The Quintessential Quintuplet also known as 5-Tōbun no Hanayome, is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Negi Haruba.The series has been published digitally in English by Kodansha USA under the Kodansha Comics imprint since June 26, 2018. An anime television series adaptation by Tezuka Productions premiered on January 10, 2019 on TBS and other channels. The anime series is licensed in North America under Crunchyroll-Funimation partnership
Plot
Japanese high school student Futaro Uesugi has achieved excellent grades but leads a difficult life otherwise: no mother, no friends, and a father struggling with large debts while Futaro and his younger sister Raiha often go hungry.
An opportunity presents itself when the rich Nakano family arrives in his school and Futaro is hired as a highly-paid tutor, but he discovers his five charges — charming identical quintuplet sisters of varied personalities — have in common zero interest in study and abysmal grades. Some of the quintuplets are against having an unknown male in their apartment, but Futaro's diligent tenacity gradually convinces those girls to reduce their attempts to have him poisoned or arrested, and to advance in their studies.
Moreover, through a flashforward, it turns out that Futaro will marry one of the sisters, but during his tutoring, all of them fall in love with him. So, who will ever be his bride?
Quintuplet gimmick aside, this could be the setup for any number of harem comedies, and The Quintessential Quintuplets doesn't seem terribly interested in breaking the genre mold. If it's going to stand out, then it'll have to excel through good old-fashioned quality. Thankfully, the series manages to deliver just that in its opening episodes. It's already avoided or mitigated a number of the genre's most common problems; there's no outlandish premise to explain, nor have there been any super-creepy plot points to ruin the fun atmosphere. The protagonist is even a fleshed-out character, rather than being a single-minded horndog or a bland audience stand-in. Futaro has his own goals and problems outside of the harem scenario, and he even seems actively disinterested in the prospect of teenage romance. He just wants to get this tutoring job done so he can get paid and move on with his life.
The series itself appears to be more interested in humor than romance, though that impression may just be a side effect of the surprisingly strong comedy in these opening episodes. The Quintessential Quintuplets has a good grasp of how to tell a joke, which isn't a total surprise considering that it shares a screenwriter with Hinamatsuri. The fundamentals of good timing and sharp delivery are comfortably in place, and in many cases the show successfully goes one step beyond the more obvious joke. Futaro doesn't just get spotted by Miku while trying to follow Itsuki, he gets spotted while trying to hide in one of those goofy “your face here” displays, and then he stays there throughout the ensuing conversation. Miku doesn't just trick Futaro into thinking she's Yotsuba by copying her sister's trademark hair ribbon, she somehow also tricks Yotsuba into thinking she's her doppelganger. It's little details like this that put The Quintessential Quintuplets a step ahead of the curve, and that good sense of humor may be its best bet for attracting viewers from outside its core demographic.
If there's one area in which The Quintessential Quintuplets seems destined to be no better than average, it's the visuals. The art and animation in these episodes is perfectly decent, but nothing jumps out as being especially impressive. The five sisters are mercifully easy to tell apart despite being quintuplets, even if their individual character designs are nothing special. The animation is good enough to maintain a consistent level of quality, which is about all it needs unless there's a surprise action scene lurking somewhere down the line. The visual direction complements the comedy reasonably well with some nice reaction shots, but it's less sure-footed when it comes to fanservice. There's not much of it, and it's pretty tame by current standards, but the cheesecake integration in this show doesn't always feel smooth or natural. A shot of legs or cleavage will suddenly pop up in the middle of a scene, linger for a couple seconds, then vanish as if it never happened. Working some mild fanservice into a harem comedy is fine, but The Quintessential Quintuplets could stand to choose its moments a little more carefully instead of just tossing something in whenever it has a spare spot on the storyboard.
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