School Rumble: Volume 5

Introduction

You know when I said that tiring of the lengthy hiatus, I imported the Region 1 release of School Rumble: Volume 4? Well I imported volumes 5 and 6 as well. It only made sense. As I discovered previously, comedy may be fleeting, but characters and story are more permanent, and with volume 4, preceded by a rewatch of the first three volumes, I realised that School Rumble has a pretty strong story buried under the quick-fire gags and slapstick. The characters are more engaging than the average cast of comedy stereotypes, and there's more to the show than just the central triumvirate of Tenma, Kenji and Karasuma. I had to restrain myself from diving straight into volume 5 to allow my reviewing batteries to recharge.


School Rumble is a slapstick, laugh-packed comedy, something that the UK anime scene could always use more of in my opinion. What's more, it's not one of those 'teenaged boy, surrounded by a harem of girls, crossed purposes, compromising situations' comedies. It's the second year of high school for Tenma Tsukamoto, and it's time for her to confess her feelings to model student Oji Karasuma. Unfortunately he doesn't know she exists. Kenji Harima is a teenaged delinquent, known for his gangster tendencies, his aggressive attitude, and his motorcycle, who has up till now been a school dropout. That's until he fell for Tenma Tsukamoto. Now he's a full time school student, attitude and all, determined to make his feelings known to Tenma. Unfortunately she doesn't know he exists. The casualties mount.


This is the US Funimation release of volume 5 of School Rumble. The next four episodes are presented on this disc, along with some extra goodies.

19. Dreams for Art! Fantasy Wedding! Wish on a Star!
Youko Sasakura is the school art teacher. She's also something of an artist herself, and is about to exhibit her work. She needs a model though, a nude model, which is where Kenji's aunt, and Physics Teacher Itoko Osakabe comes in. She's 'persuaded' to model, and once that little snippet of info gets out at school, a whole host of teenaged boys let their hormones get the better of them. Then Hanai hears Yakumo talking to Youko, and gets the wrong end of the stick. Then Kenji hears Tenma talking to Youko and also gets the wrong end of the stick. Both of their dream girls may be stripping off for the art teacher and the boys are so conflicted!


20. That's Gone! This is Gone! Options. Gone!
Having overheard Tenma commenting favourably on men with beards, Kenji has been nurturing his own facial growth, only now he has enough to qualify for 'hermit in a cave' status. That's until Eri starts fooling around with a pair of scissors, and Kenji just happens to be sleeping in the line of fire. Later, Hanai starts choosing candidates for the upcoming athletics meet, and Kenji would be ideal for the relay, except he isn't in school. He's working on his new manga, a comedy story about a man who loses his beard, and he needs a little feedback. He turns to Tenma's sister Yakumo for advice, which causes problems when Hanai sees them talking together, and he's overcome with jealousy.


21. Hanai Fights Back! Karen Sparkles! Reunion with Big Sister!
What do you do when the girl of your dreams is with another guy? You do what Hanai does, go up a mountain and indulge in egregious kung fu training, complete with a random Mr Miyagi who just happened to be wandering by. Coming back to civilisation, after the lengthy spell of 2 days away, he learns that everything has changed, that the name of Harima Kenji is on the lips of all the girls in his school, and they all think he's dreamy. Not only content with Yakumo, he's spreading his vile influence around. Hanai determines to confront him, only to be faced with Harry McKenzie (remember him?). A third front has opened up in the battle to win Yakumo's heart, and this time the battle will take place on the athletics field. McKenzie's class 2-D challenges 2-C to a competition, compounded by the wrestling rivalry that has developed between Ichijou and Mexican exchange student Lala. Meanwhile Kenji is worrying about his bald spot, courtesy of a vindictive Eri, and is taking refuge in the infirmary. But the school has a new doctor, someone very familiar to Kenji.


22. Time to Start the War! Now the Cavalry Battle! And the Great Uprising!
The day of the athletics meet arrives, and Tenma's disappointed that Karasuma isn't taking part. It's all going well, with both 2-D and 2-C neck and neck throughout the day, and both blowing the rest of the school out of the water. By the time the Cavalry Battle arrives, there's only one point separating the two classes. Cavalry Battle: One member of the class, usually a girl, sits atop the shoulders of three other class members, usually boys. The rider wears a headband. The aim of the battle is to keep your headband, while taking as many headbands from the enemy team's riders. Lose your headband and you're out. Only with the honour of the two classes at stake, this cavalry charge will be intense.

Picture

It's a 4:3 regular transfer, NTSC for the Region 1, with no immediate problems visible. Everything is clear and sharp, there are plenty of primary colours, and I noticed no compression, or even the aliasing that usually rears its head in the credit sequences. It's a fine transfer. The animation, as you would expect from a comedy, remains straightforward and simplistic, with pleasant character designs, and fairly non-descript artwork. It's all very energetic, and does more than enough to get the comedy across.

Sound

You get a choice of DD 2.0 English and Japanese, along with translated English subtitles and a signs only track. The show gets a catchy and quirky set of themes that are impossible to get out of your head once you hear them. The dialogue is clear, and the stereo sufficient for the show. Which language you choose depends on your usual preferences, but for what it's worth, I found the show much funnier in Japanese, the timing and the flow just seemed to work better.

Extras

School Rumble comes in an Amaray style case with a reversible sleeve. It also has, slipped inside with the usual advertising bumf, a set of Animal Cosplaying, School Rumble fridge magnets. You'd never get those with VHS tapes.

Another something that we don't get with the UK release are multi-angle credit sequences, and depending which language you select, you'll see the credits in that language as well. You'll also find the usual jacket picture and textless credits.


The disc autoplays with a trailer for Tsubasa, and you'll find further trailers for Negima, The Slayers: Try, Peach Girl, Suzuka, The Clamp Double Feature, One Piece, School Rumble and the Z-Store.

You'll find 2½ minutes of TV commercials for the show.

This time there is just the one interview lasting 5 minutes, with Tae Anegasaki's voice actress, Sayaka Ohara. This is pretty standard EPK stuff, with questions about the show, and her characters repeated from the previous interviews.

Conclusion

That's the most that I have laughed at a volume of School Rumble since the first, and my reaction to volume 1 was weighted by a whole lot of anticipatory hype, which subsequently wore off. Volume 5 is better in that I wasn't expecting it to be this funny; indeed it's one volume where I feel comfortable in advising that it be watched without eating or drinking at the same time, lest you spray your TV screen. Not that there is much that is markedly different about the episodes here, it's just that the writing seems sharper and the gags just that bit zanier and out of leftfield. It also feels a little faster paced and snappier.


There is also something of a shift from the skit format in the second half of the disc, although the laughs get more intense if anything. We get away from the character comedy to begin with, and opt for something a little cruder, with the announcement that one of the teachers, Kenji's guardian Itoko, is to model nude for the school's art teacher. A lot of this first section revolves around the effect this has on the school's male student body, and the laughs are pretty straightforward and even clichéd, until Hanai and Kenji overhear Tenma and Yakumo speaking to the art teacher and they both get the wrong idea. We're back to the character comedy when Yakumo offers to help her friend Sara at the local church, dressing up as a bride for a publicity photo. Of course Hanai insists on being the groom. The joke here is that unless someone is really familiar in Japan, they refer to each other by their family names, so Hanai knows Yakumo by Tsukamoto. The thing is that Kenji refers to Tenma as Tsukamoto as well, which leads to a lot of mistaken identity, and Kenji and Hanai always at each other's throat.


While the first episode was much like the rest of the series, it was the second that had me laughing in earnest, as Eri accidentally cuts off Kenji's beard, and the girls' subsequent attempts to cover up the fact. When the inevitable happens, and Eri has to apologise to Kenji, it's surprising to see that Kenji has a nasty side to his personality, and he isn't above abusing Eri's good nature as she tries to assuage her guilt. She can be pushed too far though, which is why Kenji is sporting a beret from here on. He's also depressed again, and taking out his frustrations by drawing manga. What's really sweet is that the friendship that formed with Yakumo in the previous volume develops further here as he asks for her advice about the manga. Typically, where he is tongue-tied trying to talk to Tenma, he's far more comfortable with her younger sister, and she quite likes him too. Which makes steam come out of Hanai's ears and leads to the final two episodes on this disc, both of which take us up to and focus on the athletics meet.


Hanai had originally been meaning to recruit Kenji for the athletics meet, but seeing him in Yakumo's company sent him up to the mountains for a training montage. He comes back to give Kenji a piece of his mind, but this time he runs into Harry McKenzie, and unlike the first volume, this one keeps the gag intact. A new rivalry revolving around Yakumo develops, and winds up with Harry's class 2-D challenging 2-C in the athletics meet. Steam already coming from Hanai's ears, another dimension to the challenge develops when Mexican transfer student Lala develops a rivalry with 2-C's champion wrestler Ichijou. The teachers are all getting in on the act as well over a bag of home made cookies, which is why a state of war practically exists at the start of the final episode. The random gag format is dropped for a single storyline, and the final episode narrows this down even further. We quickly zip through the early events, but most of the episode concentrates on just one, the Cavalry Battle, and I was tickled by how much comedy could be wrung from a glorified game of tag.


School Rumble actually picks up pace and energy for this penultimate volume, and I found it to be as good as I was actually expecting the series to be when I first started it. It's a little late in the game though, with only one volume to go, but if it maintains this standard then a good series will really go out on a high note.