School Rumble Second Semester (
School Rumble Nigakki, 2006) picks up exactly where the first season left off, with Harima just back from his adventures at sea and the cultural festival due to start at Yagami High. The characters remain as clueless as ever, and the comic situations escalate. Class 2-C debates whether they should put on a play or run a coffee house for the festival until the two sides decide to face off in a survival game that parodies war movies. Hanai, who wants a "maid" coffee shop, drills his troops to the chant, "I don't care what you assume/ I like a girl in a neat costume," while Yoshida and his friends complicate the battle by campaigning for a sexy sumo wrestling show. Amid the chaos of curry-eating contests, romantic miscues, and pointless challenges, the girls put together a creditable basketball team, Harima wins an honorable mention in the manga "New Faces" contest and everyone manages to pass their exams. The send-ups of other anime and Western films grow more outrageous with each episode. When Harima suffers a spell of artistic self-doubt, Yakumo appears to him as a caricature of "manga god" Osamu Tezuka, complete with beret; Hanai's foraging trip during a picnic becomes a parody of Hayao Miyazaki's
Princess Mononoke; and Tenma's favorite TV shows morphs into a samurai period piece for the gang, with Harima in the Toshiro Mifune/mystery swordsman role. Fans of the initial
School Rumble will be delighted to find the freewheeling nuttiness they love continues unabated. (Rated TV PG: suitable for ages 12 and older: comic violence, risqué and religious humor, nudity, alcohol and tobacco use)
--Charles Solomon (1. Scramble Reloaded! Superstar Request! Scandalous Restart! 2. Strategy, Battlefield, Friends, 3. Beautiful Beast vs. Beautiful Beast, God of War vs. God of Warfare, Teacher vs. Student, 4. Wild Ideas about the Play! Wild Ideas at the Bathhouse! Wild Ideas about Rice Balls! 5. Hostesses Are Culture! Comics Are Culture! Cake Is also Culture! 6. Sleeping Beast Kiss Impossible! Finale! 7. Fight, Hunter! Fight, Eater! Fight, Part-Time Worker! 8. Bam! Birth of a Girl's Basketball Team! Bam! If You Please! Swing Set of Tears! 9. Pass! Dribble! Shoot! 10. Hee! Hee Hee! Hee Hee Hee! 11. Napoleon, between Life and Death... Nishimoto, between Sex and Self-Control... Sara, between Saintliness and Self, 12. Perfect, Forbidden! Entery, Forbidden! Shorts, Forbidden! 13. When I Turned Around, There He Was, In Karasuma's Name. All Mysteries Revealed!) =
