School Rumble 2nd Term – 6

Huzzah! E3 is distracting me way too much. BTW, Smash Bros. Brawl FTW! Snake? SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKEEEEE!

The Rumble opens with Harima as a prince trying to rescue Tenma-Hime (imagine Tenma in Mai-Hime…heh) from an evil tower. Turns out it's a pitch for a new manga that Harima drew 120 pages of overnight (!) after being inspired by Tenma's words last week. Harima asks Yakumo to look over it and tell him what she thinks, then he wanders off and eventually falls asleep on a conveniently found bed. A few students mingle outside the school theater anxiously awaiting Class 2-C's play to start while going over the cast on a nearby poster. The cast is: Princess – Mikoto, Princes (3 Musketeers style, only 6 and female) – Eri, Madoka, Karen, Megumi, Tenma, and Ayano, with a script by Akira and set design by Mai (minorish characters linked to the Wannabe Wiki. That thing is uber helpful…).

Am I the only one who thinks Eri is hotter dressed up like she's from Utena? I hope not…

The story: an evil witch has trapped poor princess Mikoto in a tower, and the 6 (female) princes travel there to save her. Along the way they cross 6 gorges, 6 mountains, and encounter numerous obstacles, most of which involve Nara, Nishimoto, and Yoshidayama in costume (including their unfortunately abandoned swimsuit sumo uniforms). The girls stumble along across the "obstacles", except for Eri, who looks positively badass (even a few of the ladies in the audience are stricken :p). Yakumo is still backstage reading Harima's new manga, dressed up as a wizard of sorts for her class' festival thingy (haunted house maybe?). She hears a call to raise the bed, and notices that the bed in question isn't occupied by Mikoto, as it should be, but by a sleeping Harima. Yakumo tries to wake him up, but is unfortunately raised to the stage with the new "Sleeping Beauty" (heh). Yakumo manages to hide, but Harima is in full view of the crowd, who is understandably shocked. Except the big three from Class 2-D. Lala is asleep (which fits her character like a glove), Tougou applauds the gender reversal, and Harry looks bored out of his mind.

Class 2-D checks out the performance. GOGO LALA!

The princes panic at first at the sudden appearance of Harima, and Eri is furious. Akira tells them to continue the play, which freaks out Eri, as that means she will have to kiss Harima, something that she'd never admit she wanted to do anyway. Meanwhile, Mikoto is held up by the Kendo teacher trying to explain why she's in a princess dress. Back at the play, a pair of fairies ask a riddle of the princes (the classic "What has 4 legs in the morning, 2 in the evening, and 3 at night?") with the reward being a magical sword that can defeat the evil magician. Tenma answers, and gets it wrong (natch), so the fairies take away the sword. Harima finally wakes up, and panics at the sight of the crowd. At first he decides to get up and apologize, but after Tenma says "Princess, I'll be at your side soon!" before the big "final" battle, Harima decides that staying put would be in his best interests. Nara, Nishimoto, and Yoshidayama show up again in various consumes and defeat the princes one by one, until only Eri is left. She approaches the bedside, blushing furiously and leaning closer to Harima's face, which is riddled with shock and fear of what's to come. Harima, in a panic, closes the curtains of the bed, which makes the crowd laugh at Eri. Eri forces the curtains open and finally finds Yakumo, laying in the bed beside Harima, under the covers and out of the sight of the crowd. Eri's bitch face comes out full force, and Yakumo emerges from the bed and ad-libs a role as the evil magician. The two square off, and Eri shows her true inner badass.

Win and gold.

Eventually, Eri asks Yakumo why the "evil magician" is blocking her path, and Yakumo replies that the "princess" and her have gone through many experiences that Eri has never heard of. Eri doesn't believe her at first, but Yakumo says something that we don't hear, and Eri suddenly backs off and declares Yakumo the winner, because she "understands [Yakumo's] feelings". Say what now? The crowd cheers and calls for a kiss, and Yakumo nervously approaches Harima after some encouragement from a suddenly revived Tenma, who collapses seconds afterwards, much to Harima's chagrin. She promises to fake it, but just before she breaks her promise, Akira comes out of nowhere in a Mission Impossible-style harness from the ceiling and kisses Harima on the nose before retreating back into the rafters. Ah, classic Sukuran randomness.

Akira, Class 2-C's spymaster.

Backstage, Akira tries to get the girls to make up, and eventually succeeds, to an extent. Akira tries to return the kiss she gave Harima to Yakumo after Eri stomps off, but Yakumo (unfortunately) refuses. Later, everyone is gathered in the theater again as the sensei from Class 2-D gives a speech for the end of the festival. Imadori receives a mail from a girl he just picked up, but before he can read it, Karen asks him not to leave the ceremony yet. She runs off, rather flustered, and suddenly appears on stage with the Class 2-C band, who took over the ceremony and forced the teacher off the stage. The students start to couple off to dance, the real couples first, followed by everyone else. Imadori comments on Karen's singing, and blows off the girl that mailed him when she comes running to him, saying that he isn't interested in playing around anymore. Score one for Karen . Tenma, Akira, Eri, and Mikoto are haning out off of the dance floor, partnerless and amazed at the party that sprung out of nowhere. Hanai wanders over to them, and apologizes about the "ruined" play (that he had no part in). Mikoto pines that she was never able to be a princess, and Hanai says that she can be, and that they should continue the play. He pushes her out into the crowd of dancers where Asou is waiting for her, dressed up as a prince. Mikoto says that he shouldn't force himself just because Hanai asked him to do this, and he says he isn't forcing himself to do anything. That came out of left field…anyway, Karen switches to a slow song, and the pair turn heads in their prince/princess getup, while Hanai looks unusually happy. The man seriously needs to get over Yakumo, because Mikoto is ripe for the pickin'. Yakumo eventually makes her grand appearance, and Tenma tells her to talk to Eri. Yakumo apologizes for "running" the play, and the two make up…kinda (it seems rather clear from Eri's tone that the "gauntlet" has been officially thrown. Go Yakumo! Wait, go Eri! Gah, I love them both…). Eri says that it's too boring and invites Yakumo to dance. With her. Yakumo and Eri. Dancing. My two most favoritest characters in anime history, dancing together like they're some kind of shoujo-ai couple…it's a fucking dream come true I tell you. The music speeds up, and Eri asks the question that she's been burning to ask ever since the end of the first season, "Are you going out with hige (beardy)?". Yakumo, while it's clear she doesn't want to, tells Eri the truth, which is no. Aw. The music turns to a techno-ish remix of the OP, and goes through a dance montage, showcasing a few couples (Asou and Mikoto…Nara and Yoshidayama) and the rest of the minor characters of Class 2-C going solo, eventually ending with a closeup of Yakumo and Eri. Win.

…no comment.

*drool*

How many kinds of win is this? I lost count…cat eyes ftw!

So…this episode further solidifies the jumbled mass that is the Sukuran Love…Shape. It also pushed poor Tenma further back into a supporting character role, making Eri and Yakumo the main characters (kinda). Plus, it made me more confused as to who I like more. The cat-like cuteness of Yakumo? The uber hawtness of Eri? I've already decided on what couples I'd like to see by the end (Mikoto x Hanai, Imadori x Karen, and Tenma x Karasuma) but the Harima-Yakumo-Eri triangle is still undecided in my mind. Oh wells. Next week, the gang goes camping, and Harima and Hanai fight over…something. Anything. Hopefully it'll end in a Matrix-style gunfight…aw crap, they did that already.