Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: Go-Tōbun no Katachi 「五等分のカタチ」 by Nakano-ke no Itsutsugo
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「今日と京都の凶と共」 (Kyou to Kyoto to Kyou to Tomo)
“Quite the Crappy Kyoto Quagmire”
Go-Toubun no Hanayome’s second season gets the ball rolling quickly by re-introducing us to the quintuplets and giving us a decent synopsis of where they left us off at. It’s actually one of the few Season 02 introductory episodes that catch you up to speed right away so I’m pretty impressed with how accessible it was to come into this a little fuzzy on what exactly has been discussed by this point in the story.
Right away, the most noticeable change is the animation change from Bibury Animation Studios. Not only does this art look more faithful to the manga’s art style, but as of the first episode, there aren’t any inconsistencies. Throughout the first season, the quintuplets looked like products of incest with Nino being cruelly singled out as the one sister who needs to have lopsided eyes in every other frame.
Luckily, there weren’t as many obvious hiccups with this first episode and hopefully, it’ll keep it up. It is odd to see Fuutarou with golden eyes given how the old anime also tried to give him blue eyes, but it’s another welcome change since it makes him look a lot more unique to have this deep gold color to his eyes.
Above all else, it’s nice that they were able to find a good starting point in the manga where they could pick up on a Season 02 without making viewers feel lost. Rather than feeling like you’re being thrown into the middle of the story by the time it’s far too late to turn back and refresh yourself, it catches you up to speed on what you need to know to understand what Fuutarou’s ordeal is with the sisters, why he has to tutor them, and how they all operate as individual girls.
It was also a reminder of how great the rest of the sisters are too. I’m still stanning for Ichika and she’s got some good moments in this ep like when she mentioned having a sixth hidden sister named Mutsumi hidden somewhere in their condo. The odds tilt in Miku and Nino’s favor for the time being given how close they are to him in this ep and Nino had the clever idea of visiting him in the hospital before his sisters. But one surprise underdog is Itsuki, who has more interest in having Fuutarou piece together his memories of the girls who might be the mystery girl from all those years back. Yotsuba still has the title of being the one girl that had his back since the start, but her presence wasn’t as deeply felt in this episode.
One treat that we were given that will continue to follow us throughout the story is learning about Fuutarou’s past and the mystery girl who he is slowly becoming aware might just be one of the five sisters. At this point in the story, we’ve only got a few vague flashbacks and the photograph where Fuutarou was with the mystery girl. But one of the mysteries that end up being called into question in this episode is whether Fuutarou is starting to recognize one of the sisters as the mystery girl grown up. He’s already started to obsess about the idea of being able to recognize them by their appearance alone, but maybe soon he’ll have an easier time drawing conclusions given how the memories are now resurfacing right when he’s within arms reach of the girl that made his childhood special.
ED Sequence
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ED: Hatsukoi 「(はつこい」by Nakano-ke no Itsutsugo
Honestly, as a reintroductory episode, I found it a bit underwhelming. The pacing was all over the place, and characters entered and left seemingly without rhyme or reason. I appreciated that they were trying to tie back the previous season’s main points, but the entire thing about Fuutarou thinking that one of the quintuplets was the girl that he met in his childhood was completely out of left field. I had a hard time also tracking what was happening when in this entire episode. So many things felt out of place this episode that I was questioning whether it was the same series from season 1.
Hopefully, when the plot returns next episode, it will mark a return to normalcy. I still really enjoyed seeing the quintuplets again after two delays and more than a years’ wait.
I hope the ending will be different or at least the anime will have different character development for the manga chosen girl in order to make the story a little bit more coherent because the last manga chapter really just came out of left field when it ended.
I’m just glad that the animation quality is already better than that initial promotional image. Hopefully Bibury won’t have as much animation troubles now as they did with Azur Lane a year or so ago. And best quintuplet is back!
I also got nostalgic seeing Kiyomizu-dera and the sight of Kyoto Tower from one of the balconies there. (Never mind that the first time I saw Kiyomizu-dera in person back in 2018, it was undergoing restoration works…and my stomach started acting up on the way down.) On a different note, did younger Fuutarou just encounter one of those “landmine-girls” (jirai-shu[sp?])? Basically, girls/women who wear cute clothes + makeup, but are nothing but trouble. (And was a topic of discussion between Coco, Shion and Marine.)
Anyway, I only have an inkling about how the manga ended, but I haven’t read the chapters leading up to that ending, so watching it in anime form still feels like uncharted territory at least.