5-toubun no Hanayome | First Impressions

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5-toubun no Hanayome came in at the right time for me. Having just finished all the anime I wanted to watch for the Spring 2021 season. I wanted to fit something inbetween the end of Spring 2021 and the start of Summber 2021. The anime of choice was, 5-toubun no Hanayome. Going into this series, I kind of new what it was about and what it could entail. I’ve seen so many anime that are similar to this one, that I knew roughly what may happen.

Fuutarou Uesugi is an ace high school student, but leads an otherwise tough life. His standoffish personality and reclusive nature have left him friendless, and his father is debt-ridden, forcing his family to scrape by.

One day during his lunch break, Uesugi argues with a female transfer student who has claimed “his seat,” leading both of them to dislike each other. That same day, he is presented with a golden opportunity to clear his family’s debt: a private tutoring gig for a wealthy family’s daughter, with a wage of five times the market price. He accepts the proposal, but is horrified to discover that the client, Itsuki Nakano, is the girl he confronted earlier!

After unsuccessfully trying to get back on Itsuki’s good side, Uesugi finds out that his problems don’t end there: Itsuki is actually a quintuplet, so in addition to her, he must also tutor her sisters—Miku, Yotsuba, Nino, and Ichika—who, despite the very real threat of flunking, want nothing to do with a tutor. However, his family’s livelihood is on the line so Uesugi pushes on, adamant in his resolve to rid the sisters of their detest for studying and successfully lead them to graduation.

[Written by MAL Rewrite] of MyanimeList.net

After reading the synopsis nothing really stood out at me. Whenever I watch something that is a Harem, Comedy, Romance, School, and Shounen, I will almost always go into that series with low expectations. I’m sure we’ve all seen enough of those anime to know what will happen. Me doing that, I think has worked in the favour of 5-toubun no Hanayome otherwise I would have been a harsher critic of the anime. Overall, my first impression of the anime was relatively good. There were definitely a few things I liked and disliked.

Something I will always enjoy are OPs or EDs sung by it’s voice actors, “Gotoubun no Kimochi (五等分の気持ち)” is exactly that. I feel like this is something that is becoming more and more common in anime, where the main characters also get to sing their OPs or EDs. I hope to see more anime doing something like this because in my opinion, it adds that *little* bit to an anime. This is something I will always mention because it’s something that makes me like the anime that little bit more.

I also really like the male protagonist, Fuutarou Uesugi. In large part because he’s voiced by one of my favourite voice actors, Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu (This is something I mentioned in one of my blog posts). The character of Uesugi only cares about his family and in particular helping his family pay off the debt that have. This is something that drives the character. Not to mention Uesugi’s straightforward and determined personality often leads to funny moment because he tasked with the impossible; helping quintuplets who are uninterested with school graduate. The only reason why he took on the job (tutoring) was because they paid extremely well which equals helping his family pay off their debt. Watching Uesugi doing whatever possible to help these quintuplets graduate, even if it means resorting to unorthodox methods is probably the most entertaining part of the series so far.

The same cannot be said for the quintuplets though. I’m having an extremely hard time adjusting to them. Something I mentioned in my most recent blog was that it’s like watching five people who hate each other live together. I understand that no two people are alike and that everyone has their own quirks about them. However to have each of the quintuplets in the same scene at the same time, doing their own thing is a little overwhelming. In my opinion I think it would have been a lot more manageable if it was two or three at time, instead of all five individuals at once. At the end of the day however, I understand that the main source of the comedy comes from these five sisters and their interactions with each other but also with Uesugi. So I won’t hate on them too much.

The last little *issue* I have with 5-toubun no Hanayome is that it doesn’t stands out. While the story (or lack thereof) may seem ‘original’ the concept itself will always default to the same outcome. All harem anime share the same outcome, in this case the five quintuplets will fall in love with the male protagonist then it’ll probably become a race as to who can win him over first. But then again, as this is something that is associated with every “Harem” anime, why should I expect this one from being any different?

Anyway, those were my thoughts about what I’ve seen up until episode four. My first impressions were relatively good, barring a few things. Despite being a very basic and typical harem anime at it’s core it’s safe to say that it was also relatively entertaining.