Retsgip’s Anime Blog

Rating: 8/10

I’d say, overall, this was a pretty good episode. It was pretty much typical School Rumble material. I just wish that they fit in more relationship related stuff, but the comedy was good enough to make it worth watching.

The whole storytelling thing was pretty funny, but I think Harima’s “retaining-sensei” story was the best. I can’t get over the way he pauses to go “eh?” at certain things, and just stands there staring for 2-3 seconds. It’s classic. Then of course he goes nuts and starts powering up and stuff.

I must say though. Even though I’m not a big fan of Tenma at all, she looks pretty good in Harima’s imagination. Their matchup would never work though because she’s too damn stupid and never notices anything he does. I think he’d do better with Eri or Yakumo.

I like how retaining-sensei (italicized is supposed to make it spooky) wasn’t in the bathroom when Harima walks in, and they you see him blurry in the background when Harima steps up to the stall. Then, BOOM, he’s right there shoulder to shoulder and Harima’s sweating bullets. I was cracking up.

Can’t forget the Harima completely pwning Imadori in his retaining-sensei face. God, without Harima, I think this show would be a waste. He’s just too damn funny sometimes.

This is actually kinda creepy. Like, yeah, really creepy. Almost as creepy as when Eri’s butler dressed up in her clothes in the survival game arc. Scaaaaary. Also, notice Akira is normal in this pic. She actually changes to retaining-sensei in the next scene and they point to her and mention a time lapse. It is quite possible, that we’ll never see these three so ugly ever again, so remember it well.

Any scene with Itoko and Harima together is gold. I love the way they interact with eachother. Harima should just give up though, he’s never going to beat her and only adds to the long list of pain she’s brought upon him. But that’d be boring right? Either way, you can tell it’s a caring relationship…in a uh, tough-love-for-a-sibling sort of way.

Even though I didn’t find the Tenma portion of retaining-sensei to be that funny, I still enjoyed some parts of it. I’d have to say that my favorite scene was when Tenma answers her Pyshics question completely wrong, and all three of them get up and leave. I wasn’t even expecting it, so it caught me off guard and got a good laugh from it.

On a somewhat related, yet not really that related topic, I never remember studying very much in highschool. I guess it is true that United States is a lot easier in terms of school difficulty than other countries, at least thats what I’ve heard. I’ll always see students in anime staying up all night to study material for their finals and give a hearty “wtf” in their direction. I don’t study that hard in college and I get decent grades. Oh well, United States is easy mode I guess, which is fine by me (more time for anime!).

The three girls’ dating critique of Miko and Asou was pretty nice. Not really super funny, but it was fun. It also allowed us to see some character interaction! I love all the characters and its nice to see them going dates or doing real life things every once in awhile. Sometimes there’s so much comedy that not much ever gets done, but when we get to see stuff like this, I’m happy. It kind of just ended though, making me sad and wanting more. Hopefully this isn’t the last we see of these two.

Overall, not a bad episode. I was relatively satisfied with the amount of comedy and the mix of real life situations. I’m also pretty happy that School Rumble 2nd term tends to live up to my expectations of what to expect. There’s not many animes out there that deliver such a fun and comedic environment, and do so with such consistency. Very refreshing.