Maeda! Yes! I know this almost definitely shouldn’t be my main takeaway since this is the final episode and all, but I’m so glad he found someone. This finale really came through for us. I can’t wait to start reading the manga now. If last episode’s theme was banging out some sick art, this episode was all about sparkles. We got so. many. sparkles.
The ending also really feels like the beginning of it all, at least to me. The romance aspect has been around, but only came to a head this week. Basically because Miku declared war. We went from Cold War status to an active warzone. Her love for war generals was really showing. I’m glad it’s finally kicking off for real. I was worried when, in the beginning of the episode, Miku was half-jokingly saying to Ichika that they should both hold his hand and Ichika coughed over the suggestion. Then Miku was like, ‘oh, nevermind.’ I panicked a bit. Just a bit. But all is well!
I love all the conspiracies going around about evidence towards who he ends up with. Like that Yotsuba was holding his ring finger. Although, I think my favorite thing I read so far was someone who didn’t understand that the girls are drawn to look different so we, the viewers, can tell them apart, but they are canonically identical quintuplets. They apparently thought the anime was spoiling who Futaro ends up with which is impossible for a multitude of reasons. I mean, how would they get mixed up for each other so often in the show if they actually looked that different?
I like how Futaro called out Itsuki on pretending to be Ichika, but away from the others. It was a nice play on his part. I also feel like this is the first time we’ve really seen that much of an interest from her in Futaro or the situation in general. The misunderstanding about Ichika and Futaro from the warehouse was never explicitly cleared up, but I think it’s mostly done with. They’ve been butting heads the entire show so it was nice to see just a solid, poignant moment between them. He finally called her out on being such an awkward person, which she is, but coming from Futaro it’s hilarious because he’s just as bad if not worse. Plus, when Futaro fainted into her shoulder, she was definitely not stopping him. Nice, Itsuki. Nice. Futaro going straight to the cafeteria to look for her when she went missing was so funny.
The episode had a lot of focus on Miku, obviously. The Church of Miku has been dominating everything I’ve read since almost episode one. I think she’s the most popular shipping at the moment and I get why. Seeing her be more bold is definitely a nice change of pace. In general actually, that was a theme I liked. How all of the sisters towards they end were pulling from each other’s personalities. Like how Itsuki wanted to be straight forward like Yotsuba or how Miku wanted to be more confrontational like Ichika. All of the sisters kind of got some attention this episode. If I could inject my bias here though, ahem I really liked the Yotsuba moments too! I feel like she has the greatest range, emotionally. She gets so somber at times. Like when she was worried about if Futaro had had a good time at the camp. That scene looked really intense. The fact that she gets so upset at someone else’s expense is part of why I liker so much.
I’m glad they cut back to the wedding part at the end. I get so engrossed in the daily interactions that I totally forget that he actually marries one of them…
I like that the bride, whoever she may be, looks completely different and grown up while Futaro looks exactly the same. And we got to see a glimpse of the future, which is always nice. Teenage Raiha, anybody?! She lost her hair arc, but she and Futaro’s dad seem to be doing well. It’s just something I like to see, I don’t know why. The closure is nice. In a lighthearted way, I was also kind of bummed out that Raiha and the rest of the fam are still in a delicate financial situation. Wtf, Futaro!? I thought you were supposed to get on that shit!
Overall, I loved this show. It definitely fell into some tropes, some of which I wasn’t a huge fan of, but overall what makes a harem is the characters. Between episode 1 and 12 I was flip flopping all over the place with who I thought I wanted Futaro to end up with. I think almost every episode my rankings between the sisters changed. The animation had high points and low points, some parts felt a bit rushed, and I know they skipped over some content (including a Yotsuba arc! Bullshit, I say!). Still a great watch and I’m saying this as someone not having read the source material. I almost never pick those up, but I’m really considering it for this show.
The manga is a warzone right now, it also seem like the author already have an ending insight, which is nice since i don’t want it to end up like Nisekoi, needlessly draw out.