School Rumble Sangakki OVA 01
スクールランブル三学期 (OVA) Ep. 01 / 25
School Rumble San Gakki (OAV) ep. 01 / 25

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Fast-forward past many, exciting events that have never been animated to a time when class 2-C and 2-D are in a walking marathon competition. Karasuma-kun and Tenma are paired up, so Tenma attempts to confess but every time she does so, Karasuma races ahead of her. She ends up falling on her face and thinks it is over, however Karasuma returns to help her back to her feet. Now she has the perfect opportunity to confess her feelings for Karasuma while Harima and Hanai have a final race to the finish.

Class 2-C wins the competition and as Mikoto, Eri, and Akira look for Tenma and Karasuma. They find Tenma alone by the beach crying and know what has happened. Harima sees this and learning that Karasuma will be going to the airport, Harima steals Tani-sensei’s bike and races to the school. There he finds Karasuma alone in their classroom. Deciding he’s had enough of Karasuma toying with Tenma, Harima starts beating Karasuma, landing several good blows. However, Karasuma fights back. As the two battle, Karasuma reveals that he actually does have feeling for Tenma. After Harima wins the fight, he understands why Karasuma is the way he is and helps him out.

While the fight has been going on, Yakumo tells the whole truth of Karasuma’s reason for going to America to Eri, Makoto, and Akira. Tenma has gone into a kind of denial, so the group gets her back to her and Yakumo’s home. There, a party starts with some serious cola drinking, leading to Tenma getting drunk somehow and ranting about her feelings for Karasuma. Harima arrives at the home to retrieve Tenma to make her happy. Tenma isn’t sure about this, but Harima won’t take no for an answer. Thus, he grabs her, puts her on his motorcycle, and takes off to the airport so that Tenma can see Karasuma before he leaves.

Thoughts/Review:

What the…?! OK, let me get this straight. Instead of doing a proper 3rd TV series, lets do a 2-episode OVA, only lets skip everything in the manga that Nigakki did not get to when it ended until near the end of the manga run. Yeah, because that makes sense. Sheeze. I realize that due to OVA expenses, these things are done for fans of the manga but seriously, this disappointed me greatly and I am a HUGE fan of the manga. sigh

The way this OVA is being done, I really wonder if there will be any more anime after episode 2 comes out. Combine this with the way that Kobayashi-sensei has abruptly ended the manga in Japan (supposedly, he’s going to do a sequel manga called School Rumble Z but that’s all I know at this point) with unresolved plot threads and one wonders if Kobayashi-sensei and the anime production staff are purposefully trying to anger School Rumble fans.

That annoyance aside, there are moments of fun despite the fact that so much story has been skipped. I did chuckle a few times. Getting drunk off of soda is pretty funny after all. ^_^; However, with no buildup, it is hard to find a lot of good in this if you haven’t read the current manga in Japan, and I haven’t. This episode certainly does touch some spoilers though, so I know what to expect in the manga (some of it not unexpected but still…).

Update: I see the episode is actually being labeled as “episode 25,” as if it were the OVA episodes attached to the end of a TV series (but not shown on TV) when it makes its DVD/Blue Ray run. I don’t know what that means but if you do, by all means enlighten me. 😄