School Rumble
| School Rumble | |
| File:SR DVD.jpg Cover of the TV series's first DVD | |
| Genre | Comedy, Drama, Romance, Shōnen |
|---|---|
| Created by | Jin Kobayashi |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Jin Kobayashi |
| Published by |  Kodansha
 Vibulkij |
| Anime | |
| School Rumble | |
| Directed by | Shinji Takamatsu |
| Studio | Studio Comet |
| Anime | |
| School Rumble - First Term Extra スクールランブル 一学期補習 | |
| Directed by | Shinji Takamatsu |
| Studio | Studio Comet |
| Anime | |
| School Rumble - Second Term スクールランブル ニ学期 | |
| Directed by | Shinji Takamatsu |
| Studio | Studio Comet |
School Rumble (スクールランブル, sukūru ranburu) is a manga serialized in the Weekly Shonen Magazine (週刊少年マガジン), drawn by Jin Kobayashi. A 26-episode anime adaptation was broadcast on TV Tokyo between October 2004 and April 2005. In December 2005, an OVA was released, containing two special episodes, and a second season titled "School Rumble - Second Term" was broadcasted in 2006 between April and September. It is believed that there will be a third season in the near future because of its popularity and because the manga itself is still ongoing.
The series features prominently in the ongoing fansub debate, due to the actions of its copyright holder, Media Factory Inc. (see Fansub)
The manga is published in English by Del Rey Manga. Unlike other Del Rey releases, the manga uses the original Japanese naming order (family name followed by the given name) to conserve the puns in the manga.
FUNimation announced at Otakon that it has licensed the anime/OVA for North American distribution, and expects to release this title in early 2007.
Plot overview
Template:Spoiler School Rumble covers the daily life of the members of Class 2-C, as well as their surroundings. Many scenes are exaggerated for comedic purposes. The series generally belongs to the romance comedy genre, since many of the gags are related to love stories.
The heroine is Tenma Tsukamoto, a second year high school girl with no special qualities - she's not very bright, and doesn't have a very impressive figure. Tenma has a crush on Ōji Karasuma, a silent boy with an emotionless face. The generally clueless Tenma has a hard time confessing her love to him. To complicate matters, Kenji Harima, the school's delinquent, has developed an even greater crush on Tenma, which he has a hard time confessing. The attempts of these two to confess their respective loves are running gags throughout this series.
As the series progresses, the storyline changes focus to the relationship between Harima and Tenma's close friend Eri Sawachika, one of the school's most popular girls. The story provided many events in which Harima and Sawachika were humorously paired up, ended up together, or were even caught in embarrassing situations due to some comical misunderstandings - a classic, love-hate relationship.
Another storyline begins when Harima starts working as a mangaka with the assistance of Yakumo Tsukamoto, Tenma's younger sister. As he insisted to keep it a secret from his classmates, Tenma started to believe they were dating. It took much time for Harima to solve this misunderstanding and prove to Tenma he is not interested in her sister at all. However, the same can't be said about Yakumo's feelings for him.
As the story advances further, sometimes Harima gets himself in comical or romantic situations with Tenma which sometimes put them closer. While perhaps merely a fanservice, this could be a hint for something else. However the relationship between Tenma and Ooji has also progressed, and Eri and Yakumo's bonds with Harima got stronger too, leaving many questions about how this love polygon will end.
A story in sharp, flat and natural chapters
In the manga, the main plot is described in chapters marked with a musical sharp sign (e.g. ♯1, ♯2, ...) appearing in Weekly Shonen Magazine (週刊少年マガジン). However, incidental or side stories are told in flat sign chapters (♭1, ♭2, ...) that appear in the monthly Magazine Special (マガジンSPECIAL), and the natural sign chapters (so far only ♮1, included in School Rumble Volume 7) appear serialized in the seasonal Shonen Magazine Wonder (少年マガジンワンダー). All three magazines and collected volumes are published by Kodansha in Japan. The Del Rey version also uses the sharp/flat designations for chapters, with the Sharp chapters listed first in the Table of Contents of each volume followed by the Flat chapters.
Flat chapters 1-7 focus on Yakumo, chapter ♭8 focuses on Suou Mikoto and Haruki Hanai, and later Flat chapters feature minor characters from the main storyline or Sharp episodes viewed from an alternative perspective. The only Natural chapter released is a general story involving all the characters and their general relationship during the meteor shower during Tanabata with no story bias towards any character.
The anime series is adapted from a composition of the Sharp chapters, enriched in some parts with the Flat and Natural stories. The OVA specials are a compilation of some of the remaining Flat chapters with an original, new story.
Main Characters
- Tenma Tsukamoto (塚本 天満, Tsukamoto Tenma)
Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu
Tenma Tsukamoto is the female protagonist who loves Ōji Karasuma. Tenma is short, undeveloped and childish for her age. She often is mistaken as being younger than her classmates and her younger sister Yakumo. One of her obvious physical features are the little ponytails in her hair, which often wiggle if she is happy or excited. She is also dense, slow and unreliable and often misunderstands otherwise obvious situations. Despite her shortcomings, Tenma is good-natured and friendly.
- Kenji Harima (播磨 拳児, Harima Kenji)
Voiced by: Hiroki Takahashi
Kenji Harima is the male protagonist, an ex-delinquent who loves Tenma. Although he does not practice any specific martial arts style, few people are able to match him in hand-to-hand combat. He has the ability to communicate with animals, and possesses a wide variety of strange and exotic pets which he named after European monarchs. He has a little brother, Shuuji, who likes Yakumo.
Harima struggles often to confess to Tenma, though he knows she has absolutely no feelings for him and may even dislike him. Every time Harima finds the courage to tell Tenma his true feelings, something happens which prevents him from succeeding. Harima also must deal with situations involving his classmate Eri, unaware of the fact she has a crush on him. Yakumo has a small crush on Harima as well. He gets extremely jealous seeing Karasuma and Tenma together, but his attempts to put a stop to that usually end up bringing them closer. Ironically, Harima admires Nijō jō(二条丈) the mangaka, which is Karasuma's pen name. To date, Tenma has yet to hear his confession properly. He also works as a mangaka, having Yakumo as his assistant, creating another source of misunderstandings, as it took a long time for Tenma to realize that their relationship is only professional, at least by Harima's side.
- Ōji Karasuma (烏丸 大路, Karasuma Ooji)
Voiced by: Hiroki Konishi
Karasuma Oji is Tenma's love interest, often depicted as a stonefaced eccentric. He enjoys odd habits such as dressing as a kappa during rainy days, embodying a Japanese pun on the word for raincoat. He enjoys eating curry. Although unspoken, he seems to be excellent at dodging any flying projectiles including Harima's Hurricane Kick and Tenma's arrow letters. Karasuma is secretly a famous mangaka, publishing his works under the pen name of Nijō jō(二条丈). He is in a band at school, and plays an electric guitar. He also played soccer, and recently won a cup with the national soccer team in the anime. Although he doesn't demonstrate any feeling for Tenma (or anything else), behind his poker face he sometimes shows true concern for her in the story.
- Eri Sawachika (沢近 愛理, Sawachika Eri)
Voiced by: Yui Horie
One of Tenma's close friends, Eri's father is British and her mother is Japanese. She has great difficulty with Kanji. Eri is extremely wealthy and somewhat spoiled (Western Europeans in Japan are stereotyped to be billionaires and extremely snobby). Eri is devoted to her father, but cannot spend as much time with him as she wants because of his work commitments.
She is attracted to Harima and becomes very jealous and angry towards anyone rumoured to date Harima, which even caused some strains in her relations with Mikoto and Yakumo. She was unaware of Harima's true love interest for a long time, until the night of her birthday party, when she witnessed how happy he gets when he is alone with Tenma.
- Yakumo Tsukamoto (塚本 八雲, Tsukamoto Yakumo)
Voiced by: Mamiko Noto
The shy younger sister of Tenma Tsukamoto, Yakumo was born with a variety of gifts. Not only she is able to read the thoughts of those who like her (as well as her sister and pet cat Iori), but further in the story it is shown that she also has the ability to communicate with ghosts.
Skilled, reliable, smart and beautiful, Yakumo is one of the most admired girls in the school. Despite that fact, she has never had a boyfriend. This is due mostly to her mind-reading ability, as she can easily read the secret intentions of any boy who tries to approach her. The only exception is Harima, whose heart belongs completely to another girl; thus, his mind is completely opaque to her. She is also a member of the Tea Club.
- Mikoto Suō (周防 美琴, Mikoto Suou)
Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame
Mikoto is a close friend of Tenma. She is tall, well-developed, and tomboyish. She has a black belt in Kenpo, and is often seen sparring with her childhood friend Haruki. She had a crush on a senpai of hers, but she gave up on him after discovering he had already met someone. Mikoto was dating her classmate Asou until recently, but for some reason yet unexplained, he broke up with her.
- Akira Takano (高野 晶, Takano Akira)
Voiced by: Kaori Shimizu
President of the Tea Club and another close friend of Tenma. She is very perceptive, resourceful, intelligent, and also very mysterious. Her enigmatic face always hides schemes she plan to help her friends or to play pranks on her classmates.
Akira has some uncommon hobbies such as planning war games, wearing full body costumes and economics. She also knows exactly who likes whom in class, but for unexplained reasons, stays silent on the matter.
- Haruki Hanai (花井 春樹, Hanai Haruki)
Voiced by: Shinji Kawada
As class representative of 2-C, Hanai takes his duties seriously, always trying to keep his classmates (especially the males) in line. Unable to have second thoughts, he always says exactly what comes into his mind regardless of the consequences. He is hopelessly in love with Yakumo, so strongly that she can read his mind literally from a mile away.
As a child, he was shy, weak, and always been bullied by other children. That changed with a little help from Mikoto, who has been his friend since that time. He attends the same dojo as her and has a black belt in Kenpo as well. He tries very hard to join the Tea Club that Yakumo is in, but is banned by Akira. Despite Hanai and Mikoto having their own love interests, characters around them sometimes think that they are too close to be just friends. Some of his classmates like Yuuki seems to have a crush on him.
Trivia
- Haruki Hanai's Ultimate Killing Move is featured as a Blue Tiger known as "Flower Tiger" (its writing in kanji is 百花虎擊, which literally means Hundred Flowers Tiger Strike).
- Kenji Harima's Ultimate Killing Move is featured as a Durh Durh Durh known as "Hurricane Dragon" (its writing in kanji is 播拳龍襲, which means Scatter Fist Dragon Grave), as well as a finishing kick known as "Hurricane Kick". Harima & Eri also combined in Episode 22 to form a Twin Hurricane Kick to take down Tennouji.
- Note: The term "Hariken", which means "scattering fist", is a pun for Harima Kenji's name, as well as for "hurricane".
- Ichijou Karen's Ultimate Killing Move is a German Suplex Hold.
- The publisher of Harima's manga is 'Dankosha (談講社)', a parody of the publisher of School Rumble, Kodansha (講談社).
- Almost all of the manga's chapters are titled with names of foreign films, songs, and proverbs.
- There is a mistake in Season 1, Episode 18 in that Mikoto's hair is dark brown instead of blue, seen when Imadori asks Mikoto for a date.
- The title of the Episode 25, Season 1, uses 3 signs that are impossible to pronounce (See the picture).
- The title of the Episode 26, Season 1, is presumed to be the longest episode title of anime with 187 Japanese letters. Other anime series with long episode titles include; He Is My Master, Haré+Guu, Battle Programmer Shirase, and Tsukuyomi -Moon Phase-.
- The sudden "goodbye" ...The labyrinth I got lost... Who are you? ...Tell me. "Misunderstandings" "Crushes" Let, my heart reach her. Let, my feelings reach him. The season that you can possibly have only once, the page of adolescence. This is the last chance, I want to know ...your heart. Words reach, feelings don't. The confession on that day, the everlasting day, but ...Never ending, our "today". And to tomorrow... "School Rumble Forever"
- The title of the Episode 26, Season 2, however, is certainly one of the shortest (if not the shortest one) episode titles ever with just a full stop / period ".".
School Rumble Seiyū & Live Cast Performances
School Rumble Presents Come! Come! Welcome? Party
On 5 December 2004, a concert featuring the Seiyū cast of School Rumble was held at Yokohama BLITZ. It had been released on DVD (Catalog No: KIBA-1194) on 24 March 2005 featuring the following:
- UNSCANDAL
- unicorn table
- Yui Horie
- Yuuka Nanri
- Kaori Shimizu
- Yukari Fukui
- Mamiko Noto
- Ami Koshimizu
- Hitomi Nabatame
School Rumble Live Butai - Osarusan dayo Harima kun
On 21 July - 25 July 2005, a stage play recapping Season 1 of School Rumble was shown. It had been released on DVD (Catalog No: ZMBH-2401) on 10 October 2005. The cast members are as follows:
- Ami Koshimizu as Tenma Tsukamoto
- Hiroki Takahashi as Kenji Harima
- Michie Kitaura as Ōji Karasuma
- Satomi Akesaka as Yakumo Tsukamoto
- Yuka Koide as Eri Sawachika
- Mai Yoshida as Mikoto Suō
- Mana Hyashi as Akira Takano
- Mami Sakamoto as Karen Ichijō
- Rikako Miura as Tae Anegasaki
- Keiichi Beshi as Kyōsuke Imadori
- Mondo Yamageshi as Haruki Hanai
- Rie Mashiko as Itoko Osakabe
Theme Songs
Season One
- Opening (eps 1-24 and OVA 1-2): "Scramble" (スクランブル) by Yui Horie with UNSCANDAL
- Opening (ep 25): "Umi no Otoko wa yo" (海の男はよ) by Kikoukumaru's Man Chorus Group (鬼哭丸少年合唱団)
- Ending (eps 1-17, 19-24 and OVA 2): "Onna no Ko♥Otoko no Ko" (オンナのコ♥オトコのコ; Girls♥Boys) by Yuko Ogura
- Ending (ep 18): "Hatenkou Robo Dozibiron's Theme" (破天荒ロボ ドジビロンのテーマ) by Hiroki Takahashi
- Ending (ep 25): "Scramble" (スクランブル) by Yui Horie with UNSCANDAL
- Ending (ep 26): "School Rumble 4 Ever" by Ami Koshimizu, Hitomi Nabatame, Kaori Shimizu, Mamiko Noto, Yui Horie, Hiroki Takahashi
- Ending (OVA 1): "Ginga Ensen '05" by Hiroki Takahashi
Season Two
- Opening: "Sentimental Generation" (せんちめんたる じぇねれーしょん) by Ami Tokito (時東 ぁみ)
- Ending (eps 1-12 and 14-16): "Kono Namida ga aru kara Tsugi no Ippo to naru" (この涙があるから次の一歩となる) by Ami Tokito (時東 ぁみ)
- Ending (ep 13): "THE LAST CANDLE"
- Ending (ep 17+): "Futari wa Wasurechau♡" (二人は忘れちゃう♡) by the Tsukamoto Sisters, Tenma (Ami Koshimizu) and Yakumo (Mamiko Noto) [1]
Video games
The games are exclusively for Sony consoles. See School Rumble (video game).
External links
- Template:Ja icon School Rumble Manga Official Site
- Template:Ja icon School Rumble Animation Official Site
- Template:Ja icon A Japanese School Rumble fan community
- Template:En icon Template:AniDB-A
- Template:En icon AniRec Database entry on School Rumble
- Template:En icon EFCPO (Eri Fan Club Propaganda Office) An English and Italian School Rumble fan site
- Template:En icon FUNimation dub website