Final Impressions / First Impressions / School Rumble

School Rumble Episode 25

Isn’t it romantic, Harima

Harima, published in Jingama…

Come quickly, Harima…

School Rumble Episode 25

Isn’t it romantic, Harima?

  • Harima reflects on how the editor refused his manga, telling him it was too realistic and instructing him to create one that he could actually print.
  • As he is waiting for Yakumo to arrive, he hears the doorbell, but when he answers it he sees Tenma, who had gone there in Yakumo’s place, since she was busy.
  • He tries to hide the presence of Itoko, thinking Tenma would misunderstand him.
  • Itoko leaves, giving Harima a chance to be alone with Tenma, which makes him really nervous.
  • They enter the work room with Tenma donning a hat and glasses.
  • Harima alters his script trying to keep Tenma from seeing the similarities in the manga, but decides against it.
  • Tenma realizes that the story is with the same characters as the previous manga, stating it must be a continuation, making Harima depressed at how dense she is.
  • They realize that they forgot about the showing of the Three who were slashed, and quickly text messages Yakumo about it, who had already started recording it.
  • Tenma says that it is okay for Harima to borrow the videotape of it after she had seen it.

Harima, published in Jingama…

  • Yakumo, cleaning Iori’s paws, said that she had Tenma come in her place, since she had noticed that Harima liked Tenma, and wished for Tenma to notice him as well.
  • Harima and Tenma begin reflecting on scenes in The Three who were slashed.
  • Mizui calls him, asking how his progress is on the manga, which reminds Harima to work on it, as they had not been working on it much.
  • Tenma, after asking Harima when his manga was supposed to be done, panics and wants to hurry along with it, but Harima says it is all right even if he is late, as he is happy enough just having Tenma near him.
  • Tenma exclaims not to give up, as she wants to see the manga, and exclaims that she’ll follow him through with that, but Harima mishears her and thinks she said that she would go out with him.
  • This raises Harima’s spirits, and they begin work on it.

Come quickly, Harima…

  • Yakumo is looking over at a photo album that Iori had knocked down, and sees an image of her with a book that reminds her of the time in the past.
  • Back with Harima and Tenma, Harima is thinking how best to move forward with their relationship.
  • He asks Tenma if after they are done with that, if she would like to go for a bike ride with him, to which she agrees.
  • When he looks over at what Tenma is doing, he panics when he sees she has completely colored a frame black.
  • He has Tenma sharpen the pencils instead, so she doesn’t mess it up any more.
  • They both are thinking how best to confess their feelings to their respective romantic interests.
  • Harima then goes and tries to confess, but his stomach growls, and he chickens out and says he is hungry.
  • As he is thinking about ordering something, Tenma says that she will make food, and doesn’t listen to Harima’s objections.
  • As Tenma is making it, she asks where the seasoning is. As he calls Itoko, she says that it is beneath the table, which makes him wonder how she knows.
  • As always, the food catches on fire and after struggling in eating it, Harima makes coffee.
  • When he returns, he finds Tenma asleep.
  • Yakumo finds the book, which is about a pair of friends who had had parted, and one trying to find the other, only to find that he has always been by him.
  • Harima wonders how long Tenma will be asleep, and remembers the time where they had first met, which had caused him to fall in love with her.
  • Tenma kicks the covers off, and as he goes to cover her back up and fighting his instincts, does so. Though in his fit, he had accidentally spilled over the ink bottle onto the manuscript.
  • Bending over to get his sunglasses which Tenma had knocked off, she grabs him and says suki (love).
  • Yakumo, who had been reading the book, sees the spirit who had appeared in the OVA.

Overall Summary and Thoughts…

  • This episode was pretty interesting, and I think the animators are doing a pretty decent job of ending the season. The content of these remaining two episodes is not in the manga to my knowledge, but it follows pretty well the feel in general of the series. The use of the book in order to go back and reflect on some of Yakumo’s past I think is a good thing, and I believe that those parts were part of the manga in the form of a sharp chapter. It’s a bit odd to see Yakumo being pretty angry at Tenma, as we are not really introduced to this side of her character. Though as will be seen in 26, the conflict over the book helped her to get over her differences with Tenma and be able to respect her sister. I found it humorous to see all of Harima’s reactions to Tenma being in his house, as unlike his usual self, when he is around Tenma, he absolutely falls apart. Also a nice poke at Tenma with her cooking skills, what with the food catching on fire, and Harima wondering how Tenma could make food that awful, referring to it as an art. It was funny to see how the only time that Harima made progress on the manga was when Tenma was asleep, without her distracting him or screwing up in some way or another. Overall, a decent episode, though I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as the ending of episode 26, which I will elaborate on later on.

School Rumble Episode 26

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..

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School Rumble Episode 26

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  • The spirit from the OVA is with Yakumo, and asks her if it is really all right for Tenma to be with Harima, and that doesn’t Yakumo like him herself.
  • After Yakumo replies that Harima loves her sister, it rationalizes that she wants Tenma to notice Harima, but asks if it is really all right to give the person she loves to her sister, since it is rare for someone to come along that Yakumo loves, and that Yakumo will then be alone.
  • Yakumo remembers in the past with Yakumo being angry at Tenma for constantly calling her Yamo.
  • Tenma comes along and tries to help Yakumo with various activities, against Yakumo’s objections, such as painting and clay, but completely screws them up.
  • Yakumo hears a splash and Tenma says that since that book was dirty, she washed it, so that it would be clean.
  • This upsets Yakumo, who wonders why Tenma is her sister, and runs off into her room with the book.
  • Yakumo dreams about their father reading aloud the book to her, and wakes up. She comes out of the room and sees Tenma collapsed in the entryway, a bit battered, holding a new book and an apology note.
  • Yakumo states that since they were alone, Tenma must be alone, but was always nice to her, and because of this, she wants Tenma to be happy.
  • Tenma is clinging onto Harima, muttering suki, and Harima remembers that this was just like the first time they met.
  • As he moves in to kiss her, she mutters Karasuma, and this depresses Harima.
  • Tenma wakes up with him on top of her, and Harima panics and tries to explain what happened, but Tenma won’t believe him, thinking he is a pervert.
  • Tenma then remembers that something like this had happened before, and points at Harima and wonders if Harima could have been that pervert from before, which he is, and Harima panics.

..

  • Harima admits that he was the pervert before, but that in actuality he is not a real pervert, and that it was a misunderstanding just like this time.
  • As Harima is trying to say that he hid his identity from her because he wanted to be at her side, he receives a phone call from Mizui wondering how he is doing.
  • Mizui also mentions that Karasuma had been in what Harima misheard as an accident. He tells Tenma after trying to decide whether to or not, which has Tenma in tears.
  • Harima offers her a helmet, and they go out on his motorcycle to where Karasuma is.
  • Lightning strikes, and Tenma wakes up with Yakumo over her, asking if she is all right. Tenma gets up and asks about Karasuma, and he says that he is there, and she goes and hugs him.
  • Itoko is lecturing Harima, asking him why he went out in his motorcycle in the rain, and he says he had no other choice at the time.
  • The lightning knocked over a tree in their path, and they are knocked off, which causes Tenma to become unconscious, and Harima catches her in midair, and hurt his legs when he hit the ground holding her, though he was only injured when a truck ran him over.
  • It turns out that Harima had misheard what Mizui had said, when what he actually said was that Karasuma had won the cup, referring to soccer.

…

  • Harima refuses to go to school, but Itoko coaxes him with what would appear to be some sort of pistol.
  • He goes to the school to give his letter of withdrawal.
  • He flees when Tenma comes in, and Tenma goes after him, wanting to know why he is running away from her.
  • Fujiki takes Karasuma’s picture, and gets bowled down as Harima and Tenma is running past.
  • Yuuki tells Imadori that Karen’s birthday was coming up, and at that Karen completes his thoughts regarding the birthday by mentioning an episode of Dojibiron(sp?).
  • As Harima and Tenma pass by, it causes Karen’s skirt to be blown up, interesting Imadori, but Lala gets in front of her, and attacks Imadori.
  • Tougou is busy flexing his muscles and pumping up, while Harry reads a book. They overhear a rumor that Harima has a picture of Tae in the shower, which has them confronting him as it is the gentlemanly thing to do.
  • Harima is now being chased by many people, and Tougou and Harry talk to him about the rumor.
  • Harima flees to the roof, with Tenma close behind, and Tenma asks him why he is running away, and he responds that he has to now that she knows his true self.
  • It turns out that Tenma really doesn’t really remember, and Harima stops her from trying to remember.
  • Tenma gives Harima the promised video of the Three who were slashed.
  • This gives Harima strength to continue, now that his love isn’t over, and rips up his letter.
  • Akira states reset complete.
  • Hanai is back on the kite, and asks someone to let him down.
  • Lala attempts to oblige, but ends up sending him off into space again, with Tougou clapping and exclaiming bravo.
  • They begin having a mock pillow fight, and Akira gets hit with one, and begins tossing them rapidly at everyone.
  • Sara comments on how it is already Third semester to Yakumo, and they wonder what the future will be like.
  • Tenma is bragging about the school trip to Yakumo, who is happy for her.
  • As Yakumo is looking at the book, she notices that the book is from the library, and decides she has to return it.
  • End.

Overall Summary and Thoughts

  • Well, here we are, the ending of the second season of School Rumble. Have to wonder how many years we will have to wait in order for season 3 to come out. I absolutely enjoyed the ending of this episode, I think it did a very good job of encapsulating all of the humor and feeling of what School Rumble is at heart. This series is all about the various interactions between the characters, and the ending was evident of that. We have Itoko bullying Harima. Akira behaving in that strange neutral manner that is very fitting of her. Karen getting closer and closer to Imadori, Lala punishing Imadori for his perverted ways. Tougou being the epitome of masculinity, and all sorts of other interactions. School Rumble quickly became one of my favorite series, what with its obsession with making misunderstandings of everything, character interaction everywhere, the state of being between the Shoujo and Shounen genres, etc. My first time watching this episode, I was just laughing quite a bit at the ending, since it reminded me of everything I love about this series. It made me remember all of the hilarious moments that ensued within the 2 seasons and 1 OVA. Personally I am hoping for a third season, as I personally am a fan of the flag faction, which I am sure most of you know, but it is the Harima with Eri scenario. Quite a few interactions happened relating to this in the material in the manga following the events of this season, namely the Kyoto trip. I must admit that after re-watching this episode for probably the 4th time in order to write this summary, I found that what Akira had said was Reset complete, which I find sort of funny, as School Rumble is notorious with having resets in a sense in order to keep the story moving on. There never really has been a defining moment for the premise of this series, which is the romantic interest of Harima. The reset in this case referring to Tenma’s wiped memory, and Harima pursuing her once again. Even if the ending of this series didn’t really follow the manga that much, I still found it to be an interesting end. Overall I would rate this season of the series to be the same or greater quality as the previous. A very enjoyable ending episode for a great season of an excellent series.

Judge

36 Comments

  1. i personally liked the 1st season better b/c it seemed to have less fillers and more story development. This only had me REALLY REALLY looking foward to it until about a little after the play.

    nam
    Reply

  2. Yeah, season 1 was definitely better, this season focused more on romance elements, which were all blown away by the usual retarded anime combo: “develop something and throw it out of the window with something retarded.. like a memory loss.. or a kick to the face”, utterly disgusting, thats the kind of humor that i spit on in animes, and school rumble lowered itself to it in season 2.

    Nothing changed from this season, the humor sucked more because of the focus on romance which led nowhere, the only real thing that changed is that now we have a swimsuit sumo fad in school rumble that nobody really found every funny after its was repeated 10 million times.

    I loved season 1, i was extremely disapointed with season 2. Of course season 2 still had its good moments, but its nowhere close to season 1. Overall a huge disapointment and i give this season 6.5/10 compared to the first season’s 9.5/10 that i gave on anidb’s website.

    Drayen
    Reply

  3. Well, I loved this series as well as the first one. Both are good, can’t choose which one is better, hehe, both just too good. love the end with the book, that was fantastic. great way to add last minute humour in it. and tenma when they were young omg… tenma was like so…. stupid lol. can’t wait till season 3.
    I liked season two for the character and romance developement because this is how the series actually started. Tenma

    Furuba
    Reply

  8. The second season was good for what it was. Unfortunately the parts of the manga it was drawn from were not as good as the innitial story and the story that followed it. Alot of the episodes were aslo taken from the flat chapters, which are usually way more random than the normal chapters. The third season, when ever it gets made, should be much better since they will have much better material to work with.

    scootarski
    Reply

  10. I agree with that reset thing, BUT I think someday this series has to end.
    I really dislike never ending series like Inuyasha or Naruto. I hope School Rumble doesn’t end up like on of these two mentioned.
    We’ll see. One thing is sure: It is a very funny and amusing series and has also something “special”, which is really important nowadays with hundreds of anime around in a similar genre.

    *Chi*
    Reply

  11. For me, the first season made a bigger impact, probably becasue it was new at the time, with all the factions (jersey, onigiri) starting. Season 2 was pretty good too, though the momentum really petered out with the basketball story arc. I guess the way the character development froze also didn’t help, since the status quo is still the same from the end of the first season.
    The odd thing about the last two episodes was the fact that it seemed it was heading towards a different direction from the manga. But with Tenma’s amnesia/deus ex machina at the end, the story neatly realligned back for the next arc in the manga (school trip).

    Tim
    Reply

  12. Hey!!

    Don’t you feel like liitle Yakumo looks like Keitaro from Love hina… the same (almost) look. But what a stupid ending for the series… don’t tell me why are going to have another one? Well, if they give us a real end with some of the girls, that would be good

    Syaoran Li
    Reply

  15. These two episodes were the second best arc in the second season (first being Battle Royale). Excellent script writing.

    Of course, we’re all disappointed by the season overall and the fact that there’s no ending yet, BUT ONWARDS TO THIRD SEMESTER!

    Pakxenon
    Reply

  16. the series was great overall but its not over, i’ve read the manga and aside from the season ending eps (ie 25 and 26 of both seasons) the series has stuck by the manga storyline rather strictly i’d say, and the “Europe Trip” is the doorway so to speak into season 3 i think neway. oh ya, and if u guys didn’t see the whole Tenma forgetting everything at the end to continue the series i’m wondering if u forgot her UBER AIRHEADEDNESS so fast!!

    Infinit Strife
    Reply

  18. I think the reason the first season was great was because there were few characters around. Also, starting from the episodes where they introduced togou and harry, i’ve never bothered watching those anymore. Sure, adding more characters allows for a wider variety of characters interaction, but it just feels amiss. Like they say, “Too many cooks spoil the broth”, and I think that’s what happened with season 2. Many of the main characters were cast aside to make room for newer characters.

    And with the kyoto trip after the events of this season… I wonder how many more characters they’re adding to the show.

    JoshieJosh
    Reply

  20. I think there are some improvements in season 2, because in s1 harima was hardly talking to tenma but now you can feel how closer they become, also in episode 19 harima hold tenma from the back, which is an improvement for him ^ ^ I hope that their relationship will improve in season 3.. Am looking forward to it..

    hananon
    Reply

  24. The only thing bad about season 2 was some of the filler episode, excluding the 2 final episodes. The rest of them was good. One of the things i love about SR is that is capable of mixing romance and different kinds of humor, I just love when they go Out of character and make spoof other animes for instance.
    Am a big fan of SR so maybe am not objective in this but even this season was great. S2 has a lot more romance and opened a lot of more posibilities regarding couples(eri-harima for example). And still has a lot of the same humor that made season 1 great.
    So S2 wasnt better or worse than s1, just different imo.

    kulgan18
    Reply

  26. school rumble is a good anime , I don’t have words to explain this ….
    I just want to say ! I REALLY LIKE IT !!! ….I LIKE SCHOOL RUMBLE
    IS SUGOI !!! =) I WANNA SEE THE NEXT SEASON ..maybe SAN GAKKI xD

    pao_tenma16
    Reply

  27. i love SR sadly the turn the ERI HARIMA feeling in to just fights dunno for me they shuld have become more close not as close of a relation ship but as they were at the end of season 1 dunno hope they get the other one soon

    Lord-Strike
    Reply

  30. I must say that the first season had many more favorable points than the second season. Don’t get me wrong, the second season had romance and comedy (what you’d expect from a romantic comedy ^^) but the romance, like everyone says, really led to nowhere and the love interest between Karasuma and Tenma is just seriously annoying. I really dislike Karasuma, mainly cause he looks like a member of the Beetles and because he’s just overall a very uninteresting character. I would have enjoyed the series more if Harima had found a different love interest (since this season focused more on romance i think), perhaps more with Eri or Yakumo? I guess you really need Tenma to set up most of the gags in this series, but still, she gets annoying in some parts, Am i wrong?

    End0rphine
    Reply

  31. i hope there will be a third term,,,,,can’t wait to watch it..i just love this school rumble…i just wan’t harima to confess his feelings with idiot-idol tenma,,hehehe,,(and for harima he looked so cool without sunglasses,,gwapo tlaga!!!)

    Ganymede_Drewnyx
    Reply

  32. well, personally i think that the First Season was better since it was on course, but i have to say i was disappointed at Episode 26 of Season one which made NO sense at all…,
    anyway this Episodes ended pretty well as to see Yakumo,Tenma younger sister, realizing that she has fallen for Harima…My Personal favorite is Eps.3 where they did the survive game, the BGM when Tenma wanted to “kill” herself for Karsuma, very befitting and u could see the feeling in both Karsuma towards Tenma and Tenma towards Karasuma,
    anyway Season Two is tends to get OFF-TRACK alot and it really shows have Dense all the chracters are towards each other and misleading misunderstandings. Overall in this Season i personally love Yakumo and Eri-Chan as they finally understood what they really wanted in life

    Desires
    Reply

  34. yeah. season 1 was much better. the second had too many fillers which kinda ruined the storyline. i think it was a waste of time for me. id like to see the romance development in season three =]

    Zarks
    Reply

  36. I actually think S2 has more character development. We get to learn more about Yuki, Ichijou, and Yakumo and many others. S1 was good because it was a base set up for later seasons, but this season is also very good IMO.

    Hanayome
    Reply

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