5-toubun no Hanayome

What do you feel as you look at this anime. Do you feel a warm feeling of love? Do you feel nothing? Or do you feel what I feel. Hatred. Out of the many shows of this season which I can say are are about as good at Mars of destruction I can say one show takes my place as number 1 least favorite show this season. And dare I might say of all time. The Quintessential Quintuplets is by far my least favorite show I have ever watched and let me explain why. Will have minor spoiler I guess A good harem show needs goodcharacters. When i say good characters I don't just mean the girls which form the harem but the main dude as well. All of my favorite harem shows such as DxD, Trinity Seven, A world only God knows, and Ouran host club have both of those. Quintessential Quintuplets does not have both. I can say I do like 1 character from Quintessential Quintuplets (Miku) but I can't say I love them all. Even with utter trash shows I can still say I like at least 1 character. However in this show I can say none of these characters are good in anyway. A little about this show. We have our MC Fuutarou, a poor student who studies all the time to get out of poverty and finds himself in a situation were he teaches 5 rich big tittied women (cause of course he does). However before this we get a teaser of the future in which he marries one of these 5 girls which is unique I guess, maybe pushing it a little. The five girls he has to teach are all dumb, with minor spoilers they have at least 1 thing there good at. To make my point that this show is litter I will use examples. Now the characters are the backbone of any story. Without good characters you can not have a good story. From the people who have watched and read the manga they praise the characters, for being a good example of how to do the trope correctly. I fail to see how. Nino being the bratty tsundere who at any moment she can, wants and does do things to make the MC’s life miserable. “She does it cause she loves her sisters..”sh-shut the fuck up. Bluntly accusing someone of sexual harassment for the sake of “her sisters” is not only annoying but just bad. Even though I don’t like the MC I hate the way she treats him. In the end of episode 3 after the whole sexual harassment gag when she storms off and Fuutarou ends up leaving and then sits next to her and they talk, the episode end with her saying. “I will never accept you” or some shit. Idk if people find this cute or heart warming somehow but its just annoying and makes me hate her even more. If you wanna use the she cares about her sister shit that's why she acts like such a bitch then shut up u have bad taste. Just kidding but still. The overuse of trying every way to be a dick to the MC gag was annoying the first time I saw it and still hasn't gotten better the 10,000th time. People have also said that during her arc which are like the last two episodes she gets better but in honesty she just gets worse. Nothing like a bratty big biddie bitch being bashful by bad boys. In the anime at least she doesn’t develop at all. Itsuki the seemling main girl of the series. Yet another tsundere who openly hates the MC and why does she hate the MC. Because when she asked him to tutor her first he declined, then after her dad hires Fuutarou without the girls knowing she gets upset and starts to pout and throw a tantrum like a fucking five year old. Again we have another character who trashes the MC over and over and the trope still hasn't gotten funnier or cuter from the first time I saw it. In the first episode when she drugs the MC because she doesn't want him to her and her sisters send him on the taxi home, and may I put some emphasize to the fact she legit drugs him, is this not a crime. Of course as they get to his house Fuutarou’s sister greets them and wants her to come in for dinner. After seeing how poor they are and Fuutarou sister cuteness she doesn't agree to want him to tutor but at least doesn't mind if he shows up. I would like to see if she has a good side to try and say something good about her but I can't . Ichika being the onee-san type of the 5 doesn't have much else going for her. However she is not really a unique character in this trope. If you wanna say she has other qualities like having a goal of being an actor and she works hard for it then go for it I won't stop you, but it's like okay? She tries hard at something she likes. Good for her? How does this make her a good character in anyway? It’s not like she is a bad character she just isn’t an overly good one. Yotsuba is the energetic girl of the group she is the always friendly one, the ditzy, always accepting and always sacrificing herself for people type. I guess she isn't really bad but she isn't good either. She has nothing new to this archetype as well she is just really bland. She doesn’t progress in the anime and seems to be more of a side character rather than a main one. Miku being the only girl I actually like in this group due to her not being annoying bitch and actually being really cute and loveable however that is just compared to the other girls which is pretty much comparing a shit to somewhat better shit. Either way it’s still shit. Even if I do like her it's only within this series and can't say I can really like her outside of it. Fuutarou himself is the typical harem MC. Being a loner who has one good trait about him, he can't say the words he needs to when he should and always putting the girls in his harem before himself no matter how bratty they are. He takes the fall for any situation and he doesn’t stand up for himself when he should. He is just your average bland protagonist. All the girls beside miku for the most part are shit characters individually and even worse as a group. As nothing good happens when they all get together and for the most part when they get together only really bad slapstick humor follows. I can never put my full on hatred for really just Nino or Itsuka in this review. On top of bad characters the animation and art are also really shit beside that one scene in episode 11 when Ichika and Fuutarou are in the shed together and he grabs her as she falls and says something MAJESTIC to her which makes her start to fall for him. That was like the only good part of animation/art in the show. However again the art is far better in the manga. In conclusion, this is a typical harem anime with nothing new to add to the genre and another show to add to the already large trash pile.

Apart from the quintuplet gimmick and the pretty colors, I can’t really tell you what Gotoubun no Hanayome adds to the harem genre. Inside of it is full of all of the things that make up a relatively generic harem show, but only this time with a group of five sisters. Standard anime archetypes, boring/bland main character who all the girls magically fall in love with, overrun harem tropes, you name it. People have called it a more “wholesome” harem show with less fanservice and a less insufferable main character, but I fail to see how it is even better than other harem shows with similarqualities. There is nothing inherently wrong with being cliche, but Gotoubun fails at creating interesting characters within their archetypes. Miku is just a kuudere with an affection to Japanese history. Yotsuba is just a genki girl. If Nino is the tsundere, than Itsuki is just a lighter version of her. The reasoning for all of their personalities is the same, they love each other and act they way they act because of that. Without the cliche archetypes, none of the girls would be different from each other at all. The ironic thing about this is they all are strangely distant despite being sisters. Ichika is actually too embarrassed to tell her sisters that she is a actress. Nino is too scared to request help from her sisters when she gets locked out of their apartment. These type of trivial situations that actual siblings wouldn’t care about get dragged on forever and make the show incredibly uninteresting. And about uninteresting, there is nothing of note about the MC. He is standard to the harem genre. Self insert, dull, helps all the girls for whatever reason, and they all end up loving him. (bonus for even being voiced by the harem king himself, Matsuoka.) Sometimes a good group of female characters can carry a harem show if the main character is stale (OreShura, Saekano, A Bridge to the Starry Skies) and sometimes a good MC can make it all that much better (Seitokai no Ichizon) but Gotoubun fails on both sides. This is crucial. I am aware the character design is quite a bit different from the manga, and as a result many situations were poorly adapted. Any time a joke or gag was to infer the sisters look alike, was downright laughable for all the wrong reasons. Because obviously, in the anime, they don’t look alike. Why they didn’t scrap these jokes I have no idea, and I’m not even really sure why they changed the character design from the manga to the anime so much. The art overall is super inconsistent. The colors are beautifully done, and many of the close up shots and backgrounds are nicely drawn, but there a tons of wonky shots and weirdly drawn faces. It got to a point where almost every time the show cut to a faraway shot I would cringe at how wonky the faces would look. The type of huge inconsistency between how good the show would look and how bad it would made this so incredibly noticeable. While the general idea of the plot did have potential to be interesting, teasing that one of the girls does in fact marry the MC into the future, (although it is pretty obvious Itsuki is the ‘main’ one) the show itself is just a sort of collection of cliche harem happenings. Fireworks festivals, characters getting sick, getting locked in a shed, having to pretend to like each other, etc etc. All of this has been done before in more interesting ways. They even throw in that the MC knew the girls when he was younger, and has a sort of “fated love” with one of them, that he can’t remember. This felt totally shoehorned in and unnecessary. Helplessly generic, boring, standard archetypal characters, and a “go read the manga!” ending. It isn’t the worst thing ever, but just meh work.

Quintessential Quintuplets quickly qualified for harem anime of the year for its great rendition of the cute girls + comedy combo. Now while this is a pretty cheap combo deal that you can find during practically every anime season, consumers still buy into it in droves. And after seeing how expertly this anime handled the combo, I know I for one will be coming back for more in the future! Quandaries regarding education can really throw a wrench in your future life plans. Failing can leave you in some pretty dire straits, so it’s clearly optimal to succeed. Shocking, I know. Unfortunately for our well endowedquintuplets, their beauty is matched only by their incomprehensible stupidity in practically all forms of academics. Therefore it is up to financially disadvantaged genius student Fuutarou Uesugi to tutor these hopeless rich girls and save their futures. He makes a pretty penny out of this deal, plus he gets to spend quality time with these five lovely ladies. Bonus! Of course, these siblings start off more troublesome then our protagonist could have imagined. Quitting is not an option for Fuutarou, as he has a kawaii imouto to support, so he admirably never gives up on the girls when a lesser man would have quit ages ago…probably right after being drugged by one of them. Yes, this actually happens. The plot is pretty simplistic, yet charming. It is revealed from the beginning that Fuutarou is about to marry one of the quintuplets and is reminiscing about how they met and other sentimental mushy stuff. The whole story basically shows how each of the girls starts to fall in love with their charming tutor, while the viewer is left to ponder which one Fuutarou ends up with. I enjoyed how the anime portrayed the development of the characters’ feelings through many entertaining scenarios that left me really liking the cast. While the siblings start off pretty bratty and give Fuutarou the cold shoulder at first, the way in which this man thaws their hearts and unintentionally gets them to fall for him is very well done. And hey, they even start to improve academically! Of course they’re still failing, just…not as much! Quantity vs. Quality, which do you prefer when it comes to characters? Normally, anime like this tend to sacrifice one in favor of the other. Here, we thankfully get both. Not only are there five lovely ladies featured for you to waifu, but they each boast their own unique designs, personalities, struggles, and more! Quiet and bashful is Miku, the first of the siblings to really begin to connect with Fuutarou and actually start to study with him, though she still puts up quite the fight before eventually submitting. Based on what I’ve seen, Miku is the prime candidate for “best girl” in this anime, and it’s no secret why. She’s a beautiful, busty babe. She’s reserved and awkward. She isn’t too skilled in things like academics and cooking, but she always does her best. Plus she wears headphones, a fantastic fashion fad if I do say so myself. Queued in front of her sisters at birth, Ichika is the big sis of the group. She has a rather sloppy room with her underwear and the like lying around for all to see and likes to sleep in the nude. When you also take into account her fantastic character design, she immediately becomes the sexiest of the siblings. Even Fuutarou-kun gets embarrassed by this attractive girl on occasion. She’s also trying to pursue an acting career, which is pretty neat. Top that off with her job getting in the way of school and boom! Instant character arc. I like how she presents a levelheaded and strong exterior yet keeps many insecurities quelled within her. It really makes Ichika an interesting character and not just a pretty face. Queens are typically rich, pampered individuals who act dignified, but probably look down on the masses with contempt. Nino is sort of similar to a queen, with the one difference being that she isn’t afraid to degrade people with her words and actions straight to their faces. Especially Uesugi, who she even drugs at one point. Pretty hardcore. She’s a rebellious type who deep down is actually extremely loving and caring. Plus she’s a great cook and wouldn’t mind being the breadwinner of the family, so that should excite all the basement dwellers out there. Quirky girls are usually fun and interesting, and Yotsuba is no exception. She’s quite energetic, athletic, and seems to excel at every physical activity known to man. Unfortunately for Uesugi-san, she’s the biggest baka of the bunch, and probably has the highest chance of outright failing school. She’s always upbeat and happy though, which is endearing. Quizzically, there is a common rule in anime where the first girl the protagonist meets becomes the one that he ends up with. If that’s the case, then Itsuki has the best shot of ending up with Uesugi-kun. She’s a fine girl who likes to eat and looks good in glasses, but wasn’t really given any focus in the anime. She’s quite plain in the show and is overshadowed by her sisters. But who knows, maybe the manga gives her some much needed development. Question time. Who truly is best girl? Well the good thing is that you could make a case for all of them, because they’re all completely unique from each other in many ways despite being quintuplets and each add their own exquisite flavor to the anime. However, there is one noticeable predicament the arises because of this. Quite possibly the most glaring issue with this anime would be its visual representation of the heroines and the repercussions of this problem. So a major plot element of this show is the fact the the five girls are, well, quintuplets, and the anime makes a point of saying that it is hard to distinguish between the five of them. They occasionally wear the accessories of the others in order to trick people into thinking that they’re a different sibling. Fuutarou himself constantly struggles with determining which girl is which from time to time, which admittedly causes some humorous situations. But as I said, each girl is completely unique, which includes their voices and designs, which are easily distinguishable from each other. This makes these switcheroo scenarios not as authentic as they could be had the siblings actually resembled one another. These moments also occasionally make Fuutarou look like a complete idiot sometimes when it’s blatantly clear which sibling he’s taking to yet he thinks she’s a different one. Now I perfectly understand why the creators went with this artistic choice. It’s just more aesthetically pleasing to have a variety of designs as opposed to using the same one five times over. Plus the seiyuu are an all star bunch with a lot of talent and experience behind them, so once again, it’s just more entertaining this way as opposed to having all the girls sound the same. So in the end, I honestly can’t call this decision to make the girls so different from each other wrong because of how much it adds to the show and the characters themselves. But as I mentioned, there are some negatives that result from this too. Quality harem anime are probably considered to be nonexistent by many in the anime community. And while I’d disagree, I have to admit that there haven’t really been any at all in recent memory. The Quintessential Quintuplets ended up ceasing that drought for me. Yes, from a technical standpoint, the anime has many flaws in several departments. But damn it, I can be biased if I want to, and I enjoyed this anime thoroughly. Of course, labeling this show as a harem anime might be a bit of a stretch…And to all of those individuals out there who may write The Quintessential Quintuplets off as generic and bland, I would suggest taking a page out of Fuutarou’s book. For when Miku and Nino had a cooking competition, Nino’s dish was more aesthetically pleasing and filled with originality and flavor, whereas Miku’s was dull and plain in comparison. Yet to Fuutarou, they both were good. Like with this scenario, just because this anime may seem standard when compared to others, I wouldn’t recommend writing it off based on preconceptions. Give this anime a try, and you may end up liking it as much, if not more, than I did.

Gotoubun no Hanayome (also known as The Quintessential Quintuples) is well known for its character cast. It’s a harem and despite only been serialized since 2017, the series has proven to be popular enough for an anime adaptation. It even got licensed for Western release in June 2018 thanks to Kodansha USA. Being an open harem will raise some eyebrows. But rest assured, this show opens up for a lot of attractiveness beyond just these colored hair quintuples. It seems that harem anime tend to attract certain audiences. Most often these days, they let the characters carry the show with less emphasis on the plot. Gotoubunno Hanayome is a little different even though it sticks to some generic formulas. The first episode opens up as we meet male protagonist Fuutarou Uesug, a poor yet intelligent student. His encounter with Itsuki Nakano, a rich girl almost seems like a destined chance meeting. After obtaining a tutoring job, he realizes that his work is a lot tougher than meets the eye. The catch is that not only does he have to tutor Itsuki, he also has to tutor her quintuplet sisters. What could go possibly go wrong? Dr. Seuss once said “only you can control your future”. Now it’s the chance for Fuutarou to make the most of his own life by taking control of it while also helping these quintuples. Tutoring seems easy enough for a Brainiac like him, right? Well, from the first few episodes, the show makes it very clear that when it comes to academics, they’re not exactly prodigies. Their scores alone are more than enough to give an impression to improve a lot. Yet the real question here is if Fuutarou can lead them to a better future. As a harem rom-com, this sets up a plot although it’s not the central focus. In fact, preceding episodes seems to concentrate more on the cast and their character relationships. And really, that’s a juicy meat of the show. Who are the Nakano quintuples? From the key visual, you can see there are five and their names are: Itsuki, Ichika, Nino, Miku, and Yotsuba. The anime actually makes them easier to distinguish with their different hair colors (note: in the manga, their hair colors are much more similar) Nonetheless, the show doesn’t waste much time to bring out the most of this harem cast. Starting with Itsuki, it doesn’t take long for her to get into a rocky relationship with Fuutarou. Even from day one, they don’t see eye to eye although as time progresses, she seems to tolerate him more. Nino, the girl with the least amount of emotions also begins to appreciate Fuutarou after understanding him more. With a quiet reserved personality, she even begins to open more although her shyness sometimes still prevents her from expressing herself at times. On the other hand, Yotsuba displays an immense amount of playful behavior and despite being perhaps the least intelligent, she easily fits with the crowd and has little trouble making friends. This is a somewhat contrast compared to Nino, the second sister who can be a bit aggressive towards anyone other than her sisters. Last but certainly not least, Ichika is the oldest member of the group and has the most mature personality. Out of anyone else, she displays a wise way of expressing her feelings. Yet, she can also be playful and often, we see her teasing Fuutarou with sexual related jokes. So there you have it, the quintuplets. As for most harem, each character fits some sort of different archetype. From what I experienced with this show, it has a very balanced harem. Every character gets their spotlight and no one is really left out to be jobbed and forgotten. Each of the sisters has a chance to be with Fuutarou and throughout the show, he seems to grow to understand them better on personal levels. Outside of the cast though, don’t expect any character development from the others. Only few characters even gets a chance to be on screen like Fuutarou’s little sister, Raiha. Even then, her existence doesn’t impact the show’s plot at all. Speaking of plot, what should you really expect out of this anime? I mentioned before how the cast is selling most of the appeal but the storytelling does have importance too. There’s romance development between the main character Fuutarou with the quintuplets and it makes you wonder which ship will set sail. Unfortunately, harems tends to often be double edged swords as there may not be a winner in the end. As a 1-cour show, you definitely won’t get the answer from this adaptation. However, do pay attention to the character chemistry as it will do its best to get you attracted to the cast. The comedy speaks for itself with the hilarious gags and gimmicks. In fact, you shouldn’t be surprised to see these sisters pull off stunts with their identities thanks to how similar they look when disguised. Colorful is probably an understatement if we’re talking about the character designs. Every quintuplet has her own unique look such as Miku’s headphones, Ichika’s short hair, Nino’s butterfly accessory, Itsuki’s ahoge, or Yotsuba’s ribbon. However, I think what the show does exceptionally well is being able to balance out the comedy and dramatic moments. Camera shots are cleverly shot to show how characters react. Comedic moments tends to be reactive such as the pouts while dramatic moments focuses more on more human emotions. When you have a balance like that, it really makes the show worth watching for. Of course, a harem comedy isn’t without fan service and thanks to Ichika, there’s more than where that came from. I must admit that after watching this anime, I may have some different impressions on how harem comedy stories are made. In the past, most of them felt like a dumpster fire that were easily forgotten. Yet, Gotoubun no Hanayome managed to attract me more than I realized thanks to its masterful performances of the characters. Even Fuutarou stood out as a tolerable protagonist with his cunning personality rather than being a “nice guy”. I also say with supreme confidence that the VA did an exceptional job at bringing these characters to life. It’s not every day you get to see a group of quintuplets altogether stuffed together in a harem comedy.

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