School Rumble 2nd Term ep.6

May 8, 2006 | 16 Comments

This was a rather entertaining episode. Well, I don't think it's actually as funny as episode 4 and I'm slightly disappointed with the ending. Having said that, there are some nice highlights which made the episode worth the while. The animation seems to be okay and at times look a bit Ouran-ish due to the flowery background. Anyway, this is probably the episode that most shipper have been waiting for. There seems to be many shipping variations presented here. It makes me wonder if there is anyone who actually watch the series but is not invested whatsoever in any of the pairings. I understand that the comedy is probably what most people are after but I think the various pairings help to create the silly misunderstandings that become the source of this series' jokes.

The episode begins with Prince Harima finding the castle that he's been looking for. Apparently inside the castle lies the beautiful Princess Tenma who's been sleeping for 100 years. As it turns out, the entire scenario is simply a manga that Harima has written and drawn herself. This is rather amusing because the manga clearly suffers from a 'self-insertion' problem whereby the author imagines him/herself as the main character of the story. Nevertheless, Harima proudly shows his creation to Yakumo and tells her that he drew around 120 pages. Because of this, however, he's kind of tired now and in a need of a sleep. At the same time, class 2-C is about to start their Sleeping Beauty play starring Mikoto as the Sleeping Beauty in question and Eri as the one of the six Princes. The play begins with the Princes making their way to the castle and confronted by 3 Sumo wrestlers. They, however, cease to be a problem when Eri orders them to stand aside.

The next enemy is a living Rose vegetation which launches an aerial attack on the Princes. This enemy, however, doesn't stand a chance when is confronted by Prince Eri's almighty magic. This, however, means that the time is near for the elevation of the bed containing the Princess. Unfortunately, no one can find Mikoto and unknown to the players, Harima is in the middle of using the Princess' bed for his afternoon rest. Yakumo, who is near Harima, tries to wake the guy up but ends up getting lifted up into the stage along with the bed and Harima. When the stage is lit, the audiences are surprised to see Harima playing the role of a Princess. Masakazu from class 2-D, however, is actually happy to see the change in the story. Unfortunately for him, his classmates don't seem to share his enthusiasm. At the same time, Eri is horrified to see Harima sleeping on the bed because it means she'll have to kiss him later on.

Eri's worst fear turns to reality when Akira tells her to continue the play regardless of the changes. Because of this the play then features Yuuki and Mai as fairies who possess the sword which can defeat the evil wizard. The two, however, want to test the Prince by asking them if they know something that has 4 legs in the morning, 2 during the day, and 3 legs at night. In her excitement, Tenma immediately tells the fairies that the answer is "Monster". The fairies is shocked upon hearing this because this is an incorrect answer so they have no choice but to withdrawn the offer of the sword. At the same time, Harima finally wakes up from his sleep and is horrified when he realises that he's now on stage with the Princes. He, however, becomes excited again upon seeing Tenma's face. Meanwhile, because the Princes have no powerful sword, they has no choice but to fend off the various monsters that surround the castle.

Eventually, Eri is the only Prince that is still alive and therefore, she prepares herself to kiss the 'Princess'. Eri, however, becomes angry when Harima closes the curtain around the bed so she can't kiss him. She's especially unhappy because the audiences begin to laugh at her. Eri decides to open the curtain wide and is in for the shock of her life when she finds Yakumo sleeping next to Harima. Eri immediately grills Yakumo by asking her why she's there with Harima to begin with. When Yakumo can't give a satisfying answer to her, Eri forces the other girl to come out of her hiding. Because of this, Yakumo comes out fully decked in her witch outfit. She tells Eri that she's the evil witch in the story. Having said that, she simply wants to ensure that Harima gets a peaceful and quiet rest. Eri is simply disrupting his sleep. Eri thinks that Yakumo tries to make her look bad so she swings her sword viciously towards the other girl in retaliation.

In order to defend, herself, Yakumo has no choice but to block Eri's attack with her staff and later on uses the object to punch Eri on the face so she'll step back. Eri becomes angrier because of this and demands Yakumo to tell her reason for fighting against Eri. Yakumo simply tells the other girl that Prince Eri doesn't know about the 100 years that the Wizard and the 'Princess' have spent together. This is a really nice allegory to the relationship that Yakumo and Harima share due to their partnership in the manga project. Upon finding out about this, Eri decides to make a hasty retreat. This suggests to the audience that Yakumo is the winner so they demand that she kisses him. Before Yakumo can kiss Harima, however, Akira falls down from the ceiling to kiss Harima before returning back quickly. Ack! I hate this scene for not only ruining the mood but also because it brings a rather bad memory of that annoying actor from Mission Impossible movie.

Anyway, after the play ends, Eri confronts Yakumo for interfering the play. Before any catfight happen, however, Akira comes in to calm the situation by telling both girls that she only kissed Harima on the nose. After Eri leaves, however, Akira asks Yakumo if she wants Akira to forward Harima's kiss to her. Yakumo politely refuses the offer. To close off the day, Ichijou's band decides to take over the time that is allocated for the teacher's speech and uses it to entertain the students. All of a sudden Imadori becomes interested in Ichijou's singing to the point that he ignores the girl he was with. At the same time, Hanai decides to be a matchmaker for Mikoto and Asou when Mikoto tells him that she regrets not having the chance to be the princess in the show. Elsewhere in the dance floor, Yakumo decides to make amend with Eri, who in returns asks Yakumo if she's going out with Harima. Yakumo denies this and tells Eri that she simply helped Harima. Speaking of Harima, he's seen hanging on the ceiling for almost ruining the play.

Impression:

Although the Harima/Yakumo moments were interrupted from time to time, I thought the entire episode was rather enjoyable. I especially like the opening where Harima told Yakumo that he sketched 120 pages of his manga. The mood between them is really nice and feels right here, well, at least for me. In addition to this, despite his protestation, Harima looked rather curious and interested when Yakumo was about to kiss him. His expression was also unusually serious, which is surprising because he's rarely drawn looking like this. I think the majority of the time, he's often drawn in full chibi or semi-chibi mode. And at least he didn't give Yakumo the closed curtain treatment. It's unfortunate that everything is reset back to zero towards the end. But just because Yakumo said that she's not dating Harima, which is true at this point in time, does not mean that she won't develop an interest in the future.

Moreover, Yakumo quickly moved the conversation to an entirely different subject, suggesting that she didn't feel comfortable discussing it with Eri. In general, the episode didn't move towards either faction. It simply gave a few crumbs to both shipping factions. Moving on to other characters, Tenma was quite funny when she gave the wrong answer to the fairies. It doesn't help that the background music was so inappropriate for the scene. The yodeling made me think that there should be sheeps and farmers dancing on the prairie. And just like Tenma, I can't for the life of me figure out the answer to the question. What the hell has 4 legs in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, and 3 at night? As for the rest of the characters, it was nice of Hanai playing matchmaker for Mikoto and Asou. Somehow I get the feeling that the supporting characters like Mikoto and Asou have better chance of becoming couples than main characters like Tenma and Harima.

© memento 2003