Review: The Quintessential Quintuplets 3

The Quintessential Quintuplets Vol 3 
Rating: 3.5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

Working hard finally feels like it's paying off! After an exciting fireworks festival, Futaro feels like he's come to an understanding with the sisters. Unfortunately for the study group, midterm exams are right around the corner and the stakes are higher than ever. The quintuplets' father gives Futaro an ultimatum: If even one of my daughters fails...you're fired! But to Futaro's surprise, after a sleepover at the girls' house, some of them are actually stepping up to help him! 

Midterms are approaching and so is a school camping trip, but the stakes get upped because if one of the Quints fails....Uesugi is going to be out of a job. Itsuki is continuing to be stubborn and refuses all help from him because of what happened in volume 1 when she asked him for help and he refused. She's even more determined than usual to pass on her own which I actually admired as much as I'm like 'dear lord you need the help'. We did get some insight in to the relationship between the two, in that they clash so much because they're quite similar. 

It was nice to see the two of them come to an understanding after a couple more clashes. But unfortunately while they do have a moment of understanding...they aren't best buddies yet. Obviously there's a big obstacle in the blossoming relationships between Uesugi and the Quints, but it also adds some tension to the volume and a little bit of suspense too. The girls continue to grow more with each volume, and open up more, Nino is definitely softening up a little bit. 

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the girls and Uesugi all come together and work together so I was a little bit sad that after that breakthrough it all fell apart again after the exam, but the relationships between he and the girls are developing nicely, naturally and realistically as his relationship dynamic with each girl is different much like friendships in real life and each at its own pace. Some are obviously more comfortable with him than others. 

Some feelings amongst the characters are pretty obvious and after the tension and suspense of the exams and waiting for the results, we have a nice set up for the camping trip as we lead up to it starting in the next volume. Each girl seems to have her own plan for the trip and for Uesugi's time on the trip, which see's us leave the volume with a sense of anticipation and it's definitely going to be chaotic interesting!  

Manga: Quintessential Quintuplets 2

The Quintessential Quintuplets Vol 2 
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

Thrown into the midst of five beautiful sisters who hate studying, Futaro must figure out how to keep them from flunking out of school. But he has to start from the beginning and earn each girl's trust first! His effort to befriend the sisters starts off rocky, but he bonds with Miku over her love of Sengoku Period warlords. It all seems for naught, though, when a bath-related mishap with Nino threatens everything Futaro's worked to accomplish! Will he be able to prove his innocence and gain their trust? Maybe a fireworks festival will brighten their moods! 

We open the volume on to an impromptu trial for poor old Futaro, but hey, at least Miku is on his side. Although it did briefly seem like Nino was going to bond with him, and we do get some insight in to her but nope. She's more determined than ever to get rid of him. 

Futaro does spend some time with Itsuki this volume, which makes for some funny moments as they're hanging out with his little sister before they all head out to the fireworks festival with the other Quints. You'd think it'd be cute and chill, but there's a sense of tension that has you on edge as the Quints race to find each other to watch the fireworks together. 

Like I said, the volume gives us some serious insight in to Nino a couple of times throughout, as well as displaying the sisterly bond between all of them. We also seem him hanging out with Itsuki again, but he does spend some time with Nino as well as Miku and it's obvious one of them has a crush on him. There's also a sense of something not quite right thanks to Ichika and what was going on with her, and what she was hiding but we do see her get a little closer to Futaro although there wasn't quite the focus on any particular Quint that there was in the first volume, I felt. 

We get a lot of understanding of certain characters, a longer look at two of the Quints, there's some cute moments, some funny moments and some heartwarming moments all packed in to this volume. It's rounded out with an ending that brings a source of intrigue involving all of the character's pasts, and that should be a mystery thread that'll be present in coming volumes! 

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!