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The Quintessential Quintuplets ∬_

Initially when I begun watching The Quintessential Quintuplets, I went in with the idea of it being a typical harem romcom which involves a bunch of girls mindlessly going after a clueless MC and an unnecessary amount of fanservice, which is how it normally is with the the harem genre. I personally have never been much of a fan of this genre and therefore I wasn't expecting much when I started watching this show. But as I kept watching it, I came to the realization that this series is a completely new take on the harem genre and by the time I was done with both seasons, I rushed to read the manga, which I completed at the speed of light and now I can say with confidence that The Quintessential Quintuplets is easily one of my favorites of all time.

Character Development

The character development is off the charts with each quint being given a unique character or trait of their own. Throughout the series, we get to see a substantial amount of development for each of the quints. When one compares the quints from the beginning to the quints at the end of season 2, they can observe a considerable amount of character development whether it be the quints coming to terms with their pasts, their hard feelings against a certain someone, their goals and the way each of them faced any challenges thrown at them, each of the quints have been beautifully developed. My personal favorites out of the five are Itsuki and Nino, but even so, over the course of the two seasons, I have grown attached to all five of them and if someone were to ask me to rate them 1-5, it would be impossible for me to do so. Of course, we can't forget the star of the show, Uesugi Fuutaro. Throughout the two seasons, Fuutaro goes from being an apathetical study freak, to still being a study freak but finally opening up to the people around him and genuinely caring for the quints.

While we're on the topic of Fuutaro, something we have to absolutely appreciate about him is that he is nothing like the MCs from other harem anime's. Fuutaro is someone who doesn't tolerate any crap. He is a down to earth individual when it comes to studies, not caring about anyone around him (which as I mentioned, changes over time), rude and apathetical individual. Throughout the seasons, he is shown to not care at all about romance and is determined that it's simply a waste of his time, therefore not acknowledging such feelings until a much later stage.

Animation

When it comes to animation, many would agree that season 1's animation was rather botched at times. While it wasn't bad, several flaws were evident and one of the main reasons why the anime did not fall off due to that was because of the captivating storyline making up for it. But season 2's animation was incredible. The animation in the second season felt very polished and with absolutely no flaws as compared to the previous season with the studio change from Tezuka Productions to Bibury Animation Studios. While I must say the animation style of season 1 felt more natural, I still preferred the animation style in season 2 and i'm excited to see how they do it with the upcoming movie.

Bless My Ears

After hearing the OP and ED for the first season, I thought to myself "How can it get any better?" right before the second season dropped. It didn't take long for me to realize how wrong I was. The quints VAs took it to a whole new level with season 2's OP and now it has become an essential part of my playlist along with season 1's OP. I could put both on repeat all day long and I would never get tired of it. Not to mention, I listen to each VAs singles on a regular basis as well!

Fanservice? What's that?

(No picture for this one, sorry folks I wanna keep this appropriate)
One thing I observed in this series and absolutely loved about it was how the author avoided any unnecessary fanservice. As many would know, fanservice has pretty much become a staple in the harem genre so watching The Quintessential Quintuplets was a breath of fresh air. While we do get a decent amount of fanservice, especially in the second season, it's very less as compared to other harem animes and the author focuses on developing the quints in other ways rather than the usual embarrassing encounters between the MC and a female character.The Downside

While I absolutely loved The Quintessential Quintuplets, the one complain I had and i'm sure many people had was the way the storyline adaptation was handled. Once I read the manga, I realized there were several parts that were cut out from it in the adaptation. While that is something normally observed in all adaptations, it was still rather disappointing to see some good parts of the manga being excluded like that and I wish they had done a better job in including them.

Other than that, I have absolutely no complains about the way everything else played out and I would most definitely recommend this anime to everyone. So even if you're not a fan of harem, you should most definitely give this a shot!

Note: This is my first time writing a review on AniList and if anyone has any feedback or constructive criticism, I would most certainly appreciate that. So feel free to message me!