School Rumble

 (スクールランブル ,Sukūru Ramburu?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi and serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine. The final chapter was released on July 23, 2008, and the 283 chapters were collected in 22 bound volumes by Kodansha. The sequel, School Rumble Z, is now published in the monthly Shōnen Magazine Special as well, but the first two chapters (as of late October) have been short, one chapter stories.

School Rumble is published in English by Del Rey Manga. Unlike other Del Rey releases, the manga uses the original Japanese naming order (family name followed by the given name) to preserve the puns in the manga. Funimation Entertainment released the first volume and starter box set on August 21, 2007.

=Plot= School Rumble depicts the daily lives of students of the fictional Yagami High School and their surroundings. The series is of the romance comedy genre, with scenes in the story being exaggerated for comedic purposes.

The main female protagonist is Tenma Tsukamoto, a second year high school girl with no special qualities who has a crush on the eccentric Oji Karasuma, an enigmatic nice guy. Tenma finds it difficult to confess her love to him. Complicating this is the main male protagonist, a delinquent, Kinji Harima, who has developed a deep crush on Tenma to the point he will attend school just be near her. He, too, has difficulty directly confessing his love to her and when he works up the courage, circumstances conspire against him. Oji Karasuma seems content with a nice plate of curry. The attempts of the two protagonists to confess their respective loves are running gags seen throughout the series.

As the series progresses, the relationship triangle evolves due to mistakes by Harima and misinterpretation Tenma and their classmates. A relationship that develops between Harima and Tenma's close friend, Eri Sawachika, which results from various embarrassing situations involving Eri and Harima. Later in the series, Harima also develops a relationship with Tenma's younger sister, Yakumo Tsukamoto, who becomes Harima's assistant for his manga. In addition Haruki Hanai, who has a crush on Yakumo, and Harima misinterpret the affections the one has for the other. While Harima gets himself into romantic situations with Tenma, the relationship between Tenma and Karasuma progresses and Eri's and Yakumo's bonds with Harima grow stronger.

While the story focuses mostly on Harima and Tenma and the relationships that revolve around them, the story also deals with relationships with the other characters in the series.

=Characters=
 * Main article: List of School Rumble characters

School Rumble features a diverse cast of characters, most of whom attend Yagami High School, and the protagonists and most of the supporting characters belong to Class 2-C. While both Kenji Harima and Tenma Tsukamoto are the protagonists, the focus is not exclusively on them, as the supporting characters in particular receive a fair amount of character development.

This supporting cast includes Oji Karasuma, Tenma's love interest, who otherwise does not play a more active role in the story. Yakumo Tsukamoto is Tenma's shy younger sister, who can easily read the thoughts of anybody who loves her, including boys who try to approach her, her sister and her pet cat Iori. Tenma's friends include Eri Sawachika, a wealthy, half-English, half-Japanese girl who becomes attracted to Harima, Mikoto Suo, a black belt in Kenpo, and Akira Takano, who is very perceptive, resourceful, intelligent, and mysterious. Rounding out the group is Haruki Hanai, a childhood friend of Mikoto's who is head over heels for Yakumo.

=Development= Before reading the manga, Ami Koshimizu, the seiyū for Tenma, initially attempted to interview for the role of Yakumo.

=Reception and Sales= Volume seventeen of the School Rumble manga was ranked the ninth best selling manga in Japan from June 19 through June 25, 2007 with the previous weeks ranking being at number seventh.

School Rumble has been well received by English reviewers. Eduardo M. Chavez from Anime on DVD commented about the manga that "the execution and randomness is perfect. Readers can literally pick up this title, select a chapter and enjoy. Comedy like that is universal making it a must for readers from all demographics." David Maduram stated that "The real strength of this series is its witty use of puns, wordplay, and comic situations." Lisa Marie from RightStuf's Anime Today podcast claims School Rumble is "insane". She qualified this statement by saying it appears on the surface more laid back than other anime titles like Excel Saga, but rather that it uses the cast to break every rule of reality, but does so playing it straight. Marie, as a fan of th sub-genre, praises it for its surreal humour.