School Rumble (スクールランブル Sukūru Rambur) is a Japanese Shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi. First serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine from October 22, 2002 to July 23, 2008, all 283 chapters were later collected in 22 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha. A sequel, School Rumble Z, was published in the monthly Shōnen Magazine Special from August 20, 2008 to May 20, 2009. A romance comedy centering on relationships between Japanese high school students, School Rumble focuses on a love triangle involving the series' two protagonists, Kenji Harima and Tenma Tsukamoto, and one of their classmates, Oji Karasuma. The series often discards realism in favor of comedic effect.
School Rumble has been adapted into multiple other media. TV Tokyo broadcast a 26 episode anime program between October 2004 and April 2005. In December 2005, a two-part original video animation (OVA) entitled School Rumble: Extra Class was released. A second season, School Rumble: The Second Semester, aired between April and September 2006. Finally, two more episodes, collectively entitled School Rumble: 3rd Semester, were bundled with the Japanese manga volumes 21 and 22. Three video games have been produced; two for the PlayStation 2 (PS2) in July 2005 and July 2006, and one for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in 2005. Two light novels written by Hiroko Tokita and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi were published in April 2004 and December 2007; four official guidebooks written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi have also been released.
Del Rey Manga publishes the English translation of School Rumble. In the translation, Del Rey Manga maintained the traditional Japanese name order to preserve puns based on the characters' names. Funimation Entertainment published the first and second anime seasons and the Extra Class OVAs in English. School Rumble has been translated into additional languages, although the final two episodes, the video games, and guidebooks, have yet to be released outside Japan.
The manga was well received by Japanese-language readers; several volumes appeared in the top manga sales charts. The North American English translations were less popular, but still ranked several times in the top 100 as well as ranking 145th for overall manga series sales in 2008. Critics of the English-language translation have been positive overall, praising Kobayashi for his art style and overall use of humor. However, the manga has received some criticism, mostly centered around some of the jokes and repetitive plot, but they do not overshadow the positives. The anime adaptation has also sold well in Japan and was praised by Kobayashi and—for the English-language translation—critics. The decision by Media Factory to aggressively pursue its intellectual property rights for School Rumble is believed to have had a negative impact on the franchise's release and sales in the North American market.
