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REVIEW: School Rumble + Artbox DVD 1




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Randall Miyashiro



Joined: 12 Jun 2003
Posts: 2451
Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park
PostPosted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 12:38 am Reply with quote
Maybe my low expectations are what made me actually like this DVD. Although not as funny as Azumanga or Excel I did enjoy this first disc which comes with the magnets and reversible cover in the standard edition. I love all the puns and in jokes which are oddly enough not supported with liner notes for those who don't know Japanese. I knew we were in trouble from "suki" "ski" "sukiyaki" pun-o-rama in the beginning of the first episode. I knew we were further in trouble later in the episode when that Tofu company car zipped by the screen with the directors name on it. There were a bunch of other moments that I can't remember (yikes, been only a few weeks) where I wonder if the jokes would be lost on the Western audience.
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chaoswing



Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 1:53 am Reply with quote
i don't even know why this anime was licensed. Like 95% of the jokes in school rumble revolve around japanese culture, words, and anime cliches. if you aren't well versed in those things, its not going to be funny. There's no way the dub or a sub can capture the original meaning, unless you know a bit of Japanese.

Anyways the reviewer seems to be one of those people who can't get it. The review was too harsh. School rumble is way funner than the review made it out to be. i can't get enough of it. I'm going to buy the dvds.

Btw the locker dvd idea doesn't make any sense because Japanese high school students don't use them. i mean they have a cubby hole for their shoes, but they don't use lockers.
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bleuster



Joined: 22 Sep 2005
Posts: 455
Location: Orange County
PostPosted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:09 am Reply with quote
chaoswing wrote:
Like 95% of the jokes in school rumble revolve around japanese culture, words, and anime cliches. if you aren't well versed in those things, its not going to be funny.

Doesn't seem that way to me the slightest. There's not much to understand with the gags they pull (getting locked or trapped in a room or what have you).
Shows like Pani Poni, on the other hand....

I have to hand it to Luci Christian. Sometimes I need a reference on hand to see if it's really her.
She gets me every time.
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la_contessa



Joined: 20 Apr 2007
Posts: 200
Location: Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:29 am Reply with quote
I was really surprised at how little the puns were explained in the sub (I didn't watch the dub)--Funimation at least attempted to explain what a kappa is, but that's about it. The manga volumes from Del Rey do a much better job. Honestly, if I didn't speak Japanese or have experience with the manga, I would have had a hard time following the jokes.

That said . . . I love School Rumble Anime smile The manga always makes me giggle insanely; the anime seems to do a good job of translating the inanimate humor of the manga to animated form in a way that capitalizes on the different medium.
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belisarius



Joined: 29 Jul 2005
Posts: 203
Location: Concord, NC
PostPosted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:42 am Reply with quote
Really surprised that this earned a lower rating (albeit not by much) than Muteki Kanban Musume. While I enjoyed both shows, I really felt like School Rumble was the more irreverent and better produced show. To be fair, it doesn't really hit its stride until the full cast of supporting characters are laid out and the second season does get a little tiresome. That said, season 1 remained one of the funniest anime I've seen in ages and it's a lot more accessible than Excel Saga or Pani Poni Dash. Despite what previous posters say, this show is a romantic comedy at heart and most of the gags center around that romantic akwardness/tension. Whether you're Japanese, American, or German, anyone who's had a high school crush should be able to appreciate a lot of the humor. I'm not saying it's for everyone, but it's certainly not as uniquely Japanese as some people are making it sound.
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Grico



Joined: 18 May 2004
Posts: 201
Location: Fort Wayne, IN
PostPosted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:14 pm Reply with quote
I agree with the general assessment in terms of watching episodes. I watched the first 2 episodes and love them, but the end of episode 5 I didn't want to watch the show again for awhile. Its kind of fun so far but gets repetitive so episode spacing seems like a must. At the moment I am still unsure how they are going to fill a whole series out of this...
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luisedgarf



Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Posts: 657
Location: Guadalajara, Mexico
PostPosted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:27 pm Reply with quote
Well, I liked the series...

Until spoiler[Lala Gonzalez appeared. Shocked She is, IMO, the worst stereotype of a Mexican that I have even seen in my whole life!] Twisted Evil Twisted Evil
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Sago



Joined: 06 Feb 2007
Posts: 9
PostPosted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:43 pm Reply with quote
I really felt sad for the low rating. I really love School Rumble, it's my favorite anime comedy, and, in my sole opinion, it's a lot funnier than Excel Saga and PaniPoni. I mean, for me, a good comedy is a comedy which jokes are simple and everyone from (almost) everywhere can understand, not jokes where the viewer has to have watched the thousands of episodes of the hundreds of Gundam generations.

I never saw a lot of japanese-culture-related-jokes in School Rumble. Most of the jokes are universal (Tenma chasing Karasuma by bike while being chased by Harima = Best Thing Ever), and those that aren't are usually puns that can be easily adapted (like in the first episode, the ''suki'' stuff).

If a friend of mine (that isn't into anime) asks me what is a good comedy anime to watch, I'll probably recommend him to watch School Rumble before any other. That's 'cause I know he'll LAUGH, no almost-sleeping while hearing PaniPoni characters pretending to act like some japanese comedy movie ''I never saw it ever in my life and probably I'll never see''.

But, that's just my opinion.
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shiken



Joined: 05 Mar 2007
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 4:11 am Reply with quote
I had a post in this thread about my dissatisfaction about this review, and apparently it got deleted. Guess I'm not allowed to speak my mind here, carry on.
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Richard J.



Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 3367
Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis.
PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 2:42 pm Reply with quote
Review wrote:
No fault can be found in FUNimation's English dub, either, with one major exception: the narration which is supposed to be present throughout the parts of episode 4 focusing on Kasumo is conspicuously absent in the English dub even though it is present in both the subtitles and Japanese dub. Given that an English VA is credited for the role, this has to be some kind of technical problem rather than a deliberate omission.
As someone who vastly perfers English dubs, and has never seen School Rumble before getting the official DVD, I have to disagree that there aren't other problems with the dub.

First, if this ommission is a technical glitch, someone needs to start a disc replacement program ASAP because not having that narration really does make that part of the episode feel weird. Considering that Tenma's younger (yet far more mature) sister Yakumo is my favorite character, I really want them to fix this bit.

Second, one flaw the dub has is that the onscreen text subbing and the dub lines don't mesh very well at all. Also, some of the jokes are poorly adapted. (The Harima looking for his name on the class roster joke comes to mind.) I do like Funimation, but ADV's handling of Azumanga was superior. Some of Funi's rewriting just doesn't work in this volume. (I think it will likely improve.)

Third, with those exceptions, the dub is quite good. I think the casting is excellent. Luci as Tenma is perfect and I am really amazed that Caitlin Glass can sound so quiet and calm playing Yakumo. Wow. Leah Clark's Eri and Brina Palencia's Mikoto are spot on too. Heck, I'm not sure there are any poor casting choices.

And just a completely personal thing, but with so many amazing ladies in the cast, it's a shame there isn't more fanservice. Dang those character designs are sexy. Wink
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CaptainAvatar



Joined: 28 Aug 2006
Posts: 381
Location: Saint Louis, MO
PostPosted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:38 am Reply with quote
Richard J. wrote:
Luci as Tenma is perfect and I am really amazed that Caitlin Glass can sound so quiet and calm playing Yakumo.

Caitlin's performance was the standout for me since it is so unlike any of her previous performances. That, plus the fact that Yakumo is my favorite female character.

Based on the manga, I believe Funi blew the class name list even in the subs. I believe the name listed was "Harry McKenzie" which pronounces similar to Harima Kenji, but they listed it as Harima in the subs. I'm pretty sure it was Harry since it wasn't in Kanji, plus the fact that spoiler[Harry McKenzie ends up showing up later in the series, at least in the manga - I haven't watched this via fansubs.] I also loved the Initial D reference. I was laughing so hard I almost cried!

For those not impressed so far, fear not! The show is closely following the manga, and the manga gets better as it goes along.
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