This season, we’re lucky enough to get an update from Uesugi Fuutarou and his group of students, the Nakano Quintuplets! In 5-toubun no Hanayome ∬, the second season of Quintessential Quintuplets turns up the heat a little bit as Fuutarou is plagued by constant flashbacks to the girl he met 5 years ago. He tries to figure out which one of the quintuplets is the girl he met that time; however, even at this late stage in his relationship with Ichika, Nino, Miku, Yotsuba, and Itsuki, Fuutarou still can’t tell them apart!
How do the lost memories and Fuutarou’s confusion with which sibling is which work together as plot devices in this second season? Read on to find out!
Who’s Who?
The biggest issue that drives the plot device of Fuutarou’s confusion lies in the fact that he can’t tell which one of them is the one he spent a bit of time with as a child. Fuutarou can’t tell the siblings apart despite spending so much time with them almost every day! Fuutarou has no recollection of the name of the girl in his memories, so he can’t look her up to find her – all he has is the picture of the both of them together.
Ichika makes a weird joke at an earlier point in the second season of Quintessential Quintuplets, referring to a “forgotten sixth Nakano sister”. The context is that after the incident at camp that sent Fuutarou to the hospital, the girls were doing quite badly at school without their tutor. Deciding to discard the evidence of their many failed tests was supposed to be Ichika’s responsibility but Fuutarou catches her off-guard when he unknowingly walks in on her while she’s in her towel after a shower. In her surprise and embarrassment, Ichika throws the bag of bad tests at him since he can’t tell the quintuplets apart, Fuutarou has trouble finding out who is “the culprit” of the failed tests.
Since he knows them through their work, Fuutarou is put even further off on this case when he spots all the sisters’ handwriting and writing habits in the thick stack of papers! He soon realises that they were all trying to hide their bad results from him!
Rena
In episode 3, we’re thrown the strangest curveball with the appearance of the girl in the picture, who introduces herself as “Rena”. She remembers everything about that time when they were kids, but she is disappointed to see Fuutarou as he is now. She refuses to tell Fuutarou anything he wants to know, but hands him something meant for him to open only when he is “ready to love himself”, but he loses it soon after falling into the river.
Rena’s appearance is much closer to that of the photo in Fuutarou’s possession right down to features that Fuutarou does not commit to memory, like hair colour and length. Rena is quite different from the Nakano siblings but her fondness of Fuutarou is obvious like theirs is.
Final Thoughts
The fact that Fuutarou can’t tell his students apart despite their very distinct differences is not the strongest plot device that Quintessential Quintuplets should be relying on in its second season; however, put together with Rena’s surprise appearance and his hazy memories regarding his relationship with Rena, the series is leading us with a very juicy carrot on a stick regarding Rena’s identity… is she one of the siblings or someone else entirely?
Author: Hoshi-kun
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