5-toubun no Hanayome
The Quintessential Quintuplets

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Overall, I think this manga had some very good points. I think my only problem I had with it was the ending. There weren't any things I found insufferable (apart from Ichika) and I was hooked on this manga. I think I read the whole thing in 5 hours or something because I wanted to know how it ended

Was that worth it? Yes, because I enjoyed my time, but also no, because I hated the ending. I've never seen a manga apart from this one where I needed doujins (the non-sexual kind of course) to get a better ending. The ending itself isn't poorly crafted. ... In fact, I'm sure it was great for the people that liked the girl who won. It's just, none of the favorite girls won, and that's where the backlash came from. I think the author knew who would win from the first chapter, and people just latched onto the wrong quintuplets.

Here's my ratings, first number is my rating, second number is my expected rating for the average person.

Main characters: 9/10 | 9/10
Side characters: 6/10 | 6/10
Plot: 9/10 | 8/10
Art: 9/10 | 9/10
Romance: 9/10 | 8/10
Comedy: 7/10 | 7/10
Ending: 8/10 | 8/10
Ending (if I wasn't being serious): 0/10

I felt the latter half of the story was too rushed and there was a distinct lack of character development for important characters (which is an understatement).
I would say I was left dissatisfied by the end, due to the aforementioned character development causing it to be anticlimactic.

Filler info:
Generally a 'cute' story and I was invested in the characters in the first half, but working my way up to the 3-quarter mark, I was concerned (rightly so) that there wasn't sufficient content to wrap up the plot, while adding closure to all other characters. So it would be fair to say that it is unfulfilling.

"They had us in the first half, not gonna lie" is a sentence that could perfectly describe the writing of 5-toubun no Hanayome. For the first 90 chapters, the manga was pretty good. It had some flaws obviously, but was very enjoyable and promised a great future.

But then, the festival arc came, and it only went down from here.

Also, massive spoilers ahead, you know the deal.

For the first half of the manga, I think we can all agree that it was pretty enjoyable. We were promised an ending immediatly, and we had to figure out what girl was going to marry Fuutarou based on the ... elements we were given throughout the manga.

To be fair with Negi, this must have been a tough story to tackle. Balancing a good amount of mystery with a good amount of romance, while developping 6 characters was definitely not an easy task, and oh boy did he fail at that.

The problem is that the more you work on the romantic side of the story, the more the mystery of who will win becomes obvious, and it was pretty obivous who would win. So when Fuutarou made his decision, I thought one of those two things would happen :

- He wouldn't chose anyone. A realistic assumption considering Fuutarou never showed any romantic interests towards any of the girls. And that would mean that he would chose a girl later in the story. Sadly there were only a handful of chapters left.

- Or he would chose Nino, the only realistic choice at that point. It wouldn't make any sense for Miku's character arc to be with him at that point, Ichika didn't stand the chance, and Yotsuba and Istuki were never in the race to begin with.

More than anything, I think Fuutarou's decision arrived much too soon in the manga. Like I said, he didn't seen to have any romantic interests, and it didn't make any sense for his character to make this choice at that point. He wasn't oblivious the the quints' feelings, but it didn't feel like he liked anyone. This manga needed at least 2 more volumes for Fuutarou to developp some romantic interests to give a satisfying ending to the story.

And just like that, he chose Yotsuba, even Shyamalan wouldn't make a plot twist this dumb.
I have no problem with Yotsuba winning the race in itself, I have a problem with how it was done and why Fuutarou chose her. There were ways to make any quint win in a satisfying way, but sadly this didn't happen.

For the whole manga, Yotsuba was pretty much a background character, and it didn't change one bit with this decision. She is exactly the same in the first chapter as she is in the last. A typical Genki girl that would be good a side character and a plot tool to make the story move, but lacks the depth to be a main character. She has no progression, no character arc, nothing. She doesn't even have a job in the last chapter of the manga, she just lives with Fuutarou, and that's it.

In the chapter after he made his decision, Fuutarou explains that he chose her because he would've collapsed long ago if it wasn't for her. Okay, fair enough, but how doesn't that apply to Miku and Itsuki as well ? Sure Yotsuba helped him get the quints together, but Miku and Itsuki did just as much if not more.

This ending is insulting. I don't have the slightest clue with Negi chose to do it this way. It just doesn't make any sense. If the manga really had to end quickly, it would've been better to make Nino the bride since it didn't need several volumes from that point to justify why they love would love eachother.
It wouldn't be a great ending but it would at least be satisfying.

After the festival arc, Nino even regressed in her character developpement when she gets heated over Yotsuba winning. Didn't she say that she would support anyone that wins ? Sure I can see her emotions getting the better of her like when she pushed Fuutarou in the water during the school trip, but at least make her regret the things she said to Yotsuba.

And during the wedding, she even cries when Fuutarou calls her during the last quint game ?? It's been 5 years and she's not over that already ?


This ending also leaves a lot of plot points unexploited.

Who kissed Fuutarou under the bell during the scrambled eggs arc ? Since Yotsuba won, it's supposed to be her, but it would be so out of character for her to do that. I guess you could say that she kissed him to make him see her sisters as potential romantic partners but that would be hard to believe. I think it as supposed to be Ichika, doesn't make sense for any other quint to kiss him in such a way.

Did Fuutarou learn that Yostuba was the girl he met 5 years ago and that Ichika didn't lie when she told him that she played with him ? I think that if Yotsuba has to be the bride, this should be a major plot point.

Did Fuutarou learn that Itsuki was playing Rena ? What was in her love charm that fell in the water ? What was the point of that story if it's left like that ?


Overall, 5-toubun no Hanayome was pretty enjoyable. The first 90 chapters were brilliant, Ichika, Miku and Itsuki had great character arcs and it was a very good premise.
Sadly, the ending was rushed and didn't deliver on the expectations. A very disappointing ending for what could have been the masterpiece of harem mangas.