School Rumble  Volume 18 Manga Review

Summary/Synopsis:

Harima learns that Eri is in love with him from Yakumo. Harima summons Eri to the roof to turn her down, where she tells him she’s not in love with him and that she didn’t destroy his script. Sudo discovers Kiko is cheating on Umezu. Hanai and Tougou go head to head for the student council election, only to lose. This causes Suo to start looking at Harima in a new light.

Tenma arranges to get Karasuma to wear regular clothes, but discovers that his regular clothes look the same as his school uniform. Tenma goes shopping with Karasuma, where she learns he’s a manga-ka. Karasuma invites her to his room, where she learns some of his secrets. Harima comes by, looking for a place to crash for a bit and is shocked to find Tenma there. Harima attempts to impress Tenma, but when she learns Karasuma is Nijou Jou-sensei, she is very excited since she’s a fan. She makes curry that is horrible, but Harima eats it until he passes out, but it doesn’t affect Karasuma negatively.

Harima awakes in the hospital with appendix problems and a concerned Tenma. After Tenma leaves, Eri’s butler Nakamura attempts to push Tenma and Eri forward, causing Eri to attack him. Harima apologies for thinking she loved him, so after giving him a hard time, but she then quietly admits that she could fall in love with him, although he’s unable to clearly hear what she said.

Ichijou takes a job as as Dojibiron Pink, where she’s horrified to find Imadori in the audience. Imadori doesn’t recognize her because she’s wearing a mask, but when her chest is revealed to be padded, he’s horrified. First year student Inaba decides to go for Hanai, so she has Yakumo deliver her love letter. Harima assumes it is from Yakumo, but when he opens it, it is full of incorrect wordage and grammar, so Harima thinks Yakumo is bad at writing.

Finally, there’s a flashback story of Yakumo and Tenma as kids.

Thoughts/Review:

So, Harima finally learns of Eri’s feelings for him. 😆

Before Yakumo let the cat out of the bag, I liked Yakumo’s analysis of Eri and how he was jealous of the strength she had the Yakumo didn’t have. It was also an interesting way for Yakumo to bow out, realizing she’s not the one best suited for Harima.

As an aside, the way the section is written, this could be Harima analyzing Eri. Initially, I wondered if it was Harima.

Eri finally scored a win (though only a partial victory) when she finally got Harima to acknowledge her, even though it was to turn her down. Of course she loved him, but she was able to turn Harima turning her down by denying it and being her normal, scoffing self to Harima, thereby putting him at doubt.

Later, when she visits him in the hospital and he apologizes to her, she has more revenge on him, but at the same time, we see how her victory wasn’t complete. After all, no man had ever turned her down. And she did admit that she could fall for him, but Harima didn’t quite catch it, so Kobayashi-sensei gets to continue to run with the Eri x Harima ship for a while.

I didn’t care too much for the story of Tougou’s and Hanai’s student council election, though it did produce Suo’s starting to see Hanai in a new light, which was nice.

I think this volume finally sold me on shipping Tenma x Karasuma. I feel badly for Harima, especially since he came to Karasuma’s home while Tenma was there, but while Karasuma is weird, he and Tenma do work as a couple.

Finally, the first true couple of School Rumble becomes 100% ugly. Minor characters Umezu and Kido were a cute couple when they came together, but over time, there have been hints that Kido has been cheating on Umezu. Here, we get the proof that she is cheating. So while the hapless Umezu only has suspicions and nothing more, Kido sleeps with any stud around and knows how to silence Suga.

In the end, School Rumble volume 18 was a lot of fun, especially the Eri x Harima ship stuff, the Tenma x Karasuma ship stuff, and Suo seeing Hanai in a new light (to say nothing of the fun in the side chapters). It really is a shame Del Rey didn’t continue the series.