The Quintessential Quintuplets – Ep. 1 (First Impressions)

An ideal harem?

The more I think about it, the weirder it is that Tezuka Productions is the studio animating The Quintessential Quintuplets. The studio founded by the godfather of manga now working on a contemporary harem series? Well, okay then. Who knows, maybe it’s to keep funds afloat in case Dororo tanks in sales. Compare to that show, The Quintessential Quintuplets is clearly the safer of the two financially. I mean, it is a romcom after all, complete with optimized sex appeal and archetypes galore.

Actually, that is a little unfair. There’s a couple of factors that is making this show not feel too by the numbers. To start off, I’m liking Fuutarou (Yoshitsugu Matsuoka) as the protagonist. It’s kind of refreshing to see a harem protagonist with an actual personality and motivations, not a total pushover and/or a self-insert for the viewer. He can get rather rude from time to time but at least he tries to make up for his mistakes, especially for the sake of his family’s financial situation.

As for the girls: they are all admittedly archetypes — a tsundere, a kuudere, a playful gal, an idiot, and a stone-cold queen. Maybe the show will inject some depth into their personalities down the road but right now they seem very stock to me. It also concerns me that, apparently, all five of them are failing in class. That could easily simplify their need for a tutor too much for my liking. It’d be nice if the show could explore what their individual strengths and weaknesses are.

That said, I surprisingly really enjoyed the sisterly aspect of the group. You really get a good peak at their synergy. They bicker when one does something without consulting the other such as when Nino (Ayana Taketatsu) uses Itsuki (Inori Minase)’s jacket without her permission. They converse over trivial things, as evidenced when Fuutarou fails miserably at trying to tutor four of them at the same time. You even see how they’re in sync with each other, like when Yotsuba (Ayane Sakura) is able to navigate Ichika (Kana Hanazawa)’s messy room and find her sister’s belongings. I’m a little impressed with the amount of thought put into this. I just figured the quintuplet gimmick was just so that blood will get spilled over who gets Fuutarou…eh, it’ll probably still happen.

By the way: how ballsy of this anime to flash forward to Fuutarou marrying one of the sisters (I’m assuming that bride is Itsuki). Haven’t you heard of spoilers?!

The Quintessential Quintuplets feels pretty by the numbers but it is competent at least and there are a few things that is keeping it from feeling insultingly generic. Will I watch the whole show though? Maybe I’ll check out a little bit more but to be frank, harem generally isn’t my cup of tea so I hesitate to say I’ll stick through the whole cour. That said, I’m always willing to watch anything so long as it tells a good story so who knows.

OP: “Gotoubun no Kimochi” by Nakanoke no Itsuzugo

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Thanks for reading!

The Quintessential Quintuplets is officially available on Crunchyroll.

For all of my Winter 2019 First Impressions, check out this archive page!

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