The things I do for my family…
Ao-chan Can’t Study! is about a high school girl who wants to study and keeps getting distracted by icky boys.
Ok, so maybe it’s a little more complicated than that, but that’s the basic premise. Ao-chan very much wants to go to a university far, far away from her parents, and in order to do so, she needs to get excellent grades. Unfortunately, she’s a teenager, surrounded by other teenagers, some of whom are boys and want to talk to her for some reason. Her father, a best-selling erotic novelist, is a blatant pervert, and as such has convinced his daughter that men are only interested in sex.
This doesn’t seem to be the actual case, which is why I didn’t stop watching five minutes in, but it is amusing to watch Ao-chan try to navigate perfectly normal socialization whilst wildly misinterpreting others’ motivations.
Or it would be, and I’m sure the anime wants it to be, if not for the fact that the whole premise is mildly horrifying, when you think about it. This girls father is so obsessed with sex that he not only named his daughter after an orgasm face – no really – but has convinced her that all men are exactly like him, to the point that she is incapable of socializing with her peers in a normal, healthy way. ‘Cause that’s not borderline abusive or creepy in any way, right?
Look, I actually kind of liked this one. It was funnier than I thought it’d be, and the relationship between Ao-chan and her potential love interest is kind of cute. The characters themselves are actually decent, excepting her dad and his editor. I wouldn’t be opposed to watching more, depending on how the show treats her relationship with her dad moving forward.
Just, maybe, be mindful when you check this one out. I can understand if it’s not for you.
Ace Anime Reviews 