School Rumble is literally “gurugu mawaru” (spinning round n’ round) school comedy centered on a huge number of characters and their unrequited romantic feelings stuck in the humongous love dodecagon. School Rumble is a genuinely funny show free of crude fanservice you usually see in the show’s of the type. True, plot hiccups along the way and nearly falls apart in seasons past two, but it’s still funny and all the little romances are still interesting. So if you are hungering for some school comedy or light hearted romance, hop in School Rumble and spin.

Love… What a mysterious word. A magical word that changes the world as soon as it leaves one’s mouth…

Originally written as manga by Kobayashi Jin and having its first/third season directed by Takamatsu Shinji (Gintama) and second season directed by a newcomer Kanasaki Takaomi School Rumble is a genuinely funny true to its name school comedy. No wonder it proclaims itself “gurugu mawaru” (spinning round n’ round) comedy. Apart from the two leads, Tsukamoto Tenma and Harima Kenji, there are like thirty other adolescents in the school and each one of them loves someone else from the group yet none of their feelings are actually mutual. Add the fact that every single one of them is wacky in one way or the other and you can imagine how crazy it gets when the guy is the last one to realize he is supposedly dating a girl he doesn’t even know. You’ll basically need a supercomputer to calculate the area of love polygon this show constructs. It sounds as a premise for a teen angst melodrama actually, but School Rumble is made in such a messed up and crazy way that it will, in turn, make you cry from laughter.

Clever direction and all those misunderstandings spin your head around so many times you’ll have no choice but to laugh at the idiocy of resulting situations when a guy practices confession with a girl he actually likes for a girl he doesn’t and so on. Interesting, original and most importantly attractive characters make this show even better. Heh, so far everything sounds great, however, there is a but. Though season one is strong both in relatively engaging plot and engrossing characters, with season two School Rumble starts to stray away from any substance it had in the plot before and starts making random jokes, random comedy situations, in the end leading the story nowhere. Season three is even worse, as out of 26 original episodes only the last two aired (the flop of season two might have cut their budget). Anyway, School Rumble is a show which starts great, builds up some marvelous light hearted-romance potential and then blows up without achieving anything. Though it offers somewhat conclusive (but lame) ending in season three, the show as a whole would have still looked better if it was cut short in season one. Non conclusive, but it at least would have been an exciting ride from the beginning to and end. As it stands now, though, if you wont be too excited after watching season one, you are better off not watching it further at all, it only grows worse. In my case, however, I liked the season one enough, to partially enjoy second and third as well, but, still, was left with a pretty bad aftertaste.

Animation: 3

While overall animation work by Studio Comet (Suzuka) comes off as pretty average, it should be noted that School Rumble has some awesome character designs. Not particularly extravagant or detailed and actually quite easy to copy paste the cast of this show, particularly the girls are so attractive it hurts. Attractive enough for Sawachika Eri covered School Rumble’s manga to actually be the first book I grabbed when visiting Japan’s bookstore for the first time in my life. While doujinshi-buying spree instigating character designs are indeed very charming, their simplistic figures aren’t really THAT memorable. Maybe with the exception of the two leads, one of who brushes her hair weird and the other who actually has mustaches and a beard… and changes his hairstyle dramatically every few episodes. Unfortunately lightly detailed boring backgrounds and choppy animation don’t do nice character designs justice. Inconsistency also kicks in a lot, sometimes deforming the lovable cast to the not particularly attractive states. Still frames still rock though, and I was happy with every new female character introduced, with my hands leaning to open doujinshi search windows. Oh yeah, drawings improve in the following seasons, but with nothing overly dramatic to mention.

Sound: 3

OP of the first season Scramble by Horie Yui (also reused in the third) is a really energetic and catchy song, I still tend to mumble “gurugu mawaru” whenever I remember its melody. It wouldn’t be that much of an awesome song if it wasn’t accompanied with this show though, and I’d pass on listening it on my mp3 player; but as an opener it really does a marvelous job. ED of first season Onnanoko Otokonoko by Konishi Yasuharu is also a pretty nice parody-inspired song perfectly fit for School Rumble’s atmosphere. Second season has its OP/ED combination go level down however, adapting barely memorable songs. Background music is pretty nice for the most part, School Rumble is one of the very few shows which actually made me like those laid back comedic musical themes with no lyrical value… and that’s quite a feat. There are also some really cool spirit lifting and even melancholic themes, usually for parody purposes and they are simply pleasant to listen to. One theme even starts with an exactly same melody as “Karma” from Ever17; wonder if it was intentional or not.

Experienced Seiyuu do their job very well in this show offering performances with enough charm to justify the nice character designs. I found Horie Yui, Noto Mamiko and Koshimizu Ami trio particularly outstanding. Noto Mamiko is really on a roll here. Takashi Hiroki also does a very good job with his role of Harima Kenji, and even Kawada Shinji’s annoyingly loud voice as Hanai achieves many comedic situations.

Story: 3

Frankly, I was genuinely betrayed by the story of this show as the thing I was interested in the most in School Rumble was just how will they be able to solve their love dodecagon… Answer is not particularly inspiring - they don’t. Plot seems to have great potential at the beginning, and actually is quite good in season one, but later, unfortunately, goes down the drain. Though it offers a conclusion, it doesn’t leave a good aftertaste. The romantic relationships about to sprout in season one are only used for comedic relief in second season which unlike the first, apart from random jokes, offers just a several episodes dealing with love affairs and even those don’t appear to have a clear direction. Third season is there just to give you a quick closure of things, cutting most of the fun out. Though I must admit, I did feel pleased to see some problems being finally solved there. Anyway, you might enjoy this show better if you unlike me simply enjoy its comedy without getting too serious on light romance part. I must warn you, however, this show is nowhere near as wacky as Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu or Furi Kuri…. or Bobobo if you know Japanese; it’s still genuinely funny though.

Characters: 4

School Rumble has two main characters, Tsukamoto Tenma for female and Harima Kenji for male. They switch every few episodes. They are much more similar to each other, than you might think at the beginning. Both of them are hyperactive, but shy to the level they can never confess their feelings. Both of them have a person they love, of course not mutual. Their paths intervene all the time, and since Harima is the one who loves Tenma, it always ends up in simply hilarious situations. You don’t even notice when you simply start rooting for those, slightly stupid, but really charming leads. They also offer some nice and wacky characteristics setting themselves far from usual archetypes in anime; thus becoming quite memorable in my book.

Other characters are really good as well, all of them have very distinctive and memorable personalities. While some members from the side cast, unlike the main leads, might appear to burrow a lot from stereotypes (Eri is a tsundere, doh) they also offer so many original traits and believable reactions you’ll be forced to forget what stereotype even is when they are on screen. The best thing about them, however, is that they are perfect when together, creating many funny, hilarious and interesting situations. Yakumo is a withdrawn girl who can read the mind of boys, Hanai is loud and honest to idiotic levels, Akira can deductively analyze any situation, Imadori can’t keep his hands away from girls, Karasuma… … the guy’s not even human, I’m sure. Anyway, every single member of the cast has some nice traits to offer and virtually anyone can potentially become your favourite. Characters certainly lead this show and, frankly, I would have been so much happier if their romances also lead somewhere.

Conclusion: If you are up for some light romance, or just some comedy, School Rumble, at least season one, is one of the best shows you can choose. It has good characters, it’s funny, it has its angst moments (in a funny way anyway) and frankly, it’s good, one of the best in the genre. If you want another good comedy to laugh your ass off check Fullmetal Panic? Fumoffu! out or if you want some light-hearted tsundere romance with a satisfying conclusion try Toradora!.