The Quintessential Quintuplets Vol. 12

Title: The Quintessential Quintuplets Vol. 12
Author: Negi Haruba
Series: The Quintessential Quintuplets #12
First Published: November 15, 2019
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Pages: 193
Genre: Comedy Romance, Romance, Shonen
Format: Web
Source: Web
Rating:

Yotsuba, who was saved by her sisters in middle school, swears to hide her feelings for Futaro for her sisters' sake. In addition, Ichika takes a leave of absence from school in order to further her acting career... But after their tumultuous summer ends, the new school term begins, setting the stage for the final event of their high school lives: the school festival!

I love that each of the quints explores their options for the future in this volume. Culinary school is absolutely adorable for Miku, given that she really takes joy in cooking and improving her abilities. Ichika makes progress in her career as an actress. Although Itsuki’s struggling with her grades, she has a teaching mentor and it’s wonderful. I can’t wait to see what answers the other two will come up with, and where each of the quints will go once they finish school. I also love that we finally get a little more background information about the quint’s dad, and it makes all of his earlier actions make a lot of sense. It gives the series a bit of closure, and I’m really relieved that his story arc never went in a really negative direction.

This volume also heavily features the first day of the cultural festival and it’s a really fun story arc. Cultural festivals are so interesting, and it’s a shame that we never did anything similar to it at school in the United States. I also like that the ending chapters starts the beginning of a series of chapters showing each of the quint’s first day of the cultural festival, providing wonderful spotlight stories. The two covered were Nino and Ichika; Nino’s final attempt to win Futaro’s heart and Ichika somber goodbye to bring closure to her arc. She really had one of the strongest character development arcs and despite the earlier indiscretions, she was able to grow from it in an admirable way.

And I know I repeat this a lot, but I adore Futaro. He really is a great main character. Not a single perverted thing from him the entire series, no accidental boob grabs or falling into every character’s pants. I appreciated that he thought seriously about what to do and approached all of the quints to let them know his decision properly. He gave the only answer that is sensible in this type of situation: to reject all of them. I have so much respect for Negi Haruba for writing the romance arc in this manner. Even with his childhood crush showing up, he didn’t instantly go all soft and weak like so many harem protagonists before him. And to drive the nail home there was even a chapter where these types of protagonists are called the fuck out in two brilliant scenes. It really tells me that Haruba has done his research and probably has the same frustration that some readers do with harem stories.