Honestly going into The Quintessential Quintuplets I expected it to be a normal harem and I was completely content with that. However, I was completely wrong. This series manages to surprise me so many times and got me genuinely invested in these characters.

The premise is really interesting. One of them is the childhood friend Fuutarou met when he was little and one of them is the bride that he will eventually marry in the future. Getting hints throughout the story of who he is going to choose was one of my favourite things to do while reading this manga. The author really puts effort into developing characters all equally to not give any obvious answers as to who might win and always keep the reader wondering and hoping that their favourite will win. I was already spoiled on who would win but that's what got me into the manga in the first place after finishing the anime so I didn't mind. On the contrary, it made my reading that much more enjoyable and helped me see all the subtle hints the mangaka leaves throughout the story to suggest who won and who he has chosen. Overall it's really engaging to read even if you know who's won as I did. It must be even better for someone who doesn't know the outcome and has the constant worry and uncertainty of who wins. This series is really effective at dividing up the screentime between characters to keep up that uncertainty and they build up the ending to beautiful effect. It feels this was definitely planned from the very beginning and left me feeling so satisfied when I got to the end of this great story.


The characters are all great. I didn't have a single character I disliked which is very rare for a harem. It just goes to show how well the author developed every character to be likable. There were some ups and downs for certain characters but overall I loved the entire cast. They all had their own quirks and personalities and all had their own problems and way of dealing with things that made it more and more interesting to keep reading to see how events would get resolved. The author manages to develop all five of the sisters to amazing effect and give them all depth. They also manage to twist normal harem tropes into making them unique and interesting such as Nina who at first seems like the typical tsundere but later on is given character development that changes her character in a very surprising way. All of them have some sort of character development throughout the story that makes you want to route for all of them at the same time. Miku and Ichika also get tons of development and the author really explores the problems that come from being Quintuplets. There is quite a bit of drama between the sisters throughout the series but that's to be expected when five sisters like the same guy. Some of the conflicts I was genuinely worried and concerned about how they would be resolved especially when it came to the outside characters such as the sister's dad who acts as the opposing emotionless farther. Despite making all the girls lovable I can bet that most will probably end up supporting one slightly more than the others at some point in the story. For me that was Yotsuba. But in my case, it was less supporting her slightly more than the others and more so supporting her completely. She was by far my favourite character in the series and she never ceased to amaze me at how much of an angel she was. Her cuteness and sometimes awkwardness were adorable to see and she supports all the sisters and Fuutarou through thick and thin. Always giving encouraging smiles and cheeky grins. Every time she smiled or grinned I couldn't help but so the same. Ever since I saw her character design on the cover of the anime I immediately knew she would be my favourite, and to my expectation, she was, easily.

The art is really nice. As you can see on the cover the mangaka has a really nice style for making the girls looking cute. But as most mangakas, this one can do serious expressions really well so when the drama started kicking in you can bet there's gonna be some detailed expressions in those panels. I also really like the way the author takes full advantage of the fact the harem is made up of quintuplets to trick the reader and get them thinking. Most of the drama does originate from the fact they're quintuplets and the mangaka uses that to trick the reader by having the sisters change their appearances so while Fuutarou is trying to figure out who is who so are we. It's really satisfying when you get towards the end of the manga and start to notice the patterns in the character's actions and expressions to help determine who is who. It really shows how much I loved these characters to be able to distinguish them apart even when they dress the same way to purposely try and trick the reader and Fuutarou.

Now drama is quite present throughout this manga so if you can't really handle drama then it probably won't interest you that much but the mangaka handles it in a way that keeps it interesting and gives enough rewarding scenes in between the drama-filled arcs that its enjoyable to read.

The ending was also a pretty nice way to round up the series. It did feel a little bit compensating for everyone else who's ship didn't win but it wasn't that bad so it can be forgiven.

Now here's a word of warning, if you're easily offended if your favourite character doesn't win I wouldn't suggest reading all of this manga since there is a 1/5 chance your character will win. I would highly recommend reading most of it though as its a great story. If you don't want Fuutarou to pick someone I'd suggest stopping at around the 87 chapter mark as after that is when he starts seriously considering the prospect.

However overall this is an absolutely great harem manga that I highly recommend people go out and read immediately. The entire cast is likable making me feel as if I didn't care who won out of the five (at least at first) and they're all developed really well to the point where I feel very familiar with all they have to offer.

9/10, if you love harem manga you'll probably like this as long as you can accept him choosing someone.