The Quintessential Quintuplets

## The Anime and the Movie

### Soundtrack

I mean, what are the songs from The Quintessential Quintuplets, if not iconic? More than that, all of the openings really play with the theme of "falling in love" really well. The first season's opening was great, though the ED not as good. I thought the second season's opening was better, even if it wasn't as iconic as a first, though. I also really liked the second season's ED. The sentimental feeling the song gave me reminded me a lot of something like Kaguya-sama: Love Is War's S2 ED. Then, finally, all of the songs in the movie were great. I especially liked the final credits song. That one's really good!

### Thoughts

I mean, what the hell? This anime attacked me with all of the tropes that I disliked, like childhood friends, harems, girls who are all over the main character, and a dense main character. In spite of all that, this anime surprised me. From the start, the dynamics and relationships these characters had was shown to have real depth. Through each and every episode it's really obvious what kind of story the writing is trying to tell, perhaps to a fault at times. Yet, it's a beautifully open book. Maybe that's part of the love the showrunners poured into this anime.

The complete story of The Quintessential Quintuplets is pretty simple. To a fault, it tries so hard to be convoluted at times, but I'm glad it mostly failed at doing so. I thought it was beautiful that it was an open book. With the information I interpreted at the end, the story was glaringly obvious from the start. Like, it was so obvious that being able to tell the quintuplets apart would require true love for them. When that was revealed, I felt so dumb. It was right there all along. Then, it made me feel even dumber when Futaro (the MC) was trying to choose who to be his partner for life. IT'S SO OBVIOUS THAT IT WOULD BE THE FIRST ONE THAT HE COULD DIFFERENTIATE. I think QQ really does that really well. That is, hiding or concealing certain plot elements that could be important for later plotlines. It felt satisfying without it being cheap at all.

The Quintessential Quintuplets is an anime that uses so many tropes. I already talked about the character tropes, but the story a lot of cheap things, like the fireworks festival, or being locked together in a building, and so on. Maybe you could say that the execution was nice in some moments. That may be true, but those moments didn't feel earned at all. Like, what am I supposed to say when Nino walks into the bathroom with Futaro, or when I'm getting valuable plot information while the quintuplets are in a bath? Am I supposed to say "oh, the context is absolutely necessary" or "yeah, I watch it for these kind of moments"? Call me a tourist, but even if those moments are "tropes", or "gags", they won't stop being uncomfortable for me. Fortunately, I will say that those type of moments didn't detract from anything the story was trying to say, though.

If I could only talk about one good thing about this anime, it would be the characters. Oh my god, I loved every single one and could write so much about all of them. The most important one, Futaro, is a pretty standard loner MC at first. He eats lunch alone, analyzes how much he can save up for lunch, and argues with Itsuki for his table. Sounds like a regular guy, right? The first episode breaks that narrative by revealing that he's a top student at the school he goes to. On top of that, he needs to find work to relieve his family's debt. Overall, I enjoyed his entire arc of discovering what it is that makes him want to keep teaching. It was the money at first, then he felt almost responsible for the quintuplets' lives, which then turned into love. Other than that, his interactions with any character are really endearing. It's clear he cares for the people he chooses to care about. Perfectly good characterization.

Of course, there are the quintuplets themselves. The first one Futaro meets, Itsuki, is my favorite one. I love the weird "enemies" dynamic with Futaro that is never resolved in the story. Maybe I just like the enemies to lovers trope, who knows? I also liked her overall arc of being honest with herself. I think the her deciding to follow the footsteps of her own mother, even if it wasn't the best path for her mother herself, is satisfying to see. I especially liked that the show tried to challenge that narrative in the movie, too. Other than that, it's very clear that she's supposed to be the youngest sister. What a stubborn yet endearing character. By the way, she's the one that I've been rooting for. I guess you could say I'm disappointed, especially after seeing how close she was with Futaro's family. Oh, well.

My least favorite of the five is Miku. I thought Miku was just an okay character, to be honest. I got to see her niche interest in the second(?) episode, then it barely got mentioned after that. Also, her characterization of being shy is executed in a very vanilla way. She didn't feel interesting at all. At the 12th episode of the second season, it looked like she was going to win, which I hated. Then, she did a cop out and said she loved her sisters, not Futaro. I mean, she could have won right there, god damn it! Moving on from that, I actually liked her character more when she wasn't just a pawn of the story. I really liked seeing her bicker with Nino all the time. They really have a believable sisters dynamic. Finally, I also liked her portrayal in the movie. She really felt more desperate to win Futaro's love there. That's about it for Miku, really.

Perhaps the second best choice (IMHO) for Futaro, and the most cunning of all the sisters, is Ichika. She's great. I loved the entire arc about her skipping the fireworks festival to audition for a movie. That arc really showed her character and her chemistry with Futaro at the same time, which was really nicely executed. Other than that, she's secretly (until the end) the most competitive of all of the sisters. I loved how she imitated Miku so that she could confess to Futaro first. That really showed her desperation to be picked by Futaro. Perhaps my only complaint about her is the lack of screentime, or at least meaningful screentime. I would have liked to see more of her on set, maybe with Futaro or something. I think that just goes to show how well she was portrayed, though.

The award of "best dynamic" with Futaro has to go to Nino, though. She is the quintessential example of a tsundere. I loved seeing how opposed she was to Futaro's role as a tutor. I enjoyed seeing how much she cared about her family. The way it was resolved was pretty good, too. Unfortunately, it got better in the second season. The arc where she leaves home and has to be convinced by Futaro's "alter self" is really good. Even better than that, she even confessed to Futaro in the second season. To top it all off, her dynamic with Futaro got even funner to watch after the confession. I really felt her desperation in getting Futaro's attention. What an endearingly funny character.

Finally, the WINNING HEROINE, Yotsuba. I mean, when you look at the The Quintessential Quintuplets holistically, it's almost obvious that she's the destined winner. Despite that, it felt just as satisfying in the end when she officially confesses to Futaro. The writing of the previous episodes tries to deny it so much, but looking at it retrospectively, I don't feel like there could have been any other outcome. Like, she's the one that Futaro met five years before. She's the one that caused her sisters to transfer to another school. She's the one that tries to help so many people at once. It's because of all of those things and more that she's had a sort of inferiority complex. It's something that the show teases so much, but is finally resolved in the movie. In the end, especially with the flashbacks in the movie, it's really satisfying to me that Yotsuba is The Chosen One. Maybe I would have preferred a Futaro pairing with Itsuki, but I can't deny that Yotsuba's got the entire adaptation of the anime supporting her. Congratulations.

I enjoyed watching QQ a lot. It's an anime that consistently delivers so many good moments along with its more sloppy moments. QQ is an anime that is honest about the shallowness of its story, yet it manages to be just as endearing as many other animes that I liked. It's simply mid, and I appreciate that. Truly a Mid-Mid 8/10. #EATSUKISHOULDVEWON