The Quintessential Quintuplets (2020)

[五等分の花嫁]

Volume 13

Author/Artist: Negi Haruba
Publisher: Shounen Magazine Comics

Synopsis:
Miku tries to mend the rift between the competing teams in her class at the school festival.

Story/Characters:
This volume is devoted to rounding out the school festival arc. As we've already given Ichika and Nino their focus, it's now time for Miku, Yotsuba and Itsuki. Besides Miku being my favorite of the girls, I really liked her section because of the character growth you see. Yotsuba's is more melancholy with its emphasis on the clash between her sense of self-sacrifice and her physical limits. If you're invested in Itsuki's arc, you'll appreciate her section. The newly introduced Mudou-sensei has an interesting dichotomy of appearing like a somewhat bumbling, well-meaning old guy and having a darker, more cynical side to him. For his impact, I feel he was introduced a little too late in the game, but depending on how you look at it, you might find it appropriate. His eleventh-hour appearance doesn't match up to the size of the role he tries to play and that's the point.

We then give the girls a bit of a breather before the fateful meeting with Fuutarou. Speaking of Fuutarou making his decision, I thought we'd be left hanging, but the cliffhanger actually gives us the answer, meaning the final volume will be dedicated to tying it all up. I won't say who won, but I will at least say that I appreciated his choice.

Art:
The art maintains the high standard we expect. As before, each girl's focus story ends on some nice imagery. As I mentioned above regarding Mudou-sensei, he's got these two sides to him and the creepy side really has some punch to it. (It reminds me of something else we've seen that I won't detail for spoiler purposes.)

Other:
Our bonus comic has Takebayashi doing some fortunetelling to determine Fuutarou's ideal mate.

Conclusion:
Knowing that this is the penultimate volume of the series, you realize that these focus chapter are pretty well winding things down for the main characters. I like what's being done with their respective character arcs and from here we can see the fallout of Fuutarou making his choice. As with the rest of the series, this volume belongs in your collection, so get it.

Rating:
Own It