The Quintessential Quintuplets – 21 – Eyes On Me

Ichika announces to her sisters that starting next month everyone will have to chip in a fifth of the rent, or return to their stepdad’s apartment. There’s an opening at the bakery where Futarou works, but only one opening, leading to them both telling Fuu to “choose me.” Despite Miku’s chutzpah, it only takes one bake-off for the boss to hire Nino, who is objectively great at cooking and baking.

So why, as Nino puts it, does she feel like she lost? Because Miku doesn’t treat it as one. Instead, she gets a job at another bakery, having come to love making things and eager to get better at it. She’s also steadily working towards becoming someone Fuu would fall for, based on the sign he made of his top 3 qualities in a woman (“always cheerful”, “good at cooking”, and the top one yet to be revealed).

Ichika also wants to challenge herself by taking tougher and more serious roles that motivate her, not just any role to make a buck. That’s why she asked her sisters to try to get jobs, not out of any malice or resentment. Ichika worries that with everyone working they may end up drifting apart, but that’s proven wrong when all five sisters and Fuu end up in the same third-year class!

The quints are obviously a sensation with their classmates, who have no idea Fuu is in any way associated with them. The quints wished the class knew what a good heart he has, and so independent the larger war for that heart, they agree to think of ways to make the real Fuutarou known.

Yotsuba takes the most direct route by volunteering him to be the male class rep beside her. (I’ll also note that this is a good strategic move for Yotsuba as it ensures they’ll be able to spend time alone). Quite by accident, simply because he sees two classmates grab Miku thinking she’s Ichika, Fuutarou reveals that he’s an expert at telling the quints apart.

This is another instance of we the audience having to suspend disbelief they’re identical to everyone despite not looking or sounding so to us. This immediately ingratiates Fuu with the other girls, who cling to him hoping to learn more, drawing Miku’s quiet ire.

Miku is also the one to take Fuu aside in the hall to ask what he’d wish for if he had a magic lamp with five wishes. Top of the class he may be, but Fuu does not realize Miku is attempting to mine him for gift ideas the quints will fulfill for his birthday.

He says he’d wish for money, stamina, better sleep, faster recovery, and better luck. While they can’t provide those literal things (other than cash), they could get creative with a better pillow, weights, bath set, good luck charm…you name it! Or just give him cash!

Sensing that her lead in the Fuueepstakes may be dwindling, Nino reports for work in an exquisite pâtissière ensemble and her hair in a ponytail, hoping to catch Fuu’s eye, but he doesn’t give her a compliment when it’s due. If anything, she feels like they’ve grown more distant since her confession.

The day she starts happens to be the day a famous reviewer is stopping by for the boss’ new seasonal dish, so it’s all hands on deck. Nino initially impresses with her talents, but in the pace and chaos of a professional kitchen she screws up a batch of batter, and feels like she’s making everyone work harder.

While on a break with Fuu she expresses how she feels like she’s holding everyone back, but Fuu says it’s the boss’ fault for pushing so much work on a new recruit. He also shows her a box of 1,000 Christmas decorations when he was supposed to only order 100, as well as evidence of other mistakes he made that make hers look “trivial by comparison”.

Then, finally, Fuu brings up the confession, and when Nino least expects it: when he’s about as physically far from her in the break room as possible. He explains the delay in responding to her because no one had ever confessed their love, and he simply didn’t know how to talk to her about it. Still, he knows he owes her an answer, and so prepares to give it when Nino shushes him.

She says he has every reason to hate her, considering how nasty she’s been to him on-and-off since they met (not to mention all of the druggings). But now that they’re working together, there’s so much more she wants to tell him. She wants him to know her better, so he’ll understand how much she loves him. To all this, Fuu says “ah, so?” and flees the breakroom before her.

Nino is worried she failed to get through, but the boss notes that his face is red up to his ears, causing her to grin from ear to ear. She wishes him good luck, calling him “Fu-kun”, and even when they’re working with customers, she blows him a kiss that makes him blush all over again. As for the “famous reviewer”…It turned out to be Itsuki?

With Nino sitting pretty on top of the pack once more, we shift to Ichika as she tries to do what she wants. What she wants is for Fuutarou to only look at her—a most appropriate wish for an actress! But unlike Nino and to a lesser degree Miku, she still lacks the courage to launch direct attacks, and so she has to awkwardly manufacture a “chance encounter” outside the Starbucks.

Ichika is wearing big black-rimmed glasses in order to avoid unwanted attention from strangers after the screening of her film has made her a minor celebrity. That’s all too fitting, as Ichika is positively adorkable during this operation, which almost ends abruptly when they spot her four sisters.

Ichika doesn’t want him to go to them, or look at them, or talk about them, but keep his eyes and hears on her. She spontaneously grabs his hand to stop him, and says they should skip class together, and he declines instantly. Her failed insistence almost makes them late, making the operation an abject failure.

Even so, when the two arrive in class to find that all eyes are on Ichika, astounded that there’s a famous actress in their class, the praise that means the most to Ichika comes from Fuutaoru, who paid attention to her and remembered how she spoke of becoming a “good liar”.

Later that day, Ichika has to leave her fawning fans to join the study group, while Fuu runs into Miku in the hall. Only it’s not Miku, it’s Ichika, wearing the Miku disguise she’s been carrying on her. Fuutarou can’t believe Ichika’s movie already released, and Ichika learns that Miku was the one who told him about it.

That’s when Ichika, desperate for something to go right, employs another unconventional tactic: she pretends to be Miku when she tells Fuutarou that Ichika likes him, that she thinks they’d make a good couple, and that she’s rooting for them.

While I love Ichika, and you could say she’s playing to her strengths as an actress, I can’t see this as anything but dishonest, underhanded, frankly beneath her. Ichika!Miku’s crazed expression seems to confirm at least part of that, and yet she feels she’s gone too far to take it back. It’s certainly messy! I’m sure this definitely won’t blow up in her face…

Episode Nine Quintuplet Ranking:

1. Nino: All hail. Crushing Miku on her turf to win the job at the bakery. Getting flustered in the kitchen, only to be revitalized when Fuu finally acknowledged her confession. Good on her for not letting him answer yet. Total Points: 34 (1st)
2. Miku: She lost another battle, but Miku is committed to winning the war, and going about it as meticulously as Fuu goes about his academics. Total Points: 26 (3rd)
   
3. Yotsuba: Had no trouble getting cleaning job, and also just might have some after-school time with Fuutarou, should she want to spend any of it trying to get him to notice her…If she’s even interested in him! Total Points: 25 (4th)
4. Ichika: Climbed out of her pit of despair last week only to flail about wildly and resort to playing dirty. A stark contrast to Miku trying to carefully do things “the right way”. Total Points: 23 (5th)
5. Itsuki: The only sister still saying things like “I can’t understand why anyone would love that guy” with a straight face, and the only sister who has yet to find a job (CORRECTION: she apparently makes money doing restaurant reviews??) In her defense, Fuu’s “tacky” comment about her hairpins was a low blow! Total Points: 27 (2nd)

O Maidens in Your Savage Season – 05 – A Completely Different Creature Entirely

This week picks right up from the last but flips the POV, from Kazusa to Niina and Izumi. I’m not going to say they don’t flirt with each other quite a bit on their train ride, but it’s certainly not the sweaty tryst Kazusa’s out-of-control imagination makes it out to be.

While it isn’t clear whether it’s a coincidence that Niina’s old acting coach Saegusa is on the very same train, she ends up utilizing Izumi in much same way she used Kazusa a few weeks back: as a prop in a fiction. In this case, she makes a big show of being with her “boyfriend” in front of Saegusa, who nods a gentle approval before taking his leave.

As Momoko tries (mostly in vain) to reassure Kazusa that there’s probably a harmless explanation for the two on the train, Hitoha just happens to be ridden past their exact position on the bridge. She’s in Yamagishi’s car, where he continues to make it clear he’s not into high school girls, and causing Hitoha to cry, as she doesn’t know what else to do; having her authorial debut is everything to her.

Meanwhile, we and Izumi learn about Saegusa and what a phenomenally creepy dude he was, singling Niina out when she was 11, rubbing his face on her shoe, and taking her out alone to shows and meals. But Izumi is only grossed out on the most basic level of suspecting Saegusa of being a paedophile. He doesn’t realize how deep and fucked up the bond became between Saegua and Niina.

And yet Niina declares Saegusa never laid a finger on him…even when she was fourteen, starting to get that kind of attention, and the age when she decided to ask why he wouldn’t do it with her. But he told her he could never love her as a woman, only her girlish nature, and to touch her would be to instantly transform her into something else entirely—something he had no interest in.

All I can say is…Damn. Poor Niina. Unfortunately, she’s very far from the only victim of this particular brand of push/pull mind game bullshit. Niina loathes attention because the only person she wanted it from utterly rejected her. But that does make a nice segue to her original subject of conversation with Izumi: his willingness so say something so “cruel and heartless” to Kazusa—the very same thing Saegusa told her.

But the fact is, Izumi didn’t see it as cruel or heartless at the time, because didn’t even know Kazusa had a crush on him until Niina let it slip right then, assuming (reasonably, and at the same time totally unreasonably so) he did. Indeed, Niina is rather shocked (and amused!) by Izumi’s denseness, having pegged him as someone quick on the uptake. Clearly, he has a significant blind spot…which sports a bob cut.

While she keeps up a brave front in front of Momo, when left on her own in her room Kaz’s mind continues to race, as she deliberates over how impossible it would be to compete against a goddess like Niina. Kaz gets so worked up, she doesn’t realize she’s thinking out loud, talking about being way too obsessed with sex just as her mom steps into her room.

Turns out Kazusa’s and Izumi’s families go out for bowling night on occasion. That has to be the most goddamn fun thing I’ve ever heard! Sure, it’s a little awkward for Izumi and Kaz, especially when…Izumi…sticks his fingers…in the three holes of the ball…GAAAH, anyway things calm down when Kazusa goes to grab some refreshments and Izumi follows her, now knowing exactly what’s eating her.

What follows is the second most heartwarming scene of the episode (the first most comes later): the two, knowing each other so well, recall each other’s childish likes (Kaz a bit of milk in her Calpis; Izumi with melon soda). In this moment they remember how close they are and have always been, and that even with their raging hormones, they can find such moments of peace if they try.

Izumi even sets Kazusa’s mind at ease, first by almost reading it (she wants to bring up Niina, but he beats her to it), then by saying Niina is “more weird than pretty.”

Switching to Momoko, now a much more visible and compelling character, she goes on a date with Sugimoto and it’s…fine? Kinda meh? She honestly doesn’t know how to feel or act or speak, and is basically just relieved to be on the train home.

She’s surprised to find “opening up” by saying she has no dad is such a big deal to him. In any case, it’s a clear case of Momo…just not feeling it. Is it just because of the guy, or is she not into guys, or girls, or anyone? Not enough data to know yet, but I’m intrigued.

As stated last week I’m much less enamored of Yamagishi doing anything at all with Hitoha, and predictably, he decides to continue indulging Hitoha by ruling out direct eroticism and settling for indirect methods, such as Hitoha staking out a spot where he and only he can watch her show him her panties.

Hitoha is apparently getting what she wants—personal sexual experiences with which to improve her writing and hasten her debut—but without getting overbearingly paternalistic, I still fear for her. She’s doing this, at least in part, because she feels she has no other way to achieve her dreams.

That desperation, her limited years and Yamagishi’s more numerous ones all conspire to call her ability to consent into serious question. Yamagishi is the adult here. It’s completely on him to stop this, and endure the cascade of hate from Hitoha. She will get over him, in that situation. She may not get over where this is headed.

The first time Kazusa sees Niina at school, Niina calls Izumi “weird” just as Izumi used to describe her, and the wheels in Kazusa’s head start spinning all over again, helped not at all by a reading in club by Rika that describes exactly the means by which two people think and speak alike. If they both think each other are weird, that doesn’t bode well, Kazusa thinks, and she may well be right.

While we leave Kazusa trapped in a typhoon of suspicion, indecision, despair, and longing, the episode thankfully ends on that first-most heartwarming note I mentioned earlier, as Rika meets Amagi on the rooftop to deliver him his report, which she’s marked up in red to correct his errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation…oh, and on the last page where he asked her out, she wrote in tiny letters if you would be so kind. It’s a yes!

Rika had hoped not to be right there when he discovered that note, but when Amagi sees it, he starts leaping around the flying pages of the report in unabashed joy. Rika most certainly is abashed, at first covering her ears on the stairs, then chiding Amagi for being so loud about his happiness.

Rika is happy no doubt; but she’s no doubt scared shitless. The territory couldn’t be more uncharted if she started reading Shounen Jump. Not to mention, what if she ends up becoming a completely different creature entirely? Boy or girl, every single one of these kids is going to eventually become that—whether they like it or not.

GATE – 14

Here I thought the earthquake would be a major calamity for the Special Region, utterly unequipped to deal with a natural disaster that does plenty of harm even in modern Japan. But it’s “only a 4 or a 5”, by Itami’s reckoning, as he and Sugawara weather it calmly while Pina and her maid are shaking in their nighties.

The quake passes, but Pina knows she’s not the only one of her people who was scared shitless, so she rushes to the palace to meet with her father, bringing Itami and Sugawara along.

Their coridal meeting is interrupted by the arrival of Prince Zolzal, who wastes no time at all confirming what a woman-hating creep his is by bringing in Noriko, a Japanese hostage from when their armies invaded the Ginza. Noriko looks as beaten-up and beaten-down as the bunny chief from last week, but Itami and Shino waste no time rescuing her from Zolzal’s clutchs and doling out swift punishment.

When Zolzal orders his men to attack them back, Itami steps back and lets Shino take care of everything. She bayonets all approaching fighters, then guns down those with shields (the bullets go right through them and their primitive armor).

We’ve seen Shino-As-One-Girl-Wrecking-Crew before, but having her do her thing in the middle of the Imperial throne room sets a new high for audaciousness. It’s also never not fun to watch her go on a spree, even if, again, I’m not so sure SDF protocol is being followed here.

But while it’s fun, and I’m glad Zolzal quickly gets his just desserts for all the shitty slimy stuff he’s done (and I’m sure he’s done much more we’re not privy to), and Shino’s fists carry with them all the manifest despair and loathing and suffering of Zolzal’s victims, being brought down upon him, it’s also a bit, well, easy. 

I mean, of course this guy is a loathsome little shitstain, and of course when someone actually fight starts whaling on him, he crumbles into a crybaby.

But I’m going to call this scene exactly what it is—Tarantino-esque revenge porn—and while I considered Shino’s actions justified (if a little over-the-top), it would have been more satisfying if there was a little more moral ambiguity to the exchange. The stark black-and-whiteness sapped the scene some of its power.

Interestingly, it’s Tyuule the bunny chief who stands between the prince and Itami, begging the LT not to kill her abuser. I’m thinking perhaps she has her own plans for him, plans for which she’s endured much suffering, and they won’t work if he’s dead. I look forward to the time she can repay him for everything he’s done, but with her people’s safety to consider, she’s playing the long game.

The Japanese government acts swiftly upon news of Japanese hostages in the Special Region – by bombing the Imperial Senate, sending the message that they’d better release the others if they don’t want to lose anymore buildings.

We learn of the existence of another brother of Pina and Zolzal’s—Diabo, which sounds kinda like “diablo”, only he seems like less of a devil than Zolly…though he may just be better at hiding it. Zolzal also calls his sister a traitor, opening up the possibility he takes her prisoner, stripping her down and beating her, as is his M.O. with captive women.

They have a little chat about how Zolly knows he’ll be named emperor over Diabo, even though his father won’t actually give up all his power. Tyuule’s presence by his side and in his bed is starting to make more sense if she is indeed plotting against him, it’s best to keep your enemies close. And as we know with that tan elf chick who hasn’t shown up yet (Ducy), the warriors of other races resolve to do whatever they can to protect their people.

Mochizuki Noriko is brought back to base and her injuries are treated. You can feel the traumas she endured in her eyes and the sound of her voice (not sure who the seiyu is, but she does a fine job); but also her relief and joy at being free, something she probably gave up on when she was one of Zolzal’s sex slave. But her troubles aren’t over; it’s heavily implied her family was killed in a Special Region raid while they were distributing flyers about her disappearance. Talk about a rough hand to be dealt.

And speaking of those missing family, Tuka spends the entire episode looking for her father, though again we only see her for a couple of beats. Next week’s episode is titled “Tuka Luna Marceau”, which bodes well for getting her more involved in a show that for the last two weeks has seriously snubbed her, Rory and Lelei.

However, I see that it did that for a pretty good reason: to remind us quite unambiguously that the SG isn’t just some charmingly primitive fantasy land. It’s brutal, and cruel, and dark, and sometimes the only way to deal with it is by knocking out a couple of its teeth.