School Rumble is a shonen comedy where the rumble centers on romantic relations with occasional action to spice things up. The story focuses mainly on a primary love triangle. Tenma Tsukumoto, a kind but clueless girl, is in love with Oji Kurasama, a curry-loving lethargic classmate. Harima Kenji, a former delinquent who begins drawing manga, has fallen love with Tenma to the point he'll attend school just to sit next to her. As the series progresses more characters are introduced and the love triangle between the three gets tangled as Tenma's friend, Eri Sawachika, gets involved in several incidents with Yakumo Tsukumoto, Tenma's sister.  School Rumble often dispenses with its romantic element in favor of the comical elements.

School Rumble: The Second Semester  continues to tangle the web of relationships. This season introduces many of the side characters left out in the first season that were in the manga, convoluting the relationship web further. It also develops the romantic relationships between Tenma and Kurasama as well as Harima and Tenma, Eri and Yakumo. In addition several episodes have no basis on the plot at all and are mere manga ideas Harima or another editor has written for proposal.

Highlights:
School Rumble: The Second Semester  is packed with a lot of great episodes on both sentimental and comical levels. For extreme out-of-this-world absurdness you have to look at the second and third episodes. The basic premise is the class needs to decide what their class activity for the school's festival is going to be. A raging debate between a maid café or a play, both of which tied. With a standoff ensuing Akira Takano forces the class into a survival war game of capture the flag with 2-C's band joining as the game escalates. Once the game begins the episode becomes very bloody and brutal. A lot of “deaths” occur with ultimately no side winning as there were not enough members to capture any flags. The scene finally ends revealing it was a movie stunt set up by Akira. Knowing that what is being shown on the episodes doesn't make sense compared to the rest of the series gives it a kind of surreal feeling. At the same time you are getting emotionally pulled in as the characters act like the situation really is a war zone and their lives really are at stake. Being able to show absurd comedy while playing it straight and in a way that doesn't feel out-of-place is what makes School Rumble stand a cut above the rest.

This season also had a lot more secondary characters put up front. While many of them I did not care for, there were a few that I liked, such as  Kyousuke Imadori, Karen Ichijo, Mai Otsuka, Hiroyoshi Aso and Satsuki Tawaraya. This gives a more fleshed-out world to School Rumble and allows readers of the manga to enjoy seeing some of their favorite characters in a particular scene rather than some random student. In other cases it allows the narrative to follow some of the other students rather than the main love-triangle always being the focus while still having Harima or Tenma make appearances as the secondary characters for the episode or scene.

Extras:
FUNimation includes two interviews with the set. The first was with Tenma's Seiyū (Japanese voice actress), Ami Koshimizu, and the second was with Jin Kobayashi, the mangaka for School Rumble from which the anime is closely based on. I'm glad FUNimation included the 2 interviews, particularly with Jin Kobayashi, as it gives some insight into his manga. However, after watching Koshimizu's interview, I get the feeling there should have been more interviews. If that's the case I would have preferred to have them all as I enjoy watching them.

Overall:
School Rumble: The Second Semester is definitely a unique comedy. Jin Kobayashi is able to blend absurdest humor and play it straight without it feeling wrong. The series is constantly taken to new heights. In addition, the second series really begins to strengthen the bonds set in the first series as well as explore a few new ones. The relationships between several of the characters, notably Tenma and Kurasama as well as Karen and Ichijo, are much more firmly cemented than in the first season.

School Rumble  has something for everyone if you like comedy or romance and The Second Semester just expands upon that with more characters and even some intense action episodes While there is rumble in School Rumble, it is lacking in the action scenes the title deliberately conjures in some minds, with martial arts battles or the like. The comedy elements are present in every episode and even if you don't like a particular scene or episode you'll almost certainly find something appealing. The romantic ones often tend to end in either comical situations or semi-resolved states with ambiguous endings. There are only a few actual couples and they are minor characters. Although a lot of the relationships do clear up, the web does get tangled a bit more with the introduction of side characters, such as Mikoto Sou and Aso; Mikoto was in the first season as a major character while Aso appeared in the anime ony during the second season.

As for the main love triangle, Harima still cannot confess his love for Tenma, even after writing a manga with both of them as the stars, Meanwhile, Tenma gets closer to Kurasma, thanks in part to Harima's efforts, as he's conflicted. Harima wants Tenma to be happy and she's happiest around Kurasama even though he'd rather have her love him. Eri and Yakumo's relationship with Harima get closer as well.  I'll be honest here, between the rivals for Harima, Eri and Yakumo, I clearly prefer Yakumo. While Eri seems to get closer at first, near the end of the series it is shown that Yakumo is getting closer. Near the end of the series she is actually confronted with the possibility that she really has fallen in love with Harima. While it had been hinted at multiple times throughout the series, this was the first time the anime confronted it directly; Eri has had multiple times where Tenma or Mikoto have directly confronted her about her relationship wth Harima.

The one downside about the series is its ultimate ending. For all the plot advancement, it rolls back some key items in the final scenes and doesn't really state whether Yakumo will pursue Harima or not while the situation with Eri is at a standstill. though both realize each other can sometimes not be as bad as the other thought; there is no clear resolution. While Tenma has gotten closer to Kurasama, she still has yet to confess and even though Tenma figured out who Harima was from her past, she forgets it the next day due to an accident. That all, in addition to the other unresolved secondary characters' relationships, makes the ending feels like a real cop-out and the lack of an animated third season in Japan means for those watching the anime the ending leaves you wanting more. In spite of this minor issue, the series is still great and its hard to hold it against them when they were clearly aiming for a third season when this aired.

School Rumble: The Second Semester is one of those classics that should be in any Otaku's library or just a key part of the average Anime fan's collection.

ComicsOnline gives School Rumble: The Second Semester 5 out of 5 super-spicy plates if curry.