School Rumble

Plot

School Rumble follows the lives of a diverse cast of characters of Yagami High School. This series is a romantic comedy, with often exaggerations of scenes for comedic effect. Tenma Tsukamoto and Harima Kenji are the main protagonists but the story does not follow them solely. The main female protagonist, Tenma Tsukamoto, a second-year normal student, has a crush on Oji Karasuma, a content person without any outstanding characteristics. The main male protagonist, Harima Kenji, however complicates this by having a crush on Tenma due to a previous encounter. The attempts to confess their love of these two characters are the running gags of the series, always failing due to unforeseeable circumstances. The love "triangle" is further complicated by the love interests of the supporting cast such as Tenma's younger sister Yakumo and Eri Sawachika another student in their class. While the story mostly follows the two protagonists and their relationships, the story also deals with the relationships of the other characters as well.

Characters

Tenma Tsukamoto

Tenma Tsukamoto is the main character in the series, she is cute lovable girl who is childish for her age. During school she falls in love with Oji Karasuma and she has made a promise to confess her love to him, but nothing goes according to plan. At the sight of Karasuma she freaks out and cannot say the words, "I love you". Day-by-day she starts to come with plans to tell him but not being so bright she completely messes them up. Living with her little sister Yakumo, she uses sister-power to look after her even though she is useless at everything. When it comes to cooking or actually making anything, she is hopeless but for her it's Yakumo to the rescue. Even though she is cute and everybody in her class secretly also thinks the same, she believes she's not that pretty compared to her friends and no one is interested in her. The truth is there is one person called Kenji Harima.

Kenji Harima

Kenji Harima starts off as a tough delinquent but at the sight of his true love, Tenma he turns into a emotional wreck. His determination in confessing his love takes him across many comical adventures. Within the anime the truth of why Harima keeps a goatee and wears sunglasses are revealed. A few years ago Tenma was about to be attacked by some unknown thug, but at that time Harima was passing by and intervened and saved her. Tenma passed out and Harima took her to his place so that she can recover, in doing so he falls in love with her and tries to make a move on her. Tenma wakes up and attacks him and runs away saying, "thanks for saving but your a pervert." So he hides his face to get closer to her. Doing everything possible to confess, in the end he to can't say those three words, also the hints he has given Tenma, a normal girls would have understood it by now, but not Tenma. Knowing that she isn't too smart.

He spends his part time drawing manga, which is a love story of he and Tenma. Harima is caught up in other love situations which he wants to stay away from. Apart from Tenma the school thinks he has a crush on Eri Sawachika " Rich Girl", Yakumo, and the new school nurse Tae Anegasaki.

Yakumo Tsukamoto

Yakumo the little sister of Tenma, by looking at her you wouldn't think so. A 1st year at Yagami High School, she has no friends even though all the guys think of her as the best looking girl in the school. She has a tendency of falling a sleep outside or in class, but she is the smartest as well. Living alone with Tenma, she cooks and cleans for her but also looks after a cat she found called Lori. Tenma thinks Yakumo is useless when it comes to boys but the reality is she has a power which she can read peoples minds and there feeling towards her. This puts off Yakumo talking to boys and results in her being alone. One day Lori was being attacked by a dog and she jumped in to save him, but she was afraid of dogs and was scared. No one would help her until a mysterious girl called Sarah came to her rescue and became friends with her.

Working part time at a cafe she bumps into Harima and he kindly asks her to look at his manga. From then on she helps Harima with his manga no matter what the situation is. This leads to people speculating that she has a crush on him but she can't answer because Harima had asked her to keep this a secret. She has a slight crush on him but doesn't fully realize it yet and feels that inside Harima is a good person. Eventually she finds out that Harima likes Tenma and she tries to help the two out, but they (Harima and Tenma) don't have a clue.

Oji Karasuma

Tenma`s love but he doesn't know that. Seen as the quiet boy who stares into the sky, his secrets are revealed slowly. He is the famous manga and anime writer for the popular T.V. anime. Also a budding guitarist who is part of the Yagami school band. His deep love is for Curry, which he mentions several times. Even though he has no clue about Tenma`s love interest he slowly notices that she is being nice and helpful towards him and becomes closer to her. Karasuma is depicted as a genius and can do anything possible. This annoys Harima. Harima finds out that Tenma has a crush on Karasuma and he is willing to do anything to stop that. The surprising is; he was about to transfer to another school before Tenma intervened.

Games

Three dating simulations have been released based on the series, 2 on the PS2 and 1 on the PSP. The first game, School Rumble: Naru Ko Wa Sodatsu, was released on July 21, 2005 for the PS2. The follow up game by the same company entitled School Rumble: Ni-Gakki Kyoiu No Natsugasshukul Yokan Ni Yurei Arawarul? Otakara Wo Megutte Makko Shobu!!! No Maki was also released for the PS2. The PSP game, School Rumble: Nasan Jiken Desul, was released on July 7, 2005 by Bandai.

Anime/Manga

School Rumble was first published in the Weekly Shonen Magazine in 2002. It had released 22 volumes consisting of 283 chapters, after the manga had concluded the anime was released. The anime consisted of separate seasons entitled semesters, the first two semesters had 26 episodes while the third only had 2 OVA episodes. The third semester had yet to be released in English and is just a summary of what happened at the end of the manga. There was another two episodes called, School Rumble: Extra Class. These were used to fill in some missing spots and a little bit more "Rumble" for the die-hard fans.

School Rumble Z was released on August 20 in the Shonen Magazine Special. This was a ten chapter Manga which would ultimately concluded the School Rumble Series.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is for the anime series and season 3 re-uses some songs form the earlier seasons.

Season one:

1. Scramble (TV Size) - Yui Horie with UNSCANDAL.

2. Every Dog Has His Day - Toshiyuki Omori.

3. Boys Will Be Boys - Omori.

4. School Rumble 4 Ever - Ami Koshimizu, Yui Horie, Hitomi Nabatame, Kaori Shimizu.

5. All's Fair in Love and War - Omori.

6. The Sooner, the Better - Omori.

7. It Takes Two to Tango - Omori.

8. Love Is Blind - Omori.

9. Kimi e ~ Kaze ni Nosete - Hiroki Takahashi.

10. Rome Was Not Built in One Day - Omori.

11. Sanbiki ga Kill - Omori.

12. Onna no Ko Otoko no Ko (TV Size) - Yuko Ogura.

13. School Rumble 4 Ever (off vocal) - Omori.

14. Kimi e ~ Kaze ni Nosete (off vocal) - Omori.

Season two:

1. Sentimental Generation (TV Size) - Ami Tokito.

2. New SANBIKI Reloaded - Toshiyuki Omori.

3. MAI - Toshiyuki Omori.

4. The Survival - Toshiyuki Omori.

5. The Kanda River - Toshiyuki Omori.

6. The Lord of the TENGU - Toshiyuki Omori.

7. Sleeping Beast - Toshiyuki Omori.

8. Prince VS Witch - Toshiyuki Omori.

9. Are you Iron Chef? - Toshiyuki Omori.

10. Susperian Suspense - Toshiyuki Omori.

11. Lonely Sentimental (Opening Arr) - Tsunku.

12. Nice, Satsuki, Nice - Toshiyuki Omori.

13. Happiness after Blue - Toshiyuki Omori.

14. La La Litin Da La La - Toshiyuki Omori.

15. The Ghost Story - Toshiyuki Omori.

16. Is this love or not? - Toshiyuki Omori.

17. Christmas & Trance (Opening Arr) - Takashi Iwato and Toshiyuki Omori.

18. Tenma & Yakumo (Ending Arr) - IPPEI.

19. Battle on the cruise - Shin-go and Takashi Iwato.

20. Discharge - Shigehiko Saito.

21. Kono Namida Ga Arukara Tsugi No Ippo To Naru (TV Size) - Ami Tokito.

22. Futari Ha Wasurechau (TV Size) - Ami Koshimizu and Mamiko Noto.

23. Girls Can Rock - Lia.

24. Feel Like A Girl - Lia.