And we’re back. Surprised? I thought for sure The Quintessential Quintuplets was over after the 2023 special. The anime pretty much covered the entire manga after that so logically, you’d think the production committee had run out of material to work with. During the anime’s fifth anniversary event however, the committee announced one more special, this time featuring an anime-original story by franchise creator Negi Haruba, so here we are. Like with the 2023 special, this is a two-parter so I’m covering it across two posts.
Curiously, we’re back with Bibury Animation Studios, the studio who animated Season 2 and the movie. Maybe Shaft is too busy digging the Madoka movie out from its grave so the production committee didn’t hire them again. How random that they got Shaft for just two episodes. I do think Shaft is the more capable studio but I always did like Bibury’s art style. It’s certainly the look I’m the most used to, having been used for both Season 2 and the movie (which were my favorite parts of the anime).
So at the very end of the movie, we had the Nakano sisters discuss where Futaro (Yoshitsugu Matsuoka) and Yotsuba (Ayane Sakura) should go for their honeymoon. To Futaro’s surprise and slight annoyance, the other four quintuplets plan on tagging along. This special formally depicts that scenario, with the location of choice ultimately being Hawaii. I’ll give the staff that much; if they had to come back to this anime, at least they went with the one loose end that they could pursue. I was perfectly fine with leaving the honeymoon up to the imagination but it’s still neat to see what Haruba came up with himself. I’ll also add that this is a nice excuse to use the post-timeskip character designs. I always thought everyone looked good, especially Nino (Ayana Taketatsu) and Yotsuba, so it was a kind of bummer that these designs were only used for a few minutes in the movie.
We begin the special with a rather awkward situation, in which the quintuplets notice that one of the swimsuits they asked their father Maruo (Takaya Kuroda) to fetch for the honeymoon has a larger sized top than the others. This prompts the girls to wonder whose bust has gotten larger. It was actually established in the show that the girls more or less have the same body proportions, though they did debate over it for comedic effect once or twice. Not that Quintessential Quintuplets isn’t guilty of fanservice but this is an old joke so I am surprised to see it return. There are some funny details here, however. Futaro ignoring the conversation while the girls argue is great. Even funnier is finding out that each quint bought their respective swimsuit with Futaro and while Futaro was dating Yotsuba (and somehow, Futaro didn’t find that the least bit odd). Even for this show, that’s crazy. In the end, everyone finds out that the larger swimsuit actually belongs to girls’ last mother. With that they taken care of, everyone heads off to Hawaii.
Not much to say about the trip. A good chunk of it is simply depicted in a montage. There is random plot thread where Nino is approached by a Hawaiian girl named Lily, who asks Nino for advice on how to best confess to a Japanese boy she likes. I did enjoy seeing Nino struggle with the language barrier but I need to watch the second episode to know where exactly this is going. Something that kind of bothers me is the astonishing lack of scenes featuring just Futaro and Yotsuba. There’s one scene where the in-laws finally give the two some alone time and the newlyweds end up sewing some art for everyone. It is a nice moment that I can absolutely see these two doing and it does raise an interesting concern that these two struggling to enjoy a moment to themselves even when the opportunity is given to them but that is all we get in this first episode. I get that everyone is sharing the spotlight but I really want to see the special better sell Futaro and Yotsuba’s relationship, especially given that Yotsuba’s win at the end of the series is a little divisive among the fans.
Towards the end of the first day, Futaro runs into Maruo who, in a hilarious coincidence, is at Hawaii for a day. Maruo pressures Futaro into drinking a lot of wine while also requesting his son-in-law to trouble himself with the quintuplets’ problems one more time. You know, even after all this time, I still don’t know what to make Futaro’s relationship with his Maruo. Like, Maruo clearly doesn’t like Futaro per se. Him leaving Futaro on the floor after the latter gets drunk implies that much. At the same time, it does seem like Maruo begrudgingly recognizes that Futaro is someone his daughters trust and someone who can help them in a way that he could never do. Scenes like this make me realize that it would’ve been nice to see them interact more often.
Anyway, it looks Futaro is more or less back to being the quintuplets’ “tutor” again. It’d be really funny if he actually busts out the textbooks again but I’m guessing he’s just going to help them with more personal issues like he did during the show. While this episode gives some idea as to what’s bothering Nino and Yotsuba, it doesn’t really imply much for Itsuki (Inori Minase), Ichika (Kana Hanazawa), and Miku (Miku Ito). I’m curious what the deal is with them.
Xenodude Scribbles 