School Rumble is a high school love comedy. That's the basic, bare-bones definition of it.
And it's not even remotely adequate.
Tsukamoto Tenma likes Karasuma Ouji. Harima Kenji likes Tsukamoto Tenma. Karasuma Ouji likes curry. Tenma is barely aware of Harima's existence. Karasuma is barely aware of Tenma's existence. And curry...nevermind. Tenma and Harima fumblefistedly try to confess their feelings to their respective crushes, and always run into the roadblocks of their own blistering stupidity. Hilarity ensues.
Sounds fairly typical, right? It is...in a way. But somehow, this relatively commonplace formula has an endearing charm that places it alongside Azumanga Daioh in my mind as an example of what can be accomplished with a fairly simple premise and relatively normal high school life. Not that School Rumble is in the same vein as Azumanga--NOTHING is, IMHO--but the characters, humor, and general handling of School Rumble should more than delight any fans of Azumanga, or of high school comedies in general. Even the unimportant fringe characters tend to shine through at times, though most people don't seem to remember their names until about eight episodes into the series because most of the time they're just...there.
I highly recommend School Rumble to anyone in the mood for a lighthearted comedic romp--but I do caution that there ARE episodes where a more somber mood overtakes the hilarity. But this is a good thing.
Lurker's rating for School Rumble: 10/10.
Episode 1 - In which people are introduced, confessions are botched, and bicycles are raced
Episode 2 - In which names are not signed to test papers, leaving the bathroom becomes a job for Solid Snake, and everyone wants to measure everyone else
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