MAnga Review

Mania Grade: B

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Info:

Art Rating: B+
Packaging Rating: B
Text/Translation Rating: B
Age Rating: 13 and Up
Released By: Del Rey
MSRP: 10.99
Pages: 176
ISBN: 978-0345505644
Size: B6
Orientation: Right to Left
Series: School Rumble

School Rumble Vol. #13

School Rumble Vol. #13 Mang Review

By Sakura Eries February 25, 2010
Release Date: September 29, 2009

School Rumble Vol. #13
© Del Rey

With Christmas close at hand, Harima is determined to get his feelings across -- through manga!

Creative Staff
Writer/Artist: Jun Kobayashi
Translation: William Flanagan
Adaptation: William Flanagan

What They Say
Rich girl Sawachika Eri is being forced into an omia meeting that may well land her in an arranged marriage. Her only hope is to convince the handsome workman she's just met to join her at the appointment. What she doesn't know is that the stranger is actually her enemy and sometime love interest Harima Kenji in disguise! And when cute airhead Tenma is thrown into the mix, a disaster is just waiting to happen!

The Review!

It's Christmas time! As such, these stories have Christmas romance/New Year’s themes. This particular volume doesn't contain any large arcs; the longest is the two chapters about Harima getting his manga into Dankosha. Interestingly, though the ending of that arc seems rather intense for Tenma and Harima, their interactions don’t seem to be affected at all when they meet again two chapters later.

For the most part, the stories are the manga equivalent of one-liners related to Christmas yearnings (Christmas is the equivalent of Valentine's Day in Japan) or New Year's tomfoolery. We get a glimpse of the love lives (or lack thereof) of a number of minor characters, including the swimsuit wrestling trio, Suga, and Tsumugi.

Kobayashi-sensei's humor often involves puns, and there is a whole bunch in Chapter 162 that may not translate well (depending on how good your knowledge is of famous samurai). In addition a number of jokes are related to various Japanese New Year's activities and traditions. So while there is plenty of comedy that doesn't involve cultural nuances, I found myself relying on the translation notes a lot more than usual in this volume.

In Summary:

Volume 13 delivers an assortment of Christmas and New Year's stories about our Class 2-C students and their teachers. You can expect more of the same random silliness that School Rumble revels in although the humor in this installment involves more cultural references than usual (so be prepared to flip to the translation notes).

Included in the extras are three Bonus Rumble and six pages of translation notes.

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