“A dream of the unbelievable day that brought us together.” Uesugi Futaro to his bride.
(This review will contain spoilers for episode 1 and 2.) ___ Harem anime. Oftentimes, they’ll have female leads with a great personality, unlike the incel protagonist who has barely any redeemable qualities with the “character trait” of accidentally groping women. Yet, just after one line and action from our boring incel protagonist, all the girls fall for him. It’s rare to find a good harem with a great protagonist, and it’s difficult to find one you can moderately enjoy. They lack foundation with the main character and simply have them be a tool to move the story, and nothing more. However, Quintessential Quintuplets is both a good show with a great protagonist who grows.

Written by Negi Haruba and adapted into an anime on January 11th, 2019 by Tezuka Productions, who worked alongside Mappa on Dororo, Quintessential Quintuplets follows a genius, poor, focused, and to himself student known as Futaro Uesugi. He’s hired as a private tutor and he finds out that he’s a tutor to five girls, the Nakano’s, his classmates. Despite the girls desperately needing better grades, none of them want Futaro as a tutor. And so, Futaro has to gain the trust of each girl and show them that he’s not just some guy with perfect grades.

___ At first glance, the art and animation of the show is..fine, following the generic style of other harems, but there are times during important scenes where the art is absolutely stunning. ___ Obviously though, this isn’t the meat of the review, and I’ll be moving onto the best part of the show, the characters.

The characters are rich with personality and never overreact to everything, including our protagonist, Futaro Uesugi, but I’ll get to him at the end of this, because it's time to talk about:
The waifus.
Itsuki is the first girl we meet and is a respectful hard worker. Although she doesn’t want Futaro to be her and the other girl’s tutor, she understands Futaro’s family situation and allows him to come over.

Ichika acts like the eldest sibling of the girls and doesn’t really mind Futaro being around, but still doesn’t want to study, having her own girls to work towards while also smiling to keep her sisters happy.

Miku is the best girl of the five and for good reason. She’s to herself and has little to no confidence, not wanting to talk to her sister’s about her interests. Despite this, she’s pure-hearted and will stand up when other people are in the wrong.

Nino is the least developed out of five, which doesn’t really make her a bad character. She’s the most hostile to our main lead and has tsundere traits, while not being one entirely. She acts like the mother of the girls and clearly states her mind and isn’t afraid to do dangerous things as long as she gets her way, even if that does mean drugging a cookie to make Futaro pass out.

Yotsuba is the most energetic of the 5, with the result of being blind to current situations. She’s great at anything physical, but mentally isn’t the best, getting the lowest score of the first exam out of the five girls. Nonetheless, she supports what Futaro does and is the most friendly with him.

▶ Video ____ At a first glance if I told you only the things above, you would think that this show is just another bland harem, but, Futaro Uesugi proves otherwise. Sure, he’s a studyholic, but he learns to understand why the girls do certains things, act a certain way, and uses what he learnt in order to help him. This provides insight and interesting conversations with him and the girls. He makes mistakes with the girls sometimes, yet he learns why the mistake happened and what he can do to fix them. There’s a scene in the second episode where he’s talking to Miku about the other girls, and Miku states that sure, she might’ve gotten the highest score of the 5, but each sister is still different from each other with their own skills. Futaro says that just because one sister can do something, doesn’t mean the other can’t. He shows Miku the last exam result, and she realises that none of them got the same answers right. They’re all different, but they can still achieve the same thing because of that. Without Futaro, this show would simply be another generic harem.

The opening for the show, Gotoubun no Kimochi (Quintuplet’s Feelings) is sung by the five girls. There’s no outstanding visuals or anything in it, but it showcases important events in the show and how the girls view Futaro.

▶ The ED, Sign, sung by Aya Uchida, showcases the girls in wedding outfits for Futaro’s wedding. ▶ The OST has a unique, gentle, and calming feeling which makes certain moments in the show stronger.

Seeing Futaro’s interactions with the girls, with the world, with everything around him is without a doubt the strongest part of the show. What does love really mean? What type of person do you want to be for others to look up to? How do you be honest with your feelings? Although the art and animation might not be the most jaw dropping experience, if you have time for 12 episodes and are looking for a wholesome harem with a great main character, this is it.

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