English Dub Season Review: Ao-chan Can’t Study! Season One

Romantic slice of life stories is a well worn well for anime. Throw a rock and you’ll hit at least a dozen that observe the trials and tribulations of growing up in high school and the whirlwind of emotions which take place in adolescence. Whether it’s expressed through fighting giant monsters or grounded in over-complicated love dodecahedrons, the youth of high schoolers are probably one of the most commonly artistically expressed in manga and anime. And why not? Just about every author has been in high school at one point in their lives, which were probably pretty formative and gave them a lot of inspiration to write about, especially since high school age is a pretty coveted demographic.

Ao-chan Can’t Study is definitely one of the shows that leans more into the romantic side, focusing on the developing relationship between Ao Horie and Takumi Kijima. Ao grows up with a tainted reputation thanks to her father, a famous erotic novelist, and so lives with a rejection of sexuality for most of her life, becoming an ace student. That is until she starts getting into suggestive situations with Kijima that force the two of them to confront their own growing feelings for one another. And while Kijima is more than willing to fall head over heels for Ao, she ends up grappling with them at every turn, finding she had expectations and desires that she never knew she had! Will these two be able to find a love connection in the middle of their studies?

Wellllllll, not to give anything away, but this show doesn’t exactly have the highest of stakes in that regard. It’s not so much a question of if or even when these two will get together, but more the struggles of these two hapless kids trying to understand themselves and each other. That basically rules out any real tension, but the scenarios often bring enough relatability that you have plenty of reason to root each of them on. It’s where the term slice of life comes in, being not about world-threatening conflicts and more about the day to day personal challenges people deal with on a regular basis. Execution of that objective varies, obviously, but it’s fine in and of itself as long as that’s what you’re looking for in a story.

Also, for better or worse, this is one of the shorter shows released recently, having twelve episodes at around ten minutes each. That means it’s easy to knock out in a single day (if you can handle that much diabetes level cuteness), but it also means that this isn’t one of the most technically impressive shows. I’ve definitely seen worse in this genre and medium, but I’ve also definitely seen better. Ao-Chan Can’t Study is a pretty QUICK study when all’s said and done. You’ll know if this is what you’re looking for very soon after watching the first episode and there’s really no shame in whether it is or isn’t. But if you’re about to head back to your own studies, I don’t think it’s worth the distraction.