Summary:
Class 2-C is still trying to come up with something to do for the culture festival. The two main ideas floating around are a play and a maid-cafe. Akira convinces Harima to vote for the play by suggesting that he would star opposite Tenma, but she also convinces Hanai to vote for the maid-cafe idea by suggesting that she’d get the Tea Ceremony club to help, which includes Yakumo. With Hanai and Harima reenergized and now at each other’s throats, Akira suggests that they play a survival game.
That night, the entire class shows up and takes their spots – the cafe team is in classroom 3-F (fourth floor) and the theater team is in classroom 1-A. (second floor). The objective is simple: capture the enemy’s flag. While Hanai is explaining the cafe team’s strategy (which involves the girls on the defense and the guys on the offense), one of the girls, Madoka, sneaks out to talk with her boyfriend Shigeo, who happens to be on the other side. Madoka vows to attack him if they meet again.
At exactly 7PM, the bell rings to start the game. One of the cafe’s offensive groups gets ambushed by Harima, but they get out alive because Asou quickly returns fire. Somewhere else in the school, Jirou, Nara, and Nishimoto have decided to form their own team in favor of Jirou’s Swimsuit Sumo-Wrestling idea for the culture festival. Unfortunately, they get taken out immediately by Eri. Meanwhile, Asou’s group tries to get Harima, but Harima uses a flash-bang-type weapon to blind them. Hanai, wearing sunglasses, is able to deter Harima. Hanai has figured out that the theater group is trying to fake them out by using only Harima as a distraction and pressing an attack on Mikoto and the girls. He sends Asou’s group back to reinforce the girls.
On the third floor, the theater group’s Shigeo is wandering around alone when he hears a noise coming from a classroom – it’s his girlfriend Madoka. He doesn’t want to shoot her, so she shoots him instead. However, Madoka then gets shot by Mai, the class representative. The lovers’ bodies lie next to each other in the moonlight. In the music room, Ichijou and her band are still holding practice. But they soon learn that they won’t be able to participate in the culture festival, unless, as Yuuki proposes, they win the survival game.
Itoko is watching the battle from the announcement room and decides to join the fight to even things out. At that time, Asou and the rest of the cafe defenders on the second floor are getting flanked by Eri, so four of the boys rush off to confront her. Eri takes out two of them, leaving only Asou and Suga. They corner her in a room and try to fake her out with a dummy, but she doesn’t appear to be in the room. A figure resembling Eri appears in the window pointing a gun at them. This person, though dressed like Eri, is actually a male – Eri’s butler Nakamura.

Yay! I’ve been waiting for this episode for a long time. Actually I’m even happier that they decided not to try to cram it all into one episode. They’re covering pretty much everything that was in the manga. This arc is a lot of fun because it takes everything in School Rumble and mixes it up splitting the class and adding gunfights. And aside from the cafe and theater groups, there’s also the outside forces helping them (Nakamura and Itoko), along with the entry of a third group in the form of the band team (fourth if you count the Swimsuit Sumo-Wrestling team lol).
The episode started with the normal 4:3 aspect ratio, but switched to the 16:9 ratio for the survival game. It gives it a bit more of a movie feel, but the animation quality also seemed to go down a bit. I did, however, enjoy the insert songs sung by Ichijou, which actually had decent english (not engrish). I assumed Ichijou’s new seiyuu, Mako, was the singer, but the credits listed 「一条かれん Special Feat. Lia」 (Ichijou Karen Special Feat. Lia). I assume they mean the same Lia that sang the AIR OP/ED.
Next week, the thrilling finale! 🙂

34 Comments

  1. LOL Reminds me of the town Martial Arts festivel/even thing back from Mahoromatic season 2. 😀 😀

    /WTF/ is with the second-to-last screenshot?!?!?!?! o.O O.O O.o

    Shinji103
  2. “/WTF/ is with the second-to-last screenshot?!?!?!?! o.O O.O O.o”

    That would be a steroid induced Sawachika with what looks like a 9 mm handgun (I have no idea.)

    “Umm did anyone of you notice this ? It seems sou’s hair (D-cup girl ijust incase I got her name wrong) grew longer. Anyways I wanna see da episode. Cant wait XD”

    Well, it is the new semester after all.

    Kuya
  3. “That would be a steroid induced Sawachika with what looks like a 9 mm handgun (I have no idea.)”

    Its a Desert Eagle .45 cal revolver, im pretty sure.
    DAMN cant wait til next week’s ep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Itoko’s gonna kick ASS!!!!!!!!!

    mootab
  4. i’m with the rest of you guys! i can’t wait for the sub! i hope they sub fast coz this looks like an awesome episode!!!!!

    and LOL @ the swimsuit sumo wrestling team! poor guys. XD

    Shia
  5. “Guns and school and over the top actions for seemingly mundane events=win.”

    Undoubtedly agreed. The combination between guns, schools and comedy never gets old. If animes were in physical format, I’d hug them so tight. Guess I’ll have to wait for DVDs ^^

    Rasmiel
  6. I higly doubt it’s a .50 cal desert eagle most likely it’s the M1911A1 but since this is Japan it could also be the Type 26, Type 14, Type 94 pistols. They’re also using the H&K MP5 and the M4/M203 rifle, don’t like how they’re firing a SubMachine gun from one hand.

    Dragoon
  7. whoa .. you’re right. the effect of having ichijou sing over all the crossfiring really makes for a movie effect. harima is SO KAKOII in this epi too!

    can’t wait to see the outcome!

    masuri
  8. A bit disappointing. Too many stills and slow animation frames make it seem like they’re trying to save a lot of money. Aren’t the OP and ED by the same woman as well?

    Also, the pacing was very stilted. Instead of having Ichijou’s song play softly in the background, they paused/muted it at times…

    Eleutheria
  9. /* I am pretty sure that we can rule out the possiblity of Japanese pistols especailly the Type 94 and any WWII service pistol for that matter. The type 94 had a tendency to go off when squeezed so the butler would be an idiot to use it. Eri’s butler’s pistol was preety big so its probably a desert eagle revolver or a a Smith and Wesson 500. They were also using MP-5KA4s, AK-47s, and HK 35s. Harima was using an FN P90 though I can’t make out his other weapon. Why Hanai was lugging around the M203 and not using and also firing from the hip is certainly beyond me, its almost as bad as dual weilding MP-5s the climb would waste ammo if you survived the recoil on auto. */

    Crusader
  10. My mistake its was supposed to be HK 53. Harima was also using a M-16 with M203 though how he could use it one handed is beyond me. The Half-life influence is clear since there is no mass produced H&K submachine gun with grenade launcher, the only time I have seen it was with a special crow bar wielding hero.

    Crusader
  11. omg… the song that was sung by Ichijou was sooo nice.. It fitted perfectly when the class rep shot the couple.. omg… the scene just like in the big movie theatre… nice nice.. very very nice…

    Edward
  12. lol, this episode rocks, the survival game is so cool!

    Am I the only one who was reminded of Full Metal Panic Fumoffu while watching this? Guns and weapons in school….lol

    deltazechs
  13. i was really happy that tenma wasn’t really in this episode I really hate her, but she is necessary for me to love the series… I love all the minor characters in this series. Megumi, Asou, Suga, Madoka, Shigeo, and the possible new couple that might be revealed in the next episode ^^ I really want the OST now >

    scythsei

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