It’s hard enough to find a person you want to spend the rest of your life with. Imagine having to choose between five girls, all of whom you want to marry.
Through the quintessential quintupletswe watched high school student Futaro Uesugi (Josh Grelle) grapple with five schoolgirls who either refused to study or failed utterly as their beleaguered tutor: Ichika (Lindsay Seidel), Nino (Jill Harris), Miku (Felecia Angelle), Yotsuba (Bryn Apprill) and Itsuki (Tia Ballard) Nakano.
They fought him at every turn but Futaro kept going. Sure, he made big bucks to make sure these five sisters got their grades up, but despite their initial disdain for Futaro and his methods, something else started happening too: love. This sets the framework for…
The essentials: This romantic comedy was like others of its kind in many ways. They had a cast of women with different personalities. All of them didn’t seem to like Futaro at first, so they had their moments where they acted like they hated him. But Futaro was able to help the girls because at first he wasn’t motivated to fall in love with them. He just wanted them to be successful.
But of course since this is a harem anime someone has to start falling in love with each other and it happens both ways. Each of the girls, with their different personalities, has something endearing about them that Futaro is sure to notice, and each girl finds something they like about their tutor, even if they don’t realize it at first. And with that, Futaro also has to figure out which girl he remembers from his childhood, which of course is one of the Nakano siblings.
This movie continues after the end of the anime series and forms the definitive ending of the story. Futaro and the Nakano quintuplets are getting ready for the upcoming school festival, now third-year students, which means they’re about to graduate. After tutoring the sisters and becoming close to them throughout the anime series, Futaro has become a part of the family – and the object of their affections. Of course, there can only be one sister who ends up at Futaro.
We see several sisters profess their love for Futaro as they work to take their last breath in high school life, but there was always one for Futaro to marry since childhood, the girl he’s been looking for. And at the girls’ behest, Futaro is asked to make a confession to one of them in order to decide who he wants to date. The result will close the series as a finale to give fans the definitive answer as to which girl Futaro ends up marrying.
Which movies will it remind you of?: Nakano sisters aside, this is a harem-centric movie that’s a heartwarming but pretty paint-by-numbers affair when it comes to romance anime. It’s pretty similar to series like dear hina and its numerous specials and other popular love series like nisekoi, Kimi no Todoke, wotakoiand Horimiya. Really, you can choose the genre.
Notable performance: Felecia Angelle does an excellent job of giving Miku Nakano her unique yet shy tone. While Miku is technically just as much of a protagonist as the rest of the Nakano sisters, she tends to speak a little less as she is more reserved than the others. Angelle gives her a warm but incredibly gorgeous tone that you can penetrate with every word.
Memorable dialogue: “If it wasn’t for my amazing sisters, everything that happened in my life would have been completely different,” says Yotsuba, reflecting on how important being a quintuplet actually is to her. It really sets the tone for the entire series and confirms how much they all care about each other.
gender and skin: As far as harem anime goes, this one is pretty sane, so there’s not really much to say in that department other than the occasional split.
Our opinion: The quintessence of the quintuplets was something of a slow burn in terms of both its anime and manga adaptations. Fans have been waiting for what feels like forever to finally see which girl Futaro teams up with outside of the manga, and this movie is a great way to complete the saga for those who haven’t been keeping up with the series when it too End went print run.
It feels like a third season of the anime, with a fun, breezy setting and plenty of romance to satiate viewers’ appetites. Other than that, however, this movie will only really make sense for viewers who have already watched the other seasons of the anime series as it is a direct continuation of the story. It’s entertaining enough as a standalone film, but the extra context is definitely needed to create the emotional impact that comes with seeing the happy couple at the very end.
Our appeal: Stream it. If you’ve watched the Nakano sisters and Futaro over the past few years or read about their adventures, this film is a no-brainer for the next step. It’s light-hearted, romantic, and most importantly, true to the show’s signature attitude. And finally you get to see Futaro and his bride. We won’t spoil it here, but it’s probably the last person you were expecting.