Ao-chan Can’t Study is the epitome of a romcom in a short series format done right. Even though it's a gag show that hinges almost entirely on slapstick comedy to stitch it's cliched plot threads together, none of its jokes run the risk of sounding repetitive or overplayed. While it is by no means a revolutionary romcom, it might well be the first in the realm of short, fast-paced comedy that doesn’t trade in length for substance.
But what sets Ao-chan apart from the dumpster pile of typical romances? Allow me to demonstrate by using a scene from the series. In one episode, Ao’s father complains
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about why his daughter has only served him a bowl of plain rice for dinner. Ao dismisses him, and begrudgingly reaches out for a packet of MSG, then sprinkles it over his sad excuse of a meal. Her father’s eyes twinkle in excitement, and he wolfs down his “dinner,” visibly satisfied.
The takeaway: sometimes, all that’s needed to make a story work is to use what’s available, often hidden in plain sight. The answer lies in our female protag, Ao.
Some might argue that having a female MC in a romcom doesn't count as a refreshing change of pace (we have the likes of Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun and Konobi, after all). But to be served up a romance from the POV of a girl who’s a lowkey perv isn’t only refreshing — it almost feels like a rebirth of the genre itself.
Be that as it may, I’d like to point out that just like Ao’s packet of artificial flavoring, any improvements to the show are a cheap, last-minute recipe idea and fall short of delivering real romcom umami.
STORY
Ao-chan Can’t Study revolves around its titular character, Ao Horie, the daughter of a renowned erotic novelist. She’s named after a Japanese sex pun (aokan translates to “outdoor sex”) and the sound a woman makes when achieving an orgasm.
In a brief flashback in the opening scene of the anime, Ao shares this erotic tidbit of info as she introduces herself to her grade school classmates. She ends up teased by everyone in school and Ao throws herself into her studies, hoping she can one day enter a prestigious university far from the ridiculous antics of her father. Fast forward to the present day, and lo and behold: Ao is a straight-A student and misguided misandrist (“guys only want one thing and it’s freaking disgusting!”), who would much rather study than mingle with the pretentious crowd of “normies.”
Everything changes when she’s approached by Takumi Kijima (Ao labels him “King of the Normies”), who takes a genuine liking to her. But Ao’s cloistered and misinformed upbringing lead her to believe that he wants nothing more than to get in her pants. It doesn’t take very long for Kijima’s kind nature to melt Ao’s jaded outlook on men, and she starts developing a distracting crush on him. And this brings the primary conflict into play: the actual title of the show.
On paper, Ao-chan Can’t Study sounds nothing more than a generic plot tainted by idiocy. In fact, some may immediately write off the series as another sorry excuse for hypersexualized fanservice. I won’t lie, Ao-chan Can’t Study is plagued with light ecchi scenes (it’s what I dislike the most about this show, to be honest), but it manages to turn sex into a relevant plot point by exploring its impact on two curious teens without any experience in bed.
Had this been any other anime with a standard length of 20 minutes per episode, I would have given this show a harsher score. But since Ao-chan only has a brief, 11-minute runtime, it deserves credit for successfully balancing script, pacing, and character development into a fairly entertaining story. In particular, it uses its compressed episode length to portray Ao in relevant (sometimes naughty) situations that challenge her to identify the difference between lust and love.
The humor in this show is constructed around Ao’s knack for grossly misunderstanding the concept of sex and how it works, which she uses as a gauge to determine her compatibility with Kijima.
In the second episode, for instance, when Ao hears a “big hands, big dick” rumor in school, she automatically assumes that Kijima’s athletic persona is enough reason for him to be XL-sized. Later on in the episode, she accidentally grabs Kijima’s hand and realizes how big it is. In a fit of self-consciousness, Ao tells Kijima that her downstairs department simply lacks the space for the size of his crotch. Without chemistry in bed, she claims that they should dash all hopes of their “relationship” working out as early as now. But Kijima assures her that it’s natural for people to have apprehensions about sex, and shares that he has insecurities of his own.
The rest of the series follows a similar pattern of plot unraveling by way of busting “sex myths”, which serve to bring Ao and Kijima to a closer level of intimacy. The slapstick humor takes Ao’s ignorance lightly, and her overblown and eccentric reactions end up being legitimately funny.
Score: 6/10
CHARACTERS
The story unfolds from the perspective of Ao, who has lived her life covered by the white noise of eroticism. Her father’s career as a distinguished sex novelist has made her develop a cynical outlook towards men, which she views as mindless creatures driven solely by carnal lust. Even though she distances herself from the “normies” and has no interest in pleasantries, Ao is an object of curiosity among her peers, not disdain. In fact, her classmates look up to her because of her high grades, and this is exactly what draws Kijima to her in the first place.
As a foil to Ao’s hardened, cynical nature, I found Kijima rather bland in comparison. He’s soft-spoken, good-manned, and too nice for his own good — basically your typical, lovable jock. It’s standard romcom fare, nothing new to see here.
The distinct contrast in Ao and Kijima’s personalities work, and it makes sense that they’re attracted to each other. But Ao’s persona drastically changes after Kijima tells her that he’s a virgin.
She automatically uses this grand revelation to her tactical advantage, convincing herself that she has gained the upper hand in their relationship. All of her repressed sexual desires from her childhood come bursting at the seams, and she turns into a sex-starved teen awash with delusions of erotic grandeur. She conjures up images where she subjects Kijima to her wildest fantasies, and devises all sorts of ways to seduce Kijima to get into bed with her. During a study session, she suggestively draws a curved graph in Kijima’s notebook resembling her tits, convinced it would turn him rock hard and go down on her.
In other words, she turns into the very thing she hates: one of the “normies.”
I consider Ao’s sexual awakening a double-edged sword. Even though it has given her an obvious confidence boost, it has turned her into someone who looks down on other people simply because they are a virgin. It doesn’t matter if she grew up in a toxic household — virgin shaming is virgin shaming. And it needs to stop.
Don’t get me wrong: I have nothing against a perverted female lead. It’s exactly what makes this show so much more refreshing than your typical romcom. But an overactive libido and looking down on someone who chooses to abstain from sex (by a potential love interest, might I add) are two completely different things. So different, in fact, because even though we’re a slave to our urges, we can most definitely control how we react to them. And for as long as the world is round, shaming someone for their sexual choices will never, ever be acceptable.
But for all my frustrations in Ao-chan’s virginity shaming issues, it still can’t hold a candle to the blazing conflagration that is Ao and Kijima’s chemistry. I’ve seen quite a number of romance anime, and there’s no couple as cute as these two (horny) lovebirds. Ao and Kijima are aware of their attraction to each other, and they share a mutual eagerness to please each other in bed. Despite Ao’s raging libido, however, they never really decide to casually hook-up because they’re sensible enough to acknowledge that neither one is emotionally and mentally prepared to take that next step in their relationship.
Even though the story is rather rough around the edges, Ao-chan still manages to keep the narrative cohesive and well-paced. In fact, the series has a proper conclusion, and it doesn’t leave you in thematic limbo where you have no other choice but to track down the manga to find out how the ships sail.
Other supporting characters include Ao’s father, who hilariously shifts from a careless, high-pitched voice during casual conversations with Ao to a mature, deep tone when dishing out sex advice to anyone within earshot. The rest of the other folks at school are forgettable, save for Ao’s childhood friend Miyabi who only exists to throw herself at Kijima and cause minor trouble.
Score: 4/10
ART
The art in Ao-chan Can’t Study is amazing, and it's animated by Silver Link. The only other anime I’ve seen by their studio is Bofuri, and I was similarly impressed by its colors and designs. Each frame in this show bursts with color, giving the dull school scenes a vibrant, upbeat atmosphere.
But what really makes the art stand out is its realistic and powerful depiction of facial expressions. The art isn’t carelessly done like the brief, comedic chibi inserts in Food Wars, which look like they’ve been drawn at the end of a weekly deadline. A lot of careful detail went into the show’s portrayal of character expressions. And rightfully so, as Ao-chan relies heavily on slapstick/reaction humor for its gags.
As for character designs, Ao is best described as Sakura Matou from Fate: Stay/Night with better eye art (for real, I only picked up this show because I mistook the poster for a Sakura Matou spinoff). Meanwhile, Kijima reminds me of Mafuyu Satou from Given (seriously, put them side by side, there’s no difference). But despite their similarities to other characters, Ao and Kijima manage to stay distinct in their own right.
The design for Ao’s father deserves a paragraph of its own, however. Unlike the rest of the characters, he’s portrayed as a funny looking, wide-eyed midget, and the way he’s drawn sticks out like a sore thumb. He sort of reminds me of Kero from Cardcaptor Sakura, but there’s nothing about him that’s funny or cute. He looks ridiculously out of place, and it cheapens the gravity of Ao’s childhood trauma caused by his perverted eccentricities.
Despite the design inconsistencies, I’ll have to give points for how well-animated and thematically congruent the OP is to the overall theme of the show. Despite its short series format, the OP isn’t just some lame slideshow of its main characters (looking at you, JC Staff) and it succeeds in setting the right tone.
Score: 7/10
SOUND
The OST for Ao-chan is bubbly and bright, as is expected from any romcom that we aren’t meant to take too seriously. During romantic scenes, however, it shifts to somber, acoustic medleys to set the right mood.
But the best part of the sound is the show’s opening theme, which is a fucking banger. You know what, I encourage you to stop reading and listen to WONDERFUL WONDER by Edoga Sullivan. It’s addictive and catchy, and I’ve lost count of how many times I had to rewind the OP just to listen to the song. It’s currently my third favorite romcom OP after Rent-a-Girlfriend and Kaguya-sama: Love is War. The ED isn’t quite as good, but it’s just as upbeat as the OP.
Score: 8/10
ENJOYMENT
Ao-chan Can’t Study was a truly entertaining watch. It’s the perfect show to binge on a weekend, and gives me hope that not all short-form anime lack substance or any real plot. If only more shows followed its no-frills storytelling approach by using its limited runtime to its advantage, then I’d have significantly less shows on my on-hold list. Far too many shows drag on with needless exposition and character drama.
With that said, I’ll be prioritizing other shows by Silver Link on my PTW just to gauge its ability to churn out quality content, regardless of genre. We need more shows like this.
Score: 7/10
FINAL VERDICT
Ao-chan Can’t Study is a short series ecchi romcom that uses its short length to deliver relevant gags that prop up Ao and Kijima’s love-lust relationship. It explores how sex influences the the dynamic of fresh-faced lovers without experience, portraying their apprehensions in an exaggerated yet realistic fashion.
While ecchi scenes pervade the narrative, it shouldn’t put off viewers simply seeking fluff. After all, Ao and Kijima quickly graduate from their timid, kink-laced interactions and establish a somewhat stable foundation for a genuine relationship by the show’s end.
FINAL SCORE: 7/10
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Aug 23, 2020 Recommended
Ao-chan Can’t Study is the epitome of a romcom in a short series format done right. Even though it's a gag show that hinges almost entirely on slapstick comedy to stitch it's cliched plot threads together, none of its jokes run the risk of sounding repetitive or overplayed. While it is by no means a revolutionary romcom, it might well be the first in the realm of short, fast-paced comedy that doesn’t trade in length for substance.
But what sets Ao-chan apart from the dumpster pile of typical romances? Allow me to demonstrate by using a scene from the series. In one episode, Ao’s father complains ...
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 16, 2020
Manaria Friends
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Mixed Feelings
"You look like a work of art," Princess Anne tells Grea during a brief, stage fright scene behind the curtain.
Grea is half-human, half-dragon and is dressed in an elegant pink gown. Her outfit is a stark contrast to her usual white long-sleeved polo and maroon skirt. Anne consoles her with a backstage rehearsal of their lines, which they deliver in contrived British accents, and the episode draws to a close just right before they're called up on stage. I start this review by recounting this scene because it accurately describes how I felt while watching this anime. Just like Anne, I was fairly impressed ... by the animation and production value of the show. The image of a dragon in a dress is, quite frankly, befitting to the show because it's rather ridiculous from a narrative perspective—it's trying too hard to be something it's not. But for the odd spectacle that Mysteria Friends puts out, I would be doing a grave injustice if I fail to acknowledge what swells beneath the surface. There are certain aspects of the show that Mysteria Friends gets right. But as a callback to the scene I touched on at the start of this review, the episode ends before we see Anne and Grea's performance. And this is exactly what happens throughout Mysteria Friends' short, 10-episode run: the carpet is pulled out from underneath the main characters before any chances of character development or progression take place. STORY Mysteria Friends is a slice of life iyashikei anime, and its premise is fairly simple. Two girls, Anne and Grea, attend the prestigious Mysteria Academy, where they embark on a series of hijinks and adventure. Both happen to be princesses of opposing nations, and they "struggle" to balance school duties with their royal obligations. I use quotation marks to describe their struggle because Anne excels at academics and is a skilled mistress of witchcraft. Meanwhile, the show does nothing to explore Grea's backstory, and it significantly detracted me from my enjoyment of the show. From a narrative perspective, the story is a disjointed mess. There is no continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential, episode-by-episode fashion. This isn't to say that a non-serialized approach to storytelling doesn't work. It does. But for Mysteria Friends, the episodes simply don't flow organically from one to the next. The first episode, for instance, touches on the relationship between Anne and Grea. But in the next episode, Grea immediately falls ill with a strange fever, and Anne takes matters into her own hands by exploring a forbidden library to find a cure. Putting these episodes after each other seem to trample on the blossoming seeds of their friendship before it even has the chance to grow. Placing Anne in a position where she has to deal with a near life-or-death situation is careless and premature. Even when she finds the cure, I found myself asking: Why would I root for Anne in this situation if she doesn't even know how she feels about Grea yet? Why would she go through all these lengths to save someone she barely knows? Why should I even care? Since I've already touched on the "questionable" nature of Anne and Grea's relationship, I want to point out that Mysteria Friends is seasoned with yuri undertones. I'm about as thirsty for yuri content as the next anime fan, and finding a show about a princess and a dragon girl falling in love makes me feel like I've struck gold. The story is by no means original, but it makes Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid seem like child's play. To say the least, Kobayashi is a mindless ecchi fever dream. Riko, a third-grader, makes orgasmic facial expressions when she so much as GRAZES fellow schoolmate Kanna (a dragon loli) in the playground. Quetzalcoatl (another dragon side character) exists solely to show off her oversized, bouncy tits EVERY SINGLE TIME she's on screen. Mysteria Friends serves up none of this ridiculous garbage. The weirdest scene we get is Anne taking a deep whiff of Grea's shed dragon skin, but these lurid moments are few and far between. Rather, Mysteria Friends is a wholesome, slow-burn romance about two girls awkwardly coming to terms with their burgeoning attraction for each other. It's subtle, but it's there. And sometimes, that's all we need. The fact remains that for a story set in a fantasy world where humans, gods, and demons co-exist, there is little to no world-building that takes place in Mysteria Friends. If only it had taken inspiration from Little Witch Academia, which excels at setting the scene. LWA fully immerses the viewer into Luna Nova Academy and explores relevant locations such as the New Moon Tower and Professor Ursula’s observatory. But in Mysteria Friends, we get close to nothing. Even with each episode’s short 12-minute duration (and three-minute, post-credit epilogue), it is no excuse for its untapped world-building potential, and this might well be my biggest disappointment in the show. Score: 2/10 CHARACTERS Anne and Grea's romantic friendship is the main focus of the story. Anne is the princess of Mysteria Kingdom and a master of magecraft. As a young girl, she is driven by her boundless determination to protect her Kingdom (and Grea) from harm. However, her good intentions often backfire due to her lack of restraint. In one episode, she ends up blowing up nearly half of the Academy in an attempt to rescue Grea. But for all of Anne's magic powers, she ends up isolated from her peers and often takes shelter in the school library. Deep down, she yearns to break free from her shackles of rule and routine, and even sneaks out of her castle to return to Grea’s waiting arms. Grea shares Anne's burden of royal duties as a princess, but the extent of her obligations and how she balances it with schoolwork is never explored in the anime. All we know about her is that she's shy and soft-spoken, but the anime never delves into why. Is it because she feels like an outsider in her own family? Could she possibly be seeing herself as an odd duck in a Academy that claims to “teach magic without discrimination” when she’s the only non-human student? Maybe she’s struggling with body dysmorphia because her dragon tail is too big for her body? These are crucial questions we will never get the answers to. In the very first episode, she is shown eating alone before being joined by Anne. Whenever Anne so much as approaches Grea, she immediately clams up, blushes, and averts her gaze. While this could imply that she's flattered by the attention that Anne shows her, I have reason to believe that she suffers from some case of social anxiety. Let me just say it: the idea of two princesses (and one that's half-dragon, at that) from opposing factions gravitating towards each other to form a full-fledged romance is bursting with potential. The rustic, idyllic allure of Mysteria is an aphrodisiac; one powerful enough to encourage two teen girls to fall in love. When Anne chances upon a love potion and asks herself, "But would this work on a girl?" it's almost as if the show doesn't trust its storytelling abilities to achieve the romance it set out to portray. For all of the show's attempts to build up Mysteria Academy, the love story amounts to nothing more than a house of cards. And it follows this simple formula: Anne and Grea bashfully say each other's names then exchange nothing more than four sentences over the course of an entire episode. These awkward exchanges are punctuated by Grea's incessant moans of discomfort or bashfulness. If I were to black out my screen, my mother would probably think that I'm watching masturbation porn. I shit you not. In some select episodes, however, these timid interactions were endearing. There is no doubt that the pair has chemistry, and the best example of this is when Anne accidentally falls on top of Grea while they're riding a rowboat. They blush, share awkward glances, and it’s electrifying. But once the tension has died and things drift back to normal, we're back to the dull, languid pacing of the show. As a viewer, it feels like being forced to sleep after running on a treadmill. The rest of the characters on the show are meaningless. The only other character I recall is a pink-haired girl who's basically a klutz (the only reason I remember her is because Hillary Haag voices her). Every time she's on screen, she's either crying, whining, or tripping over her own feet. But this clumsiness isn’t funny, it’s ill-placed and disruptive. Even though the anime focuses on Anne and Grea, I wish there had been more effort to develop some of the characters, instead of reducing them to paper-thin, acrylic figure stands. Score: 2/10 ART As an anime from the relatively unknown CygamesPictures studio, the animation quality is truly a feast for the eyes. The Medieval landscapes are mildly reminiscent of the gorgeous landscapes in Violet Evergarden. The rows of shelves in the Mysteria library are evocative of the C.H. Postal Company and there were moments when I simply wanted to step into my screen to experience the beauty of Mysteria Academy in the flesh. I'll give major props to Cygames for the amount of intricate detail they placed in each frame of this show. Anne's character design is nothing we haven't seen before—long orange hair, a full fringe, and emerald eyes—but it matches her naivety. Grea, on the other hand, is your typical cute monster girl. She has short purple hair, black horns, wings, and a tail. While they have distinct character designs, they don't stand out from the rest of students at Mysteria (it can be rather jarring to have a show's main characters stand out and make everyone else appear lackluster, though this is a personal preference). My only gripe with the art is that the colors were a lot more pastel than I would've preferred, but the lack of vividness might have been intentional since Mysteria Friends is technically a historical romance SoL. The camerawork is an interplay between long, languid shots that capture the austere, monolithic appeal of the Academy (and its nearby town) and close-up shots of Anne and Grea's facial expressions/body language. These visual cues communicate an overall sense of wistful longing that neither Anne nor Grea are able to convey through words. This isn't to say that the show is devoid of spectacle since it has its fair share of action scenes. But one scene that will remain tattooed on my mind is when Anne dances along to Grea as she plays the piano in an abandoned palace in the woods—an almost painful reminder of Kaori and Kousei from Your Lie in April. Score: 6/10 SOUND The sound is undeniably the strongest part of this series. The OST is composed of soothing compositions and sad piano pieces that align with each scene’s emotional weight. The sound screams of yearning, and is equal parts tumultuous and subdued. The piano plays a key element in the sound design, and even shows up in the anime as a focal point in Anne and Grea’s relationship. Other sound effects such as splashes of ocean water and the chilly wind of falling snow were lush and added an extra layer of realism to the show. I’d like to point out that even Mysteria Friends doesn’t turn dialogue into a narrative crutch—an issue that plagues almost a majority of slice of life anime. I have nothing against dialogue-driven narratives, but it should be paired with unique directing techniques and visual storytelling to keep viewers engaged. The SoL genre has practically degenerated into nothing more but 20-minute straight dialogue in a single episode, with absolutely zero effort to make these conversations seem interesting. Mysteria Friends understands that less is more, and that silence carries more meaning than words ever can. As a short series with little dialogue, the VAs didn’t have much to work with but they did their job fairly well. I’m both a sub and dub watcher, and I opted to watch Mysteria Friends dubbed (as a huge fan of Yuigahama from Oregairu, I’ve made it a personal goal to track down all of the anime that Nao Toyoma and Cat Thomas have starred in). Avery Smithhart and Cat Thomas played their roles well, but I was thoroughly impressed at Cat Thomas speaking German for the spell incantations. Score: 6/10 ENJOYMENT I can’t turn a blind eye to Mysteria Friends’ total lack of world-building and character development. But for all its flaws, the series had an oddly strange pull and I told myself that I’d watch “just one more episode.” Perhaps it’s the short series format or my infatuation with Cat Thomas (mostly the latter), but something at the back of my mind tells me that I was truly invested in this show. Even as if I’m typing this, I wish that there was more to the mysterious world of Mysteria as there’s really nothing quite like it. From what I’ve gathered, Mysteria Friends is a standalone spin-off loosely based off of the characters in the Rage of Bahamut and Granblue Fantasy mobile games. As I have no interest in gameplay, the next step is to move on to the next yuri/romance, hoping it’ll make up for Mysteria Friends’ lack of central lore. Score: 5/10 FINAL VERDICT Mysteria Friends is a wholesome slice-of-life anime that takes a subtle approach to its yuri themes. At first glance, one might confuse it as a gem among rocks and stones, but a closer inspection reveals that it’s nothing more than an authentic-looking jewelry replica that lacks deeper substance. Anyone coming into the series expecting a serialized narrative will end up sorely disappointed as the story is composed of short, standalone vignettes. Yuri fans, however, are in for a treat because this isn’t your standard, run-of-the-mill romance that relies on fanservice or slapstick comedy to get its message across. FINAL SCORE: 5/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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