School Rumble

School Rumble
A teenage man and girl dominate the cover in front of the title; the girl's face appears in front of and below the man's. The man wears sunglasses, has a goatee, a mustache and pulled black hair. The girl has black cowlick-pigtailed hair and wears a winter Japanese school uniform.
13th tankōbon volume cover, featuring Kenji Harima and Tenma Tsukamoto
スクールランブル
(Sukūru Ranburu)
GenreRomantic comedy[1]
Manga
Written byJin Kobayashi
Published byKodansha
English publisher
ImprintShōnen Magazine Comics
Magazine
DemographicShōnen
Original runOctober 23, 2002 – May 20, 2009
Volumes23 (List of volumes)
Series titles
  1. School Rumble (2002–08, 22 volumes)
  2. School Rumble Z (2008–09, 1 volume)
Anime television series
Directed byShinji Takamatsu
Produced by
  • Bunpei Ogawa
  • Fukashi Azuma
  • Hidenori Itahashi
Written byHiroko Tokita
Music byToshiyuki Omori
StudioStudio Comet
Licensed by
Original networkTV Tokyo
English network
Original run October 5, 2004 – March 29, 2005
Episodes26 (List of episodes)
Original video animation
School Rumble: Extra Class
Directed byShinji Takamatsu
Produced by
  • Bunpei Ogawa
  • Akihiro Sekiyama
Written byHiroko Tokita
Music byToshiyuki Omori
StudioStudio Comet
Licensed by
  • AUS: Madman Entertainment
  • NA: Funimation
  • UK: Revelation Films
ReleasedDecember 22, 2005
Episodes2 (List of episodes)
Anime television series
School Rumble: 2nd Semester
Directed byTakaomi Kanasaki
Produced by
  • Bunpei Ogawa
  • Hidenori Itahashi
Written byHiroko Tokita
Music byToshiyuki Omori
StudioStudio Comet
Licensed by
  • AUS: Madman Entertainment
  • NA: Funimation
  • UK: Revelation Films
Original networkTV Tokyo
English network
  • US: Funimation Channel
Original run April 3, 2006 – September 25, 2006
Episodes26 (List of episodes)
Original video animation
School Rumble: 3rd Semester
Directed byShinji Takamatsu
Produced by
  • Bunpei Ogawa
  • Kensuke Tateishi
  • Masakazu Yoshimoto
  • Motohiro Nakata
  • Ryoichi Suzuki
Written byHiroko Tokita
Music byToshiyuki Omori
StudioStudio Comet
Released July 17, 2008 – September 17, 2008
Episodes2 (List of episodes)

School Rumble (Japanese: スクールランブル, Hepburn: Sukūru Ranburu) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi. It was serialized in Kodansha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine from October 2002 to July 2008, with its chapters collected in 22 tankōbon volumes. Magazine Special published School Rumble Z monthly from August 2008 to May 2009, with its chapters collected in a single volume. School Rumble is a romance comedy centering on relationships between Japanese high school students, School Rumble focuses on a love triangle involving the series' two protagonists, Tenma Tsukamoto and Kenji Harima, and one of their classmates, Oji Karasuma. The series often discards realism in favor of comedic effect.

School Rumble's popularity has resulted in its adaptation into multiple forms of media. TV Tokyo broadcast a 26-episode anime program between October 2004 and April 2005. In December 2005, a two-part original video animation (OVA) entitled School Rumble: Extra Class was released. A second season, School Rumble: 2nd Semester, aired between April and September 2006. Finally, two more episodes, collectively entitled School Rumble: Third Semester, were bundled with the Japanese manga volumes 21 and 22. Three video games have been produced—two for the PlayStation 2 in July 2005 and July 2006, and one for the PlayStation Portable in 2005. Two light novels written by Hiroko Tokita and illustrated by Kobayashi were published in April 2004 and December 2007; four official guidebooks illustrated by Kobayashi and written by his editors have also been released.

Del Rey Manga published the English translation of the first 16 volumes of School Rumble in physical format. In the translation, Del Rey Manga maintained the traditional Japanese name order[n 1] to preserve puns based on the characters' names. Kodansha USA published the English translation in digital format. Funimation published the first and second anime seasons and the Extra Class OVAs in English. School Rumble has been translated into additional languages, although the final two episodes, the video games, and guidebooks have yet to be released outside Japan.

The manga was well received by Japanese-language readers; several volumes have appeared in the top manga sales charts. The North American English translations were less popular, but still ranked several times in the top 100 as well as ranking 145th for overall manga series sales in 2008. Critics of the English-language translation have been positive overall, praising Kobayashi for his art style and overall use of humor. However, the manga has received some criticism, mostly centered on some of the jokes and repetitive plot. The anime adaptation also sold well in Japan and was praised by Kobayashi and—for the English-language translation—critics. The decision by Media Factory to aggressively pursue its intellectual property rights for School Rumble is believed by proponents of fansubs to have had a negative impact on the franchise's release and sales in the North American market.

In 2009, Kobayashi said "School Rumble is an important piece that I want to draw more, but I wanted to do more other things so I ended it. When I have some time, I would like to draw their adult days in a seinen magazine."[2]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Last School Rumble volume was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Puff April 2009 issue (in Japanese). Japan: Zassosha. February 2009.


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