School Rumble

26 Episodes
TV Series
Comedy/Romance/School

Going into this one I knew that the plot would probably carry over to a second series as I was aware that "2nd Semester" was already available for download. So with that knowledge I popped School Rumble in and sought after what all the fuss was about. Fuss? Yeah, fuss. This anime won several coveted Anime Reactor Community Awards during the years is was on air. That would of course include the top prize of Best Overall Anime. Anyway...enough lauding let's get on with the review.

School rumble follows a pair of high school students (Jesus...what anime DOESN'T??!) as the tool around at school getting involved in various love triangles and fantastical experiences. Frankly, even though there are a lot of series out there that tackle the whole high school/love triangle thing, School Rumble does it very well. It doesn't get bogged down in the seriousness of relationships and keeps everything light just about all the time. From our male protagonist getting depressed about falsely perceived love lost...and hitching a ride with a pirate ship helmed by a giant of a man...who used to draw manga; to the object of our female protagonists affection wearing a kappa suit when it's raining outside; oh yeah...and stop somewhere in the middle for a "little" sister being able to read the minds of all the males on the planet (sans one or two). Roll it all together and you get a really enjoyable romantic comedy that's completely unabashed about how weird it feels like getting. Fan service is to a minimum but self referencing, and industry referencing is at a maximum. I recommend this for anyone. But please keep in mind, as I did, that you won't get an ending with this series. They give you 3 dream sequences for the last episode and the writers actually point and laugh at the viewer for buying into their tricks. It's great :)

Now...soon as I finish Karin I'm off to watch 2nd Semester...just to see how this thing ends :)

Tommy