School Rumble is a manga serialized in the Weekly Shonen Magazine (週刊少年マガジン), drawn by Jin Kobayashi (小林 尽). An anime version was broadcasted by TV Tokyo.
It is about what happens to high school student Tsukamoto Tenma, her friends and her classmates. The story itself is lighthearted and contains the group's daily occurences. However, in School Rumble, these day to day interactions are exaggerated and at times can be considered over-dramatic.
The sharp sign chapters (e.g. ♯1, ♯2, ...) appear in Weekly Shonen Magazine, the flat sign chapters (♭1, ♭2, ...) appear in monthly Magazine Special, and the natural sign chapters (so far only ♮1, included in School Rumble Volume 7) appear serialized in the seasonal Shonen Magazine Wonder (magazine titles in order: 週刊少年マガジン, マガジンSPECIAL, 少年マガジンワンダー [1]). All three magazines and School Rumble volumes are published by Kodansha.
The ♭ chapters feature side stories that are not essential to the main storyline. Chapters ♭1-7 feature stories that focus on Yakumo, ♭8 centers around Suou Mikoto and Hanai Haruki, while the later chapters focus on minor characters from the main storyline, or ♯ episodes viewed from an alternative perspective.
Whereas in the beginning the main focus of the story are Tsukamoto Tenma's stuggle with her love interest, Karasuma Ouji, and Harima Kenji's dilemma concerning his love for Tenma, as of the 6th and 7th volumes of the manga, the plot of the story has changed greatly. The main story has switched to focusing more on the interactions between Harima Kenji, Tsukamoto Yakumo, who is Tenma's younger sister, and Sawachika Eri, who is Tenma's classmate. Tenma and Karasuma Ouji play more infrequent and minor roles. This is commonly believed to be the result of a character popularity poll conducted in the Japanese magazine, which resulted with Sawachika Eri in first place, Tsukamoto Yakumo in second, and far behind in vote counts Tsukamoto Tenma in third.
Characters
Class 2-C members
(Class 2-C is a class in the second grade of high school, or roughly 10th grade by US grade counting.)
- Tsukamoto Tenma (塚本 天満) - Female protagonist, loves Karasuma Ouji.
- Harima Kenji (播磨 拳児) - Male protagonist, delinquent, loves Tsukamoto Tenma. Has the ability to communicate with animals.
- Karasuma Ouji (烏丸 大路) - Curry über alles.
- Takano Akira (高野 晶) - A close friend of Tenma. Likes to save money.
- Sawachika Eri (沢近 愛理) - A close friend of Tenma. Father is English. Has great difficulty with Kanji.
- Suou Mikoto (周防 美琴) - A close friend of Tenma. Has black belt in Kenpo.
- Hanai Haruki (花井 春樹)- Childhood friend of Suou. Goes to teh same dojo as her and has a black belt in Kenpo, too.
- Ichijou Karen (一条 かれん) - Has monstrous strength despite having a weak looking appearance. Practices women's wrestling, and is in love with Imadori.
- Imadori Kyousuke (今鳥 恭介) - Interested only in girls with breast size D or larger, therefore he is after Mikoto fanatically who has a rather large cup size among the girls in the class, and ignores Ichijou.
- Yoshidayama Jirou (吉田山 次郎) - A subordinate of Harima, but dreams of becoming top of the delinquent hierarchy one day.
Class 1-C members
- Tsukamoto Yakumo (塚本 八雲) - Sister of Tsukamoto Tenma. She is able to read the thoughts of those who like her. She is skilled in household chores such as cooking because her older sister is lazy and unreliable.
- Sarah Adiemus - A close friend of Yakumo. She is an exchange student from the UK, and a sister at a local church.
Class 2-D members
Classes 2-C and 2-D are mutual rivals.
- Harry Mackenzie - Exchange student, skilled at fighting. Rival of Harima Kenji. (Note: Harry Mackenzie is pronounced Harii Makkenjii in Japanese)
- Lala Gonzalez - An exchange student. From Mexico, she is a skilled practitioner of Lucha libre fighting. Sees Ichijo as a rival, often shouting "Ichi, Jo!" Belongs in the same amateur wrestling club as Ichijo.
- Tennouji Noboru (天王寺 昇) - Delinquent who deems Harima as rival.
- Tougou Masakazu (東郷 雅一) - Class rep., sees class C as a rival.
Faculty members
- Tani Hayato (谷 速人) - Class 2-C homeroom teacher. Teaches English.
- Katou Kyouji (加藤 矜持) - Class 2-D homeroom teacher. Has an unlikeable personality.
- Osakabe Itoko (刑部 絃子) - Biology teacher and cousin of Harima Kenji (Note: "itoko" is also the word for "cousin" in Japanese)
- Sasakura Youko (笹倉 葉子) - Art teacher and old friend of Osakabe.
- Anegasaki Tae (姉ヶ崎 妙) - School infirmary nurse. Had lived with Harima Kenji in the past.
- Kouriyama (郡山) - Physical education teacher.
Animals
- Iori (伊織) - A black cat being taken care of by the Tsukamoto household.
- Alexander - Harima's pet frog.
- Pyotr - Once Harima's pet giraffe. He was later moved to a zoo.
- Napoleon - Harima's pet pig.
- Anastasia - Harima's pet penguin.
External links
