SERIES REVIEW
School Rumble the anime is one of my all-time favorite series, and since it ended after season 2, I was left with a lot of loose ends to tie up. I wanted to see how things ended, so I picked up the manga. And for the most part, it was what you would expect. It was cute, funny, and full of heart. Then, around book 16 or 17, there was a definite shift in the tone of the series. And as things went on, the story got more and more tense. The love triangles went from being cute to very serious. By the time we got to the last few books, I felt like I had been dragged through the wringer. The story that I had come to love early on was, well, it was gone. It had changed. It had become something serious and sad and tense.
In the anime, Karasuma is an alien. In the manga, we learn that he's sick--but not with something like cancer, but in that great sadness of Alzheimer's, where the brain slowly gives up the ghost until there is nothing left by the bodily shell. He goes to America for treatment, and at Harima's insistence, Tenma follows him. Because she loves him, and Harima loves her. But, she is left with a Karasuma who cannot talk, who cannot recognize her, in a strange country where she cannot speak the language...and Tenma grows up all at once, in that moment. The Tenma we loved, the ditzy, stupid, bratty, selfish, lovable girl, is gone.
Yakumo is left all alone. And Harima, after everything he went through, becomes a wanderer and a drifter, first in Japan, and then in America. And he never actually tells Tenma how he feels. Karasuma admits his feelings, though, in an emotional confrontation scene.
Harima first lives with Yakumo and Sarah--after becoming engaged to Eri (not that it really means anything). Eri's love has been whittled down to "At least we can pretend, because then we never have to say anything" and Harima is miserable. This is probably why he leaves. The engagement feels forced, like Kobayashi was just trying to wind up that relationship somehow, and wasn't sure what to do.
There are so many questions (Akira loves Hanai??), so many loose ends, and so much disappointment by the end of the series. This is an emotional ending that will leave you feeling sweetly sad and empty by the time you are done. Personal recommendation? Stop the series about book 14, or better yet, just watch the anime and forget about the manga entirely! I'm still in shock over the ending. I almost feel cheated. It's just not fair. After how much fun we had, it was wrong to expect this much maturity from us.
This ending might have worked in another series, but even then, it would have been ridiculously sad and depressing. Even the final reunion in the last chapter is not enough to make up for it. This is not how things should have ended.
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EDIT: I was talking to my mom about this (because I'm super-depressed with this ending, and needed to talk to someone about it), and she made a very good point about the ending for those who are feeling like I am. Despite everything, it shows a lot of love. Harima loves Tenma so much that he helps her to be with Karasuma, even though it's not what he wanted. Karasuma loves Tenma so much that he did not want to burden her with his suffering. And Tenma loves Karasuma even more; so much so that she goes to America, a foreign country where she has no friends, cannot speak the language, and has NOTHING...and goes to school, learns English, and plans to become a nurse just so that she can care for him...because she loves him that much. That's deep. I would still argue that this was not the right series for an ending like this, but it was a beautiful testament of love...and it changed how I see the ending quite a bit. Thanks, Mom.