Apr 4, 2016
This anime is my favorite school comedy so far. It has one of my favorite male characters of all time (Kenji Harima) and I can re-watch it again and again, laughing every time a little more.
• STORY: 8
(Warning for the average watcher:) This is probably the only weakness of this series. I tell you: If you want a show to have serious progress - do not watch school rumble. If you want a show to have an awesome story line - do not watch school rumble. If you can't stand dumb characters making dumb decisions/taking random actions - do not watch school rumble. The
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Opening of the 1st term describes it best: The characters move in a circle. It's pretty much the theme of the show, and if you think it's annoying, you'll probably drop the show after 6 episodes or so. (Yet, you should at least check it out)
"Then why do you rate the story so high?" Because this show is about the things that I described above. It's about moving in circles. It's about a stupid love triangle without end and characters incapable of making anything work out. School rumble embraces this idea and takes it to an extreme, I just LOVE how it is done. The jokes are fresh and even if a bit cliche sometimes, they're always executed so well that I can not stop laughing at them. Plus, this show is one giant troll and it doesn't hesitate to fool you as watcher. Everytime when you think "Now, now something must happen!" school rumble says "nope" and punches you in the face. I think it's hilarious.One can not really blame school rumble for it's core theme, it's more about personal taste and opinion.
Also, it's not like it doesn't have ANY character development or story. The series has several sub-plots and refers to past events from time to time. Though the characters stay the same mostly, you can feel small changes in the interaction between them. When the show takes a break from the nonsense-comedy and concentrates on the romance/some drama, it does certainly well. Just ... don't let the show fool you. It's mostly about comedy.
The humor: slap-stick, random, trolling (the characters AND the watcher), great use of exaggeration and some puns here and there. At times a little meta.
Also, school rumble sometimes refers to other genres/themes or even dives into them for a while (action, supernatural,...). It's really refreshing to see how the show doesn't really care about any genre "borders".
The 2nd term is a little less good (but still wonderful!), and the 3rd... well... just forget that one. The ending is not good, but that only shows how this series isn't made for any kind of resolution.
• ART: 7
Maybe not the best looking Anime, but the animation serves its purpose and strongly supports the comedy. In my opinion, it holds up pretty well. The characters designs are nice and even though the cast is huge, you instantly know who's who and at least I can recall the looks of most characters off the top of my head. Backgrounds looked nice, too.
• SOUND: 9
The soundtrack is wonderful, the sounds always match and work pretty well with what's happening, and the openings as well as the endings are just perfect for the show. I have nothing else to say about it but: Guru guru mawaru...~
The voice acting is also good, both japanese and english. And, if everyone cares: The german dub for the 1st term is nicely done, too.
• CHARACTERS: 10
Okay. This is completely my taste in characters and I can TOTALLY understand if someone thinks that some characters are boring, annoying...
But I just love EVERYONE in this series. Harima especially, he is so - SO - dumb but also very passionate, and his delinquent attitude can't be taken seriously for long. Same goes for Tenma (dumb but passionate) , but I admit that she can be annoying sometimes. The love triangle is one of the weirdest ones I've ever seen, with Karasuma being one of the weirdest characters I've ever seen. Yet I'm totally with Harima and Tenma, finding myself being more invested in their troubles than I should. Maybe it's because I also mess up badly when talking to / just being near the person I like, but woah. I totally feel with these guys.
Anyway, what really stands out for me are the support characters. Really: There are so many, I remember nearly all of them and their interactions, relationships and attitudes are all just funny, cute and/or perfect. Just to name a few my favorites: Yakumo, Hanai, Akira, Imadori, Lara, Karen, Togo (2nd term)... and there are more. Some relationships are especially remarkable, and I always look forward re-watching scenes. Instead of being a harem around one guy, the show rather presents you several girls/guys that have a crush on each other - though most of them don't make remarkable progress.
The variety of characters is stunning, so there should be something for anyone. The 2nd term shows more of the less important support characters, though. I really can't say anything more but: Outstanding. Just go and watch for yourself.
• ENJOYMENT/OVERALL: 10/10
I believe you can see on my really one-sided point of view that this anime owns a special place in my heart. It just has everything that I love about school comedy and is even better than I remembered it. I always laugh about it, I can always watch it - I've just fallen for this series. Everything but the ending is perfect. The 2nd term got a little exhausting to the end, but it had it's highlights. Just don't bother about 3rd term, that's a completely mess since they skipped a big part of manga content for a half-ass ending (though the manga did no better).
It's possible that you don't like the way school rumble does things, and if that's the case, you should drop the series instead of forcing you to go on. But if you get invested in it, there is no way the show will disappoint you. At least if you skip the ending. ;)
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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