A lot of the underlying tension between the protagonist Futarou and the Nakano siblings lies in the muddy history the latter has with someone who looked a lot like them in childhood. Futarou possesses a photo of himself as a blonde-haired ten-year-old standing beside a long-haired girl of around the same age. This girl looks just like the Nakano siblings did in their childhood and the show uses this photo as evidence of Futarou’s compatibility with one of the five sisters.

Since his memory of that time is a complete mess, Futarou doesn’t even have a name to go by; however, this changes in the second season of Quintessential Quintuplets when Rena, quite clearly resembling the little girl in the photo, introduces herself to him! Dressed much like the girl in the photo. It is unmistakably her, and her familiar manner of addressing Futarou drives the point home. While we are made to think that this scene in episode 4 is going to clear up the mystery, Rena explains that she is disappointed in Futarou, whom she has deemed not ready to meet her just yet. Her appearance was a massive curveball because even now with 9 episodes out, we have no idea who she is, where she came from or why she looks just like the Nakano quintuplets! Is she a phantom sixth? We might never know since the ball is in her court!

Cherishing her childhood deeply, Nino struggles to deal with the ever-changing nature of her relationship with her sisters. As a result of her inability to accept change, Nino has continued to sport the same hairstyle that she and her sisters did as kids. Nino’s rudeness towards Futarou reaches a breaking point when she disrespects the work Futarou put into making custom problem sets for each sibling. Itsuki, having taken on the mantle of motherhood in her family, loses her cool and slaps her older sister across the face for her behaviour. Nino retaliates by leaving the Nakano family home and staying in a hotel for a while.

After Futarou’s efforts to bring Nino back to the Nakano household, a conversation with Miku sets Nino straight. She decides that, like her sisters, she will embrace growing into her own personality and the changing relationship between herself and her siblings. To symbolise this growth in her mindset and character, Nino releases one of the few things she felt kept her tethered to her sisters like in their childhood: her hair. Cutting it into a delightful bob, Nino’s character undergoes an immense change after this, with her deciding to finally confront her feelings about all kinds of things, especially those concerning Futarou.

The Nakano sisters pass their final exams and move onto their senior year! What’s even more surprising than the sisters passing their exams is the fact that they are all in the same class with Futarou, who can now tell them apart! When his classmates struggle to see who is who, an experienced Futarou is quick to switch to his tutoring persona and give all who would listen a crash course on who’s who among the Nakano quintuplets, which is surprising considering how much trouble they give him when they’re all together.

Futarou’s classmates are very surprised to see his relationship with the Nakanos, and his reputation as a cold and unfriendly brainiac begins to wither a little bit. Each of the characters has grown somewhat since the beginning of Quintessential Quintuplets’ first season and the pleasant interactions among Futarou, the Nakanos and their classmates are a pleasant surprise.

Like we said earlier, Nino is going to make up a lot of the scenes on this list because of her changing character. Evolving from a mere tsundere with fashion sense to a more rounded, less gimmicky character, Nino shook the entire world of the romance anime genre when she straight up told Futarou that she loves him.

The only problem is that she said it to him while riding passenger on a motorcycle he borrowed, so the sound of her voice didn’t reach him. That would have unsettled any other character; however, Nino’s belief in her own convictions, and her own feelings enabled her to take the leap a second time and confess her feelings to Futarou yet again.

Since her initial confession, Nino has been especially aggressive in her attempts to win his heart. She does not let fear or embarrassment get in the way and because of her decision to keep moving forward, Nino is able to pursue her romantic feelings for Futarou without pretense, leaving no space for misunderstandings.