5-toubun no Hanayome Movie

I watched the movie with a friend of mine at 2 am and we were both on the verge of tears at the end of the movie. We really enjoyed the movie and I, as a manga reader, even thought that the movie has delivered the ending better than the manga did. Mainly because the music was absolutely touching, the animation was great and every single flashback fit so well to the scene.
After I read some reviews on MAL on this movie, I was surprised on how many people did not enjoy the movie, mainly because a) the "character with the least development" won, b) ... it skipped too many scenes from the manga or c) the romance in this movie is bad. So I've decided to write a review myself to give a bit of support to those people who actually liked the movie.

If you still don't know who the bride is going to be, I'm recommending you to stop reading this or any review on MAL due to spoilers.

Starting with point a), I want to clarify that I like all five sisters and neither of them deserve to lose in my opinion. However, people saying that the MC choosing Yotsuba is unrealistic and weird is just nonsense to me. I don't want to explain it further because Twitter has gone through this discussion a hundred times already, but you should know that character development is just an element for the plot of a story and not a requirement for a character to be good, or at least for a character to be "chosen" in a harem anime. You wouldn't expect your crush to go through an entire character arc in order for you to marry him/her, or would you? It is pretty understandable that the MC chose Yotsuba if he already loves the way she is from the beginning. Besides, her character development did in fact happen while she was younger, right after meeting the MC in Kyoto to the point where she realizes she doesn't need to be better than her sisters. Nino and Miku in fact got more development throughout the story, yes, but because of that, the fact that the MC didn't choose them is even more heart-wrenching and the scene where Nino and Miku hug each other at school knowing they've lost the love-war got emotionally more powerful.

Going on with point b), I personally thought that they did a pretty good job on only picking the most important scenes of the manga to put in the movie. The movie got even stretched to more than 2 hours, so do people want it to be even longer when they say they left out too many scenes? I agree that it would be better storytelling-wise if this anime got a third season instead of a movie, but they must surely had their reasons why they've decided to only make a movie. The pacing for me was absolutely fine, but I do believe that non-manga readers may get confused at some point due to some scenes that got left out, but it wouldn't be a big deal for understanding the main plot or the ending anyway. I also partly agree to people saying that the movie was just a sequence of TV anime episodes packed into a movie. Nevertheless, I enjoyed watching the movie as a movie - it got its proper introduction, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.

Finally to point c), its subjective whether someone enjoys the romance or not. However, this movie isn't just purely about romance, it's also about family. Especially in the movie, we could see that no matter how many times the bond between the sisters gets damaged, they always manage to realize that they have to stay together, also because their late mother told them to do so. And watching the sisters getting along well at the end of the movie just makes me so happy. Plus, the development of the Nakano father was also quite nice to watch, especially when you see that he does in fact care for her daughters. I definitely liked when he asked the MC at the wedding if Yotsuba is really "happy from the bottom of her heart". You can clearly see a difference between the Nakano family in the 2 TV seasons and the Nakano family in the movie.

All in all, I absolutely enjoyed watching this piece of art, it was a rollercoaster of emotions all throughout the movie with elements of romance, comedy and drama. The music was always perfectly fitting the mood of the scene and overall well composed, the animation is as great as it was in the second season. They did a fantastic job on putting all the remaining important manga content in a movie which actually builds up towards the end. The ending itself is well-written and I love the idea of playing the quintuplets game (where the MC has to guess who is who) at the wedding, going through all five sisters and what makes them special, both for Fuutarou and Yotsuba. That was the emotional peak of the movie.

-> A must-watch for everyone who enjoyed the TV show. And please don't write bad reviews only because the girl you like didn't get chosen, even if you can list hundreds of reasons why your girl would be the much better option. That's not the point of a movie review, that's just presenting your personal waifu list. Thanks for reading, stay healthy and have a great day.

Ah, the famous 5-toubun no hanayome.

Review contains spoilers of course, unless you've been spoiled already.


The ending was controversial to say the least. The most underappreciated girl won, somehow. This ending was pretty much just "yeah imma pick the one that has 0 development" and go forward.
The show definitely has the average harem route, with the generic character personalities. You got the "tsundere" which always ends up liking the main character, the dumbass, the snake, and the edgy one. (Itsuki is a combination of all of them really.)
One nice thing about this was the "unique" main ... character. An honest guy, trying to succeed. I like that.
To be honest, the art isn't all that special (it's nice for sure) and neither is the music.
This anime/manga is extremely similar to We Never Learn, (although I don't know which came out first) and I still liked We Never Learn more.
5-toubun had potential for sure, and kudos to the production team for not skipping so many big plot points during production.
But as a whole, (manga/anime) this did flop.

"I don't even know how I feel."

-- the following is a discussion on how a rushed, mediocre manga ending can be made worse and why that ending fails to deliver. acts as a discussion of the whole series, intended for those who have already finished it. reader discretion is advised. --

Have you ever heard "The Distance" by Cake? It's a wonderful alternative rock track that came out in the 90s' by a band that deserves more recognition for being incredibly creative and fun. The song is about a relationship. A racing junkie, spending time practicing and practicing, neglecting his lover. This obsession destroys the idea ... of 'them'. He's unable to do the right thing, but still "thinking of someone for whom he still burns" and she's "hoping in time that her memories will fade". The inability to admit wrongdoing, to make things right, and the irony of doing something so fast that something else slowly decays and dies, alone.

That's how I feel Quintessential Quintuplets went. After a heartwarming, enjoyable build-up with great character development and believable bonds, it feels like there was just a finish line that had to be reached - that the moment every character showed an interest in our lead, an ending had to be right around the corner. That progressive creation of attachment to a story and the characters within was thrown to the side in favor of a blazing dash. A loving story was built and an ending was rushed, the speed of the last lap tainting it overall.

The adaptation problem comes from that blazing dash being fit into a single movie. The first season handled the first thirty-two chapters and the second continues up to chapter eighty-six... with some basic math, this movie covers over thirty chapters in a roughly two hour runtime. Everything that goes on in the manga can't be conveyed in this amount of time AND doesn't fit in a movie format. I read the manga earlier in the year and had no clue how they would structure a movie competently with everything they had to cover - encompassing the school festival and the aftermath could've probably been done, but there's quite a bit before: giant character development for Yotsuba and a comedic visit to the pool that's the first event after Fuutarou (and the audience) realizes that they all like him and have different motivations for doing so.
Yotsuba desperately needed this time to shine, giving her background and filling in the blanks of events shows that not only was she the first to fall for him all those years ago, but that despite that, she continued to support her sisters and bottle up her own feelings in a desperate attempt to keep harmony - a harmony she threatened by teenage angst. Bits and pieces of this are shown throughout, but by not presenting information in the same way the manga did, Yotsuba lacks significant depth. I think that a lot of people didn't understand why Yotsuba won by just watching the show and then reading who won. It's true! Yotsuba, out of every Quint, has the least character development and before this explanation (which occurs RIGHT after season two ended), I wouldn't believe it either. I was lucky enough to not know who won when I read the manga, my only information was that Nino and Ichika didn't win. After this segment, I finally thought that Yotsuba was a worthy candidate. Sure, it's harder to root for her when her sisters received more things to do, but I thought it worked. By withholding this information by either completely ignoring it or saving it until later, it's harder to swallow who wins.
The public pool visit is probably one of the last, complete parts of the story that fits with the tone and feeling built beforehand. It ups the jealously and shenanigans and it's very fun. I would talk about it more, but the movie decides to diminish this entire event to an opening, music-driven slideshow. That's how we'll fit everything in!
By altering where information is placed, contracting and failing to include events in the favor of presenting a movie experience, 5-toubun no Hanayome Movie completely fails to capture the magic and instead presents a boring, by-the-numbers, badly-paced need-to-finish.

The overall problem however is the source material's decision to end. In an industry with series that refuse to conclude, it's always painful seeing something not take the time needed to reach a satisfying stopping point. The quote utilized to open this review is from Fuutarou, he says this to Ichika when asked who he'll choose. Later in the film, she declares something along the lines of "you always knew" which I totally believe, but that hesitation is a clear indication of well, hesitation.
Yotsuba gave him the motivation to become who he is today, that single day meant the world to him. There's precedent, a long withstanding impact and being indebted to one person for providing it, but new bonds sometimes trump those. The strength of new information and new experiences can lead to the past being sidelined, tastes change, and while that doesn't mean an unappreciation for what came before, it does mean a bias towards what matters now... and this point is EVEN illustrated! An old childhood crush comes to visit the school festival to see Fuutarou, and he defends the Quints and how much they mean to him, showing an obvious bias. After spending so much time with everyone, I can't see such a decision being reached so quickly purely based on finding out who was the Rena who changed his life.
Itsuki spent time with his family, showing the most appreciation when it came to what he was doing and relating heavily to his family situation. Nino was the most forward in her feelings through a learning curve: he wasn't an obstacle but rather a caring individual, someone to be embraced, a catalyst for learning that new is okay, and by being the most upfront, gave Fuutarou his first blatant, eye-witness experience with love (a big push when you're that dense). Ichika helped him understand how each Quint operated and encouraged the romantic feelings to fly, while he had a similar impact by ignoring his studious instinct and urging her to do what she wanted even if it was non-educational. Miku worked up immense courage, breaking out of her shell to express love and admiration for someone that wasn't family, but also towards her family members by becoming more comfortable in being herself. I'm totally fine with Yotsuba winning, as stated previously I think that those first chapters in volume eleven truly flesh her out and give her a lot more to work with. She was the one that gave Fuutarou that initial spark and she continuously showed support verbally and in action to not only her sisters but everyone around her as well - an incredibly selfless person.
They all have their pros, all have their cons, and the immediate Yotusba decision is harder to believe when the others weren't sitting on their hands, they were active and multi-dimensional. And many of these 'active' characters had their development rushed just for the label "finished" to be thrown on (Itsuki's is the most offensive). I understand the want to put a fire underneath the ass of the characters, high school is almost over and everyone will be splitting up doing their own thing (and that's already being shown in the story), let's go forward. Yet, doesn't the idea of continuing during the beginning of those career paths seem like a logical next step? A stepping stone for more shenanigans, more one-on-one interactions, and more chances to delve into what makes these characters tick? Visiting each other in different cities, different elements, introducing each other to their new lives and showing that love holds out in these situations... eh, crying over spilled milk.

As one can tell, The Quintessential Quintuplets means a lot to me. It was the anime that got me into the medium and has led me to find more enjoyable experiences - where SAO failed to make me a fan, Quints succeeded. It'll always have a special place to me, a guilty pleasure that I think is well-written and very enjoyable. It's not perfect at all, a lot of imperfections exist and it isn't for everyone, but not everything we care deeply for is.

Beautifully animated. This OST has always been soothing and fitting, the VAs do a fantastic job, and despite all my complaining, there are genuinely great moments here. I smiled and felt the warmth, but via a much weaker flame emerging from a significantly weaker package.

A bad adaptation of the worst part of the manga. They didn't even animate that panel of Itsuki yelling.