スクールランブル三学期 (OVA) Ep. 02 / 26
School Rumble San Gakki (OAV) ep. 02 / 26

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Harima races his bike to the airport with Tenma in tow despite her protests. Yakumo sees the roses Harima abandoned and knows that this means that Harima put aside his feelings. She tells Eri, Akira, and Mikoto, who then arrange for Harry and Tougou to help Harima. Since Harima is being chased by the police, they run interference for him, allowing him and Tenma to escape. Arriving at Narita Airport, Tenma races to the international flight area but is dismayed when she learns she needs her passport to get a ticket to America. However, Itoko and Youko (teachers and best friends) bring her passport and luggage after Tenma and Harima have a long talk. Tenma is off to America.

At home, Yakumo is alone but soon various people she knows from school (mostly from Tenma’s class) come by to visit. Harima doesn’t come, instead he goes to a bar to mull things over. When a man blows smoke at him, Harima punches him and leaves. Outside the bar, a group of guys are waiting for him. The following morning at a shrine, Eri finds the beaten Harima and attends to his wounds. He says some mean things about her and how he’d never be attracted to her. This hurts Eri a great deal, leading her to slap the heck out of him and tell him that she’s not what he thinks. Despite being seen with a lot of men, she’s never been interested in any of them. After one final punch, the two make up.

Eri tells Mikoto that while Karasuma’s condition isn’t life threatening, he’s lost his memory and lost some of his ability to think. As such, he’s unable to return Tenma’s love, but Tenma stays and helps him just the same. Sometime later, Yakumo gets a letter from Tenma which she shares with Sarah in which Tenma announces she’s returning to Japan with Karasuma in an attempt to jog Karasuma’s memory. So the class and other classes gather for a reunion to welcome Karasuma and Tenma back but things soon degenerate into a pie fight. Harima arrives which does trigger Karasuma’s memory…a bit (he calls Harima “Hanai”).

Thoughts/Review:

Hmmm….well, I love School Rumble but it is sad to see how rapidly things are run through here. I’m not sure how much of this is in the now-concluded manga, but I understand much (if not most) of the materials here are from the manga. No wonder fans weren’t happy with how things ended.

Anyway, I did chuckle at how Tenma came close to remembering her middle school encounter with Harima. I also chuckled at Harima’s punching the smoker for some reason. I don’t remember any other laugh moments though. I suppose that’s to be understood since this episode is supposed to be an end to School Rumble in anime form.

I guess the episode gives closure to Eri’s feelings for Harima. Unfortunately, nothing was done about Yakumo’s feelings for Harima, but I guess there was only so much time to squeeze everything into.

The pie fight at the end was just nuts. I know it was a way to have every character in the manga (anime) given a cameo. Other than that, it did nothing for me.

I loved the ED sequence. The song is nice, but the trip down memory lane by showing highlights of memorable moments in the first two anime series was very enjoyable.

Ultimately, the episode is just OK. I love seeing the characters but I couldn’t shake the feeling that what was written was designed to just “get it over with” as it were. So that hurts things, and that’s unfortunate. I would enjoy seeing a Sangakki TV series though I kinda doubt that happens.