School Rumble Vol. 1

School Rumble Vol. 1 (DVD)


By: Shinji Takamatsu
Reviewed by: gothiclolitamaiden, 15
Rating: Really liked it


This is one wacky anime. Before I tell you my opinion of it, I have to explain the plot. Tenma likes Karasuma, Karasuma is completely oblivious to her affections. Harima (a self-proclaimed delinquent) likes Tenma, but she is oblivious that he likes her. Typical love triangle, right? Wrong. School Rumble is much wackier than any love triangle I have ever seen. The first few episodes focus on the triangle, but later episodes portray Tenma's sister and her tangled love life. Both Tenma and Harima try all sorts of schemes to attract the attention of their beloved. It's amazing how their minds work in such similar ways. I won't bother trying to explain the wackiness, see it for yourself. I didn't watch the English dub, so I can't really comment on it, but I thought that the Japanese voices were really good. The character designs were all cute and distinctive, though I don't know what Tenma sees in Karasuma.... Something I didn't like was that some of the jokes referred to aspects of Japanese culture that Western viewers may not be familiar with. I assume that these references were either edited out or diluted in the English version, but I prefer to watch my anime with subtitles. The opening and ending music wasn't top-notch, but was upbeat and fit the series perfectly. Most of the time, I didn't notice the background music because I was too busy laughing my head off.



Recommended to: Fans of comedy anime with a little background on Japanese culture. Despite the PG rating 12+ for some suggestive/crude content.