Eri Sawachika

Eri Sawachika
School Rumble character
File:SR Eri.jpg
Created by	Jin Kobayashi
In-universe information
Nickname	Princess (お嬢 Ojō)
Class	2-C

Eri Sawachika (沢近 愛理, Sawachika Eri) is a fictional character from the manga/anime series School Rumble.

Fictional character biography

Sawachika is one of Tenma Tsukamoto's close friends, easily distinguished by her hazel eyes and long blonde hair tied in twin ponytails. Her Western looks and difficulty in reading kanji come from her mixed heritage: her father is British and her mother is Japanese.

Sawachika is somewhat spoiled, being from an extremely affluent family (Western Europeans are often stereotyped by Japanese as well-to-do and snobbish). As a consequence, 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.

Harima calls Sawachika "Ojō (お嬢)" (literally "young lady" or "miss"; usually translated as "princess") in reference to her upper-class social status.

Relationships

Beautiful, intelligent, athletic, and wealthy, Sawachika 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 unlike any of the previous ones. However, she refuses to admit these nascent feelings to herself or her friends. These emotions only get increasingly confusing as Harima does various actions for her benefit (though in actuality, they are usually for the benefit for himself or Tenma).

Despite their mutual animosity towards each other, Sawachika 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 Suō, Tenma's sister Yakumo Tsukamoto, and even Tenma herself.

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