The Quintessential Quintuplets Episode 1 - 9 Impressions

The Quintessential Quintuplets Impressions

To start things off,  I really enjoyed binging this show to catch up to where it is currently. Let me follow that by saying that I'm not really the type of person who is into anime genres like Harems and Ecchi. I've never enjoyed the over sexualization of characters for jokes and I can never seem to enjoy the character writing for Harems. 

It honestly took me by a huge surprise as to how much I actually enjoyed watching this show. When I first saw this anime I didn't think much of it. It looked like a generic Ecchi Harem anime and I felt like, "Once you've seen one, you've seen them all." It was a combination of a bunch of different things that finally got me to sit down and watch this show:

1. I started hearing a lot of good things about this anime from a lot of different sources.
2. I saw the voice acting list for the characters on this show and realized the star studded seiyuu's that were in it. 
3. I started getting recommended compilation videos on YouTube of a cute anime girl in a blue sweater and headphones hung around her neck. 

In a lot of Harem anime the secondary characters always seem to be written as one dimensional people who's only purpose is to be in love with the main character. That's where this show really shines. All five of the sisters in this show are deep characters with their own goals, motivations, interests, personalities, and even secrets.

• Itsuki Nakano: The adorably stubborn and awkward sister of the quintuplets. She's the youngest of the five. She loves eating food and is the most studious of the bunch, despite her bad grades.

• Miku Nakano: The cute, quiet, shy, and rather expressionless middle sister of the five. She's an introverted otaku at heart and lacks confidence in her own abilities. She is also perceived as the smartest of the five.

• Nino Nakano: The second eldest of the sisters. She's straightforward, manipulative, overly protective, and cares a lot about her sisters. The hardest sister to get to know but a lot of her attitude comes from a caring place.

• Yotsuba Nakano: Fun loving, kind hearted, and least intelligent of the bunch. She's the second youngest sister of the quints but what she lacks in brains, she makes up for in heart.

• Ichika Nakano: The eldest of the quintuplets and she acts in that way. A sleepy, wise, and perceptive sister, she often acts as the guiding voice to Futaro on how to get through to her sisters.

Just like how I said characters in Harems are only there to be in love with the main characters, that is different in this show. Yes they all do end up falling for our main protagonist but their feelings for him are more of a byproduct of the plot rather than a contrived, silly reason. Each girl falls for him for different reasons that go hand-in-hand with what their characters are like. Their feelings feel natural and you can understand why they feel the way they do. And they don't hit you with the "everyone loves him at first sight" trope than some shows suffer from. In actuality, almost all of them hate him off the bat. The five sisters really act as a great foil to Futaro, the main character. He ends up changing them as much as they end up changing him.

One concept of this show that I really liked is that the whole thing takes place as a story being retold by Futaro five years in the future where he is at his wedding day and is about to get married to one of the quintuplets. The thing is, the viewer/reader has no idea which one of the sisters it is and they give little to no hints as to which one it is. It's a great way to build anticipation and get people invested into which character they want to see standing at the alter with Futaro at the end of the series. It has the How I Met Your Mother feel to it where everything takes place in the past. Just like how that show had a finale that bombed due to poor writing choices, I can already see the ending to this series causing many fandoms to pull out their pitchforks and torches as they riot. It's unfortunately a curse that comes from having a bunch of well written characters. Because all five of the sisters have built large fandoms for themselves, it means the other four fandoms that lose will end up angry at the final product. I mean, unless they end up going the path of creating five different endings for each sister, which is a possibility. 

Another thing that caught me by surprise was how madly wholesome this show could be despite having the Ecchi tag associated with it. The main thing that drew me into this anime was the relationship between the five sisters. Their familial bond with each other is cute and fun and sometimes leads to some great moments that just make you smile from the bottom of your heart or make your tear ducts want to leak. 

One criticism of this show I've heard a lot is that the animation quality is not very good. And I'm not going to sit here and say that people are wrong or that it has some hidden genius behind it that people can't see. The animation quality can take a dip at times throughout this series and it is very telling when it happens. Things just start to look weird and characters faces just look wrong at times. But with that aside, I think that this show is a good watch. Is it one of my top favorites of this season? No, but it is definitely something I think people should give a chance if they were on the fence about it like I was.  

I have no idea whether this show will get more than just this one season, but after binge reading and catching up in the manga over the past week, I can say that it is worth a try. Without going into spoilers, I think that the character development of the main cast is great and some of the changes in the characters may surprise you.

A side note from that, this show has a pretty stellar OP and ED song that can remain stuck in your head for hours after listening to it. But that's just my two cents. Thank you for reading.

Which sister is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below.


If you are interested in knowing what anime I am currently watching and what manga I am currently reading, please check out this link: https://anilist.co/user/codyashi/