Eri Sawachika

Eri Sawachika (沢近 愛理, Sawachika Eri^?) is one of the central characters in the manga/anime series School Rumble.

Fictional character biography

From her introduction onwards, Eri is characterized as having a dual nature. Talented, beautiful, wealthy, and popular, she is admired and envied by her classmates for the glamourous lifestyle that many believe her to lead. In reality, however, Eri uses this image and her outward confidence to mask her inward feelings of loneliness and insecurity.^[1] Her social status makes her unapproachable to many of her classmates and leaves her somewhat isolated from her peers. Even at home, her parents are away on business more frequently than not. The process by which Eri grows and matures, as she starts to develop deeper friendships and searches for love, forms the backbone of one of the main plotlines in the story.

Born into wealth, Eri is the daughter of a prominent English businessman. Her mother is from Kyoto, Japan. Although Eri was born in Japan, she moved to England for her early schooling before returning to Japan to attend high school. As a result, her knowledge of kanji is limited, causing her to occasionally make humorous linguistic mistakes.

Eri's most striking features are her amber eyes and long blond hair (which she usually ties into pigtails), which signify her mixed British-Japanese heritage. While she is often admired for her looks, her origin is occasionally the subject of derisive remarks, such as during the class trip to Kyoto.

Harima's nickname for Eri is "Ojō (お嬢)" (lit. "princess"), as a somewhat mocking reference to her status. This is not to be confused with "Ojō-sama" (lit. "lady"/"miss"), which is a formal title used by Nakamura and the rest of the Sawachika family's household staff to address Eri.

According to the last Japanese poll performed by the publishers of the manga, Eri is currently the second most popular character in the series.

Talents and Abilities

A fast learner, Eri picks up most skills and ideas very quickly. This shows in her studies, earning her high marks in most of her subjects. Although not as exceptional a student as her close friend Akira Takano, she is very well-rounded, managing to get good scores even in subjects that are naturally more difficult for her, such as Japanese history.

Eri is also a very versatile athlete. While she is skilled in sports in which she has been previously trained, such as kendo and tennis, she is also very adept at sports in which she has little or no experience by virtue of being a fast learner. In Ch.213, for example, Eri quickly learns to hit 140 km/h pitched balls in a batting cage, despite having no prior experience at batting.

With a height of 165 centimeters, Eri is one of the taller girls in her class. Although 11 centimeters taller than Tenma, in Chapter 133 it is suggested that her weight is comparable to Tenma's.

Eri is one of the top female runners in her class, which leads her to be chosen to run for Class 2-C during the Sports Festival, in which she wins an individual event. She is also chosen to run the relay race, although she is forced to quit the race due to an injured ankle.

She is not skilled at domestic chores such as sewing and cooking, with only Tenma being worse than her at the latter. She is devoted to her father, but is unable to spend as much time with him as she wants because his work commitments keep them apart.

Relationships

Eri attracts the attention of many boys in the school, and has turned down many would-be suitors. She eventually finds herself unwillingly attracted to the school's most infamous delinquent, Kenji Harima, after his mistaken confession of love to her, which was much more passionate than the previous confessions she had received. However, she refuses to admit these nascent feelings to herself or her friends. These emotions only get increasingly confusing as Harima does various actions which unintentionally benefit her, although they are usually intended for the benefit of himself or Tenma.

Despite their mutual animosity towards each other, Eri and Harima quickly develop a love-hate relationship, bringing her tsundere personality into focus. Her feelings towards Harima solidify after the events of the school sports festival, and she becomes jealous and angry at any other girl linked to Harima. This eventually causes a strain on her relationships with her close friend Mikoto Suo, Tenma's sister Yakumo Tsukamoto, and even Tenma herself.

Among Eri's circle of friends, Mikoto was the one who first befriended her as she was not intimidated by her social status. The two had a brief falling out after a misunderstanding about Harima, but eventually reconciled.