We Never Learn!

We Never Learn!

We Never Learn!: Bokuben anime series cover art
We Never Learn!

Overview

We Never Learn! (Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai! / ぼくたちは勉強ができない!) is the second season of We Never Learn. You can tell it’s the second season because this time there’s an exclamation point after the title — don’t ask me why, that’s just something a lot of anime do.

But, to make things easier I’m just going to be referring to it as Bokuben 2.

So, if you’ve already seen the first season of Bokuben, or if you know what the series is about anyway, then I’ll just make this simple and say Bokuben 2 is the same. It doesn’t introduce any new characters or any new twists; it simply continues from where the first season left off.

And with that in mind, that also means the rankings of the girls are all pretty much the same. Asumi-senpai and Kirisu-Sensei are the top-tier girls (along with Mizuki Yuiga), Fumino and Uruka are the mid-tier girls, and Rizu is down at the bottom, below the various background characters.

Interestingly, this season also seems to be the end of the anime, because there was an anime original ending that basically makes it so the series can’t continue. I’ll be spoiling that ending in a later section and will give you a warning when we get there.

However, before we get to the spoilers, we’re going to need to cover what sets Bokuben 2 apart from the original Bokuben. There are some things I think the first season did better, and there are other things I think this second season did better.

Comparison to Season One

Let’s start with the things the first season did better than the second. The main two issues with Bokuben 2 are the OP and ED, which were both far worse than their season one counterparts. The songs of both the OP and ED were worse this time around, but that isn’t really the biggest issue.

What I see as a far bigger issue with the new season is the fact that the OP was extremely bland visually. If you’ve read a lot of my reviews in the past then you’ll know animation isn’t the most important part of an anime to me, but when its your animation that sets you apart, that’s a different story.

The season one OP was so good because of the great animation it had for no real reason. And then, when we get to the season two OP, suddenly that animation is gone. I don’t know if this is the result of the two seasons both coming out in the same year, but it was a disappointment.

Asumi Kominami in a bathing suit from the We Never Learn: Bokuben anime series OVA
Asumi Kominami in a bathing suit (from the season 1 OVA, not season 2)

Luckily, despite the OP and ED being worse, I think Bokuben 2 was better compared to the first season overall.

This all comes down to the fact that Bokuben 2 had a lot more one-on-one time with the various heroines of the series. In the first season, there were a lot of scenes that included Yuiga and all three of the main girls together. This time around, they’re mostly on their own, which means they can be developed more.

It also means we get more content that’s actually fun to watch — AKA more content with girls who aren’t Rizu, and more Asumi and Kirisu content in general.

Which Girl Won?

Now is where we get into spoiler territory, because yes, there was a winner at the end of Bokuben 2. Also, this season ends with our main cast graduating from high school, so that’s just one other reason why the series can’t progress further. Skip to the conclusion if you don’t want to be spoiled.

For those of you who are still reading this, if you haven’t already seen the end of the series, I’d just like to say that there wasn’t actually a definitive winner. Instead, there was a heavily implied winner, and that was Uruka Takemoto.

I knew if there was going to be a winner it wasn’t going to be Kirisu or Asumi, but I would have preferred Fumino win over Uruka. With that said, sure, Uruka was probably the one who deserved to win the most because she actually tried to win.

Fumino Furuhashi dressed as a princess from the anime series We Never Learn!: Bokuben S2
Fumino Furuhashi dressed as a princess

But, with all that said, I’d like to bring your attention back to the point that it was only implied that Uruka won. We saw the silhouette of someone, and then we see that Uruka is happy while on her flight to America. That doesn’t necessarily mean she won.

In fact, my theory is that Uruka didn’t actually win, and that she’s just happy because she got to see Yuiga one last time before leaving.

So, who won?

I’m pretty sure the real winner was Mizuki, Yuiga’s younger sister. We know that Mizuki was present at the school festival — we see her there in episode 12 — so that much checks out. Then, we also have to consider the hairstyle the silhouette had, which was more like Mizuki’s than anyone else’s.

And, lastly, Uruka would have been behind Yuiga, not in front of him.

Conclusion

In the end, I gave We Never Learn! the same score that I gave the first season, a 7/10. However, this is a slightly higher 7/10 thanks to the improvements this season made over the first. And no, I’m not going to take away points just because the OP and ED happened to be worse.

But, if you’ve seen this series, who would you have liked to see win in the end? And what did you think of the anime original ending? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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