Manga / We Never Learn

Foreground: Fumino Furuhashi (left) and Rizu Ogata (right); background, left to right: Mafuyu Kirisu, Nariyuki Yuiga, Asumi Kominami and Uruka Takemoto

"Become the kind of guy that can understand the guys that just can't do it. Because the only ones that can understand the feelings of those who 'can't do it' are the guys who 'couldn't do it'."

Nariyuki Yuiga is one of the brightest twelfth-graders at Ichinose Academy. Having come from an impoverished family, he strives to achieve the school's "Special VIP Recommendation" scholarship, which will fully cover his college tuition and thus help provide for his widowed mother and his three younger siblings.

He eventually gets shortlisted for the scholarship, albeit under the condition that he tutor the two brightest girls of his batch, Rizu Ogata and Fumino Furuhashi, and help them qualify for their college degree of choice. That soon proves to be easier said than done, given that Rizu, a prodigy in mathematics and science, wants to pursue psychology, and Fumino, an expert at the arts and literature, would rather be an astronomer, despite being hopelessly weak in either literature and math, respectively.

Now Nariyuki has his hands full with trying to achieve his dreams, as well as guiding Rizu and Fumino, as well as his childhood friend Uruka Takemoto, Ichinose's top swimmer who sorely needs to improve her grades (especially English) to earn an athletics scholarship, to theirs. Joining along for the ride is their college-age upperclassman Asumi Kominami, who needed good grades in science to be able to enter a medical school and thus be able to help at her family-run clinic, and Mafuyu Kirisu, Rizu and Fumino's stern former tutor.

We Never Learn (ぼくたちは勉強ができない, Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai, or Bokuben for short) is a romantic comedy manga written and illustrated by Taishi Tsutsui, which was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2017 to 2020 and collected into 21 volumes.

The manga received an anime adaptation directed by Yoshiaki Iwasaki for Studio Silver and Arvo Animation in 2019, with the first season airing in winter and the second and final season airing in fall.

Compare The Quintessential Quintuplets, a Weekly Shōnen Magazine manga that started the same year and shares a similar premise, with a major difference being that the five girls are identical quintuplet sisters.

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We Never Learn provides examples of:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Mafuyu's car in the anime is very obvious CGI. Made more jarring when her and Nariyuki are inside as the interior, barring a closeup of the gear shift, is also rendered in CG.
• Aborted Declaration of Love: Chapter 26 has Nariyuki directly asking Uruka if she likes him. She denies it because she wants Nariyuki to focus on his studies, but she regrets it immediately.
• Accentuate the Negative: Inverted by Nariyuki. Rizu and Fumino's scores are so appalling bad starting out that he drastically lowers his standards to avoid cracking under the scope of the problem. For example, seeing them score a 7 out of 100 and taking it as a victory, because on the last test they scored a 5 out of 100.
• Accidental Kiss: Nariyuki and Rizu share an accidental one after Rizu slips off of a short cliff.
• Accidental Pun: The Kirisu sisters' old pet dog was named as Pero in the original Japanese (which referred to the Japanese onomatopoeia for 'licking'). The Viz translation of Chapter 46 kept the same general word as its name, but added in an extra R, making it into Perro. Thus, while in the original, it references the fact that dogs lick a lot; the Viz version's extra R then changing it into Perro - (which can mean 'dog' or 'doggy' in Spanish) - thereby still retains the simple dog-related naming theme (not unlike Spot or Fido in English).
• Air Vent Passage Way: Ichinose Academy has air vents that people can crawl through. During her days as a student, Asumi would often use them to get from place to place. A bonus illustration shows that her use of them was one of the reasons that Nariyuki never met her while she was a student there and shows an instance when they just missed each other.
• Almost Kiss: Rizu wants to try kissing Nariyuki for real after researching it a little bit, so she takes the initiative and goes in. She chickens out at the last second.
• Babies Ever After: Played with. At the end of Asumi's route, she indicates that she wants to have a child with Nariyuki somewhere down the line; her tankoubon reveals they have a whopping four children, the fourth already on the way. Similarly, the end of Mafuyu’s route has her ask her new husband Nariyuki how many children he wants to have; similar to Asumi, her tankoubon reveals she has two kids with Nariyuki. Rizu was eventually revealed to have children in her route post-series, but it was only one child.
• Babysitting Episode: In chapter 93, Mafuyu is taking care of her baby cousin Natsume for her aunt while her sister and parents are overseas in America. At the start of the chapter, Mafuyu was a Badly Battered Babysitter noting how it was harder than she thought. She goes to a bookstore to buy books to help her and coincidentally runs into Nariyuki while carrying Natsume and drags him to help her.
• Bait-and-Switch: In chapter 179, a student named Fujie asks Nariyuki and Kirisu each about their romantic experience, explaining she's been noticing a boy lately while she glances over two male students talking in the background: a light-haired boy with Bishie Sparkles around him who is closer to the panel's center and mostly facing toward the reader, and a dark-haired boy who seems unimportant due to being placed off to the far left, mostly has his side facing the reader, and a speech bubble covers everything below his collarbone. The next day, she confessed...to the dark-haired one.
• Balanced Harem: Rizu, Fumino, Uruka, Mafuyu, and Asumi all have roughly equal amounts of screentime and romantic development with Nariyuki, although the first three show a more obvious attraction.
• Big Brother Worship:
  • Nariyuki is the object of this from his younger sister, Mizuki, (which borders on Big Brother Attraction at times), like when she attempts to "seduce" Nariyuki through exposing herself◊.
  • Mafuyu is also the object of admiration by her own younger sister, Miharu, who believes Mafuyu is perfect in every way (and who soon ends up jealous of her and Nariyuki's close relationship).
• Book Ends: Chapter 119's time travel dream begins and ends with Mafuyu falling on Nariyuki with her breasts, knocking him into something else and rendering him unconscious.
• Central Theme: The importance of hard work. All the main characters have goals or aspirations that require them to put in a lot of effort to achieve and while there are various temptations to settle for an easier path, those are consistently rejected.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • Rizu, Fumino, and Nariyuki all seem like wildly different characters than how they were introduced. Fumino's more blunt and sarcastic personality became more internalized after befriending the study group, Nariyuki has a lot more "off guard" and vulnerable moments, and Ogata is much more expressive.
  • Kirisu Mafuyu's sternness upon introduction was actually Played for Drama, with her being more antagonistic to the main cast. After her Hidden Heart of Gold reveal, she gradually became more Comically Serious.
• Chekhov's Gag: In chapter 78, Nariyuki buys Fumino a gift for her birthday but, due to a case of Satchel Switcheroo, ends up giving her his little sister's new bra instead, which turns out to be several sizes too big for her. A few arcs later, Fumino ends up temporarily living with Nariyuki's family due to a fight with her father and ends up sharing a bath with Mizuki. Cue the little sister teasing her for having the smaller bust.
• Compressed Adaptation: The Anime Adaptation ultimately adapts about half of the manga's content before jumping ahead to a timeskip ending. While the ending is open-ended, it does leave the implication that Uruka was the "victor".
• Contrived Coincidence: Just when things are looking south for Nariyuki and Uruka's attempt to patch things up with each other, Sawako texts Fumino about if she looks good in a ponytail. Fumino sends the wrong piece of advice to Nariyuki (complimenting the ponytail), but ends up resolving the problem anyway, since all that Uruka wanted was for Nariyuki to call her cute sometimes.
• Cosplay Café: Chapter 31 has Nariyuki go to one named "High Stage", and he discovers that his alumnus sempai Asumi works there as a maid waitress. In chapter 34, Mafuyu ends up working there as payment for inconveniencing the staff, coming off as a clumsy maid herself. In chapter 75, Rizu also took part in order to get a rare board game. In chapter 96, Uruka and Fumino were put to work there when they get mistaken for two temporary maids that were to work there the same day the formers were following Nariyuki worried that he was dating someone.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Chapter 13 has Uruka forgetting to wear a bra on the same day as a sports tournament. Only after a full day of awkward physical activity does it hit her she could have just worn her swimsuit under her clothes as a substitute.
• Cram School: In chapter 31, the principal introduced Nariyuki to one to attend during the summer which the friend of the former runs. This is where Nariyuki first meets Asumi, an alumna of Ichinose Academy. In chapter 33, Rizu, Fumino and Uruka also starts going there.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Rizu and Fumino's starting positions. Each is a genius in their respective specialties, but hopeless at the very subjects which they each wish to pursue instead.
• Crossover: With Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs. Chapter 42 begins with an unrelated story featuring the heroines at a hot spring only for Fumino to be unsettled by the sight of a certain ghost. Chapter 90 of said manga also has a crossover with We Never Learn.
• Deconstruction: Of many of the assorted genius tropes, as the manga shows how Rizu and Fumino's talent left them without experience at studying, hence why they have so many hurdles to pursue their field of choice. This also extends to Reiji, whose knowledge of mathematics became useless when it came to mending his relationship with his daughter.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The opening and ending themes of Season 1 and the opening of Season 2 are sung by Haruka Shiraishi (Fumino), Miyu Tomita (Rizu), and Sayumi Suzushiro (Uruka) under the group name Study.
• Epic Fail: In the first chapter, Rizu and Fumino repeatedly take a practice test once a day to establish their skills, or lack thereof, to Nariyuki. He's flabbergasted to see their scores are actually getting worse, despite the fact that they are taking the exact same test each time.
• Fairy Tale Motifs: The five main love interests have been associated with the heroines of various fairy tales. Fumino was cast as Sleeping Beauty in the school festival arc, Rizu has been likened to Thumbelina for her short and cute stature, Uruka is likened to a mermaid for her beauty and swimming skill, Mafuyu is seen as an ice queen, fitting her stern attitude and her talent for ice-skating; and Asumi calls herself a pixie while working at the maid cafe, appropriate for her playful personality and short stature.
• Fake-Out Make-Out: Nariyuki and Mafuyu fake a make-out session behind the bushes, so that Fumino won't recognize Mafuyu in her high school uniform.
• False Start: In episode 8, Nariyuki starts getting Distracted by the Sexy when Uruka is around him. He also overhears her friends suggesting that she likes him, and later in the episode accidentally asks her that. She laughs it off, suggesting that she was interested in someone else. The Stinger after the credits reveals that feels bad about lying to him, but is also afraid if he rejected her Love Confession, it would destroy the relationship they currently have, so tries to reason that for now this was for the best.
• Family Theme Naming: Mafuyu and her three named relatives are all named after the seasons.
  • Mafuyu means "midwinter", explicitly referenced by Nariyuki when it starts snowing during their Ferris Wheel Date Moment in her ending. Her sister Miharu has "spring". Their aunt Akina has "autumn", and her daughter and Mafuyu's baby cousin Natsumi covers summer.
• Fire-Breathing Diner: At the end of chapter 130, Nariyuki and Mafuyu become this after consuming curry from a recipe that Fumino provided, which includes Carolina Reaper and Dragon's Breath peppers. As Fumino can tolerate extremely spicy food, she thought the recipe was "pretty normal".
• Footsie Under the Table:
  • In an extra chapter Rizu and Uruka think they were doing it with Nariyuki but it was actually Fumino. The latter doesn't tell them the truth seeing how happy they were.
  • In chapter 105, Uruka does this with Nariyuki.
• Foreign Farewell: In chapter 90, Uruka kisses Nariyuki on the lips in the premise that it was practice for a common greeting overseas before proceeding to tell him that she will be studying abroad. From chapter 91, continuing from the previous chapter, Uruka insists it was just practice since it was a common greeting overseas. The next day, after hearing what happened from Uruka, her friends correct her that it is actually on the cheek not on the lips which caused her mental anguish over what she daringly did.
• Freudian Trio: The three main heroines fall into this:
  • Ogata is The Spock, constantly trying to rationalize human reactions while discovering what they mean for herself. She serves as The Stoic of the group.
  • Uruka as The McCoy, acting purely on her whims and following her heart, and the most emotional of the three.
  • Fumino as The Kirk, since she's more observant and thoughtful than Uruka, and more emotional and emphatic than Ogata.
• Funbag Airbag: When Rizu hypnotizes Nariyuki, once it kicks in he slumps forward, ending up resting his face against her chest.
• Genre Savvy: When Nariyuki's friend Omori sees that two of the hottest girls in the school are suddenly spending a lot of time around Nariyuki, he outright calls him a romantic comedy protagonist. Nariyuki scoffs at the idea, before spending the rest of the chapter having comedic interactions with the girls and starting to realize he might be attracted to them.
• The Glasses Gotta Go: Rizu gets a huge makeover in Chapter 57, including a new wardrobe, hair extensions, and of course, getting rid of her glasses. Nariyuki considers her a knockout and hardly recognized her. The chapter cover references the phenomenon by opening with Rizu taking off her glasses for the audience.
• Gossip Evolution: In Chapter 37, Fumino asks for help in cooking curry since she doesn't know how to cook. What starts with innocent inquiry goes to Rizu thinking she wants a "yummy boyfriend"^note Fumino misspells curry (karee) as boyfriend (kare), goes to Uruka as Fumino wanting a high-grade man, which goes to Asumi as wanting a boy like Nariyuki, and ends with Mafuyu straight up asking about Fumino's love life. It somehow works out in the end, since Mafuyu gives Fumino some advice on making curry to win men over.
• Gratuitous English: Used extensively in episode 4 of season 2, when Nariyuki is attempting to help Uruka study English. They spend part of the day attempting to speak only English. Later two Americans ask Uruka for directions, then tries to invite her to their barbecue. Nariyuki attempts to intervene, only to accidentally say that she was his "precious steady", aka a "girlfriend", instead of "precious study friend" as he intended. Interestingly, during The Stinger, the puppy that ran into Uruka and Nariyuki starts speaking English with its mother when it returns home.
• Happy-Ending Massage: In chapter 79, Nariyuki got dragged into helping at the massage parlor and gets to massage all of his female acquaintances and made most of them feel good.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: One of the key aspects of the series is averting this. Both Rizu and Furuhashi want to be able to study their true passions despite their initial lack of any talent at their respective subjects. Nariyuki himself was a poor student until he continually worked at his subjects to get to where he is now.
• Hypno Fool: In chapter 91, Nariyuki gets hypnotized by Rizu. In chapter 92, Rizu hypnotized herself when trying to strengthen Nariyuki's hypnosis. In Chapter 135, Kirisu is also roped into the hypnotism shenanigans.
• Hypno Pendulum: In chapter 91, Rizu uses one on Nariyuki to show one of the psychology techniques she is studying about but doesn't believe it will work… until it does.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All the chapters/episodes consist of a pretty long phrase with an [x] in it (like the algebraic variable in an equation). Most of them will also use the word "genius" in the title, though ones that focus on Kirisu or Asumi might use "predecessor" instead.
• Idiot Hair: Uruka sports a large one that curves downwards, while Fumino has a smaller one that curves upwards.
• I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: Now that Nariyuki has been made aware of Uruka's feelings for him (despite Uruka denying it), they both awkwardly dance around the subject and can't look at each other as just simple friends again. They don't actually want to ruin the friendship they have, so they ask Fumino for help.
• I Have This Friend: Uruka and Nariyuki make paper-thin complaints of this nature about the awkwardness of their relationship to Fumino, who sees right through them.
• Imagine the Audience Naked: While Kirisu is putting him through a faux interview, Nariyuki tries to push aside how intimidating she is at the moment by picturing her in her tracksuit. Instead, he ends up picturing her in a swimsuit, and his imagination keeps putting her in different fanservicey outfits while he tries to settle on something less embarrassing.
• Internal Reveal: After the girls discuss Chapter 143's cliffhanger, Uruka and Rizu are finally aware that the both of them and Fumino are all in love with Nariyuki, and that Fumino has been their Secret Secret-Keeper for a while.
• Lap Pillow:
  • In chapter 54, Asumi gives one to Nariyuki to clean his ears.
  • In chapter 77, Nariyuki fantasizes Uruka and himself as a couple, him resting his head on her lap under a tree.
  • In chapter 92, while both were hypnotized, Nariyuki and Rizu received and gave each other one.
  • In chapter 119, Nariyuki was given one by Mafuyu after he was knocked out by her twice (he was knocked out in the present and later in the past, both instances caused him to time travel but from Present!Mafuyu's perspective Nariyuki was out for only two minutes).
  • In chapter 121, a drowsy Nariyuki coddles Fumino like a cat when her head falls upon his lap.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The final chapter has Nariyuki remarking that they're always on the crossroads of infinite possibilities while this chapter happens after all of the other Multiple Endings while the heroines are revealed to be floored about how they have been dreaming up scenes from their respective endings in a chapter where none of these scenes actually happened.
• Logical Weakness:
  • Because they are so talented at their specialties, Ogata and Furuhashi find it difficult to actually explain said concepts to others. This is why they need Nariyuki to tutor them. This issue also means that they are incapable of tutoring one another.
  • A large part of their issues outside their subjects. Ogata is so logical and scientifically minded that understanding of the emotions behind a work of literature, be it author intent or the characters of the story, often eludes her. Furuhashi, on the other hand, is so naturally artistic and emotional that the hard numbers of science and mathematics quickly overwhelm her.
• Love Revelation Epiphany: Chapter 26, where Nariyuki learns about Uruka's crush on him when he overhears some of her classmates in the nurse's office. Afterwards, he's completely aware of her. Subverted once she lies to him about the boy she likes, putting his mind at ease for the time being.
• Ms. Fanservice: Uruka and Mafuyu take up the bulk of it, as the former is a swimmer who gets plenty of scenes in her sport, while the latter gets put into many different sexy outfits.
• Multiple Endings: Chapter 150 reveals that each girl receives their own romantic route. Each volume after this one follows one of the girls through adulthood and the circumstances that eventually led them to be with Nariyuki.
  • The Ephemeral Mermaid Princess: Nariyuki realizes his feelings for Uruka just before she leaves for her swimming tournament. Rizu and Fumino cover for him while he skips high school graduation to reach Uruka at the airport to see her off, and he properly confesses.
  • Thumbelina Supercomputer: Nariyuki eventually comes to share an apartment with Rizu and Sekijou. They help out a Cute Ghost Girl and resolve Sekijou's lingering insecurities concerning her family.
  • Sleeping Beauty of the Literature Forest: Uruka still confesses, but she is properly shot down. Fumino is confessed to in high school and encouraged to pursue her scientific dreams.
  • Tomorrow Night's Pixie: Nariyuki moves away to the countryside and becomes a teacher at a rural high school. He happens upon Asumi as the local high school doctor, and they continue their fake-dating schtick until they fall in love for real. Asumi eventually opens her own clinic.
  • The Queen of Thin Ice: Nariyuki eventually graduates and begins working at Ichinose Academy. He gets into a temporary relationship with Mafuyu's little sister, but eventually he and Mafuyu proper do become a couple.
  • Even the final chapter is a joke ending: none of the routes happen yet and nearly the entire female cast was there to touch Nariyuki during the fireworks, meaning they all have equally as likely chances to couple with him. The festival legend is revealed to be something Nariyuki's father made up to flirt with his future wife, and the series ends with life continuing on as normal.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Implied to be the case with Mafuyu’s parents. They alienated her for the decision to abandon her career as a figure skater and haven’t seen or heard from her ever since. Once Mafuyu musters the courage to contact them and promises to visit soon, her mother begins to cry on her end of the call, showing they deeply regret failing to support their daughter and losing her in the process.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: Aside from being a peppy blonde woman, this is pretty much Amada in a nutshell, who is running a new business with every appearance - first she's running a lingerie store, then a foot massage parlor, then a clothing store, and finally managing an apartment building. Judging from her second appearance, she apparently just wants to do different things and leaves the previous undertaking in someone else's hands.
• Nobody Here but Us Statues: In chapter 96, in the clothing store that Uruka and Fumino followed Nariyuki to, the former pretends to be a mannequin to avoid his detection since he wasn't wearing his glasses. (Un?)Fortunately for her Nariyuki's job while there was to move the mannequins and so he had to hold her close in an embrace yet he never was the wiser that it was her.
• Offscreen Inertia: Averted for Hino-san, the student that Mafuyu encouraged to apply for a music academy and was rendered miserable from being unable to get in, which deeply affected Mafuyu and led her to discourage Rizu and Fumino from trying to achieve their difficult education goals. She was found by Nariyuki to be now happily playing in an independent band even though she didn't go to a music school and will always be grateful for Mafuyu's encouragement.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Some of the comedy and ship teasing comes from these. In chapter 104, Nariyuki was thinking that he upset Fumino for not commenting on her lipstick while Fumino was thinking of the kiss between them during the school festival.
• Or Was It a Dream?: The female leads believe the Multiple Endings they'd witnessed were just some very weird visions. Could it?
• Our Time Travel Is Different: Nariyuki ended up back when Mafuyu was a second year high school when the older Mafuyu crashes into him, breasts first. He returned to the present through this way as well.
• Perverted Sniffing: In chapter 97, Uruka, Fumino and Rizu do this with Nariyuki's towel that he wore on his head while working at Ogata Udon.
• Potty Emergency: In chapter 82, Asumi is trapped in the bathroom at work and needs to go. It normally would not much of a problem, except she was trapped in it with Nariyuki and there were no other employees at the time. When she couldn't hold it any longer she had Nariyuki turn around and cover his ears. When she was about to go, her coworker Machiko opened the door and saw the scene.
• Production Throwback: In one chapter, Kirisu appears to be buying a birthday cake from Onodera's bakery. Tsutsui, prior to this manga, was an assistant on Nisekoi and did the Magical Patisserie Kosaki-chan spinoff manga.
• Race for Your Love: Nariyuki makes a mad dash to the airport to requite Uruka's confession in the Ephemeral Mermaid Princess route.
• Recognition Failure: In episode 4 of season 2, Nariyuki fails to recognize the pretty girl sitting next to him as Rizu after she gets an extreme makeover, including hair extensions and contact lenses, and new outfit from a hairstylist who went overboard to transform her looks. It's only after she invites him to her home, where she casually mentions that they'd be in trouble if she wasn't bringing lots of people there, that he then realizes he had been with Rizu all along. Status Quo Is God then kicks in, and Rizu tells Fumino the next day that she stopped wearing the hair extensions because they were too heavy, and goes back to her normal look.
• Running Gag: A mother and child coming out of nowhere (and it's always the same mother and child) when Nariyuki does something romantic and commenting that he looks like he's dating his cohort.
• Satellite Character: Every supporting character of note is typically defined by their relationship to Nariyuki and/or one of the five main female characters.
• Scholarship Student: Ichinose Academy has one called a VIP nomination that lets a student go to their college (that accepts) paid for. Nariyuki wanted this and was why he is tutoring the geniuses.
• School Festival: From chapters 64 - 69.
• Schrödinger's Question: Out of Rizu, Fumino, Uruka, Mafuyu, and Asumi, which girl took Nariyuki's hand during the fireworks jinx? Whichever girl you're reading the ending for.
• Sexy Surfacing Shot: Early in the story, we get a shot of Uruka climbing out of the pool in her School Swimsuit in this fashion.
• Ship Tease: Everyone gets a moment with Nariyuki at some point. After Nariyuki compliments Uruka's ponytail, Fumino changes her hair to a side ponytail the next day, looking at Nariyuki and expecting him to say something about it - despite her denial of any interest in Nariyuki in favor of Uruka or Rizu having a crush on him.
• Shout-Out: The anime announcement color spread has Fumino's outfit imitate Haikara's from Haikara-san ga Tooru.
• Sick Episode: In chapter 9 (from the stinger of chapter 8), Fumino is sick from studying instead of resting at the first sign of getting a cold. Uruka and Nariyuki nurses her at her home. At the end of the chapter, it is Nariyuki who later gets sick by catching it from her.
• Stargazing Scene: Often when it is night and Fumino, she would look up at the stars.
• Sticky Situation: In chapter 103, Sawako shows Nariyuki and Rizu some adhesive that lasts 15 hours she made since she's part of the chemistry club. It ends up on the left and right hands of Sawako and Nariyuki respectively making them stuck to each other Holding Hands until the next morning.
• Suggestive Collision: Very frequently, Nariyuki will find himself on the accidental receiving end of some mammary, usually followed by intense blushing and awkwardness. In chapter 119, Mafuyu crashing her bust into him and knocking him unconscious against a trunk causes him to dream the chapter's main contents of going to an amusement park with her in her youth, and ends with the young Mafuyu falling on him with her bust and knocking him unconscious again.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Mafuyu slips and falls towards Nariyuki, noticing the similairites to a scene in a Shojo manga she had read recently where the main character falls and is caught by her love interest. Unfortunately, the physics of the full body weight of an adult woman landing on an unathletic teenager decide to assert themselves and she flattens Nariyuki beneath her.
  • Fumino runs away from home and lives in Nariyuki's house. It's shown that behind their children's backs, her father and his mother were in contact with one another with him giving his blessing for Fumino to stay there and, given the Yuigas' financial situation, providing funds to cover her living expenses.
• Take Off Your Clothes: In chapter 102, just after Nariyuki seeing Mafuyu in nothing but a towel, he tells her to take off her clothes which cause the latter to give him a seething look. He clarifies that he wants her to change her clothes.
• Test Kiss: Played for laughs. Since Nariyuki has kissed Rizu twice, she has developed the penchant of offering him to kiss if he needs practice, albeit this being Rizu, she offers it more out of curiosity rather than from desire or lust (though it's implied that she's begun liking it). Nariyuki thus far has told her no, but if she keeps insisting…
• There Is Only One Bed: Nariyuki and Fumino have to share a hotel room and a futon in Chapter 39. The hotel doesn't suspect anything because they tell them they're siblings, but they freak out for quite a while because of it.
• Time Travel Episode: Chapter 119 and its Oppai Time Machine.
• Two-Person Love Triangle: After Uruka lies about Nariyuki not being the boy she likes, Nariyuki finds himself less than comfortable with the idea of her potentially dating the guy in question.
• The Unreveal: Before the Cultural Festival starts, Nariyuki notes that the "jinx" about ending up with the person you're touching while the fireworks start turns out to be real. When the time comes, he ends up falling in a pile with Uruka, Fumino, Rizu, Asumi, and Mafuyu, but the fireworks fail to go off. They start for real just as one of the aforementioned five is taking Nariyuki's hand to help him up, but a shadow hides which girl it is.
  • In the anime, the second season's ending implies that it's Uruka. It's them in the manga, but there's alternate arcs for everyone else.
• Wedding Finale: The Queen of Thin Ice ends with Nariyuki and Mafuyu being late for their wedding, and resolving any lingering plot threads before the ceremony.
• Wham Line: While it's not something that the characters themselves say, the last page of Chapter 150 (published on March 8, 2020) is bound to get a Big "WHAT?!" out of most longtime readers. Well played, Tsutsui Taishi. Well played.
  ROUTE: 1/5
  [X] = The Shimmering Ebony Mermaid Princess Arc
  -END-
  -Next chapter hits Mar.15!-
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • Mafuyu is terrified of cockroaches to such degree that the sight of one leaves her leaping in fear.
  • Asumi is terrified of rodents ever since she witnesses a large nest of mice in a patient's home which the latter was raising.
• With a Friend and a Stranger: The initial tutoring group has this dynamic, with Nariyuki as the protagonist, Uruka as the friend, and Fumino and Rizu as the strangers. Unusually for this trope, Uruka is actually introduced a few chapters after Fumino and Rizu as the third student Nariyuki is made to tutor.

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