Final Impressions / Go-Toubun no Hanayome

「結びの伝説 2000日目」 (Musubi no Desetsu: Nisennichime)
“Legend of Fate Day 2000”

And so, Go-Toubun no Hanayome ends on a climactic note as we get a glimpse of what the wedding will look like between Fuutarou and the mystery sister. Although the camping trip ends on a bittersweet note, it does pave the way for the quintuplets’ future with Fuutarou as their decisions and actions lead into how they will act accordingly once they’re all back home.

What this episode does well for the sisters is to help set the stage for the roles they will play in the future as they evaluate the roles that they would like to play in possibly pursuing Fuutarou. Miku was able to have a larger moment to bond with Ichika as she gathered her resolve to not only foregoing the idea of needing to share him but giving the other sisters their blessing in fighting for Fuutarou’s affection as well because she is confident that she will win. It might not be the right message that Miku should send to her sisters if they do become rivals, especially Ichika, who is still coming to terms with her feelings for Fuutarou. However, it does show growth on Miku’s behalf that she gained the confidence to try to reach out to Ichika and let her know just how she feels about Fuutarou. Much of Ichika’s development came during the last episode, but hearing Miku give her the thumbs up to be less ashamed of her feelings does take some of the weight off of her back to directly apologize to Miku for not understanding how important the bonfire’s legend was to her and to hear Miku say that she can try to pursue him if she wishes.

Similarly to Ichika, Nino is left with her feelings on shakier ground with the camping trip. In her case, however, it’s because she developed a crush on Fuutarou’s “relative” and even though his “relative” rejected her to leave early, she still can’t help but feel a little bit of an attachment for him while he’s sick. Yotsuba is more upset about not having noticed that he was feeling sick and thought she was pushing him to have fun when it turns out that she inspired him to lay out a whole agenda for them to have fun together and that it only fell apart because he thought he’d be able to feel better at some point during the trip. Itsuki was given a pivotal role in this episode as she had to face her main concern that Fuutarou could be as cruel as their father. However, the more she hangs out with him and interacts with him in the episode, the more she starts to slowly warm up to the idea of having faith in Fuutarou as she tries her best to reach out to him while he’s feeling under the weather.

With Fuutarou constantly going back-and-forth between whether he should dance with Ichika or Nino, fate ends up making the decision for him. In the end, nobody gets to dance with Fuutarou by the campfire! HAHAHAHAHA… Err, well, actually, he ended up getting too sick to be able to leave his bed to go to the bonfire that night. In fact, he’s been sick this whole time from Raiha’s cold and likely gave Ichika a cold when they were in the shack together. It does conveniently allow Fuutarou to bow out of any controversial judgment calls to have all of the girls come to him instead of having to make a choice. Despite diffusing the scenario so that it’s far more inoffensive, it does a good job at incorporating each of the sisters into the thread of fate that ties them together with Fuutarou as they all hold hands with him and dance around him so that he isn’t left out of the festivities and no sister is left out of the legend.

What this episode does best is foreshadow what will happen in the future as Fuutarou marries one of the sisters. It’s shown abruptly around the point when the sisters come together in Fuutarou’s room but definitely works as a cohesive companion piece to their mutual decision to give Fuutarou their time and attention during the night of the bonfire. With Maeda showing up to the wedding alongside his wife, who happens to be the girl who danced with him by the bonfire, it shows that he was able to decipher that he had also danced with his wife-to-be as well. But most importantly, the anime does an effective job at teasing the details of who the mystery bride could be. There are many signs that the viewers are meant to pay attention to throughout the ceremony such as the charm that Fuutarou kept with him and the mystery bride having an earring on her left ear. How any of these details factor into the future aside from some teasing for what’s to come should be interesting to see come to fruition with later installments. While a second season isn’t absolute at the moment, the manga should have some thrilling and unique developments that take us closer and closer to figuring out who she could be.

Epilogue:

Final Impressions

You know what? I’m gonna miss it. I did watch much of Go-Toubun no Hanayome with the mindset that it would be a messy harem, but as it turns out, there are many refreshing aspects of the series that set it apart from its counterparts. For instance, the fact that one of the sisters is pre-destined to win the Fuutaroubowl makes it so that it’ll be all the more exciting to see the sisters start to fall in love with Fuutarou. That way, it works against the idea of going for a predictable route when anything goes to make it anyone’s best guess as to who the mystery bride could be. Rather than focusing on which tropey character will win, the fact that they’re all identical sisters makes it so that every new development is fresh and exciting.

It also helps that the characters are genuinely intriguing to learn about. Fuutarou may lack street-smarts, but because he’s book-smart, he doesn’t fall into as many of the obnoxious pitfalls that other harem protagonists tend to do. Each of the sisters also has their own charm, personality, and motivations to keep all of them in the game as far as being the quintessential sister. Itsuki might not have as much going for her, but she does hold the girls together and tries her best to be able to reach her dream of being a teacher by her own merits. Nino might be abrasive, but holds a high degree of significance to keeping the sisters together and making sure that they can continue being strong together. Yotsuba is the one girl who has supported Fuutarou the entire time and shows dedication to making sure that she never takes the smile away from anybody’s face. Ichika is my personal favorite since she helps hold the sisters together through her support as the eldest sister and an actress in spite of the problem she faces when she falls in love with the guy she’s trying to set her sister up with. Last, but certainly not least, Miku ended up being the wild card who stole the show as the shy, lovable, and nerdy sister who quickly falls for Fuutarou when he shows how dedicated he is to help her study and understand her interests.

Go-Toubun no Hanayome helps reinvent the wheel with harems by creating an intriguing yet unpredictable story that bobs and weaves through twists and turns while the five sisters slowly find themselves gravitating closer and close to Fuutarou. It inspired me to read ahead enough to be up-to-date with the material, and boy, do we have quite a lot of spicy material to cover. While the animation could have been as finely tuned as it was in Episode 11, the story itself was interesting enough to make it worth watching. It’ll be exciting to see where it goes from here, if they’ll make another season, and if the dream scenario of having Studio SHAFT take over would come into actualization if it did happen.

25 Comments

    1. It probably makes more sense in the manga since the current bride is designed to be a combination of all of the girls with small variations of things that could happen in the future such as wearing a piercing in the right ear and whatnot. The hair color is also meant to be a different shade from the rest, but look closest to Miku or Nino’s hair colors because of the deeper red.
      Show Spoiler ▼

      Choya
      Reply

      2. I strongly disagree with this narrative approach. If the author enshrines hiding the bride up to the very end above all else in the story, what you’re likely to get is a jarring emotional-narrative plothole where it is unclear why Fuu-kun choose to marry any particular quint over the other four. What special connection has he formed with her that transcends his bonds with the other four to the point of marriage? I suppose the author could just say it in dialogue, but in that case, all of the potential impact goes out the window in the absence of any buildup. Hiding the bride severely hamstrings the author’s ability to properly and adequately develop Fuu-kun’s relationship with her in advance of the end, and if it doesn’t stop soon, all that’s in store is a trainwreck of an ending. [This sort of narrative strategy can cause (and has caused) other problems, like a degree of inorganic plot stagnation, in the manga- a common pitfall of harem series in general.]

        Show Spoiler ▼

        Tl;Dr- Artificially prolonged suspense as to the bride’s identity is a narrative crutch that’s primed to backfire if the author doesn’t jettison it soon.

        Zen
        Reply

  6. Surprisingly enjoyable show. I felt like it played a bunch of harem tropes straight then stopped it from ending the way you’d expect since the characters are all well-rounded. Might consider picking up the manga since I heard the author has the ending figured out

    Arche
    Reply

  8. https://randomc.net/image/Go-Toubon%20no%20Hanayome/Go-Toubon%20no%20Hanayome%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2059.jpg

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Thanks to Choya for covering this. The over-saturation of the harem genre in the late 2000s and early 2010s is what made me quit watching anime back in 2012. I only came back after watching Your Name in 2017. Honestly, this anime got my interest after last week’s screenshots. Miku being so embarrassed while Fuutaro is backing to her is too adorable for me to miss this. Even if I ended up not watching the anime, I sure did discover a very entertaining manga to read.

    Cheers.

    SpitFire
    Reply

    2. Either that, or a visual novel adaptation with multiple endings for each Nakano quintuplet.

      Also nice to see Itsuki actually taking the time to get to know Fuutarou. (“First girl wins” trope aside.)

      https://randomc.net/image/Go-Toubon%20no%20Hanayome/Go-Toubon%20no%20Hanayome%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2042.jpg
      High-school Raiha, though… (HNNNNNGGG ~<3!)

      Well, Gotoubun no Hanayome was a nice, fun romp. I honestly want to pick up in the manga where the anime left off.

      Incognito
      Reply

  10. I love it. In a way it’s like any typical harem story, but this had a nice twist to it by giving you the same girl 5 times but being different from each other. With the sales tracking, I hope it gives the production committee some thoughts to continue on with another anime season. Especially since the manga-ka already has the ending planned.

    Also, I haven’t seen a waifu war like this since Nisekoi. So yay for the return of endless shitposting and memes.

    Nork22
    Reply

  11. I think what makes this AniManga different from other harems is that most harems are conceived with ideas “Let’s make a story about girl using powers of angels… but with HAREM! (Date A Live)”, “Let’s make a story about a gang’s daughter and yakuza’s son having fake life… and make it a HAREM! (Nisekoi)”, “Let’s make a story about a guy helping two girls get better grades… and make it A HAREM! (We Never Learn)”

    On other hand, Quints seems to be made with saying “I am gonna make a harem show! Then I take what we all love about it, maximize on it, and make fun of some lamer tropes!” That is, the story is a harem story firsat and foremost, rather than a story forced to be a harem.

    More precisely, I like that the MC has a personality, that all girls are distinct, that no new ones are added (because let’s be frank, only the girls added in early story matter in the long run), the characters change to keep them fresh, the author always makes sure that none of the girls lack spotlight (besides Ichika in the later Seven Goodbyes arc), he knows we love to fantasize on who wins so he capitalizes on it, and… well, speaking about other things I like would be spoilers.
    I hope that the good sales of both Anime and Manga ensure us one or two more seasons! Nino demands it!

    Nayrael
    Reply

    2. “(because let’s be frank, only the girls added in early story matter in the long run)”
      I think the author knew that…which is why he/she introduced ALL the characters from the very start, so they would ALL MATTER!
      Now that’s genius!

      yoloalchemist
      Reply

  12. https://randomc.net/image/Go-Toubon%20no%20Hanayome/Go-Toubon%20no%20Hanayome%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2050.jpg
    https://randomc.net/image/Go-Toubon%20no%20Hanayome/Go-Toubon%20no%20Hanayome%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2034.jpg

    I raged hard when she was shown holding his hand when the dance ended. I was expecting Miku or at least all 5 to hold his hand by the end of the dance!

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Henrietta Brix
    Reply

  13. Plot twist – some evil magician casted a spell on the quintuplets’ mother when she was pregnant, causing her single baby to be split into five separate babies. This caused the original baby’s personality and intelligence to be split and personalized in each of the quintuplets. Fuutaro then tutors them to all get 100% in every exam, causing their minds to sync as one and their bodies end up combining back into a single person. This would be the woman that Fuutaro marries…

    Or so that is how it plays out in my head anyway 😀 No spoilers cause I have no idea what actually happens in the manga…

    Taiakun
    Reply

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