School Rumble Nigakki (2nd Term) is the title of the second series/season of School Rumble. Nigakki picks up where the original left off. Harima has come back from a failed life at sea, unable to confess his feelings to Tenma or succeed with his manga. Tenma still has not confessed her feelings towards the odd Kurasuma.
There are 3 constants with Nigakki. 1. Some of the plot lines are more bizarre than with the original. 2. There is more drama. 3. Kurasuma is barely in it. There is more story continuity within episodes as it continues with the 2nd semester. There are the typical high school story lines; cultural festival, winter break, new years, all of course slightly twisted. There are many multi-episode story lines; my favorite is one in the beginning that involves the entire class playing war games in the school at night. Most of the second half of the series becomes more dramatic and less realistic. In one episode Harima is past deadline for his manga installment. He goes to show it to Tenma before he hands it in, thus making him later. All of a sudden the town is hit with a snowstorm, causing all public transportation to stop. Harima grabs a large dish sitting outside of Tenma's home; this is in fact a giant curry dish Tenma bought for Kurasuma. He rides the curry dish down the streets like it's a sled, avoiding obstacles like some kind of twisted snow boarding video game. The craziest part of this entire scene is the Gundam parody. At one point a semi carrying frozen tuna crashes and sends its cargo flying into the air. Now imagine the typical Gundam missile barrage attack scene…replace the mech being attacked with Harima riding the curry dish, and the salvo of missiles with the frozen tuna…it's really funny.
The class rep, Hanai, spends a handful of episodes strapped to a large kite drifting over the world near the end. There are only a few new characters introduced in the series, one of which being Ichijo's younger brother, who is obsessed with a Power Rangers type show in the series. One of the oddest is the editor at the manga publisher Harima is trying to get into. The man is something like 25 feet tall and quite imposing. Harima first meets him with Yakumo at his side, which is the only thing that saves his skin. While he was incredibly intimidated by the man, Yakumo easily approached him and asked why he always intimidates people on purpose. Kurasuma hangs up his kappa outfit in favor of a penguin suit. The relationship between Harima and Tenma takes a turn for the worse, as everyone thinks he and Yakumo are a couple. Her older sister abilities take over and she becomes increasingly critical of Harima.
All in all, Nigakki is entertaining, I don't think it was as good as the first season/series, but it's still worth checking out. There are some pretty crazy moments in it, but there are a lot of mature serious moments as well, especially with Yakumo. Nigakki end's on an open note with the 3rd semester starting, which apparently was done as 2 OAV’s that have yet to be subtitled.
School Rumble Ichigakki Hoshu is the title for the OAV's. There are 2 volumes and they came out in-between the first and second series/season. The OAV's deal with events in the original series, providing a behind the scenes look at some of the story arcs. The art is only slightly better then that of the TV series, which is a bit of a shock given the usual high quality of OAV art.
The first OAV tells the story of the beginning of the school year from a few of the side characters view points, the process of selecting seats for the new school year and an expansion on the hot spring trip. The second OAV deals with Imadori trying to make Lala smile, a bizarre prehistoric sequence with all the characters and an in-depth view into Yakumo's personality/abilities. Much like Nigakki, the OAV's are more serious, seems like they set them up as a taste of what the second series/season was going to be like. It was cool to see some of the scenes from different angles and a little more in-depth. The prehistoric story was just utterly bizarre and had a horribly rendered CG fight sequence. If you really enjoy School Rumble then check it out, if you are a casual viewer you aren't missing anything by skipping the OAV's.
All in all, Nigakki is entertaining, I don't think it was as good as the first season/series, but it's still worth checking out. There are some pretty crazy moments in it, but there are a lot of mature serious moments as well, especially with Yakumo. Nigakki end's on an open note with the 3rd semester starting, which apparently was done as 2 OAV’s that have yet to be subtitled.
School Rumble Ichigakki Hoshu is the title for the OAV's. There are 2 volumes and they came out in-between the first and second series/season. The OAV's deal with events in the original series, providing a behind the scenes look at some of the story arcs. The art is only slightly better then that of the TV series, which is a bit of a shock given the usual high quality of OAV art.
The first OAV tells the story of the beginning of the school year from a few of the side characters view points, the process of selecting seats for the new school year and an expansion on the hot spring trip. The second OAV deals with Imadori trying to make Lala smile, a bizarre prehistoric sequence with all the characters and an in-depth view into Yakumo's personality/abilities. Much like Nigakki, the OAV's are more serious, seems like they set them up as a taste of what the second series/season was going to be like. It was cool to see some of the scenes from different angles and a little more in-depth. The prehistoric story was just utterly bizarre and had a horribly rendered CG fight sequence. If you really enjoy School Rumble then check it out, if you are a casual viewer you aren't missing anything by skipping the OAV's.
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