Anime Review - School Rumble

School Rumble

Anime Review By
Le Chupacabra

Studio Comet
26 Episodes
Ages 15+

Harima Kenji, former delinquent and all-round street thug, returns to resume his education at school. Why the sudden change of heart? You just named the reason: his heart. Smitten by Tsukamoto Tenma after having saved her from muggers once before, Harima rejoins school so he can try to win Tenma's (incredibly short-spanned) attention. Tenma on the other hand has her eyes set on the equally oblivious top boy (and resident weirdo), Karasuma Ohto... Let's get ready to rummmbbbble!

School Rumble actually starts off somewhat seriously, making you think for a few moments that it's an intrigueing romance series under the veil of comedy. Kare Kano… eat your heart out!

Okay fine, that's a blatant lie.

It's actually the other way around. Whereas Kare Kano is a more sophisticated, thought-provoking romantic-comedy, School Rumble is its polar opposite. It's all about the laughs in a somewhat asinine, Johnny Bravo kind of way. While the love triangle between Tenma, Harima and Karasuma allows quite a lot of mirth at their expense, the individual characters inevitably steal the show. Class 2-C is comprised of a smorgasbord of (superbly exaggerated) classroom personalities. You have everyone from cup-size comparing perverts to mind readers to ultra-strong female wrestlers and all sorts of other zany characters. It's a great recipe for hilarity with any hint of normalcy being hurled out the window.

Of course, while they're not considering inane schemes to get one to notice the other, Harima and Tenma's day-to-day antics will have you splitting your sides. Harima is uncharacteristically serious about his feelings for Tenma but his IQ (or lack thereof) is what has him falling into awkward situations. His daydreams of getting Tenma's attention away from Karasuma are the highlight of the show with pop culture parodies of everything from The Matrix to DragonBall Z being liberally thrown into the mix. In fact, it's Harima that brings in most of the laughter. He usually ends up getting into trouble with many of the characters and as a result you've got some genuinely funny moments; there's the one where he has a mistaken identity crisis with a guy named Harry McKenzie (which sounds a lot like Harima Kenji in Japanese), gets into a brawl with the resident black belt Hanai (cue lots of obscure Street Fighter references; HariKen Uppercut anyone?) and of course, as a budding manga artist Harima manages to confuse the viewer with an entire episode where he essentially makes Karasuma an alien. Surprisingly, that incident actually makes sense given how peculiar Karasuma is.

So where does the romance part come into play? It takes more of a latent role since it's essentially the Harima-Tenma-Karasuma love triangle that is the catalyst for much of the insanity. There is a particular point where Harima almost gets his feelings across to Tenma but unfortunately, Eri Sawachika (one of Tenma's best friends) ends up with the message… and returns the feelings. It's an awkward beginning that leads to a pretty interesting relationship. However, events like that are somewhat rare. The problem is, once you've stopped chortling and started to follow the plot, you'll realise something: there is no real plot. The characters, save very few, also don't get developed all too well. Basically, there's a nagging lack of substance which the show covers up, sometimes barely, with the comedy.

Another issue with School Rumble is that its best attribute can also become its biggest detriment. While there is a lot of generally brilliant slapstick to go around, many of the gags are of a greatly esoteric nature while others rely on some knowledge about Japanese school culture. In the fight between Harima (as part of one of his daydreams) and Karasuma, Harima's hair turns yellow and they have a 'power' battle. If you haven't watched DragonBall Z, that bit is completely wasted. There are plenty of examples like that and it's not encouraging for casual anime viewers. Lastly, School Rumble ends up reusing many of jokes as the show wears on. What may have seemed funny at first may end up tasteless after multiple times.

However, with all that said, School Rumble was still brilliantly entertaining. It doesn't take itself seriously at all and at its best, it's outrageously funny. It's still with a bit of caution that I recommend this anime. If you don't like some of jokes initially, chances are you won't like the latter ones. Plus, this anime is quite skewed towards male viewers. If you're a casual fan of anime, you can try this out but also know that there are finer romantic-comedy anime out there. If you've been watching anime for quite some time and are willing to try something that doesn't require you to think too much, you'll certainly enjoy this one at the very least.