School Rumble

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School Rumble
スクールランブル (School Rumble)
Genre	Comedy, Romance, Shōnen
Manga
Authored by	Jin Kobayashi
Publisher	Kodansha
Other publishers: Del Rey Manga Tongli Comics Chuang Yi Comics (Chinese) Schibsted Forlagene Haksan publish Tokyopop Elex Media Komputindo Vibulkij Tanoshimi
Serialized in	Shonen Magazine
Original run	2002 – Ongoing
No. of volumes	15
TV anime
Directed by	Shinji Takamatsu
Studio	Studio Comet
Network	TV Tokyo
Other networks: Champ TV Videoland Television Network Jonu Media
Original run	October 10, 2004 – April 5, 2005
No. of episodes	26
OVA: 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
No. of episodes	2
Released	December 22, 2005
Runtime	25 minutes each
TV anime : School Rumble - Second Term スクールランブル　ニ学期
Directed by	Shinji Takamatsu
Studio	Studio Comet
Network	TV Tokyo
Original run	April 2, 2006 – September 24, 2006
No. of episodes	26

School Rumble (スクールランブル, sukūru ranburu^?) is a manga serialized in the Weekly Shonen Magazine, created by Jin Kobayashi ^[1].

A 26-episode anime adaptation was broadcast on TV Tokyo between October 2004 and April 2005.^[2] In December 2005, an OVA was released, containing two special episodes,^[3] and a second season titled "School Rumble - Second Term" was broadcast in 2006 between April and September.^[4] Sony PlayStation games were produced in July 2005 and July 2006. The manga is ongoing as of 2007 and a third anime season may be produced.

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 during August 2006 that it has licensed the anime/OVA for North American distribution, and expects to release this title in early 2007.^[5] The series features prominently in the ongoing fansub debate, due to the actions of its copyright holder, Media Factory Inc.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Characters 3 Media 3.1 Manga 3.2 Anime 3.3 Live performances 3.4 Video games 4 Reception 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Plot

The plot of School Rumble covers the daily lives of students of the fictional Yagami High School and their surroundings. The series generally belongs to the romance comedy genre, scenes in the story are exaggerated for comedic purposes.

The heroine is Tenma Tsukamoto, a second year high school girl with no special qualities who has a crush on Ōji Karasuma, a silent boy with an emotionless face. The generally clueless Tenma finds it difficult to confess her love to him. Complication arises due to Kenji Harima, the school's delinquent and male protagonist, who has developed a crush on Tenma. Kenji, like Tenma has difficulty confessing. The attempts of the two characters attempting to confess their respective loves are running gags seen throughout the series.

As the series progresses, the story changes focus to the relationship between Kenji and Tenma's close friend Eri Sawachika, one of the school's popular girls. The story provided events in which Kenji and Eri were humorously paired up, ended up together, or were even caught in embarrassing situations due to some comical misunderstandings - a love-hate relationship.

Another storyline begins when Kenji 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 began to believe that they were dating. It took time for Kenji to resolve this misunderstanding and prove to Tenma that his interest was not in her sister at all. The same cannot be said about Yakumo's feelings for him.

As the story progresses, the plot thickens as Harima get himself into romantic situations with Tenma, the relationship between Tenma and Ōji progress, and Eri's and Yakumo's bonds with Harima grow stronger.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of School Rumble characters

• Tenma Tsukamoto (塚本 天満, Tsukamoto Tenma^?)

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. Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu

• Kenji Harima (播磨 拳児, Harima Kenji^?)

Kenji Harima is the male protagonist, an ex-delinquent who loves Tenma. He does not practice any specific martial arts style, but few people are able to match him in hand-to-hand combat. He has the ability to communicate with animals, and possesses for a time a wide variety of strange and exotic pets named after European royalty. He has a little brother, Shuuji, who likes Yakumo.

Kenji struggles often to confess to Tenma, though he knows that she has absolutely no feelings for him and may even dislike him. Every time Kenji finds the courage to tell Tenma his true feelings, an event in the story happens which prevents him from succeeding. Kenji also must deal with situations involving his classmate Eri, unaware of the fact that she has a crush on him. Kenji works as a mangaka, having Yakumo, Tenma's younger sister, as his assistant, creating another source of misunderstanding. Yakumo is the third girl to have a crush on Kenji, but Kenji tells Tenma that their relationship is only professional.

Kenji gets extremely jealous seeing Ōji Karasuma and Tenma together, but his attempts to interfere with them usually end up bringing them closer. Ironically, Kenji admires Nijō jō(二条丈) the mangaka, which is Ōji Karasuma's pen name. Voiced by: Hiroki Takahashi

• Ōji Karasuma (烏丸 大路, Karasuma Ooji^?)

Ōji Karasuma 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. An unspoken character, Ōji is excellent at dodging any flying projectiles including Kenji's Hurricane Kick and Tenma's arrow letters. Ōji is secretly a famous mangaka in the story, publishing his works under the pen name of Nijō jō(二条丈). He is in a band at the school, and plays an electric guitar. Ōji played soccer, and recently won a cup with the national soccer team in the anime. He does not demonstrate any feeling for Tenma (or anything else), but behind his deadpan poker face he occasionally shows true concern for her in the story. Both his name and his mangaka pseudonym reference locations in Kyoto (Karasuma Avenue and Nijo Castle). Voiced by: Ryōsei Konishi

• Eri Sawachika (沢近 愛理, Sawachika Eri^?)

Eri is 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 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.

Eri is attracted to Kenji and becomes jealous and angry towards anyone rumoured to be dating Kenji, which even affected her friendship with Mikoto and Yakumo. Eri was unaware of Kenji's true love interest for a long time, until the night of her birthday party, when she witnessed how happy he is when he is alone with Tenma. Voiced by: Yui Horie

• Yakumo Tsukamoto (塚本 八雲, Tsukamoto Yakumo^?)

Yakumo is Tenma's younger sister. 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 to her mind-reading ability, as she can easily read the thoughts of anybody who loves her, including boys who try to approach her, her sister and her pet cat Iori. A notable person who's thoughts she cannot read is Kenji, whose heart belongs completely to another girl; thus, his mind is completely opaque to her. Yakumo is a member of the Tea Club. Further in the story it is shown that she has another supernatural skill, the ability to communicate with ghosts. Voiced by: Mamiko Noto

• Mikoto Suō (周防 美琴, Suou Mikoto^?)

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. Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame

• Akira Takano (高野 晶, Takano Akira^?)

Akira is president of the Tea Club and another close friend of Tenma. She is very perceptive, resourceful, intelligent, and very mysterious. Her enigmatic face always hides schemes that she plans to help her friends or to play pranks on her classmates.

Akira has uncommon hobbies such as planning war games, wearing full body costumes and is interested in economics. She is the only character who knows exactly who likes whom in class, but for unexplained reasons, stays silent on the matter. Voiced by: Kaori Shimizu

• Haruki Hanai (花井 春樹, Hanai Haruki^?)

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 (however this is a useless skill, as he always says exactly what he is thinking).

As a child, he was shy, weak, and had always been bullied by other children. His behaviour changed with 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. 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. Other classmates, such as Yuuki, have a crush on him. Voiced by: Shinji Kawada

[edit] Media

[edit] Manga

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, Weekly Shonen Magazine^?). Incidental or side stories are told in flat sign chapters (♭1, ♭2, ...) which appear in the monthly Magazine Special (マガジンSPECIAL, Magazine 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, Shonen Magazine Wonder^?). All three magazines and collected volumes are published by Kodansha in Japan. The Del Rey version 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.

[edit] Anime

The anime series is adapted from a composition of the Sharp chapters, enriched in parts with the Flat and Natural stories. The OVA specials are a compilation of the remaining Flat chapters with an original, new story.

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

Theme songs - 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]

[edit] Live performances

On 5 December 2004, a concert named School Rumble Presents Come! Come! Welcome? Party featuring the seiyū cast of School Rumble was held at Yokohama BLITZ. It had been released on DVD ^[6] on 24 March 2005 featuring the following:

UNSCANDAL unicorn table Yui Horie

Yuuka Nanri Kaori Shimizu Yukari Fukui

Mamiko Noto Ami Koshimizu Hitomi Nabatame

On 21 July 2005 - 25 July 2005, a stage play called School Rumble Live Butai - Osarusan dayo Harima kun recapping Season 1 of School Rumble was shown. It had been released on DVD ^[7] 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

[edit] Video games

Main article: School Rumble (video game)

PlayStation 2 dating simulation games have been adapted from the story. The first was released on July 21, 2005 School Rumble. The game features multiple endings. Successive games were released on July 20, 2006, School Rumble Ni-Gakki for the PlayStation 2 and School Rumble: Anesan Jiken Desu! on a UMD for the Sony PlayStation Portable.

[edit] Reception

School Rumble has been well received by English reviewers. Eduardo M. Chavez from Anime on DVD commented about the manga that "the execution and randomness is perfect. Readers can literally pick up this title, select a chapter and enjoy. Comedy like that is universal making it a must for readers from all demographics."^[8] David Maduram stated that "The *real* strength of this series is its witty use of puns, wordplay, and comic situations." ^[9] Tim Jones from THEM Anime Reviews said about the second anime season that "School Rumble Second Semester manages to be funny without being repetitive and boring, a feat very hard to do in a series that goes on for 52 episodes (when you count the first season)." ^[10]

Media Factory has served a cease and desist notice to the website AnimeSuki to remove links to fansubs of their works which includes School Rumble.^[11] Media Factory owned anime is the subject of debate over the validity of fansubbing practise.^[12][13]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• (Japanese) School Rumble Manga Official Site
• (Japanese) School Rumble Animation Official Site
• (English) School Rumble in the AniDB database
• (English) AniRec Database entry on School Rumble
• (English) FUNimation dub website
• (English)A School Rumble Forum