SCHOOL RUMBLE

School Rumble is a Japanese shonen manga series written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi. First serialized in Weekly Shonen Magazine from October 22, 2002 to July 23, 2008, all 345 chapters were later collected in 22 tankobon volumes by Kodansha. Magazine Special published a parallel world story, School Rumble Z, monthly from August 20, 2008 to May 20, 2009. A romance comedy centering on relationships between Japanese high school students, School Rumble focuses on a love triangle involving the series’ two protagonists, Kenji Harima and Tenma Tsukamoto, 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 adaption 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.

PLOT:
School Rumble is a romantic shonen comedy revolving around the daily lives of the students of Class 2-C at the fictional Yagami High School, as well as their friends and families. The main female protagonist is Tenma Tsukamoto, an unremarkable second-year high school student who secretly admires her eccentric, enigmatic, nice-guy classmate, Oji Karasuma. Tenma struggles to confess her feelings to Oji. He remains oblivious to her interest, instead seeking fulfillment by indulging in curry. The main male protagonist, delinquent Kenji Harima, similarly yearns for Tenma, attending school solely to be near her. Like Tenma, Harima has difficulty declaring his love, and whenever he summons the courage to do so, circumstances conspire against him.

PLAYSTATION 2 GAME:
School Rumble is inspired by the popular manga/animation but different from the recent PSP version of the game, Bandai presents a new story featuring the affable cast of School Rumble. The heroine of the series, Tenma Tsukamoto, is infatuated with the aloof Ouji Karasuma but he’s transferring to another school next year. Strapped for time, Tenma has only until the end of the current school semester to convince Ouji that she’s the girl for him. Tenma recruits her younger sister Yakumo and a few friends to help the cause. To complicate things, fellow student Kenji Harima has a crush on Tenma to complete the bizarre love triangle which leads to high jinks and hilarity.

The game is played in interactive sequences where Tenma speaks to school chums and obtains keywords during the course of a day. Based on the keywords that Tenma collects, events will change according to their context. Tenma lives out each day at school and then sleeps at night where her dreams and occasional nightmares are affected by her keywords. If Tenma suffers a nightmare, she will be listless and tired the next day which will make her less attractive to Ouji and cause her to lose points. To add a bit of strategy to the gameplay, Tenma may engage in a mahjong-like battle game where the images of 12 schoolmates are plastered on mahjong tiles. Groups of three tiles are thrown out against an opposing trio and the strongest “hand” wins.

The voice cast from the animation participate in the PS2 game for additional street cred.

The limited edition of School Rumble includes the following bonus items:
– Special slipcase featuring Tenma Tsukamoto
– Soundtrack music CD
– PC CD-Rom containing computer programs and software widgets
– Sticker set