Memory Monday: Week 5

Welcome back to Week 5 of Memory Monday. For those of you who are new to this weekly segment, I select an anime that has completed airing and write about it every Monday. The anime might be one that has been overlooked, critically acclaimed, or nostalgic. My aim is to give a different perspective on the show to people who have already seen it as well as give motivation to watch it for people who have yet to.

This week we'll be taking a look at one of my favorite comedies of all time School Rumble.

No Spoilers! Alright!

Number of Seasons:2

Number of Episodes per Season: 26

Run Time: 23 minutes per episode

Personal Rating: 8

You can watch School Rumble on Funimation here

School Rumble initially debuted as a manga in 2002 and ended its 22 volume run in 2008. Due to its astounding success it was made into an anime in 2004 and received a second season not too long after in 2006. It's "3rd season" would be an extremely disappointing 2 episode OVA to hastily wrap up the series. School Rumble's first season is probably one of the best comedies I've ever seen. It's probably one of the anime I could freely recommend to anyone, not just anime or comedy fans. School Rumble's comedy style is not too different from some other series out there but its situations, its characters, and its pacing make it a much stronger comedy than the rest.

What it's About:
Put simply, School Rumble is a school romance comedy that starts with a delinquent, Harima Kenji, falling for an average airheaded girl named Tsukamoto Tenma. Tenma doesn't even realize that Harima has feelings for her and instead harbors feelings for another guy, Karasuma Ouji. The story revolves around these characters and their friends' school lives and trying to get their love interests fall for them. Their attempts result in many hilarious situations that have the potential to leave its viewers in tears.

We Don't Even Have to Try, It's Always a Good Time
With School Rumble's first season it was hard not to laugh. There were so many amazing scenes that just made me crack up. School Rumble is a different kind of comedy than something like Nichijou where there are different small episodes within one and the comedy is more reliant on random, unexpected situations, but similar in the overall execution. By that I mean that Nichijou's comedy comes from the weird situations like salmon falling from the sky or over the top reactions like firing a hyper beam that goes all the way to Saturn, burning off a part of its rings. School Rumble doesn't do that, but it still brings up similar situations to a lesser extent in the same way. They both start off with a normal situation and escalate it to a more random abnormal scene making it extremely unexpected and hilarious. Te reason I compare Nichijou and School Rumble is because they are the most successful comedies in my opinion and I believe that they have parallels which make them so great.

Sophomore Slump
School Rumble's 1st season was great so one would think that more of the same would be a winning formula. Unfortunately, the second season of School Rumble is not nearly as good as the first season was. I believe that most of this is attributed to the addition of new characters who were made to try and match the likeability of the main characters from the first season, but they ultimately did not. Most of the new characters felt unoriginal and boring. Thanks to the addition of the new characters, the show tried to push more focus onto them in order to make them feel like they belong just as much as the other main characters but they end up being more of a nuisance than a welcome addition.

Shot to the Heart
School Rumble is not just a fantastic comedy but it also tells a pretty decent romantic story between characters. When characters aren't fooling around, there's back story to be had along with romantic developments. In other comedy series the more serious parts feel out of place but for School Rumble, they feel well integrated. While the serious parts are in fewer number than the comedic parts, and many times they end in a light hearted manner, they help build on the story and give more depth to these characters. The viewer can tell that these characters are changing and they're not just staying the same, goofy people that they started out as.

Chemistry
School Rumble's strongest aspect are by far its characters who make the anime work as well as it does. These characters work together as well as they do because they have good chemistry. The author made sure that each character complements another so that they all fit nicely together. Additionally, characters are tied together by romantic feelings, friendship, or by familial ties making them feel even further connected. It's easy to jump in and cheer for the clueless protagonists who keep botching up their times of confessions or methods to close the distance between them and their love interest. At the end of the day though, it's easy to tell that the cast are good friends and help each other fit well into the comedy that is thrown at the viewer nonstop. 

Unexpected Turns of Events
School Rumble comedy is at its best when the unexpected happens. Expecting one thing and getting something completely different is probably the most frequent type of comedy that School Rumble has, so it's a good thing that it excels at doing that. Different than something like Galaxy Angel, School Rumble's comedy comes not from random occurrences that come unexpectedly and change the focus of the scene but instead it keeps the focus in the current scene and takes a different approach, overexaggerating scenes similar to Nichijou. The unexpected factor makes the scenes much more hilarious than they were consequently making the humor in School Rumble one of the best I've ever seen.

Should You Watch It?
Yes
I recommend School Rumble to anyone who likes comedy. This is easily one of my favorite if not my favorite comedy series that has ever aired. I'll admit that the second season is not as good as the first, but overall, it's a great experience that you will never forget. Take it from me, the guy who's watched 700 anime to this day.

You should watch School Rumble