MyAnimeList.net

School Rumble
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Add to My List

Add to Favorites

Buy on Manga Store

Alternative Titles

Japanese: スクールランブル

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 22

Chapters: 345

Status: Finished

Published: Oct 23, 2002 to Jul 23, 2008

Genres: Comedy, Romance

Themes: Gag Humor, Love Polygon, School

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Magazine (Weekly)

Authors: Kobayashi, Jin (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.97¹ (scored by 13,903 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #796²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #593

Members: 30,047

Favorites: 1,498

Resources

Write a Review
Reviews

Filtered Results: 17 / 18

Sort

Suggested
Most voted
Newest
Oldest

Filter Preliminary Spoiler

Jun 20, 2012

manthatwashard

Recommended

To start off, this is one of those manga that's mainly concentrated on comedy. Trust me, if you read this manga it'll make you laugh. Of course if you're one of those looking for romances this isn't a bad choice either. Don't be fooled. Even though there probably won't be a lot of romantic situations or development till chapter 50 or so, each chapter is 5-7 pages long not even half the length of a regular chapter of 18-20 pages.

Story : 7
There really isn't a set plot. It's mainly girl likes guy that shows no response to her feelings while another guy ...

Nov 24, 2011

zaharat

Recommended

School Rumble is mainly about Harima Kenji, Sawachika Eri, Tsukamoto Yakumo, and Tsukamoto Tenma. The story revolves mainly around these 4 characters and switches between these 4 characters and their point of view, giving a really random like manga.

Story: There is not really plot at all, it is more like a day to day, slice of life manga. So if you are looking for a somewhat decent plot, I would have to say that you shouldn't read this manga, BUT if you are looking for something random and somewhat funny, School Rumble would probably be one of your best bet. The story switches point ... of view between the 4 characters: Harima Kenji, a high school delinquent who is madly in love with Tenma and write manga. Sawachika Eri, a rich snobby girl who is always getting in with misunderstanding with Kenji. Tsukamoto Yakumo, the freshmen perfect girl but extremely quiet, and her older sister Tsukamoto Tenma who is a naturally born klutz, that make you wonder if a brain even exist in her head sometime. However in all of this chaotic randomness and comedy, there are times where things get more serious. Now in my opinion School Rumble is like those 500 piece puzzles that a piece by itself doesn't make anything, but once put together you get a pretty good satisfying story.

Art: The artwork is decent. The characters aren't too complex and are nice and simple, but are definitely funny. Also the scenes are really varied but mainly takes place at school, but again it is pretty good, not great.

Character: At first you see that gosh this series is just random, and that there can possibly no character development. But surprise surprise there is, every now and then in this carefree and comedic manga, there are times where things take a serious turn. At those time you can see the character development between each character. The characters can evoke so many emotions from happiness to sadness, which is quite great for a pretty random like manga. Now the supporting cast is just HUGE in my opinion I had a really hard time trying to remember who was who, but luckily, they're only supporting characters :P

Enjoyment: This was a manga serious that was quite entertaining. Gave me plenty of laughs, and there were many times where it was touching, but overall it was great manga. One great thing about it is that each chapter could almost practically be stand alone, so even if you take a somewhat long break from School Rumble, it was really easy to pickup where you left off and kept the momentum going. But overall it was really random manga filled with laughter, but sometimes it was just touching and those parts just added to the quality of this great manga. Hope this review was helpful. If you thought that this review was helpful or not please comment and say why please, so I can improve :D Well hope you enjoy this manga!

Jun 6, 2014

ignominy15

Recommended

in all honesty, i have felt different emotions i never knew i had, thanks to this manga.
thus i am rightfully giving it a perfect score of 10/10. it is not biased in any manner. i just honestly think that this manga was masterfully made. it is genius and all aspects possible.

story 10/10
for a romantic comedy, school rumble presents a great deal of approach on love triangles, and not just one triangle, there are many. yet it does not derail from the main trio's life.

art 10/10 and character 10/10
the character art was very original. the character make-up are also complete, there are a lot of different ...

Dec 4, 2015

JKHM

Recommended

I started out watching the School Rumble anime (English sub, I unfortunately don’t understand the Japanese language) and really just expected it to be what it appeared to be – a funny comedy anime. I was partially right about that, but also VERY wrong. School Rumble, on the surface, doesn’t seem very serious. But so many things underneath the surface of it are very serious and insightful and even deeply moving. Soon after starting the anime I was hooked, and almost immediately related to Harima Kenji and began cheering him on to accomplish his goal. Throughout the beginning and middle of the series we see ... Harima failing over and over at his attempts to confess his feelings to Tenma. At first it’s laughable how silly and avoidable the misunderstandings are. Then as the series continues and you begin to see the toll it takes on Harima and the amount of pain it starts to cause him it begins to get less and less bearable to watch. Of course with all the other great characters and stories in School Rumble you are still thoroughly hooked on the series, and besides, you feel that you have to see the series through to the end to see if Harima wins the heart of the girl he loves. You also feel you have to see what happens with Hanai, Eri, Yakumo, Ichijou, Mikoto, and all the other very well written and interesting characters. The ending of the first season makes you think Harima finally confesses his love to Tenma, but it ends up being imaginary. At this point I was physically fatigued and drained from the roller coaster of emotions and disappointments throughout the first season. But at the same time I couldn’t wait to watch the second season. The second season was great of course, although in the Harima and Tenma storyline it just got more and more painful to watch. More misunderstandings, more missed opportunities, more outside interference and assumptions of who Harima did or didn’t like from his classmates. More oblivousness from Tenma as she chases after the completely blank Karasuma. The second season wraps up with no resolution. So, disappointed and borderline depressed I watch the 3rd season, which is actually just two OVAs.

Result: Complete and utter heart wrenching emptiness. Harima has been emotionally tortured and left to die basically. Tenma is gone to America to be with Karasuma and become a nurse to take care of him because he is in the hospital there with a condition that has wiped out his memory. He doesn’t even know who she is but she still wants to be with him. Harima does not get the girl. In fact no one gets anyone. Almost every story line is left unfinished.

I was fully depressed and left with an empty feeling inside. That’s the best way I can describe it. I had to have answers. I found the manga and began reading immediately.

After reading through the ENTIRE manga and then the follow up manga “School Rumble Z” I had to face harsh reality…….there was NO conclusion. No happy couples, no loose ends tied up, no happily ever after or riding off into the sunset. Just more emptiness and depression. It was as if the characters had been killed in the prime of their lives and their futures were cut short. There is no way you can understand the way it feels unless you’ve been on this journey that is School Rumble. It’s incomparable.

I couldn’t believe it. I searched all over the internet for any and all information about School Rumble and it’s creator Jin Kobayashi. I began reaching out to fans and hearing their stories that were the same as mine. The way they felt at the end of it all was like my story. The wave of emotions: shock and disbelief, confusion, emptiness, depression, and bitterness.

There is much much more to this story. But that’s basically how I got started on this mission to reach Mr. Kobayashi. There have been moments of slight progress, and a few disappointments. Ups and downs, feeling like I’m all alone in this, and then feeling the love and support of School Rumble fans from many different countries around the world. One thing is certain, I have no plans of EVER giving up.

In closing, here’s the motto: Justice for Harima, closure for the fans, may the hero get his girl, may his spring finally come.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC05xAG4hMwmeu4XdFei9Ywg

Aug 15, 2022

Saku_k

Not Recommended

No spoilers for the first part. There will be marked spoilers after the first part, for a bit of a longer read.

This is a romcom that does not have a satisfying conclusion.
For me, this is an absolute deal breaker. There is nothing I hate more than to read/watch an entire series, only to find out there is no resolution to anything that was set up throughout the series. There is no real payoff to any of the romance building. In a romcom.
So if you are anything like me, then don't bother with School Rumble. It isn't worth your time.

It's quite clear the author was just ...

Jun 13, 2016

69thStreet

Recommended

This manga is so long, but it barely holds any progress, which is bad for a romantic comedy drama!

Story (8.4): It feels like it drags the point of Harima is in love Tenma, and that she is in love with someone else. The ending isn't even that great and has to be continued on in School Rumble Z, which I'm glad it did because it would've been the worst ending towards any manga, and even that it was barely a good ending. There's only two kisses (three kisses if you count the one where it was supposedly a kiss on the cheek... you'll just be ... disappointed) and they're by the same girl who you're going to hate later, honestly! I know I'm pointing out a lot of negatives for a score of 8.8, but it's usually the comedy relief and drama that gets this score, if it weren't for the constant misunderstanding (some of them I liked), bad shippings (there was a good couple in the middle of manga, but they broke up because of a video game score....yeah I know), and prolonging the story to the point where it got boring at and seems like nothing ever going to happen. If it weren't for those negatives, then the score would've been a 10, no doubt, but for the moment it's not even close to that.

Art (8.3): There's nothing to talk about when it comes to the art, it's really good for it's age, and it stills holds up today. There's some occasionally bad drawings, but it never gets worse than that, and the facial expressions can be the best. I don't have much to say though, if this was 2003-2008, it would've gotten a higher score.

Character (8.0): There's some of the best characters here in this manga, but some of them are just flat out dumb or terrible. I know a lot of people are going to hate Eri, but I rather see her than some of the others honestly. I think a few of them are just embarrassing to look at, some of them are unique, and some feels like they should have more screen time. Oh well, the main cast are some of the best I've read in any manga honestly, but if the shipping was just right towards the end, then the score would've been higher.

Enjoyment (7.8): Don't know whether I should be mad, happy, laughing, crying, or anything in that fact. I did all of those while reading this manga, and I got mad most of the time, due to constant prolonging of the story. There's some of the times were I was extremely happy that something is finally happen, just to have all of my hopes and dreams crushed in the next chapter. You know that's bad for a manga that has 315 chapters (Don't know where they get the other 30 chapters at since MAL has it at 345). Even though they're 5 pages each, I expected more out of it.

Overall (8.1): I give this a skip if you're looking for a romance manga, because you're not going to get anything and you won't feel like you're missing something in your life. However, give this manga a read if you're looking for something funny and to waste your time on. Other than that, hope you have a nice day and thanks for reading my review. ~Shaney (69thStreet)

Dec 3, 2016

Chinomi-san

Recommended

I find the synopsis for this manga to be a little bit misleading. While it’s true that a lot of revolves around Tenma Tsukamoto, an airhead who has a huge crush on her oblivious classmate Oji Karasuma, it’s a long manga, and more of it is about the affairs of other pupils. More of Tenma’s efforts to get Karasuma’s attention lie in the latter third of the manga. Another good bit is about the school delinquent Harima Kenji trying to get his feelings across to Tenma, who is even more unaware of his strange actions than Oji seems to be of Tenma’s not-so-subtle advances. Then ... there are also a few other gals that take a liking to Harima, and when you add the rest of their class’ business and shenanigans, you get the mess that is School Rumble.

It took a while getting used to the brevity of each chapter (12 pages each). The introduction of so many characters was equally a bother because I couldn’t remember all of their names. I even forgot the supposed main character’s name after a while because she didn’t appear for a large part of the manga. I was pretty thrown off by the new scenario in each chapter, as well. I could see what was intended to be funny, but I didn’t laugh because I was annoyed. Strictly speaking, for the majority of the manga there was no plot, and I was irked because I was duped into believing there was one from the synopsis. Instead of being about Tenma, her little sister (who was more mature and prettier) took a lot of the spotlight at the start, and I got a huge amount of information about her life and thoughts. Later we got a whole lot of other people around Tenma involved in their own live lives and family problems, so it seemed like Tenma wasn’t that important after all.

I have to admit that though some of the comical situations were entirely unrealistic, quite a few of them made me giggle. There were a lot of scenes that became serious and then ended in some kind of joke, to my dismay. And the shoujo-lover in me really savored the romantic moments, which seem to be a little bit more well-done than in ordinary shoujo. I think I even teared up a little when the characters were going through some emotional situations. The mangaka became better at packing a punch in twelve pages and I was impressed.

By the end of the manga I was very surprised how much my opinion of it changed since the beginning. I did think that over 200 chapters about a girl pursuing a boy was a bit much, and the lack of plot was irritating. But when the plot did begin to take place and romance formed, the humor seemed to fit in very well and read even more quickly than I did before. This was also due to my support of a particular shipping of a couple.

Even though there were a ton of characters, halfway through I could remember most of their names and recalled various episodes where their personalities stood out a lot. It helped that the majority of them looked different as well; oftentimes when there are so many they start to blend together in your head. As I identified with the characters, the humor was better suited and I enjoyed reading from one page to the next. It was especially helped by the artwork, which was greatly exaggerated and shaded during the funniest moments and very detailed in the saddest.

I’m starting to think the arrangement of the events in this manga was intentional, that it was supposed to be a big hot mess. While it was a struggle to read at first, I was very satisfied with the latter half of it and found some very lovable characters. And when you think of it, at times school can be like a day at the zoo anyway.

Nov 25, 2023

JacobekTheEnd

Mixed Feelings

School Rumble has that innovative idea of introducing 2 gender opposite protagonists. Those 2 MCs have equally the same plot time but in this particular book they are not equally interesting as a character for good or worse.

First of all this show works as a good comedy, that from time to time might give you a decent chuckle. The thing is, it doesn't come out with strong hand as a good romance.

The show follows the idea of "infinite romance" where characters try really hard to get attention of their crushes, but ultimately it comes down to nothing. Said measure goes on and on ...

Jan 14, 2022

Notshane

Mixed Feelings

[Spoiler Warning]

First time I have written a review in ages, first of a manga and first of this year. I actually intended to do one last year, but the "Part 2:" part refused to show up on MAL for some reason. Forgot what I even wanted to write about. This is not at all an absorbable review for newcomers to the manga. I am writing this with the mindset of those who have read it already. Names mentioned will go off what they were called the most in the manga. And this review is as fresh as can be, having just wrapped up the manga ...

Aug 21, 2016

kiman00

Recommended

First off, let me say that I loved this series and had a lot of fun reading it. This manga is full of many laugh out loud moments, where I found myself having to take a minute to gather myself.

The good:
-I personally loved the style of art that was used, which gave the whole rom-com feel to the series
-The characters were all amazing, and none of them really felt like they were out of place or not adding to the comedy or story

The Bad:
-The story itself felt like it was taking a step every 100 chapters
-It felt like there was no real conclusion ...

Sep 27, 2020

Ekaj

Recommended

Warning: vague spoilers for the ending ahead.

School Rumble is a rom-com great dragged down by a bad ending.

The story is simple but executed well. The two leads trying to get closer to their crushes is held up by great comedy, absurd situations, and a lovable cast of side characters. It’s filled to the brim with parody of Japanese rom-coms, which is very entertaining if you get it. I’d recommend not reading School Rumble until you have a few romance manga/anime under your belt, since you’ll miss out on a lot of the humor otherwise.

The characters are the highlight of the manga. None of them ...

Jan 2, 2021

hexashadow13

Recommended

tl;dr: A humorous manga centered around a large cast of characters and the complicated relationship web amongst them, but one that doesn't move forward much and, in the end, feels like it just sort of ended without dealing with anything.

School Rumble is a manga that is about an incredibly large cast of characters and their really complicated relationship web, though mostly in a lighthearted manner focusing on comedy. The cast has a lot of variety and has a lot of interesting individuals. The large and elaborate web of relationships between the cast of characters features two main intertwined love triangles which certainly does result in a lot ... of interesting stories. The comedy in general is also pretty solid, and the writing also manages to throw in a decent amount of powerful serious moments that deal with the more serious aspects of the relationships between characters.

However, the biggest issue with the manga is that there is very little change over the course of the manga. The manga does a good job developing an interesting web of crushes, but until the end none of them bear fruit, or even fail to bear fruit as they're never dealt with and remain just crushes. You would think that with so many characters and relationships, you could throw one solid couple into the mix, but that just doesn't happen. There's also very little character development with most characters staying pretty much the same from beginning to end, and this results in characters that were amusing and likable at first becoming quite frustrating, by which I mainly mean Harima.

Thus, even though the stories are pretty good in general, eventually they start giving the feeling that they're not building up to anything and they also start feeling pretty similar, which makes it feels like the story is really dragging on. Similarly, the comedy too mostly stems from the same things, primarily misunderstandings involving relationships, so that too begins to drag and not feel as funny even though the quality probably remains the same. Part of this is because the manga feels quite long and slow paced, wherein even though it's only a 23 volume manga, it's the type that uses a lot of small panels and lots of text as well. Furthermore, it has a lot of completely unrelated side stories distinct from the main plot threads, so it feels much longer and slower.

All of this leads to an ending that doesn't resolve much at all. It resolves one of the main relationship triangles, but doesn't properly deal with the other at all. There's an extra epilogue in the series of short stories called School Rumble Z that seems to try to do that a bit, but it's so rushed that it isn't clear that it actually does and at the minimum even if the content is fine how rushed it is makes it not satisfying. Z also does a bit with another side relationship, but for the most part most of the relationship web does not receive any satisfying endings. Thus, the overwhelming feeling I got from the ending was that it was far too abrupt and did far too little which makes it feel like most of the manga had no point and didn't go anywhere. The art wasn't all that good.

Feb 4, 2021

altry3

Mixed Feelings

First review here, I felt compelled to write a review after finishing this very long manga because the anime is close to my heart.

I decided to read the manga after rediscovering the anime and falling in love with it once again. I wanted to read the manga to continue the story from where the second season of the anime left off and I had read online it was better to read the manga rather than watch the 2 episode OVA for the third season. And so I did.

Story - 6
It was frustrating for me to read this manga honestly. It's length had me wishing ...

May 22, 2021

PlOtRuN

Recommended

One of the funniest school anime genre I've seen.

The story is great, romance is good even tho our mc is hopeless to his target, but he has great love story with other characters he's just dense as fuck to not even realize. Comedy is outstanding a lot of misunderstandings one of my favorites. It's more on comedy than romance different one from typical romcom manga.

The character here in this manga is stacked, so much of them are interesting, harima, hanai, imadori are the walking comedies in this manga.

It just lacks something, I guess the plot, also the ending it doesn't feels it ends.
But for me ...

Mar 23, 2017

TomatoFork

Recommended

What makes School Rumble original isn’t the romance melodrama, which is so obvious that it almost makes fun of itself, but the comedy. Most of the chapters are self-contained stories where the characters have a normal encounter that gets more and more ridiculous
leading to a punchline.

The biggest strength in it’s style of comedy is taking advantage of the rich cast of characters that keeps growing through out the manga. Separate chapters can show different interactions that all take place in the same environment and in the end they combine them together to an even more satisfying pay-off. This tactic doesn’t really get used much in ... it’s continuing story arcs because surprisingly they focus more on trying to be serious.

School Rumble isn’t all comedy despite that being it’s overlying strength. Many comedic scenes can change to serious ones or vice-versa. It kind of varies how well done the transition is. Most times it’s the romance thing which gets really repetitive after a while. There’s misunderstandings after misunderstandings to carry the plot forward and even to bring in harem elements. Most conflicts get solved so easily it’s hard to take them seriously after a while. However when the manga actually takes effort to bring in some realistic emotions through surface-level comedic moments, it really brings it home.

The art-style is mainly simplistic fitting the comedic timing of the manga panels. They’re not too detailed so they can be read at right pace to catch the punchline which is pretty basic knowledge for all gag comics. Sometimes the art even breaks the mold of it’s usual style and offers some amazingly detailed fight scenes. These scenes really bring in some emotion to the middle of the jokes.

Only real minus with the art is the continuous usage of similar character designs that make it hard to keep up with who was who. It becomes a problem especially when there were so many named characters that could just act as the main focus any chapter without other cast members around them.

The biggest missed opportunity I see in School Rumble is it’s vast cast of characters. Most of them don’t have significant roles on the story. Some of their stories are even left without conclusion which makes you wonder why their problems were explored in the first place.

This manga is all about high-school life and despite it’s over-the-top shenanigans it also works as a fairly solid parody of the genre. So much of the comedy comes from character interactions going beyond what you’d think and not stopping before the absolute maximum of ridiculousness.

And without spoiling, the ending does conclude the main conflicts and some relationships even lead to happy endings. Just be warned, because despite it’s appearance, it does get to some heavy stuff at the late parts of the story that completely caught me off-guard. Even if it didn’t really gratify my personal ideal image of a successful comedy/drama ratio in the end, I have to recommend it as one of the best manga of it’s specific type.

Nov 3, 2023

DNSS-FLY

Recommended

Preface:
This review will contain - small and harmless - spoilers. I feel pathetic introducing a text with this kind of unnecessary warning, but the damned capitalism has created in the minds (of some weak people) that the malignant "spoiler" ruins the experience of a work. I couldn't disagree more. The surprise, the twist, for many (IGNORANT) readers matters more than the whole process. It's clear that anyone who consumes a story caring more about the surprise than the content should go to a magic show or watch a Manchester United game, rather than consuming art. A view that is tremendously molded by consumerism, which increasingly ...

Mar 3, 2016

ZephyrEdge

Recommended

Story is 8 because:
At first the're not much about School Rumble except for the stereotypical thug falling in love with a normal girl I've read manga with the same concept but what made this stood on top of them all is how it was executed but as I read pass every chapter It gradually builds up making every chapter exciting I know some may not appreciate the misunderstanding during every confessions though that really helped build the whole thing

Art is 9
Art is good for it's time of course

Character is 10
This is the best thing about School Rumble they don't force ...