The Quintessential Quintuplets (2019)

[五等分の花嫁]

Volume 12

Author/Artist: Negi Haruba
Publisher: Shounen Magazine Comics

Synopsis:
The school festival proves to be a golden opportunity for the quints to show off their talents.

Story/Characters:
School festival arcs are part and parcel of Japanese high school stories. We get a number of subplots going, but the big one is that Fuutarou pledges to make a decision on who he's going to pick by the end of the festival. This leads us into a similar arc as the one in Volume 7 for the finals, where we get a chapter focusing on each of the girls. We start with Ichika and Nino, so I'm eager to see the others. We get nice buildup to this point as well.

I don't know how to feel about the introduction of Fuutarou's childhood friend Takebayashi. I don't know if she's supposed to disturb the character dynamics in the long term as a recurring character or if this was just a one-shot. I like her well enough as a character, but I wonder about where things are supposed to go with her. This may be it.

Art:
You know what I'm going to say about the art in general, but there's some really nice shots and the punch of the individual chapters are great. Outstanding two-page spreads that really sell it.

Conclusion:
It looks like we're approaching the endgame. It's possible to keep things going longer, but we may actually be locking things down and bringing the story to a close soon. There's plenty of good stuff going on and fans are sure to be quite happy with what they're getting. As always, this is one for the collection.

Rating:
Own It