The Quintessential Quintuplets Vol. 7

Title: The Quintessential Quintuplets Vol. 7
Author: Negi Haruba
Series: The Quintessential Quintuplets #7
First Published: December 17, 2018
Publisher: Kodansha
Pages: 194
Genre: Comedy Romance, Romance, Shonen
Format: Ebook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Rating:


Synopsis:

Finals have arrived for the Quintuplets, but...the Quints' father tries to wall them off once again! Will the Quints finally pass their exams and advance to the next year? Or will they end up repeating past mistakes...and parting ways with Futaro forever?

Buy the Book: Amazon

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Review

Finally, a five-star volume, this series has finally reached a high point for me. It’s a subtle one, focusing heavily on Ichika, one of my favorite characters, in the first two chapters. I laughed way, WAY too hard at the last panel of her movie chapter. The rest of the volume focused on final exams and how they spent the few days before preparing for them. I don’t know why these chapters, much like the mid-term ones, were so satisfying to read.

After finishing the volume, I looked up information about the Japanese grading system. I ended up encountering data nerds that put all of the scores on charts and even calculated the amount of improvement from the mid-term to the final exam, something totally random but so cool to look through and compare. I think that’s one of the things that I really like about the series. Yeah, the growing romances are great and all, but seeing each character gradually improve academically is just so darn satisfying. But then again, I work in higher education, so maybe that’s the educator in me talking.

I particularly liked Yotsuba’s exam chapter and how it really digs into the importance of taking a break. How hard Yotsuba works not to be a burden made my little old heart melt, and I loved the way that Futaro took that desire and turned it into a strength. Teaching others is a great way to build confidence, and I loved seeing that for Yotsuba. And again, Itsuki, with the twin chapter having the same theme. As for Futaro’s exam scores, all I can say is that this is the character development I didn’t know I’d love to see. Running around after the quints is taking the toll that I expected, and were thinking the last volume was missing. I do chuckle every time he tries to hide his scores throughout the series.

The romance in this manga is sweet, and I feel that it is done well for each character, with no one in particular that I dislike, and that’s hard to achieve in the harem genre that’s built to make the reader choose a favorite to root for. I don’t even feel myself wanting to root for any character in particular because I like all of them. However, I do find myself partial to Ichika and Yotsuba as characters which is a surprise because when I first saw these characters before ever reading the series, I completely overlooked them. Nino and Miku are the most stylish characters, and I thought surely one of those two would end up my favorite. This volume included a poll at the start asking who Japanese readers would want to be their bride. Shout out to the people that voted for Futaro and Maeda. But speaking of data, I do find it intriguing how Japanese and American readers tend to rank the characters differently. Both regions without contest vote for Miku as the favorite, but the other characters vary a little more, and I like how these differences inform us about cultural attitudes.

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