Common Name: Go-Toubun no Hanayome
Alternative Names: The Quintessential Quintuplets, 5-toubun no Hanayome, Gotoubun no Hanayome, The Five Wedded Brides
Score: 7/10, 3/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Harem, School Life
Summary: Due to his being known throughout his school as a study freak and a top student it's no surprise that Uesugi Fuutarou is something of a prideful ass. Despite his success in school, though, his life at home is less than glamorous thanks to the debts his father racked up over the years. But now all that might change now that Uesugi has been hired to tutor someone for five times the going rate. There's a very real chance to lift his family out of poverty with this. Once he arrives at the apartment of the student he's tutoring, though, it becomes clear that there was some miscommunication. He's not tutoring a single student but, rather, a group of quintuplets who all have abysmal grades. To make matters worse, none of them want a tutor and would be more than happy to just be rid of Uesugi. How he'll overcome these girls' pride and terrible school ethic remains a mystery but one thing is certain in all this: Years from now, one of them will be his future bride.
Review: While I'll admit that there is a part of me that likes The Quintessential Quintuplets, I'll also be the first to admit it has problems. So many problems, in fact, that my feelings would regularly swing between "mildly entertained" to "wanting to go on a crusade to rid the world of this show." Now, to be clear, I'll also wholly admit that a few of my hangups with The Quintessential Quintuplets stem purely from my general dislike of the harem genre. But, for once, the harem tropes and wish-fulfillment bullshit aren't the lion's share of my issues. Rather, it's the simple fact that The Quintessential Quintuplets is not a title that lends itself to adaptation. Throughout the series, there are jokes hinging on the gag that the quintuplets all look alike that work well in the original black, white, and grayscale manga format but fall to pieces the minute they are adapted for a more colorful anime format, making it impossible to get them confused for one another. So, pretty much right off the bat, this show is not simply ignoring but repeatedly defying a cardinal rule of adaptation: if the joke can't be adapted, don't adapt it.
Literally, the only things similar about them in the adaptation are their eyes and body type.
Despite my issues with this adaptation, though, I'll reiterate that I do, in fact, like this show. For a harem, The Quintessential Quintuplets actually has a surprising level of thought and consideration put into it. There is some legitimately good content to be had here and a great deal of that content is born from the show's characters. While they're definitely still propped up by archetypes and trite gimmicks, most, if not all, of the show's characters steadily develop into something worthwhile once their desires and ambitions are made known. Let's take, for example, the show's main lead, Uesugi Fuutarou. From the very beginning, it is made abundantly clear that Fuutarou isn't going to be your standard sock puppet harem protagonist. Rather, he's established as being a prideful ass who blows off anything and everything that might get in the way of his study routine, as evidenced by him blowing off the first member of the titular quintuplets, Nakano Itsuki, without a second thought. What we also quickly understand, though, is that his pridefulness comes from an interesting mixture of legitimate reasons and his just being kind of an ass. The first of these reasons is quite simply that, like the characters of Kaguya-sama, he's shy, socially awkward, and struggling to compensate for both by acting like someone people wouldn't normally want to interact with. The second reason can simply be inferred that he is proud of how far he's come as a student and doesn't want to lose the success he's fought for over the years, noted by his claim that he used to hate studying just as much as the quints do. Lastly, building on both of these considerations, it just makes good sense that he doesn't want to make the same mistakes as his idiot father, who let himself get taken advantage of by others and lost what little money their family ever had.
he's actually got some depth to his character, unlike pretty much any harem protagonist before him.
A good deal of those reasons are, admittedly, conjecture on my part, the show goes out of its way to present both something of an inward and outward face when it comes to Uesugi's character. At the start, that outward face is really all we see as he snubs everyone around him and acts high and mighty in spite of his low station in life. Yet, as the series goes on and he starts to warm up to the quints, more of his insecurities, lack of social abilities, and pride start to make themselves known in his internal monologues and interactions with the quints in his and their more vulnerable moments. Yet, what's most astounding about his characterization, is that he isn't unapologetic for being the person he is. Unlike other protagonists who make mistakes, relying on heroism or the love of their significant other to just accept his shitty behavior, he actively regrets it when he lets his pride or anger get the better of him in when the quints push his buttons. Though he still struggles to actually apologize, he still lets himself be vulnerable enough to make his apology clear. So, try as he might to prove otherwise, Uesugi ostensibly goes from being an irredeemable assbasket to a flawed but ultimately good character when all is said and done.
Though I don't think it can be denied that he still has a long way
to go until he's an actually decent person.
Now, while I'd like to say that the same can be said for every one of the quints, that kind of depth of character just wasn't really possible given the show's relatively short runtime. At best, we only really get to flesh out two of the five girls to the same degree on but that doesn't mean that the rest are wholly ignored. Rather, pretty much everyone receives a bare minimum level of consideration the likes of which would constitute an entire character arc and a reason to label them "best girl" in any other show. For example, out of the show's five female leads, Itsuki is arguably the weakest and least developed of the group. In many ways, she's treated as something of a mirror to Uesugi's more problematic traits but with a layer of girlishness that makes her take on the tsundere role. Like Uesugi, she's portrayed as being stubborn to a fault and unreasonably prideful at the least opportune moments. While that personality is, again, a kind of defense mechanism, we never see that same kind of intentionality seen in Uesugi's case. Rather, her standoffish behavior is presented as being more reactionary and something that causes her infinitely more grief in the long run since it forces her to hide her feelings and push others away--a problem made even worse in her case given her briefly glimpsed fear of being alone.
Like I said, solid "best girl" material right here.
Despite her getting that level of characterization, though, nothing really happens to flesh her out beyond that point. Once her "make up with Uesugi" arc is done, she's never given the chance to shine like the girls or even explore the possibility of romance like the rest of them. Even Yotsuba, who was a close second for least-developed character, got to shine at the end. Like Itsuki, she doesn't really have much going for her over the course of the show apart from being the happy-go-lucky, genki jock of the quintuplets. In fact, she's more or less only all that notable for being the character who gets the ball rolling when it comes to getting the girls to accept Uesugi as their tutor. Throughout the show, she's presented as being simple in every sense of the word but is easily the most amicable of the quintuplets, often acting as Uesugi's co-conspirator to get the rest of the girls as invested in studying as she is from the very beginning. Yet, like Itsuki's prideful vulnerability, that's really all there is to her. Her big character arc moment really just boils down to her acting somewhat selfishly for once and turning down an invitation to formally join the girls' basketball team, opting instead to stick with Uesugi and better herself academically. The key difference, though, is that Yotsuba doesn't really ever fade from sight after that point. She continues to pop up from time to time and make herself useful in much the same way a "best friend" character would. Then, at the very end of the series, she's given her second time to really shine as she considers how her reckless, selfish desire to have fun with Uesugi might be an inconvenience or even danger to his well-being, making her reflect on her relationship with him in much the same way everyone but Itsuki does.
Honestly, Yotsuba is just too precious for her to be a real contender in the waifu war.
As for the rest of the girls, it'd honestly be more accurate to say that there's never a moment where they stop shining once they've started. The remaining three pretty much take up the majority of the show's attention, leaving Itsuki and Yotsuba on the sidelines while it explores the development of future romantic arcs with the main three, albeit with some pretty obvious favoritism thrown in along the way. Among the romantically-focused three, the show gives the most attention to the quint who needs the most development in the group, Miku. As the emotionally stunted kuudere of the group, the show spends the vast majority of its time working on bringing Miku up to speed and putting her in a position where she might be ready to initiate a relationship with Uesugi. Over the course of the show, she pretty much runs the whole emotional gambit, going from disliking Uesugi like the rest of the girls to becoming his friend/partner-in-crime, getting the girls to actually study with them, and then, finally, exploring that awkward, emotional line between him being her only real friend and him being someone she has romantic feelings for. Yet, rather than that being the whole of her story, her romantic development is used as a convenient launching point for her development as a character. Rather than just sticking to her shy, awkward, and clingy Kuudere role, Miku's emotional exploration works to help her grow a backbone and develop the ability to look outside of herself. Specifically, once she comes to recognize her feelings for Uesugi, she starts to see that those same feelings have taken root in her sisters as well. But, rather than continuing to be the passive, insecure personality that would have shoved down her feelings for the sake of her sisters' happiness, she instead finds the courage to quite plainly state that she's willing to fight for Uesugi's attention, cementing just how far she's come and how much Uesugi has helped her grow in ways neither would have expected.
You know what? I'm just going to come out and say it. Miku is best girl in my book.
Maybe I'm just a sucker for more laid-back personalities but she's my favorite.
Following as a close second for getting the most attention and screentime, Ichika, the big sister of the quints, is given more or less the same kind of treatment as Miku. Though more personally motivated and emotionally developed than her sister, Ichika's story features her going through the ups and downs of her exploring her romantic feelings for Uesugi while also weighing those feelings against the happiness of her more introverted sister. Yet, in spite of how similar her and Miku's romantic exploration is, it actually proves to be a kind of inverse scenario. What's more, her arcs serve to better highlight the strength of character that can be found in each of the girls, making them more than just potential waifus for our male protagonist. And the reason for that difference stems purely from the fact that the show works to explore who Ichika is as a person before delving into her romantic arc. Specifically, once we're a good way into the show and have gotten to know the girls and gotten Miku's development rolling, we learn that Ichika has a dream that wholly separates her from the self-absorbed quintuplet groupthink. Unlike the rest of the girls who, at this point, are mainly concerned with looking out for one another, she's off pursuing a career she really wants, even if it means forgoing her role as the "big sister" that keeps their family together. It's only when Uesugi learns of this selfish goal of hers and opts to support that dream, even if it means losing her as a student, that she starts to regard him romantically. From that point on, things follow much the same pattern but with an added layer of respect for Ichika as a person--a layer that doesn't really show up in Miku's story until the very end.
Granted, it definitely helps that these two have a kind of playful, back-and-forth chemistry that works absurdly well.
Just as he's willing to support her, she's willing to give him the pushes he needs to grow as a person.
Now, as for the last member of the quints, respect isn't something that really ever crossed my mind. As the stuck up, petty, and needlessly vindictive member of the quints, Nino is just kind of the worst. As generally willing as I am to shrug off my dislike for her as simply a "different jokes for different folks" issue, there are simply too many strikes against Nino as a human being, for me to even remotely consider her a valid romantic interest. I get that there are people out there who like crazy chicks and how some might see her yandere-esque affection for her sisters as admirable but I'm pretty sure getting hate-roofied during your first interaction with a girl would shut that shit down instantly for most people, and that's just the first thing Nino does to Uesugi in this series. Roofies, blackmail, sabotage, death threats: you name it, Nino has does it just to make it abundantly clear that she hates Uesugi's guts and wants nothing to do with him. Yet, despite drawing that very clear line in the sand, the romance marches ever onward, the show turns bitchlord Nino into an option the minute she mistakes a disguised Uesugi for a hot dude she'd totally bang. As much as I hate Nino and how hypocritically petty and thirsty she is, though, I won't fault the show for how it goes about defanging her. It takes some mental gymnastics and a willingness to forgive her past cruelties but Nino's romantic development makes a twisted kind of sense. Namely, once she starts playing up the maiden role for punked out Uesugi, it becomes clear that Nino is simply always looking out for her own interests, putting on different personas for different people. For people she hates or has no interest in, she doesn't even try to play nice. For her friends, she's the queen bee. For her sisters, she's something of a watchdog. For guys she likes, though, she plays up her girly innocence to win them over. What all that means, though, is that she wants to be liked by the kind people she likes and is insecure to the point of appearing desperate to keep those people interested in her. In other words, she turns into the kind of girl who needs to feel safe in the company of those she can trust before she can really be herself. But the task of earning that trust requires a lot of time, steadily breaking down her layers, masks, and barbed defenses with every interaction. That characterization, at least, can be worked with and developed, unlike the version of her we got at the show's start.
That version of her would have just murdered Uesugi on principle if it weren't for her sisters.
That's kind of the problem with this show at its heart though. As much as I like many of its characters, the plot and the manner in which the romance starts often feels like something inorganically forced upon them than something earned. Little forced bits of characterization here and stereotypical contrivances there made it impossible for me to get legitimately invested in what this show was trying to do. Especially with the initial framing of the entire show being Uesugi reminiscing on how he came to fall in love with his bride on his wedding day, those problems just exacerbate themselves to the point of being cringe-worthy. Whether it's the star-crossed lover bullshit of Uesugi meeting one of the girls when he was younger or the whole of Nino's sudden romantic heel turn, these kinds of problems end up feeling like the author forcing pieces into place to meet his ultimate goal rather than something believable and organic. The problem with that kind of perception, though, is that it stands in instant opposition with the rest of the story and the way the characters develops. With that kind of dissonance, it almost feels like the future bride story was just tacked onto an already existing story after the fact, cheapening the product as a whole in the process. So, I'll just say this: I like The Quintessential Quintuplets but more in spite of it than because of what it had to offer. I love some of its characters but was constantly irked by how often they were forced into contrived, bullshit harem scenarios. I loved how the story progressed in some moments but couldn't stand how it was all couched in a half-baked gimmick that made the whole thing feel disingenuous. So, I don't know, perhaps all my dislikes and issues are born simply from the fact that many of them are just common practice in your average harem show. Perhaps I'm just annoyed because I saw this series as being more than your typical harem and still got what was coming to me all along. Regardless of where and with whom the fault lies here, the point at the end of the day is that I don't feel confident enough to recommend this one. Harem fans will get a kick out of it and romance fans will likely find themselves struggling with this same kind of love/hate relationship I'm in now but I can at least say I enjoyed it and that'll have to be good enough.