three little words, but the moment I say them the whole world changes."

School Rumble

Do note i intend to review School rumble 2, im still watching it but only have 3 episodes left and it is much better than season 1.Also i will be writing this review a little differant from normal but it should still be just as fun (i hope).

Anyways lets get on with it ;)

Highschool crushes can be endlessly enjoyable but quite the brute force of stress aswell and school rumble understands that. School rumble does a great job in excelling normal high school events and romance and taking it to new levels. Unlike most school life/life of life styled animes school rumble doesnt so much rely on fortunate events occuring to make stuff happen nor so much school filled events, the characters create a real feel for reality as they themselfs make what happens.

Story:

Well the plot is simple, mainly focusing on Harima and his crush for Tenma the series is full of additional characters wishing to confess there love. Now before i touch on that a good note for each party, if you dont mind a romance comedy, but you find that being overloaded with romance ruined it dispite how people talk of this i would worry, its true it had so much focus on love and the sort but the truth is dispite it all you will have a good laugh and shouldnt feel to overloaded with lovey dovey stuff, if however you love lovey dovery stories this will be enough to make you happy and you should have a good time. Anyways the story follows Harima's desperate attempts to confess to Tenma, luck doesnt land on his side though, with Tenma's dence'ness and other interuptions things really start kicking off.

The comedy is played quite well, tenma being so dense and oblivious is quite good as it makes Harima's life that much harder, which really creates lots of fun little happenings throughout the series. The romance is enjoyable to, it doesnt ever feel to forceful in your face sorta thing and feels rather realisticly put together.

In all the story is ok to follow, it holds some strong up points but some episodes are just killed with minor background characters and you feel like there just 'filler' episodes used for killing time, the sad thing is season 2 holds many of these but otherwise is rather enjoyable.

Animation:

Sadly school rumble wont hold the best animated medal of the year, why? Well some characters are... plain, very cheaply drawn and feel like little work was put into practice on them. This being said i think alot of characters play there part quite well for design purposes and arnt all to shamefull.

 This is one thing i wish to touch upon. Kurasuma... as you can tell.. his eyes lack any detail and this is about the most emotion he shows throughout the show. Now i feel this was done intential (cant be sure) as his character (again i think intentially) is written as a boring lifeless person with no real traits of interest. The thing which bugs me is how cheap he looks, wether he is meant to be boring and so look it i feel they went a little overboard in ruining him, but heck if nothing else he's fun to laugh at.

(he kinda reminds me of yuki sohma... lame xD funny fact, appanrltly his english dub voice actor play yuki it fruits basket english dub, coninsidence much? :D)

Sound:

Annoying? very... To clarify the opening of this anime drives you insane, its not a personal opinion either, almost everyone who watches it says the same, its just annoying. It's ending is a improvement, still not my sort of music so i cant say i enjoy it but its tollerable (i dont mute my tv like i do with the op), but some like it so i wont call it awful. for BGM i cant comment, nothing outstanding or memorable really... i cant touch on character songs as i havent herd em.

Otherwise tis cast isnt to bad, some annoying voices thrown in but heck they all work out in the end i suppose. I found Harima and Yakamo's voice actors did a great job. I actually took the liberty to watch this in english as well and the english voice actors seem to have done a reasonable job in dubbing the anime aswell so bravo to both sides, it can be enjoyed no matter how you like your anime ;)

Characters:

Some anime's have great characters... some no so great, this has both. i personaily find Harima a never endling joke, hes truly great, the way he reacts to stuff is to die for and he is real funny. Tenma however i find to be very annoying... really its a ongoing portal here a love hate thing, but i hate the group of 3 (dont know there names and dont wanna) the huge fat kid, his kid with his stupid high hair... the fat kids friend and the other losser with them, god there a eyesore (litterally), its like there designed to be hated, they drive me up the wall everytime i see them, therefor costing this anime in points here. But shoving em aside, i took well to Harima, Yakomo and Hinai (however spelt), same with the blonde one Ereeie or something. Never understood the point in Akira, she was half guy and half girl in my eyes and just was a shadow to the show. I never took to mokoto either but as i said theres some great ones and some not so great, its a mix and match i guess. I still fail to see why Tenma likes Kurasuma though, hes plain and boring with no emotion, how crappy a character, so he annoys me and to be honest shes just a complete moron.

All in all (or Overall):

Season one of this is average, its a good time killer and enjoyable to put a smirk on your face or just give a nice sense of romance. Personaily i say if you watch this, ensure to watch the second semester (second series), its more enjoyable (besides the end is feeling a bit lame), but its got alot more happening in it really.

But in all for a romance comedy i say its worth checking out, it will be a hit or miss at worst!

Now lets end the review with some fan service? ;) nah just a good pic xD

Why? People honestly i must say shes the most attractive in the show.... and in all her personality is one which always makes me favor the characters ^^

This is… I have no idea how to talk about this show. The whole idea of the show is that it has one small plot and then thrusts all of the most awkward timing and puns into the show. It also has so many love triangles in it that it you never know whats going on.

Tenma is rather a dunce and can’t do most things right although she does have her times where she actually seems a bit smart (example, when she is trying to get out of the girls bathroom without Karasuma seeing her) only to have it thrust back at her. She is scatter brained and has as much sence as a bag of rice but deep inside, she has a heart of gold. She tries to make everyone happy including her love, Karasima. She is so scatter brained that when Haruma tries to confess his love to her, she doesn’t get it. She has this really interesting way of talking as though she is talking to a little kid or is herself a little kid. It’s odd because her younger sister actually acts more like an older sister then she does.

Harima is a really odd character in that he acts a lot like a bad ass and has trouble looking like a nice guy even when he is around the girl of his dreams. For instance, in the second episode, since Harima has been coming to school every day now, his classmates suspect he is planning a bomb threat! When he starts to laugh, they believe he is planning something worse. I consider him not as dumb as Tenma since he actually has street smarts but on the other hand, it isn’t that much smarter.

Karasuma is more of the mysterious side character rather then a main character. He might be the object of Tenma’s affection, but he rarly shows up in the show. He is just a silent person who sits there and blends into the background except for the really odd things he does like rides his bike fast or dressing as a Kappa in the rain.

There are so many characters that I can’t talk about all of them or I would be here all day. From Tenma’s friends to Haruma’s strange antics, this show pretty much jumps all over the place. And why do I like such a zany show like this when I hate Puni Puni Poemii? Well, for starters, this show does stop itself from time to time from going to out of control. It holds back many times while other times, the stuff feels spaced out.

Some people don’t like how scattered around this show is, pretty much like Azumanga and Lucky Star but I have to say, at least this show has some sort of plot and sticks to it slightly. I do have to say there are pretty much no adults in this show to stop them from doing stupid things. It’s really all over the place.

The art is actually pretty fun and energetic. It’s all over the place depending on the mood but the artwork never goes against the mood. It keeps it flowing till such a time that they feel its time to jerk us back from it. Sometimes it’s so detailed, and sometimes its really abstract.

The English voices are really good, making me smile. They matched all the voices pretty well to how the characters act and even some of the Japanese voices. There really isn’t much else to say about it.

     Ah, School Rumble. I must admit, I am a little biased to the anime, because I read the manga. Sorry! Regardless, this is a spoilers-free review of the first season of School Rumble.

     Story is about what you would expect of a romance-comedy with a love triangle; one likes another, but the other likes another, and rinse and repeat. But, the writers of School Rumble did an excellent job at keeping the audiences' attention. You may not agree with me on this, but even the episodes that were more obviously fillers were still entertaining, because the writing is just that funny and clever. Yes, even the beach episode and almost completely unrelated romance episode filler were good. The anime is just designed to be funny; almost none of the characters follow strict stereotypes, all of them have unique sides to them that are easy to appreciate. For example, Tenma (the lead female romantic interest) is a typical lovestruck girl in high school, but she is unusually oblivious and stubborn, making most romantic advances virtually useless. This is an unusual stereotype, because typically it is the male lead that is dim. Oh, and the story just loves to convolute and play with your feelings the further it goes on. The ending of the first season had me once rolling in agony for progression, wincing at plot twists, and on my knees begging for more. It was a great ending through just halfway through an anime.

      So, built on top of a solid romcom story is are some of the most engenious characters I could ever ask for. A thug who draws anime and loves animals? You got it! A shy dandere girl who is an expert weightlifter on par with the Hulk? You got it! A nurse who is infatuated with one of the male leads for virtually no reason? You got it! This anime does have its share of characters you may think are similar to others, and plenty of stereotypes that are common across romantic anime, but the characters are just so well done in 8/10 cases. The lead characters, Harima, Tenma, and their crew, have a delightful dynamic to enjoy as the story unfolds. Just trust me when I say this: these are some of the funniest and most unique romance-comedy characters I have seen in this type of anime.

       I can heap praise on School Rumble all day, but there are some areas where it can fall flat on its face sometimes. Some the characters are really annoying at the start, while you are getting to know them better. For a mid-2000's anime, the animation is average, but not too exceptional. This anime will not win awards for its animation; lots of shortcut frames and gag frames are there, even though in execution they get a pass from me. And the sound quality also is not the most spectacular. While I will say the ED or ending theme is super catchy and will get stuck in your head, the OP or opening theme is just meh and gets annoying. Then, the sound quality in the anime itself. Use of gag comedy sound effects is common and generally funny, though sometimes annoying. The background music is not much to write home about, but there is not much of it anyway.
   
        But, if you are willing to look past some of its shortcomings, School Rumble is a wonderfully well-written anime that is unbearably funny and also pretty clever with plot devices. It will surprise you, and it will make you at least chuckle. Easily one of the best (strictly-speaking) romance-comedies available, would wholeheartedly recommend.

It's hard to call School Rumble (Studio Comet, 2004) a tribute to the love triangle, it's more along the line of a run of unrequited love.  Prime example:  tough-guy Hajima loves dim-witted Tenma who disregards any of his advances because she is focused on Karasuma, the space cadet who is fixated on curry and the quiet life of seclusion.  Tenma is too shy to confess to Karasuma and is too dense to recognize Hajima's self-destructing avowals of love.

Twenty-six episodes which get wilder and wilder as nearly everyone is blundering through love relationships sought and avoided.  Rich girl Eri stumbles onto Hajima in a motel room, Eri in her revealing black bikini, Hajima wearing two items less of swimwear.  Both despise each other, but this softens as the season goes along.  Hanai wishes to be Yakumo's boyfriend, but the girls have a defense system which keeps Hanai at bay.  However, Yakumo has been seen with Hajima (nothing serious, mind you [rumor, rumor])  Dull as dirt Nara talks to Tenma effortlessly, but she never takes him seriously as a love-interest.

As the season continues, interesting characters join the cast and add to the humor of love flitting about trying hard not to die.  Karen is sweet, shy, and able to put a wrestling hammer-lock on you, so watch out.  Lala is a Mexican transfer student whose fiery temper and go for the throat mentality makes her the ideal femme fatale.  Ms. Anegasaki is the school nurse who makes the boys at school want to be sick so they can enjoy her tender loving care.  Capt. Gotou is the muscular captain of a fishing trawler who inspires Hajima's manga dreams (going from delinquent to mangaka makes for an interesting arc).

And, as the season reaches its climax, the plotline becomes prime cases of insane resolution treatment.  Just how many dream sequences does Tenma have when Karasuma is on the verge of leaving her forever?  Reality comes apart at the seams to bring us to the same point we began with.  H loves T loves K loves curry.

Which brings us to the concept of OVAs and second season ... to figuratively do it all over again.

But the animation rolls from the simplest chibi-style to extremely intense use of shadow and perspective, all in the name of love, long may it reign and possibly do something.  It's the major motivator and the biggest loser in the series.  And the music of opening and closing themes just contributes that comic edge that School Rumble exudes.  You feel for the heartbreaks that happen ... but you can't help laughing at all the schemes and attempts that go down in flames.

For School Rumble in its depiction of high school life for the lovelorn must go down in anime history not so much as rom-com, but rom-COM!