The Quintessential Quintuplets – 12 (Fin) – Team Effort

In an attempt to be fair, not equal, Miku cites a technicality in the Campfire Legend: the key is not dancing with Fuutarou, but holding his hand at the finale. Since Fuutarou has two hands, she proposes she and Ichika both be holding them at the proper time. Unfortunately Ichika was coughing and couldn’t hear what Miku proposed, and Miku can’t bring herself to repeat it.

That brings us to the more pressing matter: Itsuki has apparently vanished. Despite fading fast due to catching Raiha’s cold (getting wet last night couldn’t have helped) Fuutarou coordinates a search, bringing a masked Ichika (who apparently caught Raiha’s cold through him) along with him. However, whenever a quint is masked or their face otherwise concealed, one has to suspect something is up. Also, the normally lilac-topped “Ichika’s” hair looked a bit too deep red.

Sure enough, Fuutarou catches on that “Ichika” is really Itsuki in disguise, because back when they were skiing she called him “Uesugi-kun” instead of “Fuutarou-kun.”He waits until the two of them are up in a chair lift to say so.

Turns out Itsuki got separated and lost due to her poor eyesight. That begs the question Why not contacts? Nino wears ’em, and her vision is thoroughly impaired. In any case, Itsuki was apparently testing Fuutarou to see if he’d be able to tell them apart…because their father can’t, I guess?

Itsuki’s whole thing is a bit of a head-scratcher, so let’s move on, shall we? Fuutarou reaches his limit, and he reaches the point where he can’t seem to get rid of the five quints, when at the start they were running away from him. 

He somewhat coldly asks what purpose would be served by any of them staying with him, and the head teacher declares the room where he’s resting to be out-of-bounds, which all but ensures they’ll find a way to break in and be with him.

This is all happening during the campfire, which Nino stands beside all alone, dancing with no one. Fuutarou took her a aside earlier to tell her “Kintarou” couldn’t make it, which seems like a cowardly move on his part, especially after she explicitly asks if she can trust him. I know he’s trying to spare her feelings, but I reckon Nino would prefer honesty over fiction.

Meanwhile, Miku and Ichika have a nice sisterly moment where Miku does what Fuutarou couldn’t with Nino: she’s forthright and honest. She likes Fuutarou, so she’s going to do what she wants going forward, while accepting that the others can do what they wish too. Even Yotsuba has a rare subdued moment where she finds Fuutarou’s well-worn camp guide and kicks herself for pushing him so hard he got sick, when again it was likely Raiha who got him sick.

As the campfire (and, incidentally, the show) builds towards its finale, the five sisters are surprised to find all of them breaking into Fuutarou’s room at the same time, even going for the light switch in unison. They also each manage to grab one of his fingers the moment the campfire ends.

Flash forward to the future, when Raiha is now a high schooler, the morning of the day her brother is getting married. The bride we see could be any one of the quints we know, and indeed is depicted as more of an amalgam of the five than any individual quint.

It’s therefore an incomplete future; he may one day have to choose one and their identity may be revealed, but this season is not interested in answering the question of who quite yet. There’s more story to be told! Back at school, the five sisters are finally on the same page about studying with him, with the final holdout Nino tsundere-ly relenting to the majority. Ichika’s decision to quit or change schools for her acting career is left up in the air.

When a recovered Fuutarou warns them he’ll be working them hard in order to get their test scores up, they’re all unnerved and run away from him together, the way they used to when they first met him. The difference is, they’ll be back, for his tutoring, for his friendship, and maybe for more. They can’t not…after all, they were all held hands at the end of that campfire!

In the final ranking of the Quintuplets…Wait, what’s this? They all scored 100? It’s a five-way tie! What are the odds? Looks like the argument of “Who is the Best Quint?” will have to be resolved in Season 2, coming Winter 2021…

The Quintessential Quintuplets – 11 – Their Own Campfire

There are two distinct sensors that can’t be tripped when she and Fuutaoru are trapped in the storage shed, potentially overnight: the burglar sensor on the door to the shed, or the sensor in her heart. It’s a corny line, but it’s said internally, where as we all know all manner of corny things are said in the comfort of our own heads, so it’s fine. It’s also adorable, and another reason why Ichika has pulled away as my favorite of the five Nakano quintuplets. That, and amazing lines like “No enjoying my thighs!”

As Yotsuba, Miku and Itsuki notice that both Ichika and Fuutarou are missing, Ichika tries to pass the time chatting with Fuutarou, only for him to be preoccupied with making a fire. What finally gets his attention is her telling him she’s thinking of quitting school—something she couldn’t tell any of the sisters. To her surprise, he doesn’t judge or condemn her. Instead, he lauds her for finding something she wants to do, and envies her for having the requisite options.

Ichika needed someone to tell her it’s okay, and he does so, unaware of how significant it is coming from him. Then he successfully starts the fire, and Ichika assents to calling off their dance at the school campfire. However, that doesn’t preclude them having their own little campfire dance right then and there, and further driven by her heart, she holds out her hand with the brightest smile we’ve seen from any quint to date.

If that invitation to dance didn’t cause your eyes to shimmer at least a little, you might be a Grinch! But then Fuutarou brings up the campfire legend that Ichika did not know about, and she withdraws from him, overcome by guilt for inadvertently hurting Miku. In the process, she knocks over a big log, which almost falls on her before Fuutarou swoops in to rescue her, locking the two in a romantic dance-like pose.

When the log falls it damages the door, trips the alarm, and activates the sprinklers, but fortunately it’s switched off before security is called. Unfortunately for both Fuutarou and Ichika, Miku and Itsuki are the ones who deactivate the alarm and unlock the door, discovering Fuutarou and Big Sis in what could artfully described as in flagrante delicto, through no fault of their own.

The next day, both Ichika has caught cold (due to the sprinklers) but Fuutarou is yanked out of bed by Yotsuba to go skiing. When he meets Miku on the slopes she’s cold towards him, as neither she nor Itsuki 100% believed his and Ichika’s explanation of last night’s events. Mostly, Miku is frustrated with her predicament: if she and her four sisters are all “equal”, what is she supposed to do with her feelings for Fuutarou if Ichika has already taken steps?

Yotsuba proposes a game of ski-tag, Ichika eventually joins the others, and while she’s skiing beside Fuutarou makes sure he hasn’t/won’t tell anyone else what she told him about quitting school. Not knowing how to stop, Fuutarou crashes, and ends up in the vicinity of where Nino was snowboarding. When wiping his brow, the band-aid she put on “Kintarou’s” forehead comes off and she finds it.

Once again, I wish he’d simply reveal to Nino that Kintarou is an invention and that he’s the cool guy she likes, only with different hair. But at least when he hides from her (and Yotsuba, as the game of tag is still on), he ends up in the same igloo as Miku, and in the warmth of that space her frustration gradually fades. It’s a lovely, cozy, disarming scene between the two.

Miku proposes a handicap against Yotsuba, but he doesn’t want to ignore the work she put into being the most athletic quint. He wants to be “fair, not equal” in their treatment of her, and that’s when a light bulb blinks on in Miku’s head. She doesn’t have to feel restricted by the notion that she and her sisters are all equal. All is fair in love and war!

As Itsuki skis all by her lonesome, Miku gives Ichika a call. Hopefully some air can be cleared in the last episode of the season…and I’m not talking about ski jumps! Whatever happens, I’m just not ready to say goodbye to these characters.

As expected, Ichika’s extended time with Fuutarou gained her top ranking in the penultimate episode, giving her an insurmountable 11-point lead over Yotsuba going into the finale. Miku’s igloo scene gave her a boost this week. Yotsuba, Nino and Itsuki rounded out the episode ranking.

The Quintessential Quintuplets – 10 – The True Test of Courage

Yotsuba is determined to have “no regrets” when it comes to the school camp. So far, that’s translating to finding excuses to be with Fuutarou, including joining him for the test of courage. Does she just want to have fun with him and make happy memories, or does she want to confess her feelings—it’s not entirely clear, because it’s probably not entirely clear to her. So she’s content to spend time with him. The problem is, she has four sisters limiting her share of Fuutarou time.

After scaring Itsuki with his creepy clown mask and spurring Nino to chase after her, Fuutarou is concerned the two ran towards Chekhov’s Cliff, and chases after them. He only finds Nino, but since he’s still wearing a blonde wig, she mistakes him for his bad-boy “relative”. Rather than telling Nino the truth (which would have been more dramatically satisfying), he pretends to be the fictional “Kintarou-kun”. Basically, he chickens out here.

That’s a shame, because he’s selling Nino short if he thinks she wouldn’t come around to being less hostile and more understanding with him if he knew about his past and that the photo was of him. He pays an immediate price for keeping her in the dark, as when he rescues her from falling off the cliff, she asks him to be her campfire dance partner. He’s only saved from having to answer by a sobbing Itsuka emerging from the woods.

Meanwhile, Ichika and Miku (who saw right through Fuutarou’s disguise) both want to dance with Fuutarou, but both are clearly uncomfortable hurting one another. Still, when Miku insists Ichika be the one, she doesn’t refuse it, and simply hopes Miku won’t regret the consequences of that choice. Fuutarou has no way of knowing the “sacrifice” Miku made when he asks her where Nino was, drawing her ire.

Fuutarou starts to become worried that all of the quints are angry at him and that he has to exercise damage control lest it cause problems for tutoring. While Fuutarou is moving logs with Yotsuba (another exercise she reeled him into) Ichika pitches in, both in helping him with the logs (Fuutarou isn’t the strongest guy) and with advice on how to talk naturally to her sisters.

Then the subject of the campfire dance comes up, and Fuutarou heartlessly puts it out there that they should call it off. Granted, he’s oblivious for Ichika’s feelings for him (not to mention Miku’s), and assumes Ichika doesn’t want to do it. But dude, you were just going on about communicating better!

His words cause Ichika to cry, but he recovers by wrapping his warm coat over her while they hide from Yotsuba and the others. They’re not sure why they’re hiding (again), but as a result they’re both locked in the storage shed, another rom-com standby that gives a couple-in-waiting a chance to clear the air and/or make things clearer. Either that happens next week, or QQ twists things in another way.

P.S. With just two episodes left (damn!), here’s where the “Best Quintuplet” Rankings sit:

Scoring is inverse to the ranking, i.e. the first-ranked quint gets five points, while the fifth-ranked quint gets one. As you can see, Ichika surpassed Yotsuba for the lead after the fireworks and never looked back, while Nino rallied from the bottom to tie Yotsuba for second place. Either of them could potentially catch Ichika, but it will take some doing.

The Quintessential Quintuplets – 09 – All To Themselves

Pictured: Not Ichika

Yotsuba approaches Fuutarou in the hall with Miku, excited about the upcoming School Camp and the campfire legend, but when it comes time for a study group, Yotsuba runs away and Ichika has a shoot, but not before giving Miku a wig so she can pose as Ichika at her class meeting. However, it turns out a guy in Ichika’s class lied about that meeting so he could ask her to dance with him at the campfire. “Michika” wasn’t ready for this level of acting!

Thankfully Fuutarou was listening in and intervenes when the guy suspects she’s not really Ichika. Miku then offers the excuse that she’s already dancing with Fuutarou at the campfire, and clings to him in order to convince the guy that they’re a couple. Miku even has the gall to ask the guy why one confesses. His answer is because you want that person “all to yourself.” But how does that work if you’re one of “five fifths together as one”?

With that matter settled, the quints (minus Ichika) surprise Fuutarou by taking him out shopping for school camp clothes, all their treat in exchange for serving as their model for their ideal guy getup. Their choices say a lot about their personalities, as Miku chooses traditional garb, Yotsuba chooses loud and gaudy, Itsuki chooses…her idea of tough and manly. Only Nino, who has pretty consistently good fashion sense, seems to take things seriously, choosing a stylish yet understated look.

But when Fuutarou checks his phone, he learns that his beloved Raiha is in bed with a fever. He stays by her side all night and into the morning. He misses the bus for camp, but he says it doesn’t matter. The heavily worn camp leaflet suggests otherwise, and both his dad and Raiha know it. Raiha contacts Itsuki, who comes to fetch Fuutarou.

To his surprise, the four other quints are with her; the six of them will head to camp by car (specifically the family’s custom six-door E-Class Benz). He reveals once they’re on the road (but stuck in traffic) that other than their place, he hasn’t spent a night away from home since elementary school, and all that pent up excitement seems to have bestowed him with a “traveler’s high,” combined with the scant amount of sleep he got due to watching over Raiha. That doesn’t save him from a savage backdoor flip-off from Nino!

They’re not able to make it to camp due to a winter storm, so Fuutarou and the quints shack up at a fancy hot springs inn. Nino warns her sisters how men can transform into wolves under such conditions, but since this is a harem rom-com there isn’t any other choice: the six of them have to share a single room intended for only four.

Before a sumptuous feast that will put tomorrow’s curry to shame, Miku informs Ichika of what she did to preserve her cover, namely say Ichika was going to dance with Fuutarou. Ichika, harboring her own feelings for the guy, is fine with the arrangement, especially if it’s okay with Miku, while Miku is fine with it because it was the result of her lie, and because she doesn’t consider Ichika a romantic rival. And considering how little she understands love and dating, it’s no wonder!

After dinner the sisters make avail themselves of the outdoor hot baths. Nino again implores everyone to remain vigilant, as Fuutarou’s traveler’s high makes him that much more of an unpredictable threat. In order to mitigate that threat, she gets them to all part their hair the same way so he won’t know who he’s sleeping beside. All this caution and planning are moot, as Fuutarou is totally passed out when they return to the room.

The next morning, which is bathed in heavenly light, Ichika finds herself dangerously close to a still-sleeping Fuutarou, having drifted there in her sleep. She’s happy to get another look at him asleep and draws even closer , admitting to herself that if this makes her lose her Ichika cool, she can’t exactly refer to him as “just a friend.”

When Itsuki pops in to announce breakfast, she catches a glimpse of Ichika looming over Fuutarou, though it’s such a short look before she retreats she’s not 100% sure which sister it was, only that it was one of them and she has no idea what to make of that!

Fuutarou’s Wardrobe by Nino

To summarize, Ichika’s becoming more honest with herself about Fuutarou and Miku may have just gifted her a crucial leg-up in that pursuit. Yotsuba is throwing out all kinds of hints, Itsuki wants to determine if Fuutarou is an “apt tutor” by maintaining proper distance, and Nino longs for Fuutarou’s bad boy “relative”, genuinely unaware the photo is of Fuutarou himself.

Finally, Ichika’s career is taking off, which means she may soon have to change schools to make it work. With all these emotions and developments swirling around the quints, this could prove to be a school camp for the ages: marking an end to some things and the beginning of others. In other words, buckle up!

The Quintessential Quintuplets – 08 – Somebody That He Used to Know

I know it’s usually the case in these kinds of shows that the less we know about the protagonist the better, but considering how much we’re learning about the five Nakano quintuplets, it was only a matter of time before we finally got a little more insight into where their tutor came from.

We know Fuutarou’s dad seems a lot carefree and “wilder” than his serious son. But it wasn’t always that way; Fuutarou used to be a wild man just like his old man, and still carries a photo in his student handbook to prove it. Pops also says that he transformed into the young man he is now shortly after meeting a certain girl. The plot thickens.

At Casa Nakano Miku ends up being the one to disrupt lessons when she becomes determined to make the perfect croquette, leading Fuutarou to overeat. When Nino and Itsuki prepare to leave for lunch, Fuutarou begs Yotsuba to keep them there, and she demonstrates how bad a liar she is by saying Fuutarou is so ill moving will kill him.

Still, Itsuki sits beside him and Nino whips up some porridge, showing that each and every one of them is a good girl at heart. Alas, when Nino slips on the ketchup Futaoru used to simulate coughed-up blood, the hot porridge spills on his face and he moves around…without dying.

Nino and Itsuki bail in outrage, leaving Fuutarou alone with Yotsuba. When she laments how little she’s been able to change, Fuutarou reassures her: she was the one sister who was honest, straightforward, and friendly from the start, and without her his job would have been impossible.

When he says she’s too straightforward to lie properly, Yotsuba draws in close—too close; intimately close—to tell Fuutarou she can’t help but be straightforward…she likes him. After an appropriate beat to allow Fuutarou’s heart to stop, a wide Cheshire Cat grin sprouts from her face…she was “just kidding”, and can lie just fine when she wants to. The question is, was she really lying?!

Back at school we learn School Camp is coming up, always fertile ground for rom-com events. The task of running the Test of Courage is foisted upon Fuutarou, who is determined to get back at his class by scaring the shit out of them. His clown mask is certainly effective on Yotsuba.

Ichika then shows up to tell him she can’t sit in on the lesson because she has a shoot, and proactively gives him her contact info so she can tell him in advance of schedule conflicts. Only that’s not her only reason: not thirty seconds after receiving his number, she texts him a photo of him sleeping on her lap, which she threatens to distribute to the others unless he acquires her sisters’ contacts as well.

It’s a diabolical and very Ichika scheme, in keeping with her promise to help him out by letting him help himself, in this case by earnestly reaching out to the others. Getting Miku’s number is easy (and she’s eleated to have his), and he bribes Itsuki by throwing in Raiha’s contact info with his own. Nino’s a tougher cookie, but FOMO forces her hand as well, and she writes her info in Fuutarou’s handbook.

While giving Fuutarou her info, Yotsuba gets a call from the basketball club. Wondering if she’s the world’s biggest pushover or is maliciously agreeing to anything to avoid studying (why not both?), a suspicious Fuutarou follows her, only to be pleasantly surprised when she gives the club her regrets: she tells them about her “previous engagement” and the “someone who’s spurring me on, even though I have no talent.”

Fuutarou may may light of Yotsuba’s ditziness, but he shouldn’t throw stones in glass houses, as he doesn’t realize Nino still has his handbook until he’s home that evening! The next morning Miku lets him in her room, and catches her asleep in a very unglamorous position.

Nino agrees to let the infraction pass if he agrees to pierce her ears, the tool for which she got from Ichika. Despite his hostility towards him, it says a lot about how she really feels about him that he’d ask her to do something so personal for her. But he uses her moment of vulnerability to try to snag the handbook, and it falls to the ground, revealing the picture of a “hot guy” who is just Nino’s type.

Perhaps due to his pierced ear and bleached hair, Nino doesn’t recognize it as a younger Fuutarou, and Fuutarou claims it’s just a “relative” he’ll introduce to her some day. But Fuutarou is just relieved to have the photo back before she saw the other half, which stayed folded over. The second half reveals the girl he met five years ago whom his father mentioned led to his metamorphosis in to an ace student.

Just as Nino shows her sisters an album with a photo from those same five years ago. It’s now indisputable: Fuutarou’s first love was one of the quints. Only we just don’t know which one, since they all looked exactly alike five years ago. Fuutarou changed quite a bit too, so neither side recognizes the other from the past…unless that certain one of them does remember and is keeping it a secret.

This is all great stuff! I’m actually glad there’s a deeper connection, and I love a good wholuvit mystery. A lot happened and was introduced in this episode, and it didn’t always connect organically, but QQ has more than earned my faith in its ability to develop its new plot points and tap the new central mystery for drama and possibly resolve it in a smart and entertaining manner.

The Quintessential Quintuplets – 07 – Changing Hair, Saving Face

In the morning, Ichika is awake earlier than usual: still later than the other quints but apparently still before Fuutarou. She, Nino and Itsuki assume Miku woke up earlier still and Yotsuba is out looking for her. Thankfully no one assumes Miku went back to sleep in her own bed, forgetting Fuutarou was spending the night.

Five sisters, five bedrooms, and five wake-up times mixed up lend Fuutarou a fighting chance of keeping Nino and Itsuki from discovering something they’d probably never forgive him for. And he could really use a break where those two are concerned.

Thankfully, Ichika is as good as her word when it comes to doing her part to mend fences. Itsuki feels she’s at an impasse; that no matter how hard she tries she and Fuutarou simply can’t get along and butt heads over issues big and small. But unlike Nino, she is trying. Itsuki truly is a lot like Fuutarou in that they both realize they were in the wrong and want to make up, but aren’t sure how.

That’s when Ichika gets an idea: what if Itsuki saved face…by changing her hairstyle to that of Miku’s and approaching Fuutarou that way? Ichika tussles and teases her hair, and even Nino gets in on the fun, making sure the disguise job is done right. When she knocks on Miku’s door, Fuutarou answers, but realizes it’s Itsuki from her pajamas. After awkwardly dismissing her, he retreats to the library with Ichika, meeting up with Yotsuba.

While Itsuki’s gesture ended in failure, she and Fuutarou get a second chance when Ichika asks him to go back and grab her pencil case from home. At the front door the real Miku is about to leave for the library, and tries to ask Fuutarou about their sleeping arrangements, but Fuutarou reflects.

Back in the apartment, Itsuki’s hair is back to normal but she’s fallen asleep studying at the desk with Miku’s headphones. Fuutarou wakes her up, and they proceed to pretend that he’s mistaking her for Miku trying to skip out on studying at the library. In the midst of the charade he manages to slip in a knowing apology, and Itsuki is able to apologize in return.

You can really feel how happy and relieved both Fuutarou and Itsuki are to have made up, and how much Itsuki appreciates being praised for getting as far as she’s gotten studying alone out of stubbornness. Neither party is presented as unreasonable, just hesitant to lose face or make things worse.

They only needed the right conditions to reconcile, and thanks to Ichika, they got them. With that, four of the five quints are now in the study group, and Fuutarou spends their final day and night before the exams at their place helping them cram. But when the morning arrives, everyone oversleeps, and they have to make an epic mad dash to school.

This dash scene is heavily symbolic of all the growth in Fuutarou’s relationship with the quints. Where once they were all running from him, now they’re running with him, hopefully towards academic victory. As the most athletic of all of them, Yotsuba takes a huge lead, while Itsuki’s sudden hunger pangs require a konbini detour.

The result is everyone but Yotsuba is a few minutes late. In order to get past the strict teacher guarding the entrance, each of the quints dons a Yotsuba ribbon to disguise themselves as the sister who arrived on time. Fuutarou also tries this tactic—because honestly, why not?!—but it fails and he gets in trouble. But the quints are safe and sound, and as he’s dragged to the faculty office, he shouts out some final words of encouragement.

It turns out Itsuki learned from her father that he planned to ask for Fuutarou’s resignation if any of them failed. Knowing that, Itsuki redoubled her studying efforts, for, as she says, “Raiha-chan’s sake”. Yet even though Nino already knew he’d get canned, which is what she wanted from the start, she’s still determined to do her best out of pride, even without Yotsuba’s urging.

Unfortunately in such a short time and with so many distractions and setbacks, Fuutarou could only do so much for the quints. As a result, each of them only passes one out of the five subjects each. True to form, each quint passed a different subject, with Miku scoring the highest single score in social studies.

Fuutarou gathers the quints in the library, resigned to his fate, and gets on the horn to their dad to recommend he find them a better tutor before reporting the midterm scores. But then, without warning, Nino snatches the phone out of his hand and has a little chat with her Papa. She asks why he set such a harsh condition, and confirms it was a test to determine if Fuutarou was the right fit. Nino tells her dad they won’t know that just from their grades, to which he responds it’s the primary factor.

Then Nino does something Fuutarou never thought in a million years she’d do, considering her attitude towards him thus far: lie to her dad, for his sake. Well, not lie exactly, but nevertheless a lie through omission of the full truth. Her precise wording is “The five of us together avoided failing all five subjects.” Her dad believes Nino, because she carries that clout, and agrees to let Fuutarou continue to tutor them.

Fuutarou surely wasn’t the only factor in Nino’s change of heart. She has her sisters and their respective futures to consider, and wouldn’t want to hurt them by taking away a tutor with whom they’re making legitimate progress. She probably also remembered that if Fuutarou were canned it would also hurt Raiha.

But Fuutarou himself was a key factor for Nino nevertheless, and ensuring he sticks with the group is both a vote of confidence and a challenge for him to not squander the life line she secured for him. Her white lie worked this time, but probably won’t work again.

With that, Yotsuba suggests they start reviewing their answers, but Fuutarou remembers the importance of rewards for a job well done, and treats the quints to parfaits, getting them to explode with laughter just by saying “parfaits.” As for Fuutarou’s own scores? 100s on everything. Tutoring the quints didn’t result in the slightest drop. He can do this. They can do this!

The Quintessential Quintuplets – 06 – Dad Wants Results

As a result of all his help at the fireworks festival, Fuutarou is well-liked enough by Ichika that she walks to school with him, something any lad in his right mind would die for! But as good terms as he’s on with the eldest quint, the youngest continues to harbor a deep animosity for him.

Itsuki still holds a grudge for him refusing to help her study back when they met. She and Nino remain outside the study circle, and his attempts to convince them to join it are rejected with prejudice. That said, Fuutarou was way too loose with his words to Nino in front of her friends, making it sound like the two of them slept together!

Fuutarou remains committed to studying, so he declines to join Ichika, Miku and Yotsuba for parfaits, but Itsuki flags him down on the way home and puts him on the phone with their father, who informs Fuutarou in no uncertain terms that he expects results for his investment: if any of his daughters fails the upcoming midterms, he’ll be fired.

It’s a gut punch for Fuutarou, who doesn’t immediately react well to the warning, as he takes out his anxiety on Itsuki, who is convinced he’s only doing this for the money and doesn’t want his half-assed help after rejecting her. The two end things in a bad place, declaring they’ll never work with one another ever.

When Fuutarou comes to the quints’ place so he work with Ichika, Miku, and Yotsuba, Itsuki is nowhere to be found, but Nino is around, so he can’t let the others know the cost of failure lest Nino exploit that information to sabotage him. Nino gets the info anyway when she pretends to be Itsuki while Fuutarou is in the bath. I guess her goodwill toward him didn’t last past the fireworks festival, huh?

Meanwhile, Ichika has picked up on Miku’s feelings for Fuutarou, and makes every effort to put the two in closer contact with one another, from insisting Fuutarou spend the night (hence the bath) to plain ol’ shoving Miku into Fuutarou’s chest, then having Yotsuba check his pulse…which is high, but to be fair Yotsuba chased him around the house!

When Miku comes right out and asks him what type of girl he likes, Fuutarou only doles out his three top qualities in a girl after the three each complete a page of notes. Ichika invites Fuutarou onto the balcony for a break, and brings up his fight with Itsuki. She sees Itsuki and Fuutarou as “too alike” for their own good, but thinks it’s fine for friends to fight, but as friends, not sworn enemies.

She also knows both of them are stubborn and its holding up their reconciling. She’ll do what she can for him, but at the end of the day it’s up to him to make things right with her. Fuutarou is impressed with how much of an “oldest sister” Ichika is, and follows her advice to praise her by patting her head, causing her to blush profusely.

Still, Ichika is being the good big sister by deferring to Miku’s feelings regarding Fuutarou…at least for now. When it’s time for bed, Miku bunks with Ichika and volunteers her bed for him, only to drowsily return to her bed out of habit after going to the bathroom. Fuutarou wakes up to find Miku curled up beside him!

Whatever consequences result from this innocent mix-up will pale in comparison to what happens if any of the sisters fails the midterms. This isn’t just about Fuutarou losing his job and the money his family needs. He’ll suddenly be cut off from the five young women who are gradually helping him grow as a person, just as he’s helping them. So I hope, for all their sakes, he finds a way to help them all pass.

The Quintessential Quintuplets – 05 – Flying Colors

As Ichika hides her face by locking herself in a warm embrace with Fuutarou, we learn that the mustache guy is not her date, but her co-worker on a film crew. But even that is a fabrication on Ichika’s part, desperate as she is to keep her secrets as long as she can.

She manages to deflect by asking Fuutarou why exactly he’s so invested in her and her sisters. When Ichika comments how it’s weird for them to be hugging so intimately despite just being friends, Fuutarou mentions how he’s not sure it’s right to call themselves friends, to which she responds he’s being way too picky about semantics!

Also, Ichika says she’s a little hurt by the notion he never considered them friends, and that gets Fuutarou thinking about his recent interactions with both Miku, who also looked hurt by the same assertion, and Itsuki, who said it’s so obvious what they are to each other it doesn’t actually have to be said!

Yet apparently it does! Especially when Ichika’s co-worker spots Miku—who is sporting a new hairstyle so Fuutarou will compliment her— and mistakes her for Ichika. Fuutarou and Ichika track the two down, and Fuutarou declares once and for all: he’s their partner. That’s when mustache guy blurts out that Ichika is actually an actress who has to get to her audition.

While that’s not the most surprising twist, it’s still a hella good one, which subverts Ichika’s previous reputation as cool, relaxed and lazy. It’s not that she can’t be all three of those things at times, but that’s not all she is. She’s held back, both from her sisters and Fuutarou, in case this audition thing goes south. But judging from Fuutarou’s reaction to their little line-reading session, it won’t!

When she turns to leave, Fuutarou takes her face in his hands and stretches it out, telling her to quit it with the fake smiles that hide her true emotions. He’s observed it what sets Ichika apart from the others, and it was confirmed when he felt her trembling while hugging him in the alley. Ichika is putting on an act with those false smiles, but Fuutarou isn’t convinced. He proceeds to come clean about their partnership, and that at the core of things he wants to “work for what he earns.”

Ichika is impressed he was able to discern such a subtle change in her behavior. Acting is her dream; her way to finally stand tall as the eldest sister. If she has to ditch the fireworks for a shot at her first big break—leaving the ensemble to explore a solo leading role—she’ll do that, apologize to the others later, and hopefully it will work out.

Ichika is super-late to the audition, but gets her shot, and doesn’t miss. From the first lines she utters, the casting crew stands up straight, like some rare bird had suddenly entered the room. There’s suddenly more conviction and resonance to her lines than when she said them to Fuutarou. Now I know why they cast Hana-Kana for Ichika—it’s such a powerful yet subtle performance, but she makes it look easy.

Later, Mustache Guy (who scouted her) presumes Fuutarou must’ve helped Ichika pull out a role-winning performance. Her role thus secure, Fuutarou escorts her to her sisters, who are waiting in the part with…Chekhov’s Fireworks Kit! Yotsuba bought the kit for Raiha, but there’s no doubt the wise-beyond-her-years imouto would have no problem donating it to a good cause.

Ichika bows and apologizes, but the others apologize right back, since all five played a role in the confusion that separated them. Where one sister messes up, the five of them overcome it together. Nino gets in Fuutarou’s face, but to his shoc k it’s to thank him for getting the job done—albeit in the most unconvincing tone imaginable! He then sits back and admires his work, shaking off the urge to go home and study.

When there are only five fireworks left, the sisters do a countdown before grabbing their preference…and Ichika and Miku pick the same thing. Ichika lets Miku have it, saying Miku “can’t let go of that one.” It couldn’t be any clearer that the “less flashy” firework represents Fuutarou, and despite Ichika’s generosity in this one instance a love triangle is officially up and running.

To confirm that, one need not look further than when Ichika approaches Fuutarou to tell him that as partners, she’ll be working hard to repay him for his support, but warns him not to think he’ll have an easy time with her. Alas, he’s asleep with his eyes open, so she gently rests his head in her lap.

This episode felt like a turning point when the dynamic of Fuutarou and the quints finally shifted from one primarily composed of hostility and discord to one of more cooperation and harmony. Sure, it may now only be something like 51-48 in cooperation’s favor, as there are surely many more conflicts to come, but it’s a long way from the utter chaos of the first episodes. Enough good faith and good deeds have been exchanged and motivations revealed that more progress can be made.

It’s been said in the comments, but it bears repeating after watching this episode: a harem rom-com about quintuplets has absolutely no business being this damn good. It’s as if creator Hariba Negi came up with a premise he knew sounded like tacky schlock, but said “Just watch—Imma elevate the FUCK outta this schlock!” And he did. I don’t often regret a decision to skip a show, but in the case of QQ I clearly missed out on a gem.

The Quintessential Quintuplets – 04 – Fireworks Factory

When Itsuki shows up to the Uesagi household, it’s on official business on behalf of her dad. She’s come to deliver Fuutarou’s payment so far: ¥50,000 ($469) for two days of work. Only Fuu doesn’t want to accept it at first, since very little in the way of tutoring has happened in those two days.

Still, Itsuki doesn’t agree that he’s done nothing, mentioning how his mere presence is starting to “change something” in the five of them. So the cash is his. Fuutarou decides to spend it on Raiha, and because no one can refuse Raiha’s shimmering Bambi eyes, Itsuki tags along on what turns out to be a fun trip to the arcade. I was impressed that the episode managed to pack an entire dating sim event’s worth of material in the first five minutes!

What was to be Fuutarou’s Sunday free of quints turns into half a day with one, followed by an evening with all five. No matter; he was thinking of them even when he was studying alone, indicating the “change” Itsuka spoke of goes both ways. They somehow(!) agree to finish all their homework before going out for the fireworks festival.

As if the quints weren’t resplendent enough in their school uniforms or casual clothes, they all show up in full yukata regalia. Itsuka even changes her hairstyle, leading Fuutarou to initially not know who he’s talking to when she approaches him. Yotsuba seems the most smitten with Raiha, to the point she jokingly considers marrying Fuutarou just so they can be legal sisters.

Meanwhile, Nino sees Raiha with a firm grasp on her big brother’s sleeve so as not to get lost in the crowd, and if anything seems jealous of Raiha. Miku explains to Fuutarou that fireworks were a big part of their shared memories of their departed mother (something they share with the Uesugis).

That also explains why Nino is so intent on keeping the tradition alive, this time in the role of the caretaker in her mother’s stead. She even rents out an entire rooftop so they don’t miss a thing, but it’s she who gets lost in the crowd, until she’s “rescued” by Fuutarou, and proceeds to grasp his sleeve as they ply through the crush, and head for the rooftop.

Unfortunately, Nino messed up: none of her sisters know the rooftop’s address. Fuutarou volunteers to head out and locate the others, starting with Ichika, whom they spot from the roof. However, once he approaches her, he’s stopped by an older man in a mustache from whom she’d gotten a call earlier that night. While Fuutarou is trying to determine the best way to describe his relationship with Ichika to the man the two vanish.

Apparently when life takes away an Ichika, it provides a Miku in return, and since Miku got her foot stepped on, Fuutarou lets her ride piggyback…for all of five minutes, until he declares her too heavy to get anywhere fast. He bandages her foot and she gives him a sarcastic thanks (what’s he doing bringing up a lady’s weight?). Regarding Ichika, Miku has seen her getting out of a mustachioed man’s car in the past, so whatever’s going on with them, it’s not the first time.

By episode’s end, only 24 minutes (equal to one more episode) of the fireworks remain, meaning there’s still time to wrangle the quints so they can share in the special tradition Nino so desperately wants to preserve. One could call Fuutarou’s mission akin to scooping five goldfish with the same net, with the prize of gaining at least some points with Nino.

The only problem is, the pool in which those five fish reside is a big one, time is wasting, and one of those fish, Ichika, has already escaped, making it plain she won’t be joining the others. Whether this is her own choice (part of a larger effort to become an independent adult), that guy’s choice (is this an escort date, a legit relationship, or something else?) we don’t really know. Ichika’s face at the end is a veritable enigma.

Still, one thing is clear: something is definitely troubling the cool, carefree Ichika, and Fuutarou can tell. And that’s what’s so engaging about the quints: just when you think you have one figured out based on their outward traits, something happens that reveals a whole new side of them, and you can’t help but want to learn more.

The Quintessential Quintuplets – 03 – In Good Faith

When Fuutarou arrives at the sisters’ apartment building for the next tutoring session, he’s determined not to slip up, yet is flummoxed by the auto-lock door and intercom. Fortunately, Miku is not only forgiving, but welcoming.

So far I’m thoroughly  enjoying the variety of the sisters’ greetings, and what those say about them:

Episode 2
Itsuki: “Wh-What? Stop staring. It’s rude.”
Yotsuba: “Good Morning!”
Nino: “You again?”
Ichika: “Hey, Fuutarou-kun.”
Miku: “…”

Episode 3
Miku: [Cheerfully] “You’re going to tutor us, aren’t you?”
Itsuki: “So you had to come.”
Yotsuba: “Welcome, Uesugi-san!”
Nino: [Glares, slams door]
Ichika: [Still in bed]

Fun details like this help up the sense of chaos and the difficulty level of Fuutarou’s task. When he has four of the five gathered for the session, he takes a moment to admire the progress he’s made. But in fairness, Yotsuba’s friendliness was pre-loaded into the equation. The only real progress he made has been with Miku.

While Ichika is sleepy and disinterested and Itsuki passively abstains from his tutoring, Nino is by far the most hostile, and proceeds to actively sabotage Fuutarou’s efforts by clearing out the room one sister at a time. Yotsuba has to sub in for the basketball team. Ichika has to get to work. Itsuki will have more quiet at the library.

That just leaves Miku, who genuinely wants Fuutarou to teach her history. Nino takes a different tack with her, suggesting her interest in Fuutarou is romantic and insulting her taste in men. When Miku stands up for herself, Nino challenges her to a cooking contest to determine who’s more homely.

Under ideal circumstances Nino would win this one running away. But since Fuutarou is poor, frugal, and has an underdeveloped palate, he judges both their dishes to taste good, resulting in a tie. Then again, Miku’s omerice may just look awful but taste great; inner beauty and all that.

A telling sign of Nino’s true beef with Fuutarou comes when Miku blushes with pride when Fuutarou’s praise for a dish she had no confidence in. Nino can see the effect Fuutarou has on her sister, and she hates it. Still, Nino wins the day, because thanks to all her stalling tactics there was never any actual tutoring.

Not only that, Fuutarou’s own confidence has taken a hit, as he no longer believes it’s possible to get along with Nino in this world. Miku disagrees, assuring him if he approaches her in good faith she’ll come around…but it’s up to him to determine how to do that. Fuutarou then takes off, but forgets his flash cards, and Miku buzzes him back in before taking a shower.

He returns to find Miku is already out of the shower and is drying her hair. But wait, that’s not Miku, it’s Nino! I’m not sure if Fuutarou is colorblind, but one thing’s for sure: Nino is almost blind full stop. She mistakes Fuutarou for Miku, apologizes for how she acted, but blames Fuutarou for inciting the enmity between them.

When Nino asks “Miku” to grab her contacts, Fuutarou can’t find the appropriate shelf, so Nino comes to help look and gets very close to him. When he withdraws, she assumes Miku is still mad and has a mini-tantrum, bumping her arm on the cabinet and shifting some books. Fuutarou dives onto her to shield her, and she finally realizes there’s an intruder in the house.

Fuutarou tries to explain but is interrupted by Itsuki, who snaps a compromising photo that, if taken out of context, could ruin Fuutarou’s chances of ever setting foot in their apartment again. This is, of course, what Nino has been lobbying for from the get-go.

An impromptu tribunal of the quintuplets is then enjoined, with Ichika presiding as judge (you better call her “Your Honor”!), Itsuki as the prosecution, and Miku as the defense. When Miku clarifies that she let Fuutarou back in to get (not take) his flash cards, Nino again accuses her of having feelings for the guy.

When Nino and Miku’s bickering intensifies, Itsuki tries to restore calm, but is brusquely dismissed by both of them (she is the youngest after all). Ichika then recalls how well they all used to—past tense—get along as sisters, which is the last straw for Nino, who runs right out of the apartment. Miku tells Fuutarou to let her be, and Raiha informs him dinner is ready, so Fuutarou takes his leave.

On his way out he encounters Nino skulking outside, and takes a seat opposite the door with the excuse that he doesn’t want to go home until he’s “solved a problem” on one of his flash cards. In reality, he wants to once again approach Nino in good faith. He’s realized now that she considers the apartment to be their place (as in her sisters’), and that an outsider like Fuutarou has no place there.

Fuutarou can relate, having a sister himself whom he loves more than anyone else, and would never want her to hate him. But rather than come to a breakthrough in his favor, Nino resolves to not accept him as her tutor, even if it makes all her sisters hate her. Thus Nino cements her role as the toughest nut to crack so far. But if anything is worth doing…

Taketatsu Ayana, veteran sister seiyu, is really the ideal voice for Nino: with a sharp confrontational edge by default balanced by a tender vulnerability under the right conditions. The question is, will Fuutarou ever learn what those conditions are? Based on this weeks events, not anytime soon! Fortunately, he has other fish to fry (i.e. quintuplets to recruit) who may not be quite as obstinate as Nino.

The Quintessential Quintuplets – 02 – Matcha Soda

While there are a couple of friendly voices among them (namely Ichika and Yotsuba), as a group the Nakano quints are adamantly opposed to being tutored by Fuutarou. When he challenges them to score at least a 50 in a test he provides, they manage to score 100…combined. They then physically run away from him, but they underestimate how bad he needs the money, not to mention not shirking from this challenge is a matter of personal pride.

Fuutarou knows the sisters hate studying—and him, Yotsuba and Ichika aside—but he’s determined to find a way to get to them, even if it’s one sister at a time. This week his focus is on the third sister Miku, the only one to score a certain question correctly. When he approaches her about it he’s interrupted by Yotsuba and then Ichika, the latter of which thinks they should be more focused on falling in love than studying.

Little does Ichika know that Miku has already fallen in love…with Sengoku period warlords. She slips what looks like a love letter in Fuutarou’s desk and meets him on the rooftop to confess that love, which he thought for a minute was love for him. She dismisses her encyclopedic knowledge of them to be something weird, but he encourages her to have faith in what she likes, finally seeing a path to get her excited about studying.

Miku initially agrees to let him tutor her, but when she offers him a can of her favorite matcha soda and mentions it doesn’t have snot in it, Fuutarou fails to identify the reference, and she recinds her offer to cooperate, labeling him as “all talk.” This irks him, so he checks every Sengoku book in the library, and the next day challenges her to a trivia game. Because it’s a subject near and dear to her heart, he knows she won’t back down.

However, she not only backs down, but runs away, forcing Fuutarou to chase after her as they play a game of warlord shiritori, until they both collapse from exhaustion. Miku removes her stockings and shoes and relaxes on a bench as Fuutarou gets her a matcha soda and tells her he figured out the snot reference—but only after Yotsuba googled it for him. Miku reiterates her lack of confidence in herself, telling him she’s the “biggest loser” of the group, and that her four sisters can do anything she can.

Fuutarou counters by showing her the sisters’ test answers, which show that no sisters got the same answers right. That means it goes both ways: Miku can do anything her sisters can, if she applies herself. Fuutarou can see light at the end of the tunnel; if each quintuplet has a specialty that will help make being tutored acceptable, than he can pool their collective knowledge to help them all succeed.

But while he seeks to be the grand uniter of the quintuplets, for now it’s just Yotsuba and Miku who have stopped running away from studying, and from him. Complicating matters is Yotsuba’s suspicion that Miku is in love with Fuutarou, which Miku neither confirms nor denies but blushes an awful lot when pressed. This proves to be a fascinating journey!

The Quintessential Quintuplets – 01 (First Impressions) – Five Times the Tutoring Trouble

Uesugi Fuutarou is a studious loner from a poor family trying to have his frugal lunch when an unfamiliar redhead in the uniform of another school tries to take a seat at the same spot with a 1000-yen megafeast. When he starts rudely studying in front of her, she spots the 100-scored exam he blatantly left out in the open, and she gets an idea: this guy could help her study! Instead, he storms off, telling her she’ll gain weight if she keeps over-ordering lunch. Wrong answer, pal!

Fuutarou later realizes the error of his ways, especially when his sister Raiha informs him that a lucrative tutoring job is available, and the redhead is the client. It turns out this girl, one Nakano Itsuki, is one of five quintuplets who have transferred to the school, all of them in need of tutoring. His other initial interactions include the flirty, teasing Ichika and the friendly Yotsuba. The quiet Miku and hostile Nino round out the quintet.

When Fuutarou arrives at the sisters’ opulent penthouse apartment, he’s met with resistance at nearly every turn, with the exception of the kind Yotsuba, who tries to help him wrangle her skeptical sisters in a harrowing room-by-room gauntlet. Even when they’re drawn together at the coffee table, it’s only because of the promise of cookies—no one ends up doing any actual studying during his first tutoring session.

Nino even manages to get Fuutarou out of the house by drugging his water, but Itsuki accompanies him on a taxi ride home. That’s when Fuutarou’s secret weapon imouto Raiha comes into play, using her cuteness to get Itsuki to join them for dinner. That’s when Itsuki learns that Fuutarou’s family is depending on the five-fold tutoring fee he stands to gain to pay off debts.

In light of the fact she’d be hurting more than him if she refused, Itsuki agrees to let him continue his tutoring sessions, with the caveat that she won’t accept “tutelage” from him, but will seek to improve her scores without his help. That’s good enough for Fuutarou, but he has yet to realize the gravity of the task before him: all five of the quintuplets are failing, which is why all five transferred to his less prestigious school.

The Quintessential Quintuplets (lets call it QQ) aired back in Winter 2019, but I neither watched nor reviewed, and it seems I missed out. I figured “5/5” would be the appropriate time to correct that error, but unfortunately I’m a couple days off. No matter: QQ is a ton of fun right off the bat. The premise couldn’t be simpler or more obvious and familiar, but the execution is solid.

Production values are high, the character designs and personalities are distinct, diverse, and well-balanced, and the all-star voice cast is pitch-perfect. Everyone comes off as likable despite their flaws, and the comedy works more often than not.

Sometimes you just need a good high school harem rom-com (this episode is intriguingly book-ended by marriage scenes), and there’s no harm in looking back to the recent past for a shining example, which is what we seem to have here.