Ryota OhsakaMiyu TomitaNatsumi FujiwaraYoshiaki Iwasaki
We Never Learn
Episode 1 also reviewed here: Anime 1st episodes 2019: W
Also known as: Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai
Medium: TV, series
Year: 2019
Director: Yoshiaki Iwasaki
Writer: Go Zappa
Original creator: Taishi Tsutsui
Actor: Haruka Shiraishi, Lynn, Madoka Asahina, Marika Kono, Mayu Mineda, Miyu Tomita, Natsumi Fujiwara, Ryota Ohsaka, Saori Onishi, Sayumi Suzushiro
Keywords: anime, harem, didn't bother finishing it
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Format: 26 TV episodes + 2 OVAs
Url: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=21294
Website category: Anime 2019
Review date: 24 September 2020
Bokutachi Benkyou Dekinai
I enjoyed the first four episodes. Ep.5 annoyed me, though, and what followed was no better. I quit a few episodes later. This is thus a partial review. I know I'm missing some fun characters who haven't yet appeared, though, e.g. Asumi Kominami.
It's a harem anime. Nariyuki Yuiga is an unremarkable schoolboy from a poor family who gets asked to tutor geniuses. Unfortunately, they need him. Fumino Furuhashi is brilliant at literature and the arts, but she wants to study maths and science (where she's a disaster zone). Rizu Ogata has exactly the opposite problem. Finally, there's Nariyuki's childhood friend, Uruka Takemoto, who's athletically gifted but academically useless.
I like the premise. The show's entertaining while it's still about teaching and its characters' academic growth. I like the cast. Nariyuki is a standard harem hero, i.e. sincere and nice, but he's lively and he takes the teaching seriously. They certainly have a lot of ground to make up. Their test scores are in the low single digits (out of 100). Uraka is a lot of fun, but she's got some self-esteem problems under her boisterous exterior and she's had a crush on Nariyuki for years. Fumino is ladylike, elegant and goofy, while Rizu has scary eyes and no social skills.
Unfortunately, in ep.5 it all goes to hell. Rizu gets silly and self-conscious when told that she's looking at Nariyuki a lot. This yields dumb but low-level romantic comedy misunderstandings, followed by Rizu being an idiot and getting lost in the mountains, in the rain, after dark. There's then an accidental kiss. (If you did that in real life, you'd crack your lip open with the impact.) After that, the episode's second half involves a long and painfully stupid scene where Nariyuki and Rizu are cleaning the women's baths as punishment when everyone arrives to use it. Do they apologise and vacate the area? Do they even say "hello"? No, Nariyuki hides in a dangerous place where he'd be easily found and waits in fear as all the girls come in.
This isn't even particularly sleazy, in case you were wondering. This isn't a fanservice show.
I didn't ditch the show immediately, though. I struggled on. There's a funny scene at the start of ep.6 as the girls keep trying to defend Nariyuki to the teaching staff. That's just a brief respite, though. The show's moved into Misunderstanding Mode. I just wanted people to talk to each other. They say doomed things like "I should stop getting so close to them" and "you can't tell anyone else what you told me!" Nariyuki starts taking lessons in ladies' hearts from Fumino, unaware that she's an Olympic-level conclusion-jumper.
Oh, and Nariyuki's sister has a brother complex. She's just a throwaway occasional cameo, though.
No, no, no. It's not worth watching this show even to find out which girl wins. The anime only goes up to chapter 69 of the manga and that doesn't answer the question straightforwardly either. This is one of many anime that started well, but then went downhill on remembering that they were a harem show. I do like the cast, though. They even have character depth, if you're willing to stick around for it. I cared about them. There's a lot to like here. The show's also often funny. This isn't even the best 2019 harem anime where a schoolboy gets hired to be the tutor for several girls his own age. (The other's The Quintessential Quintuplets, which had a misleadingly good initial run that was almost twice as long as this show's.)