School Rumble 2nd Term ep.10

June 12, 2006 | 5 Comments

This is a rather funny episodes which moves quickly from one storyline to the next. Overall, it's rather enjoyable although there is nothing particularly important about any of the stories. I'm also still not sure what to make of the additional characters from class 2-D. I think some of them are rather interesting while others are quite annoying. I think the interesting about these characters, especially the male ones, is that they are tend to be the alpha type characters. As a result, they are more likely to be in direct conflict with Harima and Hanai as opposed to someone like Asou, Nara or the rest of the males from class 2-C. However, because of the addition of these characters, several characters from class 2-C now rarely makes appearance. Even Karasuma seems to have been relegated to a supporting character now. I admit it surprises me a little bit since he was featured prominently during the first season.

The episode opens with Yakumo welcoming someone into the cafe by saying "Welcome home, Master" but quickly changes the greeting to "Irrashaemase" when she realises that the person is Hanai. Meanwhile in a corner desk, Tenma claims that she's become fat and therefore from now on she's on a strict diet. Upon hearing this, Akira, Mikoto, and Eri look at Tenma in disbelief because there is a big parfait in front of her. After getting whacked by Mikoto, Tenma complains why she's the only one who turns this way and proceeds to ask Mikoto about her weight. Mikoto refuses to tell and claims that the majority of her body consists of muscles and not fat. Tenma then wants to know who is the heaviest of them all. But no one is keen to say it outloud in a public places like this. Mikoto notices that Akira is not getting fat at all and wants to know what she usually eats. Akira attributes it to her Natto (Fermented Soybeans) and Hijiki (Seaweed) diet.

Eri advises Tenma that if she wants to get thinner, she should watch out what she eats. Mikoto feels that they've talked enough about this so encourage others to focus on their study since they have a test tomorrow. However, while the other girls do not notice her, Tenma greedily consumes the Parfait all by herself then blames Mikoto for not stopping her. While studying, Tenma tries to apply her screwed up scientific knowledge to count the calory of a cake. She claims that if a layer of a cake has 0.001kcal, then a 7 layer cake should only contain 0.007kcal and won't make her fat. Tenma, however, becomes disappointed when Eri decides to share the cake with everyone except Tenma because she already had the Parfait. In another table, Imadori boasts the muscle he supposedly have due to the basketball training. Upon hearing this, Tougou challanges Imadori in arm wrestling. Imadori foolishly accepts and ends up having the bone in his arm broken.

Meanwhile, Harima, who has come to the cafe to watch Tenma, notices that she is having problem dividing the cake into 3 equal portion for her friends. Because of this Harima decides to help her by dividing the cake into 4 equal pieces then eats one of the piece himself. In the second story, Harima and Hanai are seen having a card battle with Tougou and Harry McKenzie in order to recover Tenma, who has been taken by Class 2-D. The whole thing started when Tenma told Mikoto that Karasuma has been away from school for one week. Harima, who overheard the conversation, thought that he now has a chance to get close to Tenma. Harima, however, is shocked when he overheard that Tenma has been sharing lunch with Tougo from Class 2-D. Tenma then mentioned to Mikoto that she's going to Tougo's class again (to learn pottery). Harima and Hanai, however, thought that Tenma is going because she wants to learn basketball from Tougou.

Because of this, Harima and Hanai decided to persuade Tenma against it. However, when they got to her chair, they found out that Tenma has switched seats with Lala. While Lala pretended to be Tenma in 2-C, Tenma pretended to be Lala in 2-D. Harima and Hanai demanded Tougou and Harry to return Tenma and this is why they are now playing cards against Tougou and Harry. Because Harima and Hanai are losing, they start using their classmates as betting objects starting with Eri, Mikoto, and Akira. But because Harima and Hanai keep losing, they end up gambling all of their classmates to Tougou and Harry. Eventually only Harima and Hanai are left in Class 2-C. Meanwhile, Tenma gets to learn pottery but she's not doing well. All of a sudden, however, the ghost of Karasuma comes to help her so Tenma asks Ghost Karasuma what he wants to make. When Yakumo checks on her sister, she finds out that Tenma has been making furnitures from clay.

Back to Harima and Hanai, they now become Akira and Eri's personal slave because of their attempt to gamble both girls. Eri wants Harima to buy her a tea but only gives him 100 Yen. When Harima tells her that it'll cost her 200 Yen, she simply gives him the evil look. When Harima eventually gets her the tea, however, Eri changes her mind and demands a Juice instead. In order to please the girl, the guys decide to take the girls to a 'Curry Stadium' and treat them to a delicious white chocolate curry. While the group are enjoying their curry, they hear announcement about a super-hot Magma curry eating contest. In order to impress Tenma, Harima decides to participate in it. Hanai and Akira then decide to follow suit. The super-hot curry quickly claims many of its victims within minutes. Akira couldn't even eat more than a spoonfull without having her face turning red. Hanai eventually also gives up and passes out from the heat.

This leaves Harima as one of the three who still manages to eat the curry. Eventually, however, Harima gets to the point where he's eaten all of the rice near the curry and the only thing left is the hot curry itself. Harima decides to gulp the entire thing into his mouth in order to impress Tenma. Unfortunately before he manages to finish off his portion, the announcer tells everyone that someone else has completed their curry and that person is Satsuki. The disturbing part about this is that Satsuki is not even breaking any sweat. The epilogue is a story about Lala, the Shibuya Legend. It begins when she tries to cut her own hair but ends up cutting too much of it. Because of this, she has to wear a scarf on top of her head to cover up her messed up hairstyle. On Sagano's suggestion, Ichijou decides to take Lala into a hair salon. Lala seems to enjoy the experience until she finds out that her hair styler is none other than Imadori.

Lala demands an explanation why Imadori is working there. Because of this Imadori points out out the name of the store is actually Now Bird. This Engrish roughly translates to 「今鳥」- Ima (Now) Dori/Tori (Bird) in Japanese. XD In other words, the store belongs to Imadori's family. In order to get Lala away from her classmates such as Harry, Ichijou decides to take her to Shibuya. Unfortunately when they get there a pervert decides to get naughty with Lala. He immediately receiving a punch from both girls and lands on the Hachiko statue, destroying it a little bit. People around the area becomes angry because of this and decide to pick a fight with Lala and Ichijou. The two girls, however, manage to beat the masses into submission. This impresses the females around the area so Lala ends up becoming famous. Girls end up imitating her style and her statue takes over Hachiko's place. When Lala releases her CD single, however, it's not selling well. XD

Impression:

Is there Tougou/Tenma faction? Because I wouldn't mind joining that faction. I'm quite surprise to see their chemistry, which is as good as Harima/Tenma and Karasuma/Tenma. As usual, Imadori remains as one of the funniest characters in the series. The part where he broke his bone due to arm wrestling was funny in a horrifying kind of way. Ditto with the whole Imadori/Now Bird joke. Lala/Tenma switch tactic was also funny. I can't help but laughing when Tenma's VA tries to imitate Lala's deep voice. The reverse is not quite funny though. It's probably because Lala just annoys me in general. She seems to be a stereotypical foreigner character although that's not surprising given the fact that every other character in the story also confirms to a particular stereotype. As a final note, that Magma Curry looks nasty but I'm kind of curious to know if it's really that spicy. It's just that I've never encountered a spicy Japanese food or in this case, spicy Japanese curry.

© memento 2003