Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Let’s talk about Shonen Jump. I’ve praised the magazine for years and can you really blame me? This magazine has been home to some of the most popular mangas of all time. From classics such as DBZ, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Yu Yu Hakusho, One Piece, and Naruto to fan favorites such as SpyxFamily, Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, and My Hero Academia. With so many great stories it’s only natural that some series get lost in the shuffle and not get the praise and attention they deserve. That’s why I’m starting the Shonen Jump arc. Throughout the month of August we’ll be taking a look at some of Shonen Jump’s more obscured titles and seeing if they were good or not, starting with today’s anime, We Never Learn. An obscured title that a lot of people forget was in Shonen Jump. The school romcom didn’t turn many heads and came to an end in 2020. While it wasn’t especially popular and lacked the action and adventure we were used to seeing in Jump, the setup was decent, had some good jokes, and had an all-around good cast of characters. After the success of the first season, a second season was announced and came out in the fall season of 2019, the same year the first season aired and done once again by Arvo Animation and Studio Silver. Can’t help but feel this was meant to be a 24-episode series. Let’s get ready to learn. This is We Never Learn S2.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “Can Now, Can Now” by Study. It’s a good song. I did like it more than the first opening and I do like the soft dream-like animation they use here and show what each girl is studying.
The ending is “Houkago no Liberty” by halca. I like the instrumental in this song but didn’t really care for it after the first time. The first ending was way better in my opinion.
Episodes 1-4
The second season starts with a good over the top concept of misunderstandings. Rizu just got back her practice exam from her cram school where she discovers that she got all Es (which in Japan, is the equivalent of an F in America). When Rizu tells the other girls this, they mistake this for her cup size (they wish). This leads to Asumi saying that all men our secretly hotdogs (which we are I can’t lie. Some of us are more open than others) and Rizu begins to wonder if this is true for Nariyuki (yes). At a study session through a misunderstanding, Rizu gets the idea in her head that Nariyuki wants to touch her chest (which I’m sure deep down he does). This of course leads to Rizu’s dad ready to kill Nariyuki (yeah, that’ll be good for business. Scene here: https://youtu.be/jB47GPLG64k?si=3tkF8bDS_S60__dd). In the second half of the episode, Rizu, Fumino, and Uruka enter the boys’ side of the baths and Nariyuki walks in on them (insert science or math innuendo here for your amusement). They try to leave but more boys show up and they get stuck with Nariyuki trying to keep them from getting discovered. He manages to succeed as the guys get distracted trying to peep on the girls’ bath and ultimately failing.
In the first half of episode 2 Asumi’s café decides to start doing a cleaning service on the side to raise more money. Nariyuki gets roped into helping Asumi where the first client on their list is Kurusu who refuses to let Asumi see her messy apartment (she’s got an image to maintain). Asumi’s pride as a maid won’t allow her to leave until she performs her job, so Kurusu grabs Nariyuki and has him clean her apartment while Asumi waits outside. The next client is Uruka who’s mom got sick, so she hired the maid service to cook and clean. Once Uruka sees Nariyuki in her house she freaks out, does all the cleaning and even fixes them a meal (what is wrong with these girls?). The final girl is Fumino who decided to cook by herself after a longtime and made a big mess. Just like Kurusu she doesn’t want her image to be ruined in front of Nariyuki, so she stops them from entering and orders takeout from Rizu (pride before embarrassment). In the end Asumi gets paid for doing nothing which doesn’t sit well with her, so she goes to Nariyuki’s shack and cleans his place up (where his sister is nowhere to seen. Talk about a missed opportunity. I’m surprised the author hasn’t done anything with her). In the second half of the episode Kurusu has a late night working on a quiz for her class. The next day at school she’s drowsy and struggles to stay awake throughout the day. Nariyuki notices this and indirectly helps her. At the end of the day, Kurusu loses her apartment keys and Nariyuki helps her find them in her purse (it was buried under a mountain of stuff she didn’t really need). When she finally gets back to her apartment she collapses and Nariyuki has to carry her to her bed.
In an amazing twist episode 3 is all about Rizu. In the first half of the episode Rizu accidently cuts her bangs off where she actually looks cuter. At first, Rizu doesn’t care about her new hairstyle (very unbecoming of a girl if you ask me. Seriously, if I don’t compliment the AI girls on their new hairstyle in 24 hours I wind up waking up outside. In the middle of lake. Or in a burning building depending on their mood), but when Nariyuki shows up she goes to great lengths to hide her face from him not knowing why she’s doing it (for a girl who’s good at math you sure have a tough time with addition). Fumino finally exposes Rizu’s face to Nariyuki where being the dense fool that he is doesn’t notice her different hairstyle (you’re sleeping outside tonight). He tries to figure out what’s different but keeps failing until he calls out to her by her first name to get her attention. After finally getting her attention, Nariyuki observes her only to fall short once again but she decides to humor him and let it go. In the second half of the episode Sekijo who takes a complete 180 on her relationship with Rizu and becomes obsessed with her (lesbian crush) invites Rizu out to pick a new pencase for school. Sekijo is so excited that she not only arrives hours early, but she tweets how excited she is for her date with Rizu (this is getting too real). As everything is going Sekijo’s way, the two bump into Nariyuki and Sekijo knowing that Rizu has feelings for him, decides to have Nariyuki accompany Rizu in her place. We get a flashback where back in middle school Sekijo always got high grades, but she became isolated from her peers (she’s too smart for the room). Eventually, she stopped going to class and instead just studied in the nurse’s office. When she went to a cram school she met Rizu who was unphased by what everyone thought of her and chose to embrace who she was. This inspired Sekijo so much that she opted to go to the same school as Rizu to be her friend and even then, it took her until their third year to muster up the courage to talk to her. As she hangs around an arcade, Nariyuki finds her and convinces her to go buy a pencase with Rizu where after a bit of comedy the two buy matching pencases.
The first half of episode 4 once again focuses on Rizu. After going to a salon and getting a complete makeover, Rizu transforms into a gorgeous young girl (I knew she was holding back on us. That girl’s potential is over 9000~). In fact, she looks so different that not even Nariyuki recognizes her and mistakes her for someone else (well that’s natural, he’s a dense MC). Nariyuki thinks he’s being hit on by the new Rizu (how do you not recognize her? Hair, eye colors, voice, hell, even her chest would have been a good indicator. I get that he’s a dense MC, but there’s a difference between dense and stupidity) and Rizu can’t piece together that Nariyuki doesn’t recognize her (now this does make sense why she wouldn’t be aware of the situation going on. Keep in mind, Rizu isn’t good at reading people, the behavior of people is a complete mystery to her. Scene here: https://youtu.be/aH5uvkbAGyE?si=SZ2_0JZMWBmT8vkU). After the two get done studying, Rizu takes Nariyuki back to her place where he finally pieces together what’s going on and still has a hard time looking Rizu in the face because of how beautiful she looks. In the second half, we focus on Uruka. Nariyuki notices that while Uruka is good at memorizing English, she gets tense and nervous whenever she has to speak it. In order to rectify this situation, Nariyuki and Uruka spend the whole day talking to each other in English (or engrish in this case. Give the VAs some credit, it sounds cringy but it works here for a comedy anime like this). When they stop at a convenience store to grab a snack, two foreigners ask Uruka for directions where even though she struggles a little bit she’s able to give them proper directions. They then invite her to a BBQ where Nariyuki rushes to her and accidently says that they’re boyfriend and girlfriend. This of course makes Uruka flustered and runs away with her face as red as a tomato.
Episodes 5-8
The first half of episode 5 is pretty pointless. Nariyuki accidently gives Fumino a bra that was intended for his sister as a birthday gift and we get the classic misunderstanding between both sides until they clear it up. The second half however, is where the laughs really come. Once again Nariyuki steps in at a job for his mother. This time it’s a massage parlor (Baron: I wonder if they give out Happy Endings? (Corbin): I want the M. Night Shyamalan. (Nitsuj): Look up Aqua Teen Hunger Force if you don’t get the joke) where once again Nariyuki is in disguise and gets roped into servicing the clients where he’s surprisingly good at it (kid’s gonna make one lady very happy in the future). He gives a massage to Kirisu’s lower back, a shoulder massage to Rizu (understandable, she’s carrying around Gs and I don’t mean money) and Fumino (just let her save face). He moves on to Asumi where he gives her a foot massage where she accidently pulls off his mask and he gets exposed for Uruka and her friends to see.
Episode 6 is a Kirisu-centered episode. In the first half, Kirisu’s apartment complex loses electricity due to maintenance, so she has to use the public baths where she runs into Asumi, Nariyuki and his younger siblings. Not much really happens aside from Nariyuki’s siblings acting like kids and doing kid things such wanting Kirisu to marry Nariyuki and stealing her underwear (you know, basic kid stuff). We do see Kirisu slip, knock herself out, and have to be carried out of the bath by Nariyuki where she misinterprets what he’s doing. In the second half, Nariyuki, Rizu, and Fumino go in for a mock college interview (I don’t know if they do this in America, but in Japan some colleges want to have an interview with you). The interviewer is Kirisu and she gives harsh criticism to Fumino and Rizu. However, it’s well-deserved criticism. While Rizu and Fumino have good reasons why they want to study their particular field and have made excellent strives in getting better in their fields they failed to give a good reason why they want to go to that particular college, what they plan to use that knowledge for, how this knowledge will benefit them, and how what they’re good at can be applied into what they want to do (these are all good questions that Rizu and Fumino don’t have answers to and will need answers to not just for a college interview but for life in general). Nariyuki’s interview adds a bit of fanservice as he keeps imagining her in fetish outfits (Corbin: Give the kid credit, he’s got good taste) but even he falls to Kirisu’s criticism as he really can’t name his strengths (that’s always a tough question). After the credits, we see Rizu and Fumino are hard at work studying interview questions as Kirisu’s criticism lit a fire in them (just like she planned. Kirisu is tough but she cares a lot about her students).
It’s a Rizu episode again in episode 7. In the first half of the episode, Rizu does a campus visit with Nariyuki and Sekijo. Rizu is of course looking forward to hanging out with her friends, but Nariyuki and Sekijo keep sabotaging it by trying to be the wingman for each other. Eventually, Rizu gets drunk off the fumes of alcohol (wow, she’s a lightweight. Actually, she’s a featherweight. Lightweights would have at least had a drink or two before getting drunk). In her drunken state she voices her anger and sadness about being abandoned by Nariyuki and Sekijo and they both apologize. In the second half of the episode Asumi’s maid café is hosting an event where the customers play board games against the maid for a free meal. Wanting to blow off some steam and play board games that she loves, Rizu becomes a maid for a day (and fits the role way too perfectly. Short, glasses, cute, and has big breast. She’s the perfect maid). She of course keeps losing until Asumi helps her out and rigs the game where Rizu wins for the first time in her life (it’s. . .very adorable). Sadly, she finds out about the rigged games.
Episode 8 is a Uruka episode. The episode starts with Nariyuki finding out he’s failing P.E (with that body? How is that possible?). He receives swimming lessons from the P.E teacher who gets Uruka and Kirisu to help him out (I’m just amazed he didn’t get a boner from seeing his teacher in a swimsuit). In the second part of the episode, Uruka does well at a meet that she’s given the opportunity to study abroad after high school. As you would expect Uruka is unsure what to do. It’s a great opportunity as she’ll be studying at a school with a great swim team but at the same time she’ll be away from Nariyuki (Yume: What about everyone else? (Nitsuj): Fuck em). She goes to consult Fumino at a restaurant where Nariyuki walks in and Uruka hides under the table to avoid him. This leads to a conversation between Nariyuki and Fumino where Nariyuki says that if Uruka is in love with someone else he would wish for her to be happy, but at the same time he would be sad if that were to happen (translation, he has feelings for her he just isn’t sure if it’s romantic or platonic). At the end of the episode, Uruka decides to study abroad but chooses to keep this a secret from Nariyuki as she wants her remaining time in high school to go the way it’s going (studying with the occasional funny situation and you being too afraid to confess).
Episodes 9-13 and OVAs
Episode 9 is the first part of a Fumino story. We finally get to meet Fumino’s dad where he’s a mathematician at a university and desperately wants Rizu to join his department (do I need to get a restraining order filed against you?). We see that he and Fumino don’t have the best relationship. Fumino wants to get into math and astronomy but her dad strongly believes she doesn’t have the talent for it (true. But she has the determination to learn it) and believes she should just focus on literature and nothing else. This results in a fight between the two where Fumino decides to leave her house and goes to live in Nariyuki’s shack with his family (great, another mouth to feed). We get a few funny moments such as Fumino interacting with Nariyuki’s sister, his mom being a hopeless romantic shipping the two, and the twins believing they’re going to get married (I love how they believe he’s going to marry every girl he meets). Fumino talks about her mom and how she too was a mathematician who was a genius. After her death, Fumino’s dad took it very hard as he considered himself inferior to her and knew that she could change the world. The next day after school, Fumino and Nariyuki sneak into Fumino’s house to get her clothes (you’re gonna need a lot of suitcases). As they leave, Fumino’s dad surprisingly comes back home early and they have to hide from him. After he’s gone and they come fout of hiding, they find Fumino mom’s old laptop and find a thesis that she was working on. The file is locked and requires a password to open it which wouldn’t be a problem except if they put in the wrong password the file will delete itself.
Fumino’s arc continues in episode 10. We start off with Nariyuki’s mom proving she’s the best wing woman (or mom in this case) by clearing the shack and giving Nariyuki and Fumino some alone time together (so the mother ships Nariyuki and Fumino). You would think this would be a romantic atmosphere, but no it’s a comedic atmosphere as Fumino tries to be helpful but keeps messing up. At night, Nariyuki takes Fumino to a spot to stargaze where he reveals he got interested in stargazing thanks to Fumino because of her passion and love for it (it’s like my blogs. In a way). Nariyuki encourages Fumino to speak to her dad again promising to always support her no matter what. Fumino goes home to confront her dad where even though he recognizes Fumino’s love and passion for astronomy (that honestly reminds him of his wife) he still won’t support her and believes that she shouldn’t let her talents go to waste in a field that she will more than likely struggle in. Fumino says they should ask her mom and she reveals her mom’s laptop where she managed to crack the locked folder. In the folder is a video recording left by Fumino’s mom where we see she was just like Fumino (eccentric and clumsy but beautiful and always thinking about others). In the video, Fumino’s mom says that there is no thesis as it’s beyond her. She also reveals that she’s really not a genius at math. Just like Fumino she sucked at math all throughout high school and only got good in order to get some guy’s attention (like I said, love makes you do stupid things). She encourages Fumino to follow her dreams and do what makes her happy. This finally opens up the eyes of Fumino’s dad and he agrees to support Fumino in her pursuit of astronomy. The two patch things up and Fumino stargazes with Nariyuki again (with her no doubt going to name a new star after him).
In the final three episodes we get the school festival and all sorts of shenanigans ensue. First up, Rizu’s dad makes too much udon for Rizu’s class (he was asked to make a hundred, he made 1000. How do you screw that up? How do you even do that in one night by yourself?) and Naruyuki helps her out despite being from a different class. Kirisu was supposed to do some academic lecture but instead got the wrong costume. The costume she gets is Uruka’s costume that she was going to wear in a concert being performed by the swim team. Kirisu is stuck in the outfit and can’t get out so she goes on stage in Uruka’s place where we get terrible CGI singing and dancing (they didn’t even try to hide it. Why they didn’t do just standard animation is beyond me) and even Uruka gets to perform on stage in an outfit crafted by Nariyuki (well she’ll be sleeping and smelling that outfit from now on). The concert is a hit and Nariyuki goes to his next adventure which is Fumino’s class. Fumino’s class is performing a play with Fumino as the sleeping princess (can you guess which play they’re doing?) who will get kissed by her prince charming. Fumino’s fan club want Nariyuki to be prince charming, so they kidnap him for the play. The only problem is the costume they gave him is the wrong costume, it was a costume originally supposed to be worn by Kirisu (a cat dressed up as Napoleon. You know, for kids). Because of this the teachers mistake him for Kirisu and chase him around the school where he gets saved by Asumi (looking good in those short shorts. Baby got back). Asumi distracts the teachers while Nariyuki sneaks into the auditorium for the play where anarchy has erupted because there’s no prince charming and the headmaster decides to make it a free for all on who will kiss Fumino. Nariyuki manages to save Fumino and kisses him not knowing that she kissed Nariyuki (and Fumino takes a commanding lead). After the kiss Nariyuki escapes and the hunt is on to find out who was in the costume. Luckily, Nariyuki ditches the outfit and returns to helping Rizu’s class where with the help of everyone else they manage to sell all 1000 udon bowls (nice). After that, we have the fireworks show and end credits where after the end credits Nariyuki has a practice interview with Kirisu where he says he wants to major in education and become a teacher. We then fast forward to next year where everyone graduates and going to their respective colleges to study what they want (except Rizu, I think she failed. They left it very ambiguous). It’s now the day of Uruka getting ready to leave and everyone is there to see her off where it’s hinted that she won Nariyuki’s heart (alright, my team won. Actually, this series had five endings with each girl winding up with Nariyuki. It’s a cop-out that we never got a definitive winner but this way everyone gets to pick which ending they want. Uruka’s ending was first so I like to think that the author chose her as the definitive winner).
We do get two OVAs for this season. In the first one Nariyuki goes to the beach with Asumi in order to take pictures of them on a date to fool her dad. Thanks to a big wave Asumi loses her top but they manage to find it along with another top that gets snatched away by a dolphin (they’re smart creatures. It knows what it was doing). Once Asumi leaves, Nariyuki finds a topless Kirisu (every man’s dream). It turns out that second top was hers. Nariyuki buys her a new swimsuit from the shop but all they have is school swimsuits (what kind of shop is this?). With no other choice, Kirisu wears the suit, avoids other teachers, and manages to change into her normal clothes where she drives Nariyuki home. Not wanting to be left out of the fanservice, we get shots of the other girls in swimsuits as well. In the second OVA all of the girls get invited to a bridal fair where they each think about marriage. Asumi imagines running a clinic with Nariyuki, Rizu asks Sekijo about marriage, Fumino tries to lose some weight, and Uruka might have kissed Nariyuki on the bus when he dozes off. At the bridal fair they run into Kirisu doing a photo shoot in a bridal outfit and the girls also get picked to be models with Nariyuki acting as the groom (scenes here: https://youtu.be/TKzQmdReKF8?si=qLBi6-sPO_hKQyz7 and https://youtu.be/gUz3rEMZxZY?si=TQfkc2zeXa2yOYY8).
Final Thoughts
This season of We Never Learn keeps the laughs coming while also keeping the focus on the growth and development of the characters as they start to make decisions about their future and get a clear view on their goals. Once again it’s hard to really choose a favorite to be with Nariyuki as each girl has a good relationship with him, trusts him, and can be themselves around him. While Uruka is still my favorite I’m not going to deny that the others would all make good couples with him as well. The animation and music are still good. Same style as the first season and like I said offers some good laughs with plenty of character-focus episodes and moments.
Final Score
The final score for We Never Learn S2 is a 7/10. Was this a good series? I think so. It’s not the action-packed story we’re used to seeing from Shonen Jump but it’s a good light read that’ll give you a nice break from all the action and violence, and you’ll more than likely get a good laugh out of it. There won’t be a third season as they pretty much covered the manga in these two seasons and if you want to see the multiple endings you can read the manga. They’re all good. Thanks for reading and stay tune as the Shonen Jump arc continues.