The Quintessential Quintuplets Vol. 1

Title: The Quintessential Quintuplets Vol. 1
Author: Negi Haruba
Series: The Quintessential Quintuplets #1
First Published: October 17, 2017
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Pages: 194
Genre: Comedy Romance, Romance, Shonen
Format: Ebook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Rating:


Synopsis:

One day, a poor high school second-year named Futaro Uesugi comes across a private tutoring gig with good pay. But his pupils are his classmates!! And they're quintuplets!! They're all gorgeous girls, but they're troublemakers who hate to study and are on the verge of flunking out! And his first task is simply gaining the sisters' trust?! Every day is a party! The curtain is rising on the Nakano quintuplets' quirky romantic comedy with five times the cute!!

Review

The Quintessential Quintuplets has been a series I’ve seen mentioned quite a bit in the anime and manga circles that I follow online, a series that quickly became a favorite romantic comedy among shonen readers. My husband adored this series while it was still being serialized; I even got him a Nino figurine a few years ago for his Christmas. So I knew this was a series that I should read to see what all the fuss was about, and after finally reading volume one, I felt that it was just fine.

The central idea is intriguing; the manga opens with an impending wedding, and the bride and groom talk about a dream that he had about the first day that they met. From there, the story goes back in time and follows the groom when he was a sarcastic and nerdy teenager who ends up being hired as a tutor for his newest classmates, five sisters who are also quintuples. It’s implied right from the onset that he will eventually marry one of the five sisters, and this overarching romantic mystery plot is reminiscent of How I Met Your Mother and Love Hina, the latter of which was the series that defined the harem genre.

One of the highlights of the manga is the art and character designs. Negi Haruba did a wonderful job with each character; they’re all very cute and have personalities to fit most major romance heroine tropes. There was a little bit of fan service that seemed silly to me, but I can’t be too surprised as this is a shonen manga. There were notes in the beginning and ending pages that also kept pointing out that there are five cute girls to enjoy in the series, which just felt cheesy and gross. I get it, this is a total wish-fulfillment series, but it didn’t do much different (yet) to set itself apart from other harem manga.

Volume one largely deals with how he meets each of the five sisters, and while the first encounter with Itsuki made me chuckle, I wasn’t as keen on when the other four are introduced. It was a little awkwardly written and forced and had some over-the-top Japanese humor that didn’t quite land for me. All five girls are on the verge of flunking out of school and rebel against their tutor, which causes Futaro to change tactics and get to know each of the sisters individually to build rapport. The volume covers one of the sisters, and I thought this side story was cute, being a fellow history fan, though the idea of a girl needing a boy to gain confidence is so dated.

I’m not giving up on the series and will be continuing a few volumes to see if it really hooks me. I figure it’s wildly popular for a reason and it’s worth taking the time to give it a chance. However, I am a little worried that the series will take the predictable route of having Futaro end up with the poster girl of the series, Itsuki.

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