[WT!] School Rumble

School Rumble: MyAnimeList, Hummingbird, Anime-Planet, AniDB, Anilist, Animenewsnetwork.Introduction: I just searched something in the awesome WT! Archive of this subreddit when I noticed that there is no WT! for School Rumble so I felt that it is time for me to create one. As this is my first WT! and I'm not a native English speaker (I'm German) I am looking forward to comments that include help, suggestions and advice on how to improve this. In this thread I'm talking about the first and second season of School Rumble. So before I get started the mandatory TL;DR is on the bottom.What is School Rumble?School Rumble is a romantic comedy from 2004/05 that easily stands out among others thanks to its light hearted humor, lovely soundtrack and outstandingly funny cast. Our main characters are Kenji Harima and Tenma Tsukamoto who are secretly in love. Oh you thought with each other? Well that's wrong. Kenji indeed has a crush on Tenma but she has one on another classmate of hers (I'll talk about him later). School Rumble is mainly about our two clumsy main characters trying to confess to their crush (in sometimes really unorthodox ways) which puts them in hilarious situations where you will find yourself facepalming and/or crying tears of laughter. But obviously they are not the only characters in the show. Some of the side characters are involved in the main lovey dovey part and they sometimes have some romances among themselves.The Cast:Kenji Harima: Ahh Kenji Harima... I could write you a 5000 characters essay about why he is my favourite character of all time but I'll try to keep it short. Kenji is our male lead and in love with Tenma. He is a delinquent who gets involved in a lot of fights and is feared among the other students. But he is one of the most misunderstood characters ever. And I mean literally misunderstood as his awkward attempts to confess to Tenma often end up with him looking like a pervert or even more like a "bad guy". His actions, reactions and interactions are some of the main sources for the comedy elements of this show. He is not just a man with thousands of nicknames (seriously look at his MAL) but he will also find himself in various different roles throughout the show like mangaka, fisher, sage or kappa which are just adding to the fun.Tenma Tsukamoto: Tenma our female lead is head over heels in love with her classmate Ouji Karasuma. She is not the brightest candle on the cake but makes up for that with her over the top motivation. Her attempts to confess to Karasuma-kun are really clumsy but some failures are not stopping her at all. She is like a hurricane of cheerfulness and you'll find yourself infected with that good mood she is having (most of the time).Ouji Karasuma: Karasuma-kun is a silent character who seems disinterested in everything. His facial expression is almost always the same and it is rare to see him emotional. But this contrast to Tenma (and actually most of the cast) is what makes him so funny. He is the calm and steady part in this very energetic anime. But there is one thing he loves more than everything else...Eri Sawachika: Every anime needs a tsundere am I right?IguessIam?AmI? Eri is one of Tenmas best friends. She comes from a rich family and occasionally expresses some snobbish behaviour. Eri finds herself fighting with Kenji really often. Those two just don't seem to get along well.Yakumo Tsukamoto: Yakumo is Tenma's younger sister (little sister wouldn't fit) and she cares deeply for Tenma. As she is not just beautiful but (in opposite to her sister) also smart it may come as no surprise that she is really popular at school. Especially Hanai-kun likes her a lot and has no hesitation demonstrating this to her. She has some mysterious additional sets of skills which lead to her not having a boyfriend yet.I could go on about the cast for hours but to keep it short: There are way more characters and most of them are very likeable and funny. There is Hanai, who I mentioned above, with his love for Yakumo and his rivalry with Kenji. Akira who is silent and smart and mostly unaffected by misunderstandings and there is Mikoto who is often the voice of reason (those two complete the group of friends around Tenma and Eri). There is Imadori who likes boobs, Lala the mexican wrestler, Buddha Nishimoto who is the leader of the perverts, Harry and Tougou the leaders of another class,...You see the cast is big but it is as good as it is big and you will find yourself caring for those characters and you'll love them in no time.Humor: As mentioned above there are a lot of characters that are funny but what kind of humor is to be expected here? A lot of scenes have the kind of humor that comes from unexpected character reactions. No sane person would react in the way e.g. Kenji does on multiple occasions. Also the misunderstandings caused by those reactions or solely misunderstandings caused by the characters stupid approaches to certain things are hands down hilarious. Another part is the slightly unrealistic touch some gags possess. I think it is pretty funny if an established character is tied to a kite and excluded from the show for a few episodes just to randomly fly through the sky in the background. But as I said earlier the main source of humor is the way characters interact in unexpected ways and the huge misunderstandings this will cause throughout the show.Animation: Well the animation is pretty decent for 2004 standards I'd say but I'm not an expert when it comes to that. In my honest opinion the character design as well as the backgrounds were really nice and also the humor and the emotions are very well complimented by the animation for example through chibi versions of the characters to underline those emotions.Sound: I personally really enjoyed the OST as it is really uplifting and fitting. Every scene uses a suitable track that highlights the mood of the scene perfectly. The openings and endings were really good imho. I definitely liked them all a lot. It's been about 3 years since I last watched it but I still listen to the OST occasionally. Also I think the seiyuus did an amazing job, especially Hiroki Takahashi, Ryousei Konishi and Ami Koshimizu nailed it.Why should I watch School Rumble? Summary: If you are looking for an anime that will make you laugh a lot, that has an awesome cast, a nice OST and one of the highest re-watch potentials ever then you've come to the right place. It is an high paced anime that that has an appealing humor and keeps its quality throughout the show. I cannot recall a single other anime that was so consistent with it's humor. School Rumble imho doesn't have a single boring episode.TL;DR: School Rumble has an awesome humor based on misunderstandings and unexpected interactions between characters, is consistent and doesn't get boring after a while. It has one of the most likeable and funny casts ever and the OST is very nice, the animation is decent and the re-watch potential high! WT!Personal notes and final thoughts: I want to say again that with this post I am referring to the first and second season of School Rumble. The show also has a two episodes OVA that is worth a watch. But KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF SAN GAKKI IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE MANGA.The first two seasons of School Rumble cover ~160 chapters of the manga that has 283 chapters in total. The San Gakki OVA skips most of the chapters and just covers the last few to bring the anime to a rushed conclusion that will confuse the not-manga-readers. I also do recommend the manga but you don't necessarily have to read it for the first two seasons. But if you want to watch San Gakki I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you read the manga first.If you are still here than I want to say thank you for reading all of this. Again I am not a native English speaker so please don't be too hard on me. I'm really looking forward to your comments. http://ift.tt/1Erbh42