School Rumble

School Rumble (????????, Suk?ru Ranburu) is a Japanese sh?nen manga series written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi. First serialized in Weekly Sh?nen Magazine from October 22, 2002 to July 23, 2008, all 345 chapters were later collected in 22 tank?bon volumes by Kodansha. Magazine Special published School Rumble Z monthly 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, Tenma Tsukamoto and Kenji Harima, and one of their classmates, Oji Karasuma. The series often discards realism in favor of comedic effect. School Rumble's popularity has resulted in its adaptation into multiple forms of 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: 2nd Semester, aired between April and September 2006. Finally, two more episodes, collectively entitled School Rumble: Third Semester, were bundled with the Japanese manga volumes 21 and 22. Three video games have been produced—two for the PlayStation 2 in July 2005 and July 2006, and one for the PlayStation Portable in 2005. Two light novels written by Hiroko Tokita and illustrated by Kobayashi were published in April 2004 and December 2007; four official guidebooks illustrated by Kobayashi and written by his editors have also been released. Del Rey Manga published the English translation of the first 16 volumes of School Rumble in physical format. In the translation, Del Rey Manga maintained the traditional Japanese name order to preserve puns based on the characters' names. Kodansha USA published the English translation in digital format. Funimation 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 have 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 on some of the jokes and repetitive plot. The anime adaptation 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 by proponents of fansubs to have had a negative impact on the franchise's release and sales in the North American market. In 2009, Kobayashi said "School Rumble is an important piece that I want to draw more, but I wanted to do more other things so I ended it. When I have some time, I would like to draw their adult days in a seinen magazine."