School Rumble is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi. First serialized in 345 chapters in Weekly Shōnen Magazine between 2002 and 2008, it is a romance comedy centering on relationships between three Japanese high school students. The series often discards realism in favor of comedic effect. Its popularity resulted in television adaptations, video games, novels and guidebooks. It has also been translated into English and other languages. The manga was well received by Japanese-language readers; the North American English translations were less popular, and ranked 145th for overall manga series sales in 2008. Some critics of the English-language translation praised Kobayashi for his art style and overall use of humor, while others disliked some of the jokes and repetitive plot. The anime adaptation sold well in Japan and was praised by Kobayashi and—for the English-language translation—critics. The decision by Media Factory to aggressively pursue its intellectual property rights for School Rumble is believed by proponents of fansubs to have had a negative impact on the franchise's release and sales in the North American market. (Full article...)
The episodes of the anime Gunslinger Girl were directed by Morio Asaka, animated by Madhouse Studios, and produced by Bandai Visual, Marvelous Entertainment, MediaWorks, and Madhouse Studios. This anime series is based on the first two manga volumes of the Gunslinger Girl manga series that was written and illustrated by Yu Aida. The thirteen episodes of the anime series was aired in Japan from October 8, 2003 to February 19, 2004 on Bandai Channel and Fuji Television. Set in contemporary Italy, the series tells about young girls who are turned into cyborgs, trained as assassins by adult male "handlers" and their missions against terrorists and gangsters on behalf of a secretive government agency.
A sequel to the first anime series, called Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-, was directed by Hiroshi Ishiodori and animated by Artland. The sequel aired in Japan on Tokyo MX TV from January 7, 2008 to March 31, 2008. It adapts the third, fourth and fifth volumes of the manga over fifteen episodes, with the first thirteen episodes airing on television and the final two released directly to DVD. (Full list...)