School Rumble is one of the best anime for those who are looking for romantic school comedies. This show is actually easy to watch, especially since it readily available in the US, thanks to FUNimation. I started watching School Rumble when it was available as a Fansub. Even then it was hard to find due to the crack down of shows from Media Factory, the Japanese licensor for School Rumble and other notable series, such as Genshiken. I quit watching it after it was licensed by FUNi and simply because I didn’t have the time to watch it, thanks to Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Bleach.

The name School Rumble says it all about the story line (no, it’s nothing like Dragonball Z, for the most part). The story follows two characters: Tenma Tsukumoto and Kenji Harima. Tenma is just your ordinary school girl, with a huge crush on another student who does not seem to notice her. Kenji is a juvenile delinquent with a crush on Tenma-chan, but she also does not notice thanks to her crush on Karasuma Oji. To get Tenma to notice him, Kenji goes to great lengths to get rid of Karasuma and have her all to himself, but his schemes seems to backfire—with hilarious results! Tenma-chan’s friends also have their own stories with the male classmates, which keeps the show fresh and funny when Kenji runs out of ways to get through Tenma-chan. One of the funniest things I like about the series is the characters getting beaten up for saying something perverted or something that doesn’t make sense (and when Kenji fights his way to Tenma).

School Rumble also has good Opening and Ending themes: SCRAMBLE (Yui Horie feat. UNSCANDAL) and Onna no Ko, Otoko no Ko (Yuko Ogura). The song, “Koi no Jumon wa Papa-PiPu-Pa” (Yuko Ogura), actually got me into the series. I thought this song was the second ending theme for the first season, but it’s part of the single featuring the first opening theme. I could be wrong…So far, I have watched School Rumble up to Episode 11. Now that School Rumble is on DVD, I can get it anytime I have the funds, but I think it would be wise until it’s released as a complete set. There’s also the second season (“Ni-Gakku – Second Semester”) to look forward to, and the OVAs, including the recently announced “Third Term”.