The Quintessential Quintuplets – Ep. 7

Being the Miku fan that I am, I couldn’t stop myself from snickering when Itsuki got forced into copycatting her sister’s look. Poor girl, she’s forced to accept that to be Best Girl, she must become Miku.

To my astonishment, the whole Itsuki/Miku bit actually plays a factor in the next scene where Fuutarou deliberately mistakes Itsuki for Miku in a ploy to tutor her. It’s a weird idea but it surprisingly works as a solution to the drama between them. Both feel bad about how they treated each other last episode but apologizing is too awkward and neither character wants to necessarily swallow their pride. For Fuutarou to feign obliviousness and Itsuki to play along, they’re able to put the drama behind them, work together, and finally feel comfortable enough to apologize. Fuutarou lives up to his role as a tutor and Itsuki gets the assistance that she needs. So while the set-up is a bit strange, the scene itself still puts a nice end to last episode’s drama while also having Itsuki organically come to accept Fuutarou as her tutor.

After rushing to school and tricking quite possibly the dumbest guard I’ve ever seen in anything, everyone takes their exams. Though Fuutarou wants the girls to pass in everything, it was realistic and obvious that the results would be far from ideal. It’s worth noting though that each girl passed one exam that the rest could not. No doubt, it’s a callback to Fuutarou’s hope that the girls will pool their knowledge together, not to mention the quintuplets’ own belief that their unity is their greatest strength.

Even though the scores spell doom for Fuutarou, he accepts the outcome for what it is. In fact, he’s quite humble during his apparent final day with the girls, offering some new advice based on their performance and not make a direct mention of his inevitable termination. I look at that as a sign that he’s grown from the events of the past two episodes. Making a big deal about losing his job did him little favors and at the end of the day, his true priorities as a tutor are the growths of his students.

That Fuutarou ends up keeping his job comes at not surprise. I mean, were he to stop tutoring the Nakano sisters, we wouldn’t have a show at all. The real turn of the events though is that the one who saves Fuutarou’s skin is Nino. Surprising considering that the midterm results were her best shot at kicking the guy out of her life for good.

Then again, it’s not that far fetched for her to lie to her dad. What matters most to Nino is her sisters’ happiness and by this point in the story, everyone but her has come to accept Fuutarou’s tutelage. Losing Fuutarou would no doubt cause an upset (especially for Miku) so though it may begrudge Nino, she can’t afford to see such a thing happen. There are also some glimpses that Nino is starting to at least tolerate Fuutarou. Though she won’t admit it, the advice Fuutarou sneaked in did come in handy. Despite causing so much trouble, Nino is still requested by Fuutarou to give the midterms her all and surprisingly, she actually doesn’t flunk on purpose. And most importantly, she finally agrees to participate the lessons from now on so that her lying to her father can actually pay off. It’ll still be a while before Nino outright says she likes Fuutarou but at least there’s baby steps taken.

In a way, this episode feels like the end of an arc. Obviously, the overarching goal is for the quintuplets to pass all their classes but for all intents and purposes, the central dramatic question for the time being was whether or not Fuutarou could get everyone board with him as their tutor. By Episode 7, it finally happens. The conflict on the surface may been the midterms but really that was a means for which Itsuki and Nino would feel compelled to finally start learning under their tutor. It’s now that actually getting the girls to stop flunking can begin in earnest. I imagine it’ll still be a bumpy road but at least the girls are now properly motivated. Can’t let Fuutarou lose his job just yet; someone’s got to win his heart after all.

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Watch The Quintessential Quintuplets on Crunchyroll & Funimation.

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