We Never Learn, Volume 1 by Taishi Tsutsui Review

Nariyuki Yuiga is a brilliant but poor high school student who’s offered a scholarship to the university of his choice – with one condition: tutor maths genius Rizu Ogata and literature genius Rumino Furuhashi to excel at their chosen subjects to get into the universities of their choices. Except Rizu wants to be good at literature and Rumino wants to be good at maths, and neither are remotely good at either! Sounds like this wacky crazy manga needs multiple volumes and a hit anime show to play out!

I quite liked the first volume of Taishi Tsutsui’s series We Never Learn. It’s a light rom-com that’s not going to blow anyone away for its originality or treatment but it’s cute and engaging.

The setup – why both girls want to be good at subjects they’re not - is mega-contrived and daffy in that manga way most titles that rely on a similar conceit are, but it allows for some amusing scenes. It helps though that the characters are likeable as this looks to be a character-driven, rather than story-driven, title.

At first I thought it was going to be this awkward love triangle between Nariyuki and the two (of course) gorgeous girl leads, even though they’re thrown together and barely know each other. But then a fourth character – Uruka Takemoto, the school’s swim champion, who’s secretly crushing hard on Nariyuki, and also in need of his tutoring – is introduced and the romance angle makes sense. Uruka wants to let clueless Nariyuki know how she feels but realises she has to compete with the other two – or does she? Who knows who Nariyuki fancies?

There’s a couple of gratuitous panels of Rizu and Rumino bathing and some pervy angles of Uruka in her swimming outfit which makes me think this is more of a male-intended audience. And, as expected for a learning-focused title, there are some pointers on studying technique that are useful for anyone but especially for teenage readers still in school.

Tutoring, study groups and chaste pining: not the most gripping material you’ll read, and it’s not, but I still found We Never Learn, Volume 1 to be a mildly entertaining beginning to a charming series.