School Rumble 187: O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Published in Weekly Shounen Magazine 34 (2006)

In which sisterly love is the theme, Tougou’s sister makes her first appearance, and it’s revealed that Sara is a lesbian and Yakumo is tsundere (towards her sister).

• Yakumo receives a cellphone email from her sister, saying that she’s gonna be back tomorrow. Yakumo is happy.
• On the next day, Yakumo discusses 2nd year students’ coming back from Kyoto trip with her 1-D friends. They want to visit her home today to see her cook, and off they go to buy groceries together after school. Oh, yes, here’s Tougou’s sister.

Cute, isn’t she? Somehow she looks Oomajime, but not exaggerately so like Tougou does, which is a good thing.

• Eri, Mikoto, and Akira drops in to check if Tenma is doing well with Karasuma. Tenma is not back yet, so they have to wait. The 1-D group, especially Inaba, goes GAGA over them.
• When the food is done, Inaba, amazed by how good a cook Yakumo is, asks jokingly that Yakumo marry her. Sara, of course, cannot accept that, and says, “Boo! Yakumo is mine!!!” And she MEANS it!
  
  You can’t lay a finger on Yakumo! She’s MINE!
• Yakumo goes out to buy drinks as an excuse to look for her sister. (Aww…) She sees Tenma looking so happy with Karasuma, becomes lonely, and contemplates whether she’s relying on her sister too much. (No! Yakumo! It’s the other way around!) Yakumo is sad.
• Walking home, Yakumo is embraced from behind by Tenma, who asks whether her sister felt lonely when she was away. Yakumo says, “There’s nothing like that.” (Oh, man! Yakumo! You have totally become a tsundere! Now a new tsundere is born! You’re in the same league as Eri and Haruhi now! Gambare, Yakumon!) Tenma then tells her sister that she wanted to hear a yes when she asked the question. Yakumo is happy again.
• The Tsukamoto sisters decide to go to bed together that night, but Iori won’t leave Tenma’s bed. A war of attrition between a good-for-nothing older sister and a shape-shifting cat ensues, resulting in both parties’ falling asleep because of fatigue. Too bad for Yakumo. No sleeping with her beloved Onee-chan.

Impression/Thoughts

A Yakumo chapter is always good for me though I would rather see some riceball or flag development. It would seem that Karasuma and Tenma are doing well together, but I suspect that this doesn’t mean anything because it’s School Rumble anyway. Tougou’s sister is a nice addition to the cast. She looks really like Tenma when she smiles, but has a very different personality. (Majime Tenma?)

Well, forgetting the shortcoming of having no development whatsoever, the best thing about this chapter is the sheer awesomeness that is Yakumo contained in it. We have shots of Yakumo in different moods ranging from happy to lonely. I also notice that Kobayashi-sensei’s way of drawing Yakumo is evolving. Back in the first volumes, her face is sharp. Her eyes are small and melancholic. Now, Yakumo’s face contour looks more organic, and her eyes are rounder. She smiles more often as well.

We also see that Yakumo is now enjoying school life more than she used to. Sara has been her only friend up to this chapter, but now she has Inaba, Satsuki, and Tougou’s sister. As Yakumo mentions it, this is the first time that a lot of friends visit her at home. This basically means that she has no problem adjusting herself to female peers any more. Now, if she can just get rid of her fear of men, and find a nice boyfriend, her high school life would be perfect.

So, to commemorate the awesomeness of the Onigiri princess, I present you with The Many Faces of Tsukamoto Yakumo (TM).

やくもん！何でこんに可愛いなの？

And, oh, did I forget to tell you that the service on the first page is so damn good? Bijo teachers for the win!

Vocabs

Words	Reading	Meaning
混ぜる	まぜる	to mix, to stir
批評	ひひょう	criticism, commentary
寛ぐ	くつろぐ	to feel at home, to relax
参照	さんしょう	reference
究極	きゅうきょく	ultimate, extreme
中性	ちゅうせい	indifference
揶揄う	からかう	to tease
独占	どくせん	monopoly
意地っ張り	いじっぱり	obstinate
退く	どく	to retreat, to withdraw
匹	ぴき	counter of animals