School Rumble Z Volume 1 Chapter 04 (manga)
スクールランブルZ Chapter ♮4 “Scrooge”

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

A junior high school aged Harima is not thrilled with Christmas and he accidentally knocks down a young girl his age (Tenma). In the process, he ruins her Christmas cake and wants to make amends. Tenma tells the story of her little sister’s (Yakumo) dislike of Christmas despite writing a letter to Santa every year which says “Mom and Dad.” Harima decides to get his high school cousin (Itoko) to pretend to be a mother for a day, but she refuses as she has finals.

At Tenma’s and Yakumo’s home, Yakumo tells Tenma that she’s not interested in celebrating Christmas. Hearing a noise at the door, Tenma takes Yakumo to the front door where Harima is dressed up in a suit too large for him and a fake mustache. Yakumo demands to know what this is about and gets angry about Tenma being a busy body and destroying everything she touches. Yakumo’s words causes Harima to snap and slap her. Yakumo is shocked and despite having been on the receiving end of Yakumo’s wrath, Tenma won’t stand for someone attacking her sister and she punishes Harima with a wrestling slam move.

Harima tells the girls that he wants to show them something wonderful. He takes them to Itoko’s high school and up on the roof, they can see the city below lit up beautifully under the night sky. They are touched by the experience, which happened because Itoko arranged for them to have access.

Review/Thoughts:

Ah. Now here’s a chapter that really interested me. I haven’t read the School Rumble manga beyond what Del Rey has released so I don’t know what other stories pre-high school for Tenma, Yakumo, and Harima exists beyond the one where Harima first fell in love with Tenma. Still, I couldn’t help think “retcon” here, but the story overcomes the retcon element.

I loved seeing Itoko-sensei in high school. lol She’s too much and hasn’t changed much over the years regarding personality. She may act tough but she is a softy too.

The biggest thing is Yakumo. In junior high school, Yakumo was so bitter and angry. I don’t know what happened with their parents but clearly whatever it was impacted Yakumo deeply. She still loves and cares for Tenma, but the anger is a side I’ve not seen before. So when a junior high Harima slaps her (and gets a wrestling slam as a result from Tenma) before leading both girls to the roof of the school to look at the city below at night, it obviously caused her to let go and become the sweet girl we’ve come to know and love.

The chapter makes an implication about something happening on that same rooftop. Not having completed School Rumble, I don’t know if there’s a chapter there dealing with this. If there is, great — I’ll read it soon enough. If not, I hope that this story is covered in a future chapter of School Rumble Z.

I’m still not crazy about retconning, but the strength of the story in seeing a bit more about Tenma and Yakumo’s past makes me get past the retconning issue. I really do want to see more stories dealing with the core of School Rumble rather than placing the characters in fantasy situations or time periods.