The Quintessential Quintuplets Vol. 11

Title: The Quintessential Quintuplets Vol. 11
Author: Negi Haruba
Series: The Quintessential Quintuplets #11
First Published: September 17, 2019
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Pages: 192
Genre: Comedy Romance, Romance, Shonen
Format: Web
Source: Web
Rating:


Synopsis:

While on a school trip to Kyoto, the sisters' relationships nearly go south as they vie for Futaro's affection, but they weather the storm, come out stronger for it, and enjoy the trip in the end. During the chaos, it also comes to light that Yotsuba was the girl Futaro met on that prior field trip six years earlier... The quintuplets' past will now be revealed!!

Review

I just want to begin the review of this volume by saying that I’m so thrilled that the author included a beach volume… With none of the harem girls there. 10 out of 10, very meta, very good. In all seriousness, though, this volume finally details Futaro’s chance encounter with one of the quints during childhood, and it was really sweet! The first chapter focused heavily on childhood, the quint’s upbringing with their mother, and how they came to meet their stepfather. The second chapter focused heavily on Yotsuba’s journey from middle to high school and her desire to stand apart from her sisters. Wanting to be special and recognized for one’s individuality is an important aspect of adolescence for all teens, not just identical siblings. I really loved seeing Yotsuba develop in this aspect, seeing the self-conscious girl underneath the genki girl facade. Really the entire volume made me fall absolutely in love with Yotsbua.

It was also really cute how Yotsuba recognized Futaro immediately, and the shame she felt for failing on their promise to be outstanding students makes a lot of sense why she didn’t reveal herself right from the start. It is a deliberate role reversal of the childhood promise to study from Love Hina and it was executed brilliantly. It is clear that Negi Haruba recognizes the origins of this genre and manages to pay homage to the harem genre’s roots in good storytelling.

I had a feeling that it was her right from volume one because she was the only quint that treated Futaro and supported his efforts to tutor the quints while the rest pushed him away. It’s clear that she’s always liked him; I mean, she was the first to make a confession, even if she covered it up immediately after and remained at a distance because the other girls were obviously developing crushes as well. The goofy kiss at the bell was also very on-point for her silly personality. The way the story was set up was really pretty strategic, leaving a ton of breadcrumbs that might not be noticed by fans that get caught up rooting for a particular sister.

It may be because I didn’t have a particular preference for who Futaro would end up with that I was able to notice the little hints throughout the story. Her self-deprecating attitude and knocking herself for being the dumbest quint is in line with her sacrificing her own feelings for her sisters. I can see how she comes off as the black horse in the series because she’s not as in your face as the other characters. There is a large population of fans that insist that Yotsuba did nothing during the entire series, which is just funny. I’m not at all disappointed that I figured it out right away; if anything, I really appreciate the way that the story was built because it takes time to really develop their relationship and convince me why they are a good match. Yotsuba is not so overt with her feelings, which suits a blockhead like Futaro well.

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