Netflix Streaming Bargain Bin: “School Rumble”
by Memphis Paul
5. One of the great aspects of Netflix over say the neighborhood Blockbuster is that there are little niche genres like pulp Italian horror from the 1970s, water based teen dramas from Australia and a large amount of Funimation and Gonzo anime, of which “School Rumble” is one of my favorites.
4. This series is an ensemble of Japanese high schoolers with the main focus on clueless but outgoing Tenma Tsukamoto (in love with disinterested Oji Karasuma), reformed bruiser Kenji Harima who loves the oblivious Tenma, and a couple other girls who have interest in Kenji with limited results, Yakumo Tsukamoto (younger sister to Tenma but not from a maturity standpoint) and classmate to Tenma, Eri Sawachika, a beautiful and rich Westerner whose love/hate interactions with Kenji she cannot explain.
3. The stories are silly, undercut with a serious kind of politeness common to these anime, and it is nice that the characters are stupid and oblivious in an endearing way, which is a credit to the voicework and Americanization of the storylines and the original writing of Jin Kobayashi whose manga series the show is based on.
2. There is a real feel of how it was to be a teenager with the misunderstandings, unexpressable longings that are taken seriously but with the action playing out as a farce, which feels like the stop-start life of the teenager.
1. If you find you enjoy this title there are a wide range of other anime options of various types but I would recommend most strongly Vandread, Gunslinger Girl and Spice and Wolf.
The Cast of “School Rumble”
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