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For starters TheWonderOfYou I suggest you drop the snippy tone towards other users for expressing their opinions. If you can't express your own without being rude about it, then you should just not post them. That goes for everyone else as well.

Secondly, we expect users to use spoiler tags here when discussing source material for streaming shows. I put them in your last post but you need to be more mindful moving forward.

Last edited by BenDTU on Sat Feb 27, 2021 1:02 am; edited 1 time in total

I’m really surprised that they kept everyone’s regular VA when they’re all disguised as Itsuki, because it’s suuuuuuuper obvious who is who.

And honestly, that Fuutarou has spent 6 months with the quints and yet still can’t tell them apart by their mannerisms and whatnot is all kinds of ridiculous.

BenDTU wrote:

I’m really surprised that they kept everyone’s regular VA when they’re all disguised as Itsuki, because it’s suuuuuuuper obvious who is who.

The VAs' distinctive voices really do kill the mystery element. They also animated the girls' unique body language making it even more obvious (e.g., Miku and Nino), all of which makes Fuutarou look like a total idiot (which the reviewer rightly pointed out).

In the manga it was much more subtle and I had a fun time trying to unravel the multi-layered mysteries that Negi had presented in Scrambled Eggs, so I'm rather disappointed that they dumped basically 90% of it. Negi had set up the mystery elements particularly well in this arc (in my opinion) but we saw almost none of it here, and what little was left is now pointless (e.g., the bruise makes no sense as a clue now).

Yeah, without the Ichika fakeout of having twisted her ankle, there’s no real meaning to the bruise except as a way for Itsuki to figure out Miku was fake Itsuki.

I will say that Itou Mikku did a great job impersonating HanaKana at the end of this episode and Inorin at the end of last when she was Miku pretending to be one of the other quints. I agree that it’s more difficult to make the whole “Futaro still doesn’t recognize the individual quints” joke in a visual medium like anime where each character has their own seiyuu (unless you do something like the promo before the anime premiered where they had Ayaneru voice all 5 quints, but with Inorin doing it this side since they’re all supposed to be Itsuki). In universe, all Futaro has to go off of is their hair accessories and length (which is how the track team captain was able to see that it was Itsuki impersonating Yotsuba earlier in the season, but not Nino after she cut her hair short, even though she really should’ve noticed that Yotsuba left to chase after Futaro wearing sneakers and Nino returned in sandals with a pedicure), since all of them are supposed to have the same hair color and voice, and they’re only differentiated in the anime (and a lesser extent in the color pages of the manga and the covers) to make it easier for use the viewers to tell them apart when watching at home (and also to sell merch).

Then again, we’ve had commentary from the quints before that Futaro is real bad at noticing details about their personalities and telling them apart when they don’t have their telltale hair accessories, so there’s that. Also, the constant reminder that Futaro doesn’t see the quints as women, just other students and he their tutor, and how he was previously uninterested in romance at all, seeing it as a waste of his time and thoughts. It’s why Miku disguised as Itsuki wanted to move beyond their current relationship, though she phrased it in the worst possible way because Futaro had her startled and her grandfather was right there. If anything, this arc (condensed into an episode and a half) was necessary because it sets Futaro down the path of actually seeing the personalities and mannerisms of the quints and moving beyond their personal appearances, with the prompting from the grandfather. spoiler[Should have a minor payoff in an episode or two], provided those scenes aren’t cut as well.

Disappointed by some of the cuts this episode from the manga. While the kiss cutoff was probably necessary for time and the cliffhanger it provided, all of the wedding framing that was there in the manga around the end of the episode is sadly gone, as is spoiler[the discussions between Papa Nakano and the grandfather regarding his mortality overheard by Futaro, as well as the hot spring scene between Papa Nakano and Futaro’s dad sharing sake hinting at their previous relationship and also how much Maruo cares about the quints in his own way, even though he’s got a shitty way of showing it by arranging this hot spring trip]. I hope we get some scenes of that next episode. The beach trip and fishing scene was cut with no real loss in my opinion after the Ichika fakeout with her ankle was removed as well like I mentioned above.

Man, this season is moving fast. When I marathoned the manga a couple weeks back after getting into the series, I thought this season would end with the bell kiss. Guess I was wrong, but at this point unless they slow down, we won’t have enough material to do a season 3.

Looks like we’re definitely moving into Sister’s War at the end of this season, and I guess maybe the reviewer will eat their words spoiler[wrt Ichika becoming more proactive in pursuit of Futaro when Bitchika/snek Ichika comes out to play, as that turned most of the fandom against her when she was already so low in the quint popularity ratings]. Ichika’s metaphor for the Nino Train having no brakes is one the fandom gleefully adopted as their own, and now we’re about to see how far down the rails it’ll go.

Nicholas, I would like to ask: Do you hate Miku, her archetype, her fans/stans, or what is the reason you downplay her so much?

In this review of Episode 8, you have said "the most stagnant sister", when in the same paragraph you say "I know that harem logic dictates Sister #5 will eventually fall for him too". Isn't this contradictory? How can she be the most stagnant assuming you mean in the romantic side given how the paragraph continues, if only 3 of the sisters confirmed to fell for Fuutarou at this point?

Firstly, you completely forgot that in the season finale of S1, she is the first quint that straight up states that she loves Fuutarou to another sister, Ichika, but Ichika doesn't have to mind her, let's be fair, each of them should do their thing, in return she does her thing, but she won't lose. It was exactly the moment she stopped nursing that crush for real.

Unfortunately, the anime did cut out a chapter before Seven Goodbyes arc, where she technically confessed, but Fuutarou's denseness got played out. Same with the initial handling of getting Valentine's chocolates from her. Then the exam score fiasco. Again, calling her "the most stagnant sister" is heavily disingenous when not all 5 are confirmed to be in love with her and for example Ichika kept moping around and dying inside without doing anything on the romantic side even though she Miku not even once believed Ichika is truly supporting her, but Ichika shackled herself anyways and her dishonesty became toxic.

Then I saw you once again putting Nino on a pedestal and I remembered how you downplayed every single quint with the same excuse: According to you, they fell for Fuutarou for the first nice thing he did for them, except for Nino. Completely untrue, so Ichika an Miku can't nurse her crush for 1.5 seasons, neither can the rest hypothetically.

Nino on the other hand did fell for a blonde stranger at first sight without knowing anything about the stranger, but you swept the joke quickly under the rug even though Kintarou = Fuutarou won't make the situation, Nino, Nino's love "better" just because she was the big opposition before for selfish reasons. Later she even says that Fuutarou was always handsome even though she called him dull-looking in S1. I can understand that breaking some harem tropes with her confession or embracing her selfish pursuit of love is a nice change of pace from the norm, but how about criticizing the lack of substance in her love? It's a shallow crush that projects her childhood fantasizies to Fuutarou. She can be aggresive, loud, state that she loves him over and over again, state that she knocks her sisters down despite being the "sister loving idiot", but the true emotional impact was never there. Her love was born from entirely superficial reasons, unlike with Ichika and Miku, who somehow are treated as "worse" characters just like with the rest, because they were not the ones to confess first and didn't have an unreasonable malicious phase against Fuutarou for selfish reasons, than had a 180°.

Nino really is the runaway train of love. It is so refreshing in an anime series to see a character just come out and openly say how much she likes someone and that she’s willing to fight for it. Who knew that the spoilt girl of S1 could blossom like this.
And Ichika really, really dropped the ball here. She won’t recover from this.

Marzan wrote:

And Ichika really, really dropped the ball here. She won’t recover from this.

Yep, this is the start of what turned most of the Quints community against Ichika when the manga was coming out. Ichika goes full snake and turns into Bitchika (fandom nickname I’ve seen thrown around), and seeing as how her fan club was already amongst the smallest, she never really recovers. It’s a shame, because I really wanted to like Ichika more for HanaKana.

Bunch of skipped stuff from the corresponding chapters this episode, but I figure they’ll come next week instead to improve flow/plot threads. Doesn’t stop some more vocal members of the fandom from complaining though. Then again, given what was cut from the end of Scrambled Eggs and spoiler[the Yotsudate] from the omitted Labor Thanksgiving chapters, I can’t say I blame people who think the anime is moving way too quickly compared to the manga.

Nino Gang going strong, as the Nino train continues to have no brakes.

It's kind of weird for all the girls to always be carrying disguises of all the other 4 girls...

I feel bad for the teachers that have to enter that class and see 5 virtually identical girls staring back at them, all lined up in a row. It must feel like something out of the twilight zone.

So I guess this is why it seemed like people were often negative towards Ichika.
Did she purposefully pick Miku because she knows she likes him, but hasn't confessed, because Futaro said that he could tell Miku apart or both? Unless the reason is "just a coincidence" then that just makes the whole thing even worse if it's any of those Anime hyper

Marzan wrote:

Nino really is the runaway train of love. It is so refreshing in an anime series to see a character just come out and openly say how much she likes someone and that she’s willing to fight for it. Who knew that the spoilt girl of S1 could blossom like this.

Yeah, usually this character type in harems (loudly declaring their love) comes off as over bearing and annoying, but I think Nino is being portrayed very well.

Covnam wrote:

Did she purposefully pick Miku because she knows she likes him, but hasn't confessed, because Futaro said that he could tell Miku apart or both? Unless the reason is "just a coincidence" then that just makes the whole thing even worse if it's any of those Anime hyper

Well she was initially disguising herself to avoid the overly clingy classmates so she could make it to the study session, and then does this on a sudden impulse, so yeah it mostly seems like a coincidence on her part. Though I'm sure the writer chose Miku for maximum drama.

lossthief wrote:

Covnam wrote:

Did she purposefully pick Miku because she knows she likes him, but hasn't confessed, because Futaro said that he could tell Miku apart or both? Unless the reason is "just a coincidence" then that just makes the whole thing even worse if it's any of those Anime hyper

Well she was initially disguising herself to avoid the overly clingy classmates so she could make it to the study session, and then does this on a sudden impulse, so yeah it mostly seems like a coincidence on her part. Though I'm sure the writer chose Miku for maximum drama.

I got the impression reading the manga that Ichika chose Miku to impersonate to get away from the classmates wanting to hang around her now that she was famous because she was the easiest to impersonate with what she had on hand and she knew she’d most likely already be at the library studying so no accidental doppelgänger scenario like what has already happened twice in the show could happen, then was compelled to go full snek because of the reasons Covnam mentioned above when Uesugi mentioned Miku telling him about Ichika’s movie and got jealous at not having made it past the starting line while Nino was pulling ahead, plus the whole blocking Miku from confessing when she outscored her on the Finals. She saw that being the responsible big sister wasn’t working out too well in winning his affections, and well, Uesugi mentioned that she’s now an accomplished liar as a successful actress. spoiler[Sister’s War at the end of the season will probably go more into this].

But that’s all Watsonian reasons, and the Doylist reason is probably as you stated, that Negi felt it generated the most drama building off of previous interactions.

As for the review, Takeda (sparkly popular classmate who is in the OP) should’ve been introduced more in the chapters that made up this episode, but as I mentioned above, parts were cut for time or probably to be moved to next episode to improve plot flow and condense a storyline.

Ichika choosing the Miku disguise had no ill intention at first, but with Fuutarou talking about the rest of the girls, Miku, it was plain malice in her part to disgustingly hinder Miku. She knew Nino confessed and that they are working together, so the moment that she is in the skin of the other rival, she completely went bonkers after acknowledging that Miku earnestly tries to closen the gap between her and Fuutarou, unlike her.

For the record, the author admitted that he needed a villain for the upcoming arc and chose Ichika because she was the most disposable. No one would buy Miku or Yotsuba doing this kind of underhanded crap since they are supportive of Fuutarou, and according to him, Nino and Itsuki had villainous phases before. It didn't help she was only 4th on the popularity poll, while being actually likable before. Nino was 5th, and her prize was ultimate reverse shilling through the tsundere getting a change of heart to make her more popular, while Ichika was deemed no good.

It's still an idiotic move that entirely relies on not letting Miku and Fuutarou talk between the two of them EVER after the incident. What's worse is that as an actress, her Miku act, clothes, accessories were absolute garbage. Fuutarou even stated that he has seen through Miku's disguise. Even if she believes it was a fluke, she put zero effort in the act.

There is the quote "All is fair in love and war". Sure. That's the special whiteknight argument. You can just throw your flesh and blood under the bus for a guy you barely know for 6 months, while no freaking one forced you to just sit on your ass the whole time regarding your romance while everyone else honestly want to pursue their love. Because Miku certainly didn't buy her half-assed act of support all this time, that was evident.

Lastly, Ichika already showed signs that ultimately she would choose Fuutarou over her sisters. Her dilemma in S1 started with getting more roles, so she wanted to quit school and not graduate with the sisters, instead focus on her job. She fell for Fuutarou, who she barely knew for 3 months at that point, but still he was the main reason she stayed at school and changed her mind. What a caring elder sister. Now you can see that she still has a lot of acting focus instead of spending time with Fuutarou, so it's really damn questionable why did she change her mind when she made no freaking progress with Fuutarou and ultimately can only sabotage her competition that still won't gain her any Fuutarou points in return.

GhostStalkerSA wrote:

Bunch of skipped stuff from the corresponding chapters this episode, but I figure they’ll come next week instead to improve flow/plot threads. Doesn’t stop some more vocal members of the fandom from complaining though. Then again, given what was cut from the end of Scrambled Eggs and spoiler[the Yotsudate] from the omitted Labor Thanksgiving chapters, I can’t say I blame people who think the anime is moving way too quickly compared to the manga.

I’m really thinking that maybe they are planning on re-arranging the story for a S3 or OVA ending. Some of the skipped content will be featured later in such a way that it gives the ending a much more coherent and logical feel, instead of the WTF experience a majority of fans had when the manga ended. This might turn out for the best if they do it that way.

Marzan wrote:

GhostStalkerSA wrote:

Bunch of skipped stuff from the corresponding chapters this episode, but I figure they’ll come next week instead to improve flow/plot threads. Doesn’t stop some more vocal members of the fandom from complaining though. Then again, given what was cut from the end of Scrambled Eggs and spoiler[the Yotsudate] from the omitted Labor Thanksgiving chapters, I can’t say I blame people who think the anime is moving way too quickly compared to the manga.

I’m really thinking that maybe they are planning on re-arranging the story for a S3 or OVA ending. Some of the skipped content will be featured later in such a way that it gives the ending a much more coherent and logical feel, instead of the WTF experience a majority of fans had when the manga ended. This might turn out for the best if they do it that way.

People should just accept that 99.99% there won't be S3 given all the signs and skipped content. Manga is over for a year, the colored edition soon finishes too, author started another work, and there is an upcoming VN to boot. There is nothing else to promote. Not to mention WSM having other potential romcom giants under its sleeves waiting for an adaptation.

The losers fans keep this franchise alive. Heck, some naive viewers believe they are changing the winner this season just because of the skipped contents. In my opinon, they are making sure that anime Fuutarou doesn't have the slightest winning flags that will make a good callback (or retcon) later, so they don't care since there won't be S3. But if they would pull an S3 the way you envision, the losers fans would just ditch the season the moment the anime staff's intention would become apparent. Although that would sure as heck mean that the anime staff agrees that the manga's ending is a dumpster fire that needs correction.

I keep seeing people post “rumors” that there’ll be an anime original ending, but I never see any proof. There are less persistent rumors that Negi confirmed that the anime would follow the manga ending, but most of the people pushing the “anime original” angle keep pointing to the scenes cut from the adaptation and the fact that they’re constantly removing scenes mostly focusing on one specific quint’s interactions with Futaro that help build her up as the eventual winner. But yeah, some of the most vocal people clamoring for an anime original ending come from the fan groups of the quints that didn’t win.

I can see that and complain about it, but I really hope not due to most anime original endings being trash in my experience. I’m just holding out hope for an actual proper season 3 adaptation ever since I got into the series last month.

GhostStalkerSA wrote:

I keep seeing people post “rumors” that there’ll be an anime original ending, but I never see any proof.

A rumor is just a rumor at the end of the day, but interestingly, it's not a fresh one. I think it actually first posted, mentioned in last summer, or tweeted by some of those infamous "leakers/insiders", but it really only said that there is a rumor going on that S2 will have an original ending. That's it. 3 episodes are left, so far it's still the manga's content, but some really important bits got cut out. Voice actress interviews also confirmed they are going with the established manga content. So that leaves picking someone last episode and THE END for the anime, or end it neutrally, but no more S3 if the rumor is true.

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