Quintessential Quintuplets [Manga]

Oh, most likely. But it would be interesting. I've always liked reversing situations. It brings out the best of hypocrisy. Or humility.

Unless they lock him up in a sex dungeon with only rohypnol in arms reach, I can't think of a situation where Fuutarou would ever do this.

Edited by Planky85 on Apr 20th 2019 at 8:01:29 PM

The thought has occurred to me as well, but ultimately, my reasoning comes down to:

1. I don't think Negi is really intending to be all that cryptic with the bride's identity. His big game seems to be hiding her in plain sight and trying to throw us off with misdirection and obvious tropes like main/first girl. The challenge is figuring out if you believe the romcom formulas or the apparent meaning of a given point in the story.

2. This is a shonen magazine after all. No need to get too complicated with things considering your audience.

3. At the very least, the bride needs to have had strong enough romantic feelings to kiss him by 68. This heavily stacks the deck against the typical late entries/discoveries.

4. Negi's interested in what's necessary to a story (for well or ill). Because of that, I assume he's wasting no panels. Each one has an important point to get across. Some more important than others. Why waste all those panels detailing the charm if it doesn't have some sort of special meaning. We already know he loves his sister. We don't need the charm to tell us that. Furthermore, juxtapose it with the fate of Rena's charm and why it ended up that way.

If you're going by all of that, the only two that truly make sense are Nino and Yotsuba. Nino I've already elaborated enough upon, but the other great way to hide the bride in plain sight is to not give her screen time, and Yotsuba has easily the least of that. At the same time, she's been present in the scene for so many important plot points you can't easily toss her out, and she's been on his side from the beginning. Ultimately, why I think she isn't the bride comes down to the lack of screen time, the fact that she has shown no issue with getting up close and personal in Fuutarou's face twice without needing a disguise, has given him an almost kiss in broad daylight in front of the other four and Raiha on the latter of those two times, and she doesn't seem like the type that needs or wants to use a disguise to be give him a kiss. Ichika's the only one who really does, but she has other issues working against her case.

Now what was this about a sex dungeon?

Regarding Yotsuba and kisses.

In those other times, Yotsuba could pass it off as a joke in front of the girls. Yes when she licked the cream off his face they were shocked, but none of them thought anything more of it. In the case of the kiss at the bell, if it was Yotsuba she'd have to disguise herself. My reasoning is that she feels guilty about her feelings and what happened in the past, and she doesn't want to disrupt the harmony between her sisters and stealing Fuu sensei for herself is something she couldn't bear. All the same she can't deny having those feelings.

Edited by Planky85 on Apr 20th 2019 at 10:48:57 AM

Raiha's charm has another symbolic meaning: sisterly love. It's Fuu's main motivation in the beginning, and it's what all of the quints share and need to rediscover (in Ichika's case). I don't see it as a big indication of the bride for that reason: it has so much meaning outside of romance I don't see why it needs romance too.

That's way too broad an inference to me and not the most immediately apparent one. It's also something we're well aware of by that time. There's no need to use a detail like that to get it across, especially not as the focus of multiple scenes. We've been shown it has connections to three people: Raiha (duh), Fuutarou, and Nino. The simplest meaning is that it has some sort of connection between some or all of those three (either Fuutarou-Raiha, Fuutarou-Nino, or linking all three). We're not shown that the charm means anything to the other sisters—or that they are even aware of its existence, and it shows up in very specific contexts: the relationship between Nino and Fuutarou. That means something, and if it doesn't, we need to be shown that, if only to make it more difficult to deduce the bride's identity.

—

On a different note, the page from the latest chapter where [[quoteblock]]Nino talks about how long you've loved someone and what's right and wrong really had me thinking. Each of those comments is placed in a panel with a certain quint or two. The one about loving him the longest gets Miku, the one about right and wrong gets Ichika, and the one about how long you've loved him gets Yotsuba and Itsuki.]] Really worth considering why that page is structured the way it is, especially if we're discussing Yotsuba and Itsuki's feelings. The translation out there is a bit of a clumsy one, but the Miku panel specifically refers to loving him first in a more literal translation. One wonders if that means Itsuki and Yotsuba are coming late to the party or if one fell for him first and the other last. The page identifies Miku as falling first, which more or less meshes with what we know, but Yotsuba could have been second. Or she could just now be embracing her feelings instead of going the friend/supporter route.

And my case for Nino depends on a lot more than any one particular clue. It's about the context of the clues, how each clue for each quint falls in together, and what the details of the story give us to interpret them. Any one thing might not be dispositive on its own, but taken together, you can build a case.

Edited by Outinthecold on Apr 20th 2019 at 10:51:45 AM

Do you really not see how the charm is symbolic sisterly love? Nino steals it when she leaves the apartment, and gives it back in the same chapter where Fuutarou tells her that what he wants most is for the five of them to be together; the charm and that phrase appear in the same page, as Nino stews over both. Meanwhile, the only romantic implication we have for the charm is for Nino and the nonexistent Kintarou: she takes the charm because she believes in him, then returns it when she realizes that it was a lie and he isn't real, and it never factors into her relationship with the real Fuutarou. Fuutarou wears it to the wedding, but it's never shown to be significant to the bride: the one who notices it is Raiha, Fuu's sister connection, who sees it at the same time as the dresses that the non-bride quints, the other sister connection, will doubtless be wearing.

And I think the panel with Yotsuba and Itsuki is supposed to relate to Lolikano, who we're supposed to believe is Itsuki but will likely soon be revealed as Yotsuba.

Edited by IniuriaTalis on Apr 20th 2019 at 12:14:05 PM

We'll get more spoilers soon, but holy sh!t this week will be epic.

Ichika is getting BTFO'D and Fuutarou went for the kill shot. She pretended to be the girl from the picture and he straight up said she was lying. We are at peak despair folks.

Edited by Outinthecold on Apr 21st 2019 at 9:58:13 AM

Oh my god, Ichika. She really just won't stop fucking digging, will she?

THOT SLAYER MODE ACTIVATED.

Ichika seem like the type of people that do thing first without think of the consequence. She kinda remind me of Zuko before his character development, just do thing and figure out what next later, hoping thing will go smoothly without planing ahead but also can't turn back due to how far you have go at this point.

Edited by BattleRaizer on Apr 21st 2019 at 10:44:30 PM

Another interesting tidbit is that the girl that Fuutarou had a crush on as a child is on the trip. She's the reason he met Lolikano, since he left their group to avoid seeing her and the guy she liked.

And because she wasn't done digging deeper Ichika tries to get into the same group as Fuutarou for the second day trip after overhearing him and Takeda talking, but Fuutarou picks another group knowing she'd probably try that and ends up with Miku inadvertently. Note, this was AFTER her lies were exposed.

I've never seen a character get hit with so much karma.

FYI: Next week is Golden Week, so that means no chapter next week.

Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Apr 21st 2019 at 11:56:20 AM

Yeah, I definitely think Ichika isn't thinking things through here. She's basically slinging together whatever lies she can to get out of her own latest pinch without thinking the consequences through, and it definitely feels like she's panicking a bit.

At this point Negi is just teasing us waiting for things to blow up.

Ok, we may have jumped the gun.

Ichika actually gives up her spot in Fuutarou's group to Miku

I'm gonna go ahead and assume it wasn't willingly, even if that's not a nice thing to assume.

Nope. Willingly

Considering she completely self-destructed there is not much point to prolong own suffering. Least thing she can do is being gracious looser

Edited by Tenzen12 on Apr 22nd 2019 at 5:46:55 PM

Doing anything more would just look pathetic, just bow out and leave the stage

I'm surprised Ichika's story went down that rabbit hole. Before this I just unsympathetic, but Nino called out her BS to her face and she doubles down instead? She's passed the Moral Event Horizon.

Honestly, if the bride isn't Nino, I think Ichika would be my second choice. I'm not saying she deserves it or is my second favorite, but if I can't have what I think is the most fulfilling end, I'd at least want the one that would liberate me from caring about this series. This would basically be Negi's way of saying, "IDGAF about your favorite girls, I'll do what I want!" The salt would be legendary. It would be paradoxically satisfying. I could at least enjoy the audacity of it all.

And if this series is anything to go by, Fuutarou and Miku's "date" on that course will end up in basically nothing. This series loves to tease big cliff hangers and then resolve them with little fuss and drama. But at the same time, it's too early for her to confess unless we're going for an outright rejection. I think it's too early for Fuutarou to say he loves any quint, even if he's varying degrees of interested in some of them, and it's too early for Miku to be outright turned down. If anything happens, it will probably be oriented around her goals for the future. We also still have the Lolikano/Itsuki/Yotsuba stuff and the stalker stuff to deal with, so this arc isn't close to being over yet. Also, while his look was clearly one of surprise, it definitely didn't look like Fuutarou was happy to see Miku as part of his course. He looked more annoyed than anything. Considering what's happened lately, I can't blame him. And as always, Nino will come through in the end. That's what happens when you're the bride.

Edited by Outinthecold on Apr 22nd 2019 at 12:41:44 PM

I don't know about that. Nino is not in good position recently.

Yeah, I'm in the "I think Miku is likely" camp, but I'd never say "Yeah, I'm 100% this one is the winner"

Nino has been in Marika tier for a while now; trying to go after what she wants but keeps getting cockblocked about it.

First she tries to get alone time with Fu, "naw girl, I'm hanging with the boys" and then she doesn't get in the same group as him either lol.

I'd swear the author was doing it on purpose.

Out of curiosity what tier would be Itsuki?