Karen Ichijo

Karen Ichijo is one of the quieter girls of 2-C, but her appearance is deceiving and she is one of the strongest girls in School Rumble, rivaling both Mikoto Suo and Lala Gonzalez in strength and athleticism. Ichijou's story focuses mainly on the relationship between her and Kyosuke Imadori, and her major contribution to 2-C's victory in the Sports Festival. Ichijou first debuts in Chapter 47 of the manga and episode 14 of the TV series (she had a very minor role in Ep. 7). She appears on the cover of manga Volume 5. She has her own image album at no.6, and is the lead singer for Class 2-C's band. Karen is very shy and caring, but also very responsible and hard working. In Ep. 7, she is the only student who cares about doing the job they were assigned (cleaning the pool). She also works for a moving company, where the manager refers to her as Ichi-san. While this sort of work perfectly suits her strength, it causes her to feel less feminine, in that she can often outlift the guys (as seen in Ep. 14). Her shyness often causes her to be less self confident in personal affairs, but she tries hard. Her caring for others is seen in several places as well. In Ep. 18, during her date with Kyosuke Imadori, she saves him from Noboru Tennoji by crushing an apple with her bare hand in front of him, scaring the big goon off. Saving Imadori has become somewhat of a theme for Karen, since recently, Karen has been saving Imadori from the assaults of Lala Gonzalez, who can't stand the "banana-otoko". After her date with Imadori, Karen is seen comforting a depressed Tenma Tsukamoto, who is incidentally depressed because she found out Imadori doesn't like Karen in a romantic way. Nevertheless, Karen is kind to Tenma, and tells her it's ok. Still another example of her caring is seen in the Survival Game, where she refuses to shoot at Mikoto Suo out of fear of hitting her friend and teammate Megumi Sagano. Having a quiet and shy personality, Karen is often not confident or even aware of the great ability she possess. She is a great wrestler, but really doesn't think so. She is also very shy, especially around guys, which makes it all the harder for her to approach her love interest, Kyosuke Imadori.