School Rumble - RePost

School Rumble is a 26 episode scatterbrained romantic comedy series that aired in Japan in 2004/2005 based on a long running manga by the same name. The basic premise for the series is a love triangle. What could be considered the main character is a Junior high school student named Tenma Tsukamoto. She isn't the brightest light in the pack; she's not bad in school, just dense. She is madly in love with a fellow classmate, Ooji Kurasuma. Kurasuma is the most bizarre character in the entire series. He sports a Moe-style bowl haircut, shows no outward emotions and rarely speaks. He has a tendency to sport a kappa costume every time it rains, complete with a large plastic leaf for an umbrella. Tenma is 100% head over heals completely obsessed, to the point of stalking, with Kurasuma. Whether Kurasuma realizes that she is so obsessed with him is unknown, Tenma is completely insecure and battles herself over confessing to him. Kurasuma isn't in the series as much as some of the other characters are, so I will call him a semi-main character.

    The other main, truly main, character is Kenji Harima, the class delinquent. He is the ultimate school thug; rides a motorcycle, has facial hair, a pony tail, doesn't show up to school and is unbeatable in fights. He is head over heals in love with, you guessed it, Tenma. He is as obsessed with her as she is with Kurasuma, maybe more so. His love for her drives him to come to school everyday…neglecting the fact that he didn't even graduate into the next grade level. He still shows up to class, and the faculty gives up telling him he didn't even pass last year. His time is spent mentally fighting himself over telling Tenma his true feelings. He is easily confused and misled, same with Tenma, and this makes his situation worse in some cases. Eventually he begins to vent his frustrations by drawing a manga that is his ideal version of his confrontations with Tenma. He tries his hardest to publish it and after being rejected by a publisher he ends up recruiting Tenma's younger sister to help him with the story. At one point he leaves school entirely after being pseudo-rejected by Tenma and joins a fishing boat. When the captain of the boat finds his manga he turns around to send Harima back on his course, telling him to succeed with manga where he had failed (the captain gives him a 'magical' fishbone pen to draw with).

    That is pretty much the plot for the series. There is an array of supporting characters that include, Tenma's friends, teachers, classmates, and rival classes. There is an abundance of foreign characters. The most notable is one of the girls from Tenma's group, Eri Sawachika, who is half British. The oddest foreigner is a character named Lala Gonzalez, the daughter of a lucha libre. She came to Japan for a better life in the world of wrestling, to carry in her father's footsteps. Due to stand-in (Tenma) in a wrestling match (not pro) she has a single minded task of destroying Tenma's classmate Ichijo. Screaming her name at the top of her lungs becomes Lala's trademark. Ichijo herself is a quiet, shy, loner of a character whose only quality is inhuman strength. She retains the anime slenderness but can lift refrigerators with a single hand effortlessly. She does nothing with her life except build her strength, because she can't think of anything else better to do. The reason she was not at the wrestling match against Tenma was to go on a date with a guy from their class. Tenma convinced her that she should go on the date and let her stand in for her. Tenma, thinking it was a pro wrestling match, dons a Lucha libre mask to conceal her identity. Lala easily beats her and is disgusted that a supposed tough opponent was so weak. After the match she sees someone wearing the same Lucha libre mask kicking the crap out of someone. Lala thinks it's still Ichijo (this time it is) and asks her why she insulted her ability at the match by not fighting, thus starting her obsession with her. There are a couple of other foreign students who play roles in the series  but I won't really get into them because this last example took to long to truly explain.

    The set of supporting characters that play important roles are Tenma's group of friends, one of the teachers, Tenma's younger sister Yakumo and some of the fellow classmates. Tenma's friends are, Sawachika, Mikoto Suou and Akira Takano. Sawachika is a spoiled rich kid whose parents are always absent. All the boys in school want her but she never gives them the time of day. Suou is a tomboy martial arts expert who is in love with a sempai that is now in college. Akira is quiet, calculating and the head of the school tea club. Yakumo is Tenma's younger sister and is everything Tenma is not. She is beautiful (Tenma is average and under developed) intelligent, graceful and talented. Yakumo does all the cooking, cleaning and keeps everything in their lives orderly. The class rep, Haruki Hanai, is madly in love with Yakumo. Hanai is serious and some what nerdy. His family owns the dojo that Akira belongs to. With Akira and Hanais' age old relationship everyone suspects them of being a couple.

    The animation is slightly above average. Each episode is made up of numerous sketches that are tied together in various degrees. Sometimes it is seamless between them and sometimes you can easily tell when one ends and another begins. This way of telling the story, along with the high school setting and goofy comedy, make this series very similar to Azumanga Daioh. In fact I would suggest that anyone who liked Azumanga Daioh to watch this series as well, it will fill the void left after you have finished Chiyo-chan's story.  The comedy is goofy and off the wall.

    My personal favorite character is Harima. At one point he leaves school and becomes a fortune teller. For whatever reason, he ends up being surrounded by an ark load of animals and starts acting like some sort of lesser deity. Even when he returns to school and takes off the Moses wig the animals are still hanging around him. He also ends up growing out his beard to the point of being a ZZ Top member in the span of about 2 days or so. The characters are goofy and highly animated, especially Tenma who is pretty much the ditzy comec relief of the series (even though she is the main character). Sometimes, the comedy takes a back seat and some of the story arc's are more dramatic. Yakumo's arcs especially, due to her quiet and composed nature. I would say the writing stays strong through the entire series, the comedy remains goofy, and it actually becomes more outrageous as the series goes on. Be careful though, there are many times when the end credits role early in an episode and there is still more afterwards. There is always an opening segment before the opening credits. This usually deals with the characters telling you not to sit close to the TV and watch it in a well lit room in odd ways (we can thank Pokemon for that little warning). If you enjoy stupid comedy filled with physical antics and goofy high school romances this is a great series for you to watch.

UPDATE: School Rumble was licensed and released on DVD in North America by FUNimation.