Manga: The Quintessential Quintuplets

The Quintessential Quintuplets Vol 1
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Futaro Uesugi is a second-year in high school, scraping to get by and pay off his family's debt. The only thing he can do is study, so when Futaro receives a part-time job offer to tutor the five daughters of a wealthy businessman, he can't pass it up. Little does he know, these five beautiful sisters are quintuplets, but the only thing they have in common is that they're all terrible at studying! At this rate, the sisters can't graduate, and Futaro must think of a plan that suits each of them- which feels hopeless when five out of five of these girls think he's a loser!

I wanted to pick this series up because I was in the mood for a romantic comedy and this one sounded  a bit different, and so far, I'm loving it! I liked the sense of intrigue we had straight away as you see the little commentary from future Uesugi before going back in time to when the series actually takes place. 

Character-wise, Uesugi is frugal and a total loner. He's super smart but he needs money which is why he takes on the job of tutoring all 5 of the girls...although he doesn't realise he's supposed to teach 5 of them at first. He makes a pretty bad impression on all of them though, so they don't want him to teach them...that and they're all the same age. 

Each of the Quintuplets is different from the other, which I appreciated. It made them more interesting, and you wanted to get to know each of them to see why they acted the way they did. Itsuki is the first one he meets and my money is on her being the girl we see in the future. She and Uesugi don't get on from the start and she's determined to study and do it by herself. Ichika is straight forward....and a total slob. Or maybe she's just lazy. Yotsuba is tenacious, she's the friendliest of all of them to him. Unfortunately she is the dumbest. She also seems to be the sportiest, and she can't ignore people in trouble. Miku is the quiet history nerd who loves warlords. I'd say she's the smartest so far, and we get to know her the most throughout this first, initial volume. She doesn't seem to have much self confidence, as she hides her love of history and warlords from her sisters. Last up is Nino, the social one. She's kinda evil and she definitely hates Uesugi...she's not going to make his job easy for him. 

I actually cringed for the poor guy more than once throughout this, and there are a fair few funny moments. The art is nice and cute, and I liked the character designs. It's all very visually pleasing. There are allusions made to what went down at the Quintuplets old school, that made them leave until it's revealed they flunked out, adding a nice sense of foreboding for poor old Uesugi. 

This first volume successfully introduces us to all of the main characters, and lets us get a feel for them. It also gives us some background information on some of our main characters, and overall sets the scenes and sets things up for the battle that'll be getting them to study. Presumably we'll focus on one or maybe two Quintuplets each volume! This is a fun and definitely entertaining first volume, and not quite what I was expecting either which I appreciate!