As you can tell from the title of this piece I love The Quintessential Quintuplets. However, I have a confession to make. At the beginning I didn’t. I got into manga and the show (the manga is done, the show just finished its 2nd season and will conclude with the 3rd) because I had seen a YouTube praising it. What I expected was a fun, but ultimately kinda run of the mill harem, romance, comedy. And to start that is what I got, but like the relationship between Futaro and the quintuplets over time I came to love these characters and can’t imagine a world without them.
I don’t say this lightly. I’ve loved a lot of stories and felt incredible emotion at their conclusion, but none of them snuck up on me like this. By the last few chapters I was on the verge of tears, despite the fact that the story had wrapped up and Futaro and the girls had come to terms with it emotionally. I don’t know when it happened, but at some point I just gave myself away to the story. I felt like I was in it with the characters. I felt pride when they took risks, I felt their pain when they were hurt. Negi Haruba, the author and illustrator of the series, was able to create a truly beautiful and vibrant story that I had no choice but to love. In many ways my experience with the story is the same as the story itself.
Our lead Futaro Uesugi, a 2nd year (equivalent to 11th grade) high school student obsessed with studying and grades. He is at the top of his class, but is a complete zero socially. He doesn’t have friends and is solely focused on student life. That changes when he is offered a tutoring job. Because his family is poor and in debt he jumps at the chance to make some good money. However, unbeknownst to him his job is to tutor the Nakano sisters, a group of identical quintuplets. There are two big problems that Futaro must overcome, one the sisters don’t want a tutor and two they are idiots. They are all failing students and honestly it’s not particularly close. He does have a code of ethics and is a hard worker that doesn’t believe in quitting when things get tough. He is very obtuse when it comes to dealing with emotions and is blunt because of this.
Ichika is the oldest sister ,just by minutes as they’re quintuplets, but she does try to act as the eldest. She puts on carefree air, but that hides a seriousness when it comes to the things she truly desires. Unlike most of the sisters she is pretty open to Futaro from the start, however she is also a flirt and likes to tease him and her sisters. She struggles with finding her true self.
Nino is definitely the most against Futaro from the start. She actively tries to get rid of him and refuses to participate in their study sessions. She is also a good cook and a popular girl at school. She clashes the most with her sisters which belies her feelings that they are inseparable unit. She doesn’t like letting outsiders in. She is very combative and direct with her feelings.
Miku is the shyest of the sisters. She wears headphones around her neck at all times, although I think it’s mostly as a mechanism to keep others away as she never really puts them on. She resists Futaro at first, but they quickly bond over her love of feudal warlords. She gets along with all of her sisters, but will clash with Nino. She doesn’t like confrontation and lacks confidence in her self.
Even among this group of idiots Yotsuba is the airhead of the group. She comes off as the most childlike because she wears a ribbon on her head that gives her the appearance of having bunny ears. She is the athlete of the sisters and is selfless to a fault. She struggles mightily to say no to anybody. She, unlike her sisters, is immediately open to Futaro and tries to help him in his efforts to tutor the group. She is very enthusiastic most of the time and rarely dials it back. When she does it has a powerful impact.
Itsuki is the “youngest” of the sisters and on the surface is the most serious. We even meet her first in the show as she asks Futaro for help studying and is shot down before he gets the job offer to tutor the sisters. This leads her to resist working with Futaro at the start. Unlike her sisters she really does put in the effort to study on her own, but she just can’t get the results she wants. She aspires to be like her mother and has been trying to emulate her since her death. She is incredibly stubborn leading to her continued resistance of Futaro’s tutoring. She is also a ravenous eater, which is the source of some conflict and comedy.
That’s the setup for the show and I bet you have a pretty good idea of how the story goes, but to me that’s irrelevant. These characters are great. I don’t want to go into too much detail because I don’t want to spoil it. I’ll just say that it was an incredible joy to watch these characters grow and change over time. I couldn’t stop myself from out loud saying “good for you” and “I’m so proud of you” while reading and watching. There are characters that I didn’t like at the beginning who won my heart by the end. And unlike a lot of harem stories the protagonist, Futaro, carries his weight. He is not just a blank slate, perfect character, or annoying whiny boy like most protagonists in this genre. He grows and changes along with the girls. He makes mistakes, he has flaws and that’s what makes the story. It’s not just about who’s best girl, you actually want to see him and the girl he will ultimately choose, be together. As the audience we love them all.
I just can’t stress enough how much I loved the story. It was truly phenomenal. The story will keep you guessing until the end on which girl he ends up with, but it never lets that overtake the story. This is a heartwarming story with a pretty unambiguously happy ending. It’s just so beautiful. The heart of the story is the sisters and their journey with Futaro. When the story starts the sisters are obsessed with the idea that they are all just a fifth of a whole person. The joy of the story is how over time we see the sisters start to become their own people, strive for their own goals, love the same boy and how they can do all of that while still maintaining their bond as sisters.
If it isn’t obvious already I highly recommend you read and/or watch this The Quintessential Quintuplets. If you’re familiar with the story or want to be please leave a comment. Hell even if you’re not, leave a comment. Thanks for reading hope you liked it and seriously this story is awesome.