Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai review

WhoCanPeliCan7
Apr 03, 2021
From the start, be aware this manga isn’t special from any other rom/com ecchi/harem mangas that you may know. And if you really want to read a good manga in this genre, I could recommend you ‘Yamada-kun and the seven witches’ (if you want the same amount of ecchi but with a way better story) or ‘Gotoubun no Hanayome’ (which is very similar to ‘We Never Learn’, but has a much better storytelling and success without ecchi). However, in one point it is special, at least from the mangas in this genre which I know, and that is the ending. So be warned, it will contain few spoilers, but I will mark it and try to spoil as little as possible. Also I will compare this title with the previously mentioned 2 mangas and to ‘Nisekoi’ a bit.

Short spoiler-free version
- Overall (6/10):
If this may be your first manga in this rom/com ecchi/harem genre, then it is a good first step. If it's at least your 10th, then you will get nothing special. Same generic minimalistic story with poor storytelling and mostly mainstream characters for every preference. Ecchi scenes get with the time more and more, to a point where you may ask yourself “Was there ever a story or was it always full with A’s and B’s?” How it ends is unusual, but also not flawless. Solid 6/10, nice for beginners, but wouldn’t recommend to advanced rom/com readers.

Long version
- Story (6/10):
First of all, I really don’t like ecchi Manga/Anime (but I love rom-coms). And this is an important aspect of the story, because at least 60% if not 80% of it is based on the protagonist’s “pervy luck”, which shows the mangakas poor story writing skills. But that wasn’t so at the beginning. It had some good, some excellent jokes and a relatively good base story with a slowly good developing chemistry between the characters. However, due to the poor story writing these jokes repeat themselves but with more and more ecchi, while the base story goes nowhere. This is a very well-known mistake in this genre, so nothing special.
But back to the beginning. Our overall best student has to tutor 2 (later more) one-subject geniuses in their worst field. However, very soon this teaching falls mostly out of the story and develops to the generic rom/com ecchi/harem story. Nonetheless the extra is the immediately starting 2 equally love-interests, and I repeat equally! While in most of these kinda manga you know from the start who will end with our protagonist, just like in ‘Nisekoi’ (which was the main reason why I didn’t like it, because it made the whole plot unnecessary), here you are totally in the dark about how it will end. And this gives this one extra point which makes this average story to a little bit above to a weak 6.
Note: A very similar base story has also ‘Gotoubun no Hanayome’ where this premise gets way more importance and with even 5 (almost) equally love-interests, with (in my opinion) a nice unpredictable ending.

So, let’s turn to the ending, because the generic middle is not even worth mentioning. In my experience, harem manga/anime ends in 2 typical ways. Either it ends with the protagonist chooses every/noone or it ends with the first girl. In the later falls ‘Nisekoi’ or ‘Yamada-kun and the seven witches’ (however, in this one it was different anyway due to the first girl was never really questioned. But I don’t want to spoil anyone, so I stop right now). But here we have 2 “first girls”, so the only way it could end is the former? To answer this either read the manga or beware of spoilers!

*spoiler mark*
If you can’t choose, you choose everyone, but here comes the twist, you also choose just one! How does this work? Easy, you create for every girl (5 in this work) different endings, just like in dating simulators. I experienced similar endings, however, there the routes changed (partly) the complete story, while here just the ending was different. And it was totally unclear until the certain point. This seems like the perfect way to end a harem, but let me explain what disturbed me.
To make different endings based on the same story is really hard, and as I mentioned the mangaka is not the best story writer. So to make it possible he has to overwrite a lot of things, like character developments or story parts, and create plot holes. There are parts where you ask yourself “Does this flashback was really in the previous chapters? Or is it part of this overwriting?”. To make things worse, this turnpoint happens relatively at the middle of this work, and if you read it week to week, you will totally forget what happened 50-80 chapters ago…
Now let us talk about the different endings. I won’t tell which girl has which scenario, so I just mention them as first to fifth. What I should mention is which was my “favorite girl”, so you know it could be a little bit subjective, and this girl was the second, while the last one was the fifth.
The first was definitely the author’s “favorite” or his main route at least. It’s also the best written, most developed and logical, because it either has plot holes or overwriting, and maybe the most romantic too. The second was a catastrophe! It wasn’t really focused on the girl, it was more about the side character. It had complete nonsense parts, plus was not really romantic. The third was okay, mostly generic. But oh boy, the fourth was unexpectedly amazing! It had it’s overwriting too, nevertheless it matched perfectly to the characters and to the previous story. By the fifth I felt the most overwriting, reused events and plot holes, like completely forgotten character developments. Also this felt the most dragged and unnatural.
*spoiler mark ends*

- Art (7/10):
For me unnecessary ecchi is one of the most hated parts in manga/anime. This is full with that, but at least it has more class than the currently ongoing ‘Ayakashi Triangle’... And even if it has a lot of ecchi which I think is unnecessary, it doesn’t mean that I can’t appreciate the mangaka’s artwork. He shows the readers all kinds of ecchi elements, which are nice drawn and detail-rich. Especially the character designs are above the average for a rom/com manga. Meanwhile the comedy elements are appropriately stupid and good drawn. What it lacks are the changes. Even if the characters are getting several years older (or younger in flashbacks) their designs do not really change. Also, the romantic scenes are detailed, but sometimes it still lacks the feeling of romance.

- Characters (5/10):
As I said excluding the nice artwork and the ending it’s a really generic rom/com manga, and so are the characters too. They are just some massproducted average rom/com characters. In addition, due to the poor story writing the characters are also just 1-2 charastics without any deepness or big developments. They felt like one joke comedians, showing us the same thing again and again.

- Enjoyment (5/10):
I really enjoyed the first 20-40 chapters and the last 40-50 chapters. Also the chapters where the story or the character developments were in the spotlight. Unfortunately, the good jokes from the beginning got repeating and unfunny while the ecchi ratio increased, so proportional my enjoyment decreased. However, if you are into classy ecchi stuff I think you may enjoy it way more than I did. On the other hand, the romance part was solid especially for the last chapters.

- Comparisons and recommendations:
In my opinion this title is better than ‘Nisekoi’, however it has way more ecchi. So for non-ecchi fans ‘Nisekoi’ could be the better option for starter rom/com readers. On the other hand, compared to 2 of my favorites ‘Yamada-kun and the seven witches’ (contains ecchi) and ‘Gotoubun no Hanayome’ (doesn’t contain ecchi) it struggles a lot. If you are more into story (like me) or an advanced rom/com-fan who does not read these 2 I truly recommend them. However for the (ecchi) art this manga is maybe better for you.
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Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai
Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai
Auteur Tsutsui, Taishi
Artiste