If you read the manga to the end, you’ll understand why it’s titled the way it is. We Never Learn is your typical harem anime—one guy, a few girls and a lot of one sided loves… oh and of course classic ‘ecchi’ shots. If you don’t know what is… don’t google image it. The twist here is that it has an overarching theme of learning and ambitions.

In We Never Learn, the main character, Nariyuki Yuiga, is tasked with tutoring two math and literature geniuses who are ambitious for the opposite subject they excel in, and subsequently also fail at their opposite subjects. Yuiga’s no prodigy, but he’s worked harder than anyone else to try to get into a good University to help out his family, and understands how to study and learn any subject. It was like watching him try to teach the left side of the brain how to think like the right side.

Throughout the story, 3 more girls come, they all learn their weak subjects and all fall in love with him one by one—no freakin surprise there. You can tell this isn’t my first harem rodeo. What IS different about We Never Learn is that the author decided to give 5 alternate endings, one with each girl. If the fact that the main character gets with one of the girls is a spoiler, you definitely have not seen enough mainstream romance anime.

I will admit I loved the alternate endings. So many times do I feel HEARTBROKEN because I was rooting for girl B and it doesn’t happen. So just because of that, I recommend giving this a read. Also it’s rare that a manga makes me crack up a lot, so props.

The Life Lesson

The life lesson here is that you can do anything when you put your mind to it. Even if you don’t have a single gene for that talent in your body, you can still do it. You can learn it. This is me, a stranger, believing in you.

But I want to take a step back here and talk a bit about imposter syndrome, especially when it comes to career. Imposter syndrome is when you doubt your own abilities and think you’re a fraud, as if you’re an imposter. It’s more normal than you think and can happen before and as you start a new job. “What if I don’t perform well?” “What if they think I’m better than I actually am?” Well first of all, they interviewed you. But also, you could always just learn on the job, which is easily the fastest way to master something.

I’m not gonna say ‘don’t feel like an imposter’. That’s like saying ‘don’t feel sad’ to someone. I’m not a psychopath okay. My point is, it’s normal to have that imposter syndrome once in a while. Don’t sell yourself short. But if you ever do succumb to those thoughts, spin your mindset in a way where you can grow and learn just by keeping at it. Sure you might struggle here and there in the beginning, but soon enough you’ll be hitting and probably exceeding all standards. And then you won’t feel like an imposter (not that you were ever one to begin with!)

Sometimes I feel like the biggest motivator for me is when someone doesn’t believe or expect me to do something well. I love proving people wrong. Anyone with no evidence who doesn’t believe in you deserves to be proven wrong so I say do it. Overcome your weaknesses, ace your tests, defeat the opposing team, drive that project and show the world that you can do anything when you put your mind to it. Because it’s true. You CAN do anything if you work hard at it.

Now I’m not Smokey the Bear or some propaganda poster so to be real with y’all, I will say this. Some people will take years to learn something. Some people will know how to do it before they can talk. The latter are called child prodigies. Don’t compare yourself to them. You will be sad. I guarantee it and know from experience. There’s a 6 yo. asian prodigy for everything, like these two. The shock on my parents’ faces when I turned out to just be a normal 6 year old.

Watching all the characters in We Never Learn struggle but still achieve their dreams through hard work was honestly so rewarding. It makes me want to work harder and just kill it in life. If I had to more accurately describe the title of the manga, I’d say it’s We Never Learn… to Give Up.