School Rumble 2nd Term ep.5

May 2, 2006 | 15 Comments

It feels as if each week this series is getting new characters on a consistent basis. At first it was good because it allows for more diverse storyline. Lately, however, there are way too many of them, making it hard to remember each and every character. This is especially true for the male characters, who usually tend to look similar with one another. The thing is, most of them don't get featured more than once and usually never receives interesting storyline. As a result when the series feature them once in a while, I find it hard to figure out their identity. Anyway, this is a rather funny episode and quite sweet as well in some parts. Although if you're not a fan of the pairings suggested in this episode then I suppose you'll probably be kind of annoyed by it.

The episode begins with Tenma announcing that today is the start of the culture festival as well as Karasuma's birthday. For the sake of Karasuma's birthday, Tenma has practiced making birthday cake for him. Kouriyama-sensei is then seen visiting the cafe that class 2-C has created for the culture festival. However, the cafe looks more like a nightclub complete with hostess to entertain the male customers. Kouriyama-sensei is outraged to see this but it doesn't take long before he got 'tamed' by one of the female students, Saeko. At the same time, Tenma is depressed because no customer is interested in her company. This makes her wonder if she's not attractive. Because of this "Mama-san" Akira decides to encourage her by telling Tenma that when she was young, she was like Tenma too. Akira claims that she didn't have any confidence in herself. However, she asks Tenma not to give up because the time when she shines her best in this store will surely come one day.

Meanwhile, Hanai is working enthusiastically in the kitchen until Suga informs him that the Tea Club's cafe is taking all of their customers away. Nara decides to investigate but he immediately forgets his mission upon seeing Itoko in maid costume. Because of this, Hanai decides to take one for the team but just like Nara, immediately forgets everything after he sees Yakumo dressed up in policewoman costume and calls him "Detective". He ends up role-playing as a Detective, complete with fake mustache. Back in class 2-C's cafe, Tenma is the only one left entertaining a bunch of children while wearing a Dojibiron Pink mask. The reason Tenma is not being visited by Harima is because Harima is being forced to wash plates by Itoko. He's also feeling depressed because he has not received any news about the Manga Newcomer of the year award. When Yakumo sees this, she decides to cheer him up. Itoko tells Harima that a Manga-Sensei is waiting for him in a room.

The 'Sensei' turns out to be Yakumo wearing a disguise. When Yakumo finds out that Harima hasn't been drawing lately, she tries to encourage him to do his best. Their conversation, however, got interrupted when Hanai starts banging on the door looking for Yakumo because she has taken his glasses. Yakumo promises to return but when she goes back to the room, Harima is no longer there. He, however, left her a cartoon which tells her that he will try to adhere to her advice. At the same time, Harima is seen sitting underneath a tree when he gets a phone call asking him why he is not coming to the Manga Newcomer of the year award. Because he's not there, Eri's butler, Nakamura decides to represent him and receives the award. Harima is happy to hear that he wins the award but quickly calms down and decides to call Yakumo to let her know of the good news. Yay!!! While Harima is happy, the other 2-C boys are depressed because their cafe is getting any customer.

Hanai gets an idea to imitate Ouran High School's Host Club by dressing up like they are rejects from Saturday Night Fever. The idea, of course, ends up in failure. The boys, however, feel elated when the girls come and bring some food from the combini for the group. Meanwhile, Tenma comes to pick up her Karasuma cake from Yakumo but ends up finding her sister in the middle of decorating another cake with Harima's name in it. Yakumo tries to explain about Harima winning award but Tenma immediately assumes that something is going on between the two. She then takes both cake out of the room but decides to leave the one for Karasuma outside on a cart while he takes Harima's cake with her. Harima, who sees Tenma, tries to confess his feeling now that he wins the manga award. But he ends up tripping into the table, crushing the cake in the process. The ruined cake reveals the word "MA" (of Karasuma) in it so Harima assumes that the cake is meant for him.

When the class announces Karasuma's birthday, however, Harima realises that the cake wasn't meant for him. In a stupid attempt to correc this mistake, he decides to pounce on the cake, in the hope of ruining it so no one sees his name in it. But he finds out that the cake is actually meant for Yoshidayama for winning the sumo championship. When the class asks him why he did that, he claims that he thought the cake was meant for him. Because of this, Tenma brings out the cake that Yakumo made for Harima. Harima happily eats the cake because he thinks Tenma was the one who made it. Tenma herself decides to get her cake and give it to Karasuma. Poor Tenma, however, is shocked when she finds out that her cake now has Harima's name in it. In order to hide the truth, she cuts the cake into a crescent shape so that only the word MA is left on the cake. Tenma then stuffs the rest of the cake into her own mouth, apologising and claiming that she loves cake.

Later on, Tenma ends up crying alone because she feels like a failure. She, however, becomes happy again when Karasuma comes to thank her for the cake and asks her to go home together with him. The rest of the episode is a flashback when Tennouji Mio, and Harima Shuuji came to the culture festival. Shuuji, however, ran away in embarassment when Mio accuses him of having a crush on one of the Tsukamoto sisters. Mio ends up wandering alone in the school and encounters a series of mishaps including falling on stairs and being creeped out by Hanai. Thankfully Yakumo is around and ends up helping her. Mio admires Yakumo's beauty and along the way, tells the older girl about her crush on Shuuji. Upon finding out about this, Yakumo asks Mio not to cry because it will trouble the boy that she likes. Even though Yakumo hasn't got a boyfriend, if she does have one, she would like to smile at him. Mio eventually is reunited with Shuuji, who reveals that he was worried sick about her when they got seperated from each other.

Impression:

I can't believe I'm about to say this but I was actually happy to see Tenma with Karasuma. It was kind of painful to see Tenma looking sad after her cake turned into failure due to Harima's mixed up. So I can't help but smile when I saw Karasuma comes to make Tenma happy again. As for other couple, I think this is as good episode for Harima/Yakumo fans. To begin with, Yakumo seems to be the only person with whom Harima can talk like an adult. Yakumo was also the first person that Harima thought of contacting when he heard that he has won the award. It's true that since Yakumo was the one who helped him, it's natural for him to contact her first but considering his obsession with Tenma, I thought he would have contacted Tenma first. That suggests that at the very least, Harima considers Yakumo as a good friend and that's a good start. Next week, however, will be the big battle between Yakumo and Eri. It will definitely create some spark to say the least.

© memento 2003