Manga Series Review // Ao-Chan Can’t Study by Ren Kawahara

Series: Ao-Chan Can’t Study
By: Ren Kawahara
Publisher: Kodansha Comics Digital-First!
Check it Out: Goodreads | Kodansha

Synopsis

When Ao was in kindergarten, she smiled ear-to-ear as she told her classmates how her father (a bestselling erotic author) chose her name: “A as in apple and O as in orgy!” That day still haunts her ten years later as she studies with a single goal in mind: get into an elite university and achieve independence from her father once and for all. She has no youth to misspend and no time to think about boys … until her classmate, “King Normie” Kijima, approaches her with a shocking confession of love. She tries to lose Kijima, but he just can’t take a hint … and as her mind runs wild with impure thoughts, she realizes her father has totally influenced her!

First of all, I can’t even believe that I’m reviewing this series or let alone admitting that I’ve read it. Second of all, yes, I know how this series looks and sounds. Don’t let the cute images fool you, this was quite raunchy at moments. On the Kodansha website, it’s rated as for 16+. However, even though there isn’t any sex, it does cross the line at times in both scenes and text. If you can get past the overly sexual jokes and scenes that it gives, it really does turn into a very cute romance.

These two were adorable around each other! Kijima knew he liked Ao and he didn’t care about her weirdness or the fact that people called her an ice queen. He kept putting himself out there and letting her know that he liked her. Ao .. this girl was interesting. Her inner thoughts were so all over the place and she really had no clue about interacting with people and how actual relationships worked.

I do have to admit that this has me laughing quite a bit Her father alone is a character that had me with tears in my eyes from laughing. I mean seriously, he was trying to get his daughter laid for goodness sake! See the image below!

The two things that made this series overall three stars are how repetitive each volume was and the ending. Seriously, each volume is the same in the meaning of “will they or won’t they” or will Kijima say something that Ao overthinks“.

The ending here disappointed me so much. SO MUCH! They made me spend about 6 volumes waiting for them to finally do the deed. Hell, that’s basically what the whole series is about. In the end we find out nothing!

They turned this into an anime and I seriously question why. Also, I saw that there is a sequel that came out in January, however, I can’t find anything online saying that it will get translated to English. It’s seriously times like that I wish I read Japanese.

Final Thoughts

If it wasn’t clear from the review up above, I am so disappointed with how this story turned out. While it did make me laugh, that can’t make up for the drawn out plot and having the characters basically the same in every volume.