Squeaky Clean Anime Review: School Rumble (Seasons 1&2+Extra Class OVA)

I've noticed there aren't that many reviews out there for high school slice-of-life comedies out there, and I can certainly see why. The genre itself is known for primarily attracting pandering male otakus with absolutely no life and a fetish for moe high school girls in short pleated skirts, rather than people looking for a laugh. Yep, that pretty much sums it up. But, as an anime reviewer, I feel that I must review every anime I have seen. It will give me practice, and if I ever say I don't like a particular anime, I have a structured review to back up my claim. Onward we go!

Genres: Romantic Comedy, School life, Slice-of-life

Synopsis:
School Rumble follows 16 year old Tenma Tsukamoto, a sweet but ditzy girl who's determined to share her feelings to the guy she has a crush on. Meanwhile, a delinquent with great drawing skills named Kenji Harima comes back to school for one purpose: to win the heart of Tenma. Thrown in a large cast of memorable friends and foes alike, some laughs, and every high school situation there is, and you've got one heck of a rumble! A School Rumble!
(Dang, I'm getting good at this!)


Story and Characters:

A noticeable aspect of this genre is, well, its lack of a solid plot. School Rumble is a SLICE OF LIFE anime. Yes, there are a few consecutive episodes where there's an obvious plot, such as when some of the girls are on the basketball team. But overall, the love triangle aspect is the main focus of the plot. With that in mind, however, most of the show is spent seeing everyone's antics to get the person they like to notice them. That and regular episodes you see in school life shows, such as beach episodes, ski trip episodes, school festival episodes, you get the idea. Sure, the plot can be entertaining, but it really has no substance. Overall, because there basically was no selling point for this anime, the only thing that kept me engaged was the hope/possibility of another moment of hilarity. The plot does develop some characters, such as Harima, Yakumo, and Eri, but overall, you don't need to pay too much attention to what's going on, unless it's a "mini-arc". However, you are going to need to keep track of the characters and relationships. Which brings me to my next point...

I was actually quite surprised to see that School Rumble's characters are actually likable. Heck, I think the characters are the best part of this anime! Yes, this anime does have a very large cast of characters, but it's the characters and their relationships that drive the story forward. I mean, there's a character (or a few) for every single high school student stereotype there is. You've got the pervy guys, the musicians, the jocks (both guys and girls) the rich kids, the nerds, the quiet ones, the sweet girls, the delinquents, THE LIST GOES ON. Chances are, you'll find one you like, one you can relate to, and one you'll dislike. And this anime did very well BALANCING the characters.

Art and Animation:

As I had mentioned before, the high school slice-of-life genre in anime is known for having a very generic, moe/bishōjo style of art. While I can clearly see this in School Rumble, this is a 2004 anime, so the art is is a bit, well, flat. It's not sloppy, though. I mean, some of the character's faces looked like they were just taken from a paper drawing to the anime. It looked really flat. The coloring looks sub-par as well. It's not terrible, but it's just not great. 

I think the animation is almost as unremarkable as the art is. But it does have its moments. The animations shines best in purely comedic scenes. The fast motions, exaggerated expressions, and the "lovey-dovey" backgrounds in some scenes make those moments much more enjoyable and comedic. Overall, the animation did set the mood for the scenes very well.

Voice and Music:
The first thing I will say about this dub is that it's another SFF (Standard Funimation Fare) dub. You've got the all-star cast as the main characters, with a few lesser known voices scattered around. Again, this does not mean the dub is bad, it's just got recycled voice actors in it. Heck, if you want to watch this anime, I suggest the dub over the sub. The script writing is great, the casting is great, and dubs feel much more natural for comedies, in my opinion. But the fact that this is average in Funimation standards, I'm going to have to lower the score for this dub.

The soundtrack is also what you'd expect from an anime like this. It's lighthearted, sweet, fun, and does set the mood pretty well. The first opening is really catchy, and made me want to dance in a circle. (I actually did, a few times.) But both the second opening, as well as the 2 ending themes just couldn't live up to that first opening, in my opinion.

Execution and My Enjoyment:
First of all, I would like to say a slice-of-life comedy SHOULD NOT BE 54 EPISODES unless it's REALLY good. (And we all know how often THAT happens.) Heck, SOUL EATER, a SHONEN anime is shorter than this anime! As a slice-of-life comedy, this anime delivers fine. But a big problem I have with this anime is that it HAS NO SELLING POINT. Many other slice-of-life comedies have this one thing that sets them apart from the crowd, such as Baka and Test, Negima, Azumanga Daioh, and WataMote. I understand that this anime tried to put everything slice-of-life related in it's run, but it should not take THAT long to tell a story that barely exists. 

And it's because if this long run that this anime was kind of tedious to watch. I started this anime in May 2012 and JUST finished it last month. Sure, there are worse shows in the slice-of-life genre (*cough cough Lucky Star*), but seriously, I thought this anime was a massive time sponge, and I really didn't take anything away from the show. Overall, this show was entertaining at some points, but was mostly boring.

The Score:

Averaging all the values for the categories listed above, I give School Rumble a 5.575/10 and wouldn't really recommend this to anyone, unless you have a LOT of time to kill. Seriously, there's GOT to be something more worthwhile to watch instead of this.

Story: 5.3           Characters: 7.8

Art: 4.1               Animation: 4.9

Voice: 7.8           Music: 6.0

Execution: 4.2    My Enjoyment: 4.5

For similar anime, I suggest Baka and Test, another school life anime that's much more creative, and still has great characters. The other suggestion is the much higher rated school life anime, Toradora.

NEXT REVIEW: In honor of the US release of Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, I will review the movie Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva.

Cheers!
~Selena

Last Updated: 16 April 2014
Originally Published: 17 February 2014