One of the more popular Weekly Shonen Jump series will be available to read — in collected form of course. Taishi Tsutsui’s We Never Learn is coming out in stores (bookstores and digital stores) tomorrow. But what about this particular romance comedy has made it worth a read? VIZ editor David Brothers explains why below:
TheOASG: In one sentence, how would you describe what Taishi Tsutsui’s We Never Learn is all about?
David Brothers: We Never Learn is about a studious young man who tutors three very talented young women in subjects they’re almost hopeless in, resulting in some great laughs, tender romantic moments, and extremely cute high school shenanigans.
Since this originally began in WSJ, is there any significant changes that have to be made before it’s all bound into a book?
For sure—we generally don’t retouch/re-letter the Japanese sound effects for Weekly Shonen Jump, since we’re on a tight turnaround, especially on weekly series.
So for the graphic novel edition, we’ve gone through and added the English sound effects, making sure they “sound” good when reading and look pretty on the page. There’s a thorough copy-editing process, which is a good opportunity to go through and make sure the dialogue still flows well, that the characters are well-represented, and other things like that.
The most significant thing is translating any new material that wasn’t included in the Shonen Jump serialization, like the interstitial pages or bonus comics that are added when the book is first collected in Japan. It’s always cool to get a chance to get those translated and see what goofy, one-off jokes Tsutsui-sensei included when compiling the tankobon.
What’s turned out to be the biggest surprise as you’ve worked on this series?
I think the emotional depth is the biggest surprise. I like romantic comedies, and while some can be a little traditional or flat, We Never Learn really takes advantage of the setting to give the characters very real, relatable motivations, fears, dreams, and more. There’s a built-in time limit on the romance, since they all have to graduate high school and continue on to college and their adult lives soon, so there’s a sense of urgency to everything, too. I knew the art was good, I knew the jokes were good, but I was most surprised by how much I cared about these teens and their romantic quagmires.
How do you view the balance between the romance and the comedy compared to other romcoms (Nisekoi, for example?)
It’s a little hard to compare to Nisekoi because the two series were approaching romantic comedies in such different ways, but my take is that the romance and the comedy aren’t as easy to separate as that! It’s like asking which is the best part of macaroni and cheese—the mac or the cheese?
Case in point: there’s a moment in We Never Learn where one character’s friends notice her crush on another character, and those friends engineer a whole romantic interlude for them while keeping them under surveillance to make sure the encounter goes well. It’s way over-the-top, but it works, because it shows how much her friends care, how shy she is, and how utterly clueless her crush can be when it comes to romance.
Tsutsui-sensei definitely strikes a good balance between the two, but it’s better to say that he takes advantage of the strengths of both aspects of romantic comedies to propel the effects of both into the stratosphere.
Finally, what should readers expect when they check out We Never Learn?
They should expect a stand-out entry in the romantic comedy genre, first and foremost. We Never Learn is a popular series in Shonen Jump, and it’s easy to see why. Tsutsui-sensei’s writing (in terms of both plotting and storytelling sense, not to mention his sense of humor) is quite strong, and his art is on point, particularly if you liked Nisekoi. He draws great faces, particularly when a character loses their temper, gets lost in a daydream, or finds themselves the butt of a joke. This book is fun from top to bottom.
Bonus Question: Out of the all the characters introduced so far in the series, which character have you liked the most and why?
I like Rizu Ogata, the pint-size math wizard of the group. She’s very stubborn and very motivated, which makes her attempts to prove herself to the group—often by losing at board games or other challenges—really funny, particularly when it involves her pouting or declaring that she’s being underestimated (which usually happens right before we see why people underestimate her sometimes!). She’s funny, the jokes featuring her are good without being mean-spirited, and when she gets a chance to be smug about something, it’s totally great.