School Rumble

Review Date: 2007 July 07 11:25

Reviewed by: Azure

Released by: Tanoshimi

Publishing Country: UK

Author: Jin Kobayashi

Age Rating: 13+

Page Count: 192

ISBN-13: 978009950632

ISBN-10: 99506327

Summary

Kenji is trying to move on and find himself. He’s become a fortune teller who lives with the animals. The girl who's caused this radical change is still totally unaware of his feelings as she pursues Karasuma, the trouble is he can’t decide if he likes curry better than Tenma.

Review

Now that the characters are established School Rumble can get right into the gags without worrying. This also means that volume 3 is likely to be much more difficult to get into. That said the author really knows how to use the extensive cast, just as Kenji tries to confess his love to Tenma, snobbish Eri manages to get in the way so that Kenji accidentally confesses to her. This volume also sees some more page time for the delightfully odd Karasuma who was fairly neglected in previous volumes.

The main focus in this volume is an obligatory trip to the beach. This means that a large number of the regular cast are forced together, this makes the plot much tighter and more cohesive. Almost everyone likes someone else the trouble is very few of these couples match up, creating a lot of confusion and thankfully comedy. It also provides an excuse for the characters to get to know each other properly, and integrate outsider Kenji into the group more. Even if it does mean his Eri related problems increase by the minute. There’s also an extremely touching scene where Tenma tries to teach Kenji how to confess his love to girl he likes, little realising it is her.

School Rumble is the type of manga that’s extremely rewarding to it’s fans, and there are many gags that might seem extremely random but re actually funnier if you know the background. In some ways this is also it’s downfall, there are just so many characters it’s sometimes hard to keep track of them all. Personally I’m cheering for Kenji easily the best character in the series.

Rating: 7/10