School Rumble San Gakki - Episode 26 (Completed)

So, this is it, the end of School Rumble, a series that managed to keep me amused (at times majestically) throughout its two seasons, which makes me more than a little sad to see its end cut from a full season down to just this two-episode OVA. What makes me even more sad is that the first of those two episodes was a complete abortion, devoid of humour or anything worth discussing, and coupled with below-par animation to complete ruin what little was left of the experience.


Thankfully, this final episode of San Gakki was at least an improvement, although compared to the instalment that went before that isn't saying much. While the beauty of School Rumble for me was always the intertwining and interleaving of romantic matters with straight-out scenes and episodes played for laughs, this closing episode became a strangely serious affair, once again devoid of much real humour (although it did manage one decent gag towards the end) and instead devoting itself to the Harima, Karasuma and Tenma love triangle. Given that focus, it's rather odd that they still decided to leaves things hanging right at the end of the episode (can't we have more anime that ends things definitively... please?!), although not as odd as the outright depressing outlook of this finale - Eri left alone and bitter? Karasuma with a debilitating mental illness? Harima back to being an outcast ruffian? This is more like Eastenders than School Rumble, and to be honest I didn't like it all that much.

It's probably saying something that the most entertaining part of this last ever episode was the end credits, which took us back over highlights of the series as a whole - Compared to this relatively bleak ending, how fresh, joyous, fun and humourous it all seemed... Why oh why did that School Rumble that we all remember and love desert us on its death bed? I'm not sure I'll ever quite be able to figure that one out, but for now I'll try not to think about it and remember what School Rumble was, not the badly-animated downer that is San Gakki.