This Ask seemed pretty straightforward and obvious, based on what I’ve established before, but I haven’t drawn these two together and I thought it’d be fun. Uruka’s a real under-the-radar talent in NHS, I think, but both her and Tsuyu are characters I kinda want to just pair up with every water-affiliated character in the Studio.
So, funny story, I actually was already planning to draw this pairing for a random encounter in the Studio Tour game at the pool. Since I had a poolside pairing for Uruka already in mind, I figured I’d go ahead and work it into this Ask. I’ll still do the event in the game, too (though not in the next update, but maybe the one after that). Also I decided to give the Ask Room a pool for just this one, since I don’t do unique backgrounds and locations for Asks but still wanted them to be poolside.
This is a case of me choosing to answer a question largely just because I wanted to draw the character again. We Never Learn is an anime I watched not that long ago when it originally aired, and I did one pic of the three main girls. At the time it was a simple pin-up style pic, just because I wanted to make sure I drew them while I was still into the show. The fact that I haven’t done anything with any of the series’ character since then is proof enough of why I needed to act then, haha. Uruka might be my favorite character from that series, and I’ve always intended to do something more with her at some point (there’s a good chance she’ll show up around the pool in the Studio Tour eventually, though probably not as a full character). This Ask was a good excuse to draw her again, even though the question of how an athlete who’s life goals all revolve around swimming manages to stay in shape is pretty self-evident.
So for a while now I’ve been watching and enjoying “We Never Learn” (or Bokuben, but I find the English title easier to remember). It’s a cute slice of life/romance comedy anime about a guy trying to tutor three girls. It’s one of those shows with a lot of misunderstandings and relationship comedy, but it stands out to me as being particularly good at presenting likable, funny characters who I just enjoy watching. There’s a couple other girls in the show I’m pretty fond of (and the main guy is also cute, if a bit boring compared to the girls), so maybe I’ll do more from this show in the future. At the very least I wanted to do something with these main three. From left-to-right we have Uruka Takemoto, a swimming athlete who needs to improve her grades all around to get into her college of choice and the main guy’s childhood friend with a long-standing crush, Fumino Furuhashi, a literature genius who sucks at math and science but wants to work in astronomy and is super sensitive about her smaller bra size, and Rizu Ogata, a math and science genius who wants to learn liberal arts so she can learn how to better connect with people. They’re all three precious to me in their own ways, and maybe I’ll do more with them in the future. I don’t think this show has gotten too much attention, so I’m expecting these girls to be new to most people, but if y’all like them it’ll help motivate me to return to this franchise more. I really like Uruka’s design and would like to draw her more (possibly with the main boy, possibly with her swimming buddies), and Rizu’s got a science rival with a crush on her I’d like to try pairing with her. There’s also a cute teacher character that could be paired with anyone for some teach taboo fun. Anyway, hope you all like the pic!
