Kenji Harima

Kenji Harima (播磨 拳児) is the male protagonist of the School Rumble series. Harima is a stubborn, paranoid ex- who is in love with Tenma who still retains some aspects of his former persona, especially riding on his motorcycle and getting into fights with other delinquents during the beginning of the series. Harima's name is occasionally mistaken for the name of another person in class 2-D, Harry Mackenzie, because of the similarities in pronunciation. Harima, like his crush, Tenma, is a fan of the jidaigeki television show The Three For The Kill. Harima lives with his cousin who is also Yakumo's homeroom teacher, Itoko.

Overview
The sunglasses toting delinquent with a heart of gold is a steady favorite amongst fans of the series. Harima Kenji stands out as a very different kind of leading male, possessing qualities opposite to those found in most protagonists of the genre.

Proud and violent, Harima is the terror of the school. Whenever he appears people run away from him, wherever he is there’s always whispering behind his back. And with reason, since it won’t take more than looking at him the wrong way for him to kick your ass into oblivion. That’s probably the reason why he has many enemies who always want to beat him up, only to end up flat on the ground, unconscious, and probably with a few broken bones. Until he meets Tsukamoto Tenma, who he later fell in love with.

Origins
In middle school, he was a well known delinquent. However, after saving Tenma Tsukamoto from some ruffians, he falls in love with her and eventually reforms himself. Currently a high school student, he divides his time between drawing manga and trying to win Tenma's heart.

Talents
Harima’s indisputable talent is fighting. Even though he never studied any form of martial art, his fighting skills, developed through constant street-fighting, match those of a black belt. Even though he’s fought many times with Hanai Haruki, a black belt in Kempo and Aikido, their matches always end up in a draw.

At some point in the story, Harima develops the ability to communicate with animals, turning him into a sort of psychic, and he uses this to do fortune-telling on the streets. This unusual talent draws the attention of Tenma’s younger sister, Yakumo, who always wanted to read her cat’s mind.

As a way to express his feelings and to distract himself from Tenma, Harima starts drawing manga. He turns out to be quite good at it and his work impresses the chief editor of a famous publisher, who urges him to continue and participate in a contest. Because of his advice, Harima seeks out Yakumo’s help and she ends up becoming his assistant.

Even though Harima’s ineptitude in schoolwork is only matched by Tenma’s, unlike her, he’s very good at and excels in any kind of sport. Other talents include riding a motorcycle.

Tenma Tsukamoto
The centre of Harima's affections. Most of the scenarios in School Rumble revolve around Harima's obsessive pursuit of Tenma. This frequently gets him into all sorts of problems, most notably with Sawachika Eri. Rarely attending class and often picking up fights simply to enjoy the pleasure of beating people up, after falling for Tenma, Harima decides to come to school just so he can be close to her; but because of an earlier misunderstanding, he now has to wear sunglasses and grow a beard and moustache to conceal his identity from her, for fear that she might reject him. Tenma, however, consistently remains oblivious to Harima's amorous intentions.

Eri Sawachika
The bane of Harima's existence. No matter how hard he tries to chase after Tenma, he inevitably ends up in misunderstandings with Eri. Despite their constant bickering, Harima and Eri work extremely well as a team. Their love/hate relationship has formed the basis of the ever popular Flag Faction. Harima refers to Eri by the nickname "Ojou," meaning something along the lines of "Madame" (teasing her social status). In the English dub he refers to her as "Rich Girl".

Harima is the first guy Eri has ever been interested in, despite her being hit on all the time by other guys.

In the last chapter of School Rumble Z, a flashforward shows Harima and Eri together holding an infant, suggesting that they got married, meanwhile they're visiting Karasuma, along with Tenma and Yakumo in the hospital. This may indicate that during the present time, Harima is still in love with Tenma, however, it suggests that in the future Harima and Eri will end up together.

Yakumo Tsukamoto
Harima's manga assistant. Based on his interest in Yakumo's sister, Tenma, he refers to her as "Imouto," meaning "Little sister." Sawachika Eri mistakes their relationship to mean that the two were dating, leading to further misunderstandings between the two. Yakumo falls in love with Harima and eventually confesses her feelings to him, but it is unclear if Harima felt the same way. (but probably didn't because he was still in love with Tenma at the time).

Tae Anegasaki
After getting kicked out of his house by his cousin Itoko, Tae gives him a place to stay. Tae continues to show up in his life as she begins working at Yagami High School as the school's nurse. Tae constantly calls Harima "Hario" and is in fact in love with him. According to her, she was his "landlady" and he was her "tenant". Whenever she sees Harima when no one else is around, she hugs him and screams "HARIO!". Eri seems to be jealous of her as she is with Yakumo (since Yakumo fell in love with Harima).

Itoko Osakabe
School Rumble’s science teacher, Itoko is actually Harima’s cousin. After he leaves home, she takes him in and allows him to live in her house; not for free though, and he is often late with the rent. He gets kicked out of the house by her on two separate occasions.

A very smart woman, Itoko possesses a strong personality and she finds it amusing to see such a strong guy like Harima, being so helpless and weak when it comes to Tenma, for this reason she doesn’t waste the opportunity to pick on him and show him up whenever there’s one.

Shuuji Harima
Harima’s younger brother, Shuuji gets along well with his brother and has a big crush on Tsukamoto Yakumo.

Best Friends
His best friends are his animals:

Alexander
This little frog is responsible for one of Sawachika Eri’s bursts of anger, when he predicts her father liking curry better than nikujaga. That is the last time Harima ever told a fortune.

Napoleon
Harima’s pig, Napoleon causes an accident at the Sports Festival, when he crosses Umedu Shigeo’s path during the track race. Also in Mikoto Suou's hotpot party when he saw Harima and Tenma eating and talking about a pig soup, he trembles and began to destroy the party.

Pyotr
As big as he is, this Giraffe is only a kid and loves Harima very much. After Osakabe Itoko decides to move all the animals away from her house, where Harima keeps them, Pyotr runs away looking for Harima, and gets lost in the city. He later finds Harima just in time to stop him to confess his feelings to Tenma. In season 2, Pyotr finds out that Tsukamoto Yakumo was sick, Pyotr looks for Harima. He appears to have been under his blanket table and telling him that he needs help for his important friend. But, Harima misunderstoods that the one who was in danger was Tenma. So he rode on Pyotr's back and he goes to the Tsukamoto residence where he finds Yakumo, lying on the floor finding out she has high fever. He places Yakumo on her floor bed and accidentally he fells asleep beside her. Iori, come by and puts his paw on Yakumo's forehead as seen in an flash back where Tenma Tsukamoto makes a rabbit out of a snowball and puts in Yakumo's forehead when they were small and Yakumo was sick. And Pyotr saw Iori's doing and he done the same thing. Putting his foot on Harima's forehead which leads Harima into uneasiness.

Anastasia
Harima’s pet penguin.

Ooji Karasuma
Tsukamoto Tenma’s love interest, Karasuma was very much liked by Harima, before he knew it was him who Tenma loved. But from the moment he discovers the truth, he comes to hate his guts. Normally, if a guy was after Tenma, Harima wouldn’t think twice before he beat the crap out of him; but since in this case it is Tenma who is after Karasuma, Harima decides to step aside and not interfere, thinking of her happiness instead of his own. Harima’s hatred for Karasuma goes up a notch, when, while trying to get acknowledged for his manga, he discovers that Karasuma just happens to be the famous mangaka whom Harima’s always admired.

Haruki Hanai
Harima’s relationship with Hanai could be somewhat described as friendship/rivalry. Their so-called enmity began with a misunderstanding over Tsukamoto Yakumo, whom Hanai loves. Since it’s the custom in Japan to call people by their family name, Harima believes Hanai to be after Tsukamoto Tenma, Tsukamoto Yakumo’s older sister and Harima’s love interest. From then on, the multiple misunderstandings and epic battles that erupt as a result of this, make for some of the most enjoyable moments in School Rumble. Despite all this, Harima and Hanai respect each other as fighters, and eventually join forces to defeat their common rivals from class 2D, during the Sports Festival.

Noboru Tennouji
The first guy to get beaten by Harima in the anime, Tennouji has vowed to defeat Harima and take over the title of school tyrant. After losing many fights to Harima, he achieves his dream after finally beating Harima, who depressed and heart-broken over Tenma, has lost the will to fight.

Kentarou Nara
Small and fragile, Shy and cowardly, Nara makes for an unlikely rival for Harima. Despite this, however, rarely have we seen Harima more worked up and preoccupied, than when Nara is around his beloved Tenma. The reason for this is that contrary to the likes of Tennouji Noboru, Nara is well liked by Tenma and she always acts friendly with him; so every time Nara comes near Tenma (whom he has a crush on), Harima somehow always manages to get in between and scare him away.

Harry MacKenzie
Harima’s rivalry with Harry is solely based on male ego, and is a rather insignificant one, at least during the first season of School Rumble. Harima meets Harry in a street alley by chance, during Harry’s fight with Hanai, who initially mistook Harry for Harima. Harima then joins in the fight, leaving Harry impressed by both his and Hanai’s fighting skills. Later on they face each other again during the Sports Festival, where Harima beats Harry at the relay race.

Quotes

 * "DAMMIT! How can one girl be so hot, yet so stupid?!"
 * "WHAT THE HELL?!?!!"
 * "Shut the flunk up!"
 * "Thank God I was born stupid!"
 * "Now, now, these things happen to everyone... EXCEPT ME!!!!! That's for making fun of my masterpiece! If there's one thing I hate, it's criticism!"