Warning: This review won't contain many spoilers (there are some minor ones but it's impossible to critique this without letting some things slip, but you should be safe whether you're a first time reader or an anime-only that's too impatient for season ). I say this as a warning because (trying to) not spoil this manga means that this won't be a very in-depth review. Instead, this will be more of a brief "Should you read 5toubun?" and my initial reaction to the manga as it finally comes to an end after I've kept up with it week after week.

Like I said at the beginning, this will be more of a general “Would I recommend this series to you?” than an in-depth review of the series and how everything (plot points, character development, etc) is handled. If you're a manga reader who's just completed 5toubun coming here to see a well-constructed review that perfectly summarizes how this series disappointed you at the end, this is unfortunately not that kind of review. I do eventually want to write a more in-depth review of this series, but I’d like to reread it a few more times before I feel like I could do a more critical and more in-depth analysis justice. As much as I love those kinds of well-written and eloquent anime reviews that say what I think about a series better than I could ever hope to, I still think this site needs just more general recommendation/final impression review. That being said, onto the review!

Art 8/10
There’s not much to say about the art. I like Negi’s artstyle. It wasn’t amazing and super unique, but it didn’t need to be either. The series is good to look at from start to end, and that’s all that it really needs. The girls are cute!

Characters - 8.5/10

Probably the strongest part of the story to me. This is the first harem I’ve read where I legitimately liked all of the girls, and Fuutarou is a pretty good MC too. Even the more minor characters like Fuutarou’s dad and imouto were endearing. It’s just a shame some of the girls got way more love than the others from the author. A few got no development right until the end, or got sidelined for a good chunk of the manga, but that’s more on the story than the sisters themselves. Speaking of the story..

Story – 6.5/10
Ok, so the ending of 5toubun is probably the most controversial part of the series. And I’ll say that no, it’s not a complete fucking disaster like Prison School or Food Wars, but it is disappointing, and that’s why the score seems so low (I actually rate on a 1-10 scale and not a 7-10 scale, so 6.5 isn’t god awful!)
Anyways, the premise of the bride reveal is the main twist of 5toubun. From the beginning, they say “Oh, there’s not going to be a harem ending. Only one girl wins and gets married to the main character. The reveal of the bride at the end after all the hints and flashbacks is the endgame.” There’s no harem ending so no matter what, one girl will win and the rest will lose. That’s pretty bold for a harem manga to say right from the start.

The premise of the manga sounded kind of trashy, but after reading it for myself I was pleasantly surprised by it. The author manages to play with some tropes in a way that surprise you (for example, the tsundere isn’t actually a tsundere, she just fucking hates you for her own justifiable reasons from the start) and overall the story was good. The manga seemed to acknowledge some tropes and play around with them and subvert expectations. That’s one of its biggest strengths in the beginning, but at times (especially near the end) it feels like Negi got a little too cute with "Hah, you thought this would happen because it's typical, but actually this worse thing is going to happen because it goes against what you expect even if that would have been better!".
The first ~75% of this manga was great, but unfortunately the story didn’t manage to maintain that quality all the way through. If it did, I probably wouldn’t have even written this review, but the ending is pretty much what sours the rest of the series for me. I’m not sure if Negi wrote himself into a corner or he just wanted to be done with it (his wife did give birth to a daughter, so I assume he just wanted to wrap things up), but he definitely got too ambitious. There was too much hidden for too long, and the series tries to rush and answer everything in the end and wrap up all the loose ends, but it doesn’t feel satisfying.

At the very end of the series when Fuutarou is explaining why each of the sisters is special to him and important, he jokingly just brushes over the bride at the end and says “Welp, you’re you, that’s tha.t” and moves on. This joke hurts because that’s pretty much how the series handled the winning girl’s arc, and I can’t really give my own reasons as to why the bride was more special than her sisters because Negi didn’t really do anything with her. It feels like he chose the winner based on who fans would expect the least, and then didn’t have a plan to go from there. I would have been happy with her winning if it was actually developed more, but it just feels more like a pity win than what would’ve actually happened, like this was a weird branching non-canon side route in a 5toubun VN.

Don't let the people whose favorite quint won tell you that the people upset about the ending are "just upset because their favorite lost". I liked all of the girls, and would have been fine with any of them (if it was handled well, which it sadly wasn’t). The biggest problem of the manga's ending is in the execution, not the waifu. The series’ ending felt so rushed, boring, unfinished, safe, and pointless that it soured the series as a whole for me. There were so many loose ends and developments that were either never answered to satisfaction or didn’t end up coming back and mattering.

Some of the girls received lots of development that led to nothing, while others didn't get any until it got shoved in right at the end where it felt null and void (BioDad arc, anyone?). I found myself asking "Really? This one won? Like that? That's it?". The last couple arcs felt like they dragged on, and yet at the same time they feel unfinished. I think another volume between 12 and 13 really would've done this series good.

So, should you read 5toubun?
There’s a saying that goes “It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey,” and if you agree about that, then I’d say you should read this series. The first 75% of it is great, but just know that it doesn’t maintain that GOAT quality the whole way through. If you’re fine with that, then yeah, give this a read. 122 chapters isn’t that long.

Enjoyment-7.5

Overall, I still enjoyed this series. It has good quality right until the end where it faceplants which makes it pretty hard to score. Before the faceplant, I would give it like an 8.5/10, but the last stretch felt like the author was writing it just to troll us. It failed the romance part of a romcom at the end, which gives a big mark against it for me. People can say it was a comedy/drama before it was a romance and that you shouldn’t expect good romance from a harem, but with how well it handled other harem tropes, I still count this as a point against the series. I guess even if it's relatively well done, it's still a harem anime at the end of the day. Despite the kind-of-shitty end, it was still a great ride. I enjoyed the 5toubun Tuesdays where we got a new chapter every week to theorize and discuss, even when a lot of us were just wondering where the fuck the series was going at the end.

Overall- 6.8/10 (rounded to 69)

I enjoyed Negi's Wild Ride up until the very end where the Quintmobile got a flat tire and accidentally drifted into a crowd of pedestrians. Ok, maybe it's not that bad (it's no Prison School), but the ending definitely disappointed when the quality was so good throughout most of it, which soured the series as a whole. If you don't mind that, you'll definitely enjoy most of the ride as a romcom fan.

6.9 quints out of 10, it's pretty good for a harem series!