First let me say I will review this anime as a whole not only the second season and it might contain some minor spoilers!
I will start with the conclusion for those of you who doesn't want to read the whole review. So here it goes:
Overall/Conclusion - 7.8/10
Have you ever watched one of those spanish/latin soap operas or telenovelas where the characters never really manages to convey their feelings and say what they mean, especially regarding love, resulting in an never ending circle of misunderstandings and drama ? The difference is, in School Rumble, instead of drama you've got comedy.
Don't get me wrong, it's a fun series to watch from the beginning to the end and the comedy mixed with excentric characters are, probably, the key elements that will get you hooked on this series. However, if you are person like me and if you are more in the series with good story progression and characters development maybe you'll be a bit disappointed or frustrated. Still that's not a reason not to watch School Rumble, especially when you are in a mood from something relaxing and mellow.
Art/Animation - 7.5/10
Although it's nothing you would expect from a recent anime, the art is not bad at all. I like the characters design and I think it fitted well with their personalities. Also I was impressed with the level of animation used is some of the scenes that required more action, although some of them were useless and not needed for this genre. This really shows the animation had more potential but also the fact that the animation buget was poorly used on scenes that don't really matter. Also, they could've work more on backgrounds and characters details but it dosen't really matter anyway, since you'll be more frustrated with other things than art in the end, trust me.
Sound - 9.5/10
I think the sound is the best part of School Rumble . The sound is in perfect tune with atmosphere and tone of the series and as a whole it adds great value to this anime. But...man...the most memorable songs are the opening and ending themes from the first season. The feel-good theme of this two songs perfectly complements the first season. and even if you don't like the show I think it will make you wanting to watch the next episodes just to listen to this songs again and, eventually you will find yourself humming along in no time. Although, at first I didn't like the opening theme from the second season, after listening to it a few times, I found Sentimental Generation to be as catchy as Scramble from the first season. I can't say the same thing about the first ending theme for the second season and I'm glad they've replaced it later with Futari Wa Wasurechau which perfectly fits the whole second season ending. As for voice actors, besides Lala, which is way overexagerated character overall, all the voice actors were really good and matched the personality of each character. Special mentions goes to Noto Mamiko and Koshimizu Ami for the voices of Yakumo and Tenma - I loved them both.
Characters - 7/10
Here comes the area where I talk about the first problem of the series. There are alot of main and supporting characters in this series and the problem is how they are handled. To be more specific, many of the supporting characters are randomly brought up in the spotlight with some random stories at the expense of the main characters which are sent into oblivion, at times, for 2-3 episodes. This happens mostly on the second season but the first one is no exception. In this way, really few of the main characters get some sort of development or progression and it's disappointing beacuse I wanted to see more of Akira, Eri and Yakumo instead of some random story with some random support character or even worse a filler.
Story - 6/10 SOME MINORS SPOILERS HERE! Skip if it bothers you!
Unfortunately,this is the weakest part of series and the second problem.
There aren't so many good things to say here due to the fact that is no real progression or development on the story. I mean the producers really loved to troll us from the beginning through the end, at least regarding the story. When you think something important may happen that will make the story progress, think twice because your are wrong. If something happens, it happens in such a way that the relations between characters are not affected at all in the next episode. In the beginning it's funny but after a while and through the end this never ending circle gets very frustrating. What more can I say...I think Scramble opening theme describes the best the whole story concept behind this series so...Guruguru mawaru guruguru mawaru!!
Enjoyment - 8/10
If you love the anime in the comedy genre you'll have a blast watching this one but if you also love any type of development in anime and you want any type of closure maybe you will be a bit frustrated as I've been.
