5-toubun no Hanayome ∬ | First Impressions

Through their tutor Fuutarou Uesugi’s diligent guidance, the Nakano quintuplets’ academic performance shows signs of improvement, even if their path to graduation is still rocky. However, as they continue to cause various situations that delay any actual tutoring, Fuutarou becomes increasingly involved with their personal lives, further complicating their relationship with each other.
On another note, Fuutarou slowly begins to realize the existence of a possible connection between him and the past he believes to have shared with one of the five girls. With everyone’s feelings beginning to develop and overlap, will they be able to keep their bond strictly to that of a teacher and his students—or will it mature into something else entirely?

ALRIGHT, HERE WE ARE. The second season of 5-toubun no Hanayome, as is customary here on my blog, the “First Impressions” blog indicates that I am now three/four episodes into the series. It’s now time to give my thoughts. Let’s be honest here; what is there to say, really? As expected, 5-toubun no Hanayome ∬ is the second season, and you can expect a continuation of the story for last season. However, this time, the second season will be focusing on who out of the five sisters was the person that Futaro met all those years ago. That is all well and good; however, the second season so far has been a little bit of a disappointment. I watched the first season with no expectations but going into the second season, I expected it to be better than the first. So far, so I think it’s better than the first season? Eh, I’m not too sure, to be completely honest. This is due to a lot of things. Let’s go over the slight changes that I’ve noticed.

The major one being a new studio is in charge of the second season. Instead of Tezuka Productions, we have Bibury Animation Studios. In the grand scheme of things doesn’t seem very significant, but to me, it means quite a bit. As I’ve mentioned time and time again in many of my blogs, I want continuity. Whenever I do not have that, it’s something I notice right away, and it could affect how I view the anime and the episodes I watch. An example of this would be Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Raihousha-hen. Switched studios, then I started noticing all these irregularities in character design, with characters not looking the same or the mouths of characters not moving when they’re the ones talking in a particular scene. Since we had a bunch of those irregularities, my overall enjoyment decreased massively. Is 5-toubun no Hanayome ∬ similar to Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Raihousha-hen having the same abnormalities? No way. However, there are subtle differences between 5-toubun no Hanayome ∬ and 5-toubun no Hanayome.

The characters’ faces seem to be a lot more round, which is one of those minor things. However, for me, it was very off-putting. Maybe it’s because I pay too close attention to every detail nowadays, for me anyway, since the characters’ faces look a lot more round, it would seem to me like their facial features are… I guess disproportionate? It’s tough to describe what I mean. The fascial features just look off to me for some reason.

Furthermore, I noticed (unless I am going crazy) that the colours do not feel as vibrant or as glossy as they did in the previous season. While the colour pallet is still relatively the same, it does feel a little bit toned back. To my eyes, anyway, the colours feel a lot more matte. All this isn’t something I mind. On the contrary, I welcome it more than anything because there were several times throughout the first season where the bright colours hurt my eyes.

While there are these subtle differences, something that was kept that I like is that the OP is once again sung by the female voice actors of the show; not to mention that they now sing the ED as well. Which again is always a nice touch to any anime, in my opinion. Now, it’s time for me to tell you about the one thing that has left a pretty sour taste in my mouth, and that’s Nino.

I’ve only watched four episodes, and I’m pretty sure that Nino has taken up the majority of the episodes I’ve watched, which is something I find annoying to begin with. Nino has been a character that I have a lot of trouble with. Her personality isn’t really one that I enjoy watching, and her outbursts every episode has been highly frustrating. I understand that she’s one of those characters that you need time to adjust to. However, I had a whole first season, and I still do not like her. I also understand that Nino’s character is supposed to be one where having her trust is something you must earn and must work towards, Nino by nature, is a defensive character. You must get to know her. She must trust you before she lowers her guard around you, and Futaro learns that the hard way. That being said, I do not like how three out of the four episodes I’ve seen have been about Nino. Like, please, give me something else. Watching Nino constantly tell at Futaro and her sisters for whatever reason has gotten really frustrating to the point whereby once the fourth episode came along, I didn’t want to watch the series anymore. ALSO, let’s not forget here, she spiked Futaro’s drink which is the scummiest thing anyone could ever do. Granted, Futaro lying to Nino didn’t help, but still spiking his drink? REALLY? -100 for Nino, without a doubt.

Since Nino took up most of the episodes I’ve watched until this point, it has really killed whatever enjoyment and entertainment I felt. So, in short, my first impressions of 5-toubun no Hanayome ∬ were okay. On the plus side, episode four seems like the final episode where we’ll be dealing one-on-one with Nino’s attitude, so it’s only up from here (hopefully).