School Rumble Ni Gakki – 18

Summary:
-Eri tells Mikoto about how she stayed together with Harima under a single blanket at the temple. Mikoto is disappointed that nothing big actually happened though between the two. She calls up Akira, who immediately shows up expecting to hear something about a kiss. There was of course, no kiss.
-Akira coerces Eri into accepting a part-time job as part of repaying Mikoto’s family for their kindness. This job turns out to be decorating a Christmas tree in town with a group of other people. Eri finds out too late that Harima is one of those people, and figures out that this must be set-up.
-During lunch break, Eri comes over and sits by Harima. She tries to make small talk, but he just grunts and keeps eating. She gets angry at him, but then remembers how he helped her and how they spent the night together. Harima ends up telling Eri that he’s got nothing to do with her anymore. Thinking that Harima is the worst, Eri walks off.
-Just as Harima is thinking that getting involved with Eri gets him in trouble with Tenma, Tenma shows up. At first, both Eri and Tenma talk about how they dislike Harima, but then Eri starts to stick up for him. Harima rushes over to explain to Tenma that everything up to now was a mistake, but a large bell ornament falls off the tree and onto him.
-Sometime later, Sara arrives at the tea club room at school and finds no one there. She then gets a mail from Akira asking her to come to the second floor for a puzzle. Upon arriving, she finds an empty room with a penguin stuck in the floor. When she walks up to investigate, she also falls through the floor.
-Yakumo comes by and sees Sara. Before Sara can warn her, Yakumo walks up and falls through the floor. When Sara tries to mail Akira, the two girls hear a ring tone come from the penguin. It’s actually Akira and she’s also stuck.
-Yakumo gets a call from Tenma. Yakumo mentions where she is and so Tenma decides to come over, but hangs up before Yakumo can warn her. And just like the other girls, Tenma gets stuck too when she shows up.
-Sara urges Yakumo to try to contact “that person” telepathically. Yakumo tries her hardest, but no one comes. When Yakumo realizes that Sara and Akira were actually thinking of Hanai, she gets embarrassed because she was apparently thinking of someone else.
-Akira reveals that she’s got a camera and can actually get out of being stuck by taking off the penguin costume. However, Akira proceeds to fall right back into the floor again.
-As for being saved, Akira expects a certain someone with a 120 manuscript to finish to be around here. Tenma thinks that there’s no such person, but then a guy dressed up as Santa appears and uses a fake hammer to knock them all through the floor onto a mat on the first floor. Of course the Santa was Harima.
-On Christmas Eve, Yoshidayama, Nara, and Nishimoto watch as Harry and Tougou talk to a pair of cute girls. Nara thinks that it’s impossible for them three, but Yoshidayama disagrees, saying that they’re the same men and that they should be able to do what Tougou and Harry can. Tougou overhears this and comes over to tell them that he’s having a dance party. However, he considers each of them still to be half a man, so they first have to do something to make his heart boil.
-Yoshidayama vows to be reborn as a good man, but when the time comes, he, Nara, and Nishimoto all dress up like Harry. This doesn’t meet Tougou’s requirements, so the guys try to also act like Harry. That fails horribly after they try to imitate Harry wooing a girl by eating a french fry. The problem was that the three of them tried it on Lala and went overboard, so Lala punched them all through the roof. It is while they are airborne that Yoshidayama decides that they’re ok like they are. This is what Tougou was waiting to hear, and so he allows them to come to the dance party.
-At the party, Harry needs to leave early because of some urgent business. As a result, all the girls at the party also leave. The only people left are Tougou, Yoshidayama’s group, and Lala who is busy stuffing her face. Since Tougou urges them to, Nara and Yoshidayama dance together.

-Overall episode wasn’t that funny. My favorite segment of the three was the middle one where everyone got stuck in the floor.
-Those stuffed animals represent Mikoto and Eri perfectly. The giraffe’s horns are even like Eri’s pigtails.
-Yakumo trying to telepathically contact someone was so cute. I’m guessing that she actually thought of Harima instead of Hanai.
-The Star Spangled Banner playing in the background really does make Tougou seem that much more over-the-top.