(the "spoilers" mentioned are all basic things we learn very, very early on in the manga)
I'm writing this review after watching the anime adaption, as I genuinely loved the anime and wanted to continue the story after. It was very unusual for me as I generally don't read mangas, but the anime was so great I had high expectations for the manga. And let me say - it totally lived up to those expectations.
For those who haven't read the manga OR watched the anime, I'll give a brief overview (I wrote a review on the anime as well, although to be honest my ideas were a bit jumbled).
Basically, the story revolves around our main character Fuutarou, the number 1 ranking student in the grade and a pretty uptight personality. This isn't to say he doesn't care, because as we go through the story we learn more about the type of person he is; how he genuinely does care about others - he just doesn't give a damn what other people's perceptions of him are. Fuutarou is an incredibly fun and reliable MC to follow, he isn't the standard weak, useless, crying MC in a harem. He takes charge and steps up when it matters most. Even though he is a great MC to follow, he still has to suffer in poverty with his father and little sister. And to make money for his poor living conditions, Fuutarou takes up a tutoring offer from a wealthy man, asking to teach his five daughters who are failures when it comes to school. And as we all know from the title, these are the main girls.
The five daughters are all quintuplets, which includes the fact they look extremely similar. This is one of the reasons I gave the art a 10/10, because they look similar but are still distinguishable to the reader/viewer. Of course, these similarities lead to a lot of antics revolving around them pretending to be one another in certain situations, which is entertaining but also interesting for character development. More on the sisters, each one has their own unique personality. While the personalities are all based off of common tropes (tsundere, kuudere, etc) the characters are fleshed out extremely well, and aren't just walking ecchi girls.
In fact, there is very little ecchi to straight up none at all which is another fantastic thing about this manga. It looks more at an ACTUAL scenario (even if unrealistic of course) of five sisters slowly but surely falling for the main character, and their interactions with one another as they realize their changing emotions. The girls don't fall for him all in the first chapter and then turns into an ecchi fanservice, the story is very well put together and gives great progression of not only the girls' (and even Fuutarou's) character, but also their emotions for one another in terms of the sisterhood bond, another big theme in this manga.
Talking about story quick, I'd like to point out how great the pacing is. No one arc takes way too long, but also has enough time to make considerable development in the characters and the progression of the story. There is no filler, and every chapter felt like we learned something new about one of the girls or Fuutarou, learned about what potential problems will happen between the group, and gives lots of emotions mixed throughout.
For the most part, that covers what I wanted to review about the manga without giving any sort of spoilers. When I first watched the anime literally less than a week ago, I came in with low expectations and ready to enjoy another "trashy" fanservice anime. But I was genuinely glad to see how this show and manga took a different spin on the harem tag. Especially how easily the author could have made it a fanserivce, ecchi anime, the story's direction has a huge focus on each character on an individual and their relationships between one another. Picture it like a spider web, with each character having a string attached to the other five people in the main group (5 girls + Fuutarou = 6). And as the manga progresses, each one of those individual strings gets stronger as we learn more. It also has a big emphasis on the sisterhood between them, Fuutarou aside, which is another fantastic thing - they don't just oogle over our MC the entire time.
I wrote a lot, so I'll end it here. I gave this a 10/10, it truly is a fantastic series for what it is presented as - a romance, harem comedy with some drama mixed in. A lot of emotional moments from happy to nervous, and I had multiple periods of being anxious as to what would happen next. I highly recommend reading this, or even watching the anime which ends off on chapter 32/33 of the manga. I hope you all give this manga a shot, and thank you for reading. Hopefully my writing wasn't too fumbled with ideas scattered around. Thanks!
