School Rumble

Review Date: 2007 December 20 14:50

Reviewed by: Azure

Released by: Tanoshimi

Publishing Country: UK

Author: Jin Kobayashi

Age Rating: 13+

Page Count: 192

ISBN-13: 978034549618

ISBN-10: 345496183

Summary

Eri seems to be thinking about Harima a lot lately, he’s loud uncouth and defiantly not her type so why can’t she get him out of her head? On top of his Eri problems, Harima still hasn’t confessed his feelings to Tenma and there’s a major manga competition looming.

Review

By Volume Seven School Rumble has clearly become the Harima Kenji show. This is no bad thing, Harima Kenji is easily the best character in the manga. His twin obsessions of making manga, fuel each other leading Kenji to dig himself deeper and deeper into trouble.

Eri’s confusion over her feelings for Kenji cause her to write a graffiti on Harima’s desk which proclaims them a couple. Eri skips school leaving Harima to take all the heat, Tenma gives her blessing for the Eri and Harima coupling leading Harima to run away to sea in his desperation.

The characters in this volume are really starting to develop, most of all it’s Eri who has changed and it’s nice to see it. Whilst characters such as Tenma are endearing, she hasn’t developed where as Eri at least has changed even if she can’t work out how.

Of course at it’s heart School Rumble is still a comedy, flitting around stories in a heartbeat. On one hand it’s nice to have the variety, on the other there’s that constant up-down feeling as chapters change from those you like, to those you hate. Thank goodness for Harima.

Rating: 8/10