School Rumble Z Volume 1 Chapter 05 (manga)
スクールランブルZ Chapter ♮5 “Michael Clayton”

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

NISHIMOTO Ganji is rich and the head of a huge empire and with the help of trusted aide Yoshidayama, he plans to win the election and rule Yagami City. His opponent is Haruhi, who’s married to Mikoto and they have a child on the way. Mikoto wants Hanai to spend more time at home, but Hanai is very dedicated to his political career. Yoshidayama sets Hanai up with a staged photo event so that word gets out that Hanai beat up an old man. This causes a huge stir in Japan.

Meanwhile, Eri returns to Japan (she’s working as an airline stewardess) and to her mansion, where she learns that Nishimoto and Yoshidayama have come to visit her. They want her support for the coming election and offer a briefcase full of money. She declines and pays a visit to her old friend Mikoto. Mikoto says that while she doesn’t want her husband’s reputation ruined, she would like him home more. Since Mikoto is a friend and she doesn’t like how Nishimoto and Yoshidayama are operating, she agrees to get Hanai’s honor restored. Indeed, she’s already worked on it, having called “T” to do so.

Next, Eri pays Yakumo a visit at her publishing house. She gets Yakumo to publish certain photos she has of Nishimoto and Yoshidayama. The other reason for Eri’s visit is to tell her rival that she has a lead on Harima, who was seen at Heathrow Airport. Yakumo is happy to hear the news but wonders why Eri tells her. For Eri, it is simple — she did it because she wanted to.

The photos are published, causing Nishimoto and Yoshidayama to go down. The photos are courtesy of “T”AKANO Akira, who did the job for free.

Review/Thoughts:

Whoa! Mikoto and Hanai together, eh? *lol* I have to say that I loved it. Ever since the chapter showing how they were as kids and how perfect they are for each other (even if they really haven’t looked at each other that way, at least in the Del Rey School Rumble volumes I’ve read), I’ve hoped they’d eventually hook up. I don’t know if School Rumble ever gets them to do so, but I do like this futuristic tale that shows them to be together as husband and wife. Love it, love it, LOOOVE it!

I can see Hanai being a politician, especially since he was class rep in high school.

Then there’s Eri. I take it she’s still very rich. She still has the mansion, the butler, and a whole slew of connections, but she also works as an airline stewardess? *lol* At first, I couldn’t wrap my head around that notion and figured I’d misread until I read the chapter a second time. Then I realized that she’s only working the job as a means of looking for Harima, who’s apparently disappeared. Seeing the jet she was on, its clear she’s doing international flights and as we learned, her stewardess connections in London gave her a tip. That’s some dedication to find the man you love.

Also, I loved how Eri helped out Mikoto and then even passed on information to her rival in love, Yakumo. I loved the blush that Yakumo gave when hearing about Harima and I just like how Yakumo and Eri are adult about being in a love triangle. Plus, I like that Yakumo is apparently a person of power in the manga world. ^_^

Yoshidayama and Nishimoto were a hoot in this chapter. I rather enjoyed seeing how they’d actually formed their own empire, where very wealthy, and had Eri not risen up to stop them, they would have won an election (well, Nishimoto would have). So that was a lot of fun.

Finally, there’s Akira. There was that one side story chapter that showed Akira rescuing some boy in a foreign land from the Del Rey published stuff. I don’t know if more of Akira’s secret life is revealed in School Rumble, but I love the implication that she’s got sniper skills.

Notice how I said “love” a lot? I meant it. I thought that the last chapter was pretty good looking at the past of Harima, Tenma, and Yakumo. This chapter is even better because it showed many of the School Rumble characters as adults. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind fun stories like this more often, with the “where’s Harima” element being played out. Since Kobayashi-sensei seems keen on doing these stand alone chapters, I wonder if my wish will come true.