School Rumble 2nd Term ep.2

April 9, 2006 | 14 Comments

That was quite good although it's hard to be impressed with the animation after watching Suzumiya Haruhi beforehand. The comedy is still funny and I really dig the Battle Royale reference where a third party killed Madoka after the later killed Shigeo. It looks similar to the scene in Battle Royale where Mitsuko (Shibasaki Kou) wasted Kotohiki (Takayo Mimura) after the other girl killed Hiroki (Sousuke Takaoka) in a misunderstanding. Having said that, I have never been a fan of dark animation sequence and this one has a lot of it. I always think it's a cheap way of cutting the budget. I am also a bit annoyed that some of the action shots in this episode are reused from one character to another. I guess it can't be helped since this is supposed to be a gun battle but I can't help but wondering if it could have been done better.

Brief summary:

As the cultural festival is getting closer, class 2-C can't decide if they want to do a play or if they should open a maid-cafe. Everyone in the class becomes excited about this. Well, everyone except Harima and Hanai. The two of them are still depressed after the last incident involving Yakumo. In order to motivate the two dorks, Akira cleverly tells Harima that if the class gets to do play, he'll have a starring role against Tenma. Unknown to Harima, she also tells Hanai that if the maid cafe idea wins, she'll recruit Yakumo to work there as well. Upon hearing this, the two boys become re-energized again. Akira then cunningly suggests that the two group play a game of capture the flag/gun battle to settle the matter. Because of this, that night everyone from class 2-C sneaks into the school and splits into two group. Those who are campaigning for a play (which include Harima and Eri among others) decide to make a base in the second floor.

On the other hand, Hanai's team, aka those who want the maid-cafe idea to win, decides to make the fourth floor their main base. While Hanai laids out his plan, however, a girl called Madoka sneaks out to see her boyfriend, Shigeo. As it turns out, however, she only does this so she can tell the boy that she'll attack him should they meet again next time. The game then begins at 7PM with the maid-cafe group starting an offence. They quickly get ambushed by Harima but manages to stay alive because Asou manages to attack Harima. While this happens, Jirou, Nishimoto, and Nara decide to fight for their own team: the sumo-wrestling. But unfortunately, Nishimoto is crushed by the locker that he used to hide himself while Eri manages to take out Jirou and Nara easily. As the battle goes on, Hanai eventually realises that the other group tries to do a switch and bait tactic using Harima while the rest of his team does a scatter-style attack on the rest of maid-cafe team's homebase.

True enough, the defensive part of the maid-cafe team is currently under attack by the play team. While this happens, Shigeo and Madoka get to see each other again in a classroom. Shigeo decides not to shoot Madoka but unfortunately for him, Madoka really wants to do the maid-cafe idea so she cold-bloodedly shoot her boyfriend. She, however, gets her just dessert when class representative and play team supporter, Mai, appears out of nowhere and shoot her down. The two lovers now lie dead illuminated by moonlight. Inside the music room, Karasuma, Ichijou and the other students realise that they won't be able to participate in the festival as a band unless they also win the survival game. At the same time, Eri manages to defeat the maid-cafe team who are on the defense. Because of this, Asou and three other boys decide to go after her but when they corner her in a room, they realise that the person inside the room is actually not Eri but rather her butler who's been dressing up to look like Eri.

Impression:

To me this is clearly a take on Battle Royale's storyline where students from one class ends up fighting one another. The only difference is that the winner of this game gets to choose what kind of performance they want to do in the school's festival. I was particularly amused when Nishimoto gets crushed by the locker. It reminds me of a character in Battle Royale who got killed due to a rather funny incident. Shigeo and Madoka's scene, however, is an obvious copy of Hideki and Kotohiki scene in Battle Royale. It amused me a little bit because in a way the scene makes it looks like Mai has gone off the deep end. Maybe all of that stress from managing the students in her class has gone off to her head. It would have been fun to see her offing everyone one by one but unfortunately that would not happen. If the anime follows the manga closely, then I think the winning group is an obvious one. I don't see how the anime could have a different result since the outcome of this game determine the next set of arc for Harima's love triangle.

© memento 2003