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neonscandal · 2 years

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9 Anime to Watch When You Want to Feel Like 👇🏾

So you just finished something heavy or maybe you finally finished an epically long show (looking at you, One Piece) and now you need a silly little respite for some casual viewing. Here are a few short series/movies to check out for a quick laugh.

The Devil is a Part-Timer (series) - this is not your average isekai. Usually, we see someone from modern times getting sent back to like feudal era (or something fantasy-eque but primitive nonetheless) who sees meteoric success because of their expansive knowledge compared to those around them. Yea no, imagine Satan himself blasting into the modern era with no street smarts, no self-awareness and none of his fiendish powers. How does he get by? If you want a touch of action with your funny, this is a great choice.

Sub/Dub | Tubi, Funimation, Hulu, Crunchyroll

The Vampire Dies in No Time (series) - I love a good subversive comedy (as seen above) and this also challenges the notion of strong vampires and.. even what vampires can be. Ronaldo, white haired vampire hunter pictured above, had no idea the peril he'd encounter when he snuck into the great Draluc's castle. It was the kind of peril that lingers since, ultimately, Draluc ends up becoming his unwelcome house guest along with his faithful companion, John. Expect maybe a tiny bit of fan service but not in ways you'd expect.

Sub/Dub | Funimation

Wave Listen to Me (series) - what if your shitty ex could give you more than just a broken heart? Like maybe a total career change? Minare, woman after my own heart, gets plastered one night and ends up on the radio airing out her own dirty laundry. Turns into quite the side gig with her penchant for self-deprecating Gilmore Girls tempo delivery. The overarching message of the show has depth and the character feels real despite always being wrapped in a few layers of fiction. All in all, relatable.

Sub/Dub | Funimation

Chio's School Road (series) - Chio is just a gamer girl with an eccentrically rich inner life stemming from some severe awkwardness that endears her to me immediately. The show follows her everyday commute to school that is made complicated time and time again, usually by her own hand.

Sub/Dub | Funimation, Crunchyroll

Hinamatsuri (series) - imagine a magical girl who isn’t quite so… magical. She’s got the powers but she has a complete lack of self awareness and social graces. That is our MC Hina which is to low-level yakuza thug Nitta’s distinct displeasure when she appears in his apartment one day. The series follows their best attempt at a functional father-daughter relationship as Nitta tries to turn Hina into a normal kid with some wholesome and endearing subplots involving rough around the edges, Anzu.

Sub/Dub | Funimation, Crunchyroll

Life Lessons with Uramichii-San (series) - maybe this is the kind of show you only find funny once you have lower back pain but there's something about the bitter, worn down Uramichii contrasting the bright and hopeful children he entertains that just speaks to me. Imagine finding out that the Sesame Street cast is comprised of a bunch of depressed, chain smoking loners who are hanging on by a silly string thread (oh and they also have troubling sleep paralysis demons). Millennials, rise up, this one is for us.

Sub/Dub | Funimation, Crunchyroll

Love After World Domination (series) - love hurts but sometimes it's a good hurt like when you're forced to fight your significant other to keep up appearances so you can avoid scandalizing your relationship. Oh, just Reaper Princess and Red Gelato? This Romeo + Juliet story follows a villain and a hero as they awkwardly navigate their first romantic relationship, privately. Fan service in this show (as seen above) is going to be more in abundance and, at times, used as a comedic device so be warned.

Sub/Dub | Crunchyroll

Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun (series) - There's something about characters who show a complete lack of awareness that kills me. The story centers on a girl confessing to her classmate not realizing he's actually one of her favorite shojo romance's mangaka (who is supposed to be a girl). If you're confused, so is Chiyo when she somehow secures an invite to her crush's house. It's cute and awkward and the crazy characters that seem to surround Nozaki ultimately inspire his manga.

Sub/Dub | HiDive

Grand Blue Dreaming (series) - Rife with so much debauchery there's a disclaimer at the beginning, this show follows college freshman Iori as he moves to a seaside town with his uncle who owns a dive shop. Iori has moments of wholesome reflection while trying to appreciate his coming of age which is constantly underpinned by the mischief and trouble one can only expect when navigating adulthood, independence and romance for the first time. The show has a good sprinkle of life lessons from unexpected places, but, considering the source, take it with a grain of salt as there are several questionable elements that I'm choosing to gloss over here. Expect gratuitous fan service though. And some generally problematic tropes sprinkled in with those hijinks. Is it obvious I’m second guessing this recommendation?

Sub | Prime Video

#neon recs #anime #the devil is a part timer #the vampire dies in no time #wave listen to me #Chios school road #hinamatsuri #life lessons with uramichii-san #love after world domination #grand blue dreaming #funny anime #anime comedy #romcom #romantic comedy #magical girl #isekai

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regarding-stories · 1 year

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The Quintessential Quintuplets (Character detail and maybe symbolism)

If you don't want to be spoilered, don't read on. I'd just recommend you to give the show a chance, it's very enjoyable. I watched the anime series 2 1/2 times by now... in the same week. Tonight I'll watch the movie conclusion in the cinema - I must know how it ends!!

The Quintessential Quintuplets is a romantic show about teenage love, big feelings, small dramas, family, and friendship. It manages to win over the hearts of the viewers with its extremely likable cast of characters and how it approaches the territory of teenage crushes. Before you know you will cry and laugh with these characters as they navigate, still in a light-hearted way, the possibility of love and heart-break.

The basic premise is that there is a group of five sisters, the eponymous quintuplets, who transfer to a new high school. They also suck at studying and all have failing grades, so their stepfather decides they need a tutor, and somehow our main protagonist, Futaro Uesugi, ends up with the job - and he really, really needs it. Of course by then his brash personality already got him off to a bad start, and his lack of perceptiveness leads him to miss the fact that the reason he gets paid five times the usual fare is that he's to tutor five girls at once.

The first phase of the show is then dedicated to him winning their cooperation with him as tutor, one by one. This quickly starts to cement a friendship between them to differing degrees. In the second phase he needs to help them pass the year 2 finals to keep his job, but this is already intermixed with the girls dragging them into the social sphere he so far avoided and the first crushes to develop. In the third phase the competition between the girls for Futaro's heart escalates and leads to drama and dramatic revelations.

What makes the show special is that the characters are well-drawn in terms of personality, quirks, what their drives are and how they approach life. Futaro also manages the balance between a truly good guy with some personality flaws without the typical horndog personality of so many anime male characters.

What the show could do a bit less with is how it outwardly portrays the girls. Of course they are beautiful, but in keeping with themes I've seen in other anime shows "bigger is better" when it comes bust size. The show also likes to take some questionable camera angles which amount to up-skirt shots or entirely alien angles that showcase a butt over half the screen. While this is only done at times and quite common with anime, the show would be even better without resorting to this fetishism. On the other hand, the show benefits from a respectful and restrained protagonist and hence overall passes the test.

But let's jump into these characters and the detail with which they are presented!

Futaro

Futaro squares the circle. On the one hand he's an arrogant absolute top-grade student, disinterested in girls and not very observant. He lacks social skills and grace, and he seems to care about nothing but studying and helping his family survive financially. And yet he has it where it counts. He will help out people when he feels they could be hurt, loves his little sister, and his overall goal in life - though he goes about it in a roundabout way - is to be a person who can help those who need it. A goal he set for himself when he ended up alone in a school trip to Kyoto 5 years before the series starts. Because he secretly developed a crush on the girl (Yotsuba) that just singled him out for helping him when he needed it. Supposedly that made him the overachiever he is when we meet him.

His characterization starts with laying out the ends he goes to to get a somewhat nourishing meal out of the school cafeteria while paying the smallest amount. He then runs into new student Itsuki, an unlikely encounter for a nerdy loner like him, and immediately antagonizes her. This guarantees he starts the whole enterprise he gets dragged into on the wrong foot and has to scramble to get into everybody's good graces.

Our dear Uesugi-kun, however, soon displays the other qualities he has. He wants to make his little sister happy who doesn't have a mom. (There are only hints about how he felt when he lost his mom and went through a rebellious phase.) He is responsible, willing to work hard, and dedicated. Seeing his laid-back dad we know nobody is making Futaro behave as he does - it's his choice.

Futaro is often portrayed as cold as ice to the outside whereas inside he fumbles with how to deal with the situations he ends up in. His arc in the show is to become more observant and display more of the qualities that make the girls eventually fall for him - but initially only for sake of money and the job. It takes him a while to realize that he cares about these girls as friends, and eventually he tutors them for free.

Being what the story needs is a typical trait for him. He will be wise and observant. He will drop his awkward outward personality in one-on-one situations. He's engaged when he can make others happy or prevent them from suffering, but being a male tsundere he will often say harsh things that run counter to his genuinely kind actions.

Getting him out of his monomanic tendencies ("I need to study!", "I need this job!") is actually the first part of his character development. As he admits later on, when challenged by an outsider, is that he wouldn't have considered himself to be a real, full person before this new situation made him develop the other parts lying dormant in his personality.

Fundamentally his reserved, icy tsundere personality is needed to keep the story going. Futaro refuses to engage this part of this personality and yet he's not immune to it. His lack of response to the various hijinks around him keeps the situation unresolved and the pot boiling.

As TV Tropes puts it: "Male love interests with tsundere-like traits are more likely to have mutual Belligerent Sexual Tension with a girl equally as tsundere as he is, or act aloof and detached as more of a Kuudere type character." (See here.) Futaro to a tee! Nobody shall know how deeply likable he is. The show thrives on the face that he can't fool us (as he's not supposed to).

Beyond that, he's another example of "boys can be dense" so often hinted at in anime and manga. (The thing most often said about Sword Art Online's Kirito is that he's "dense.") Also, while Futaro can be arrogant about his own scholastic nature, all the female attention he gets never goes to his head. He barely sees them "this way" and often gets annoyed with the attention he gets or treats it as absolutely normal. He more than often calls the girls a bunch of "idiots" but somehow, as the show progresses, it is clear that they're his bunch of idiots. As I said, his main quality is that he cares.

Futaro will go to a winter camp and be social and all engaged even when he's so sick he has to be hospitalized after. He will do it for others and secretly for himself. And he will write a list of experiences to share with his kid sister. As our wooden boy turns into a real person he becomes irresistible to those who know him. But ironically most of what can be said about Futaro needs to be said when seeing him in the five-facetted mirror that the girls reflect him in.

Which means - we need to look at the girls!

Ichika

Did you ever notice it? When we see the names of the girls on phone screens as calls arrive, the symbols are the Japanese kanji for numbers 1-5. This is reflected in their names. "Ichika" has the word "ichi" in her name, marking her as the first quintuplet to be born. She remarks on herself as "Big Sis" as if she was an older sister.

Ichika projects laid-back, easy-going, and popular. She wears her hair short in a way that suggests she's uncomplicated but somehow also confident. Tight denim jeans and tops show off her curves and she turns heads wherever she goes - or as Futaro puts it, she "attracts attention" (something he dislikes when it comes to himself). Ichika's desire is to be an actress, something she does feel self-conscious about since she's unsure she can cut it.

There's a hint in the story (her scores in the year 2 finals) that she's more intelligent and capable when it comes to studies than people, including her sisters, might expect. She just didn't care before or was constantly overtired due to her work commitments. Interestingly, she's also the only one who's messy. Her room looks like it had been searched by the rudest squad of police in the history of television.

Ichika keeps a tab on the feelings of her sisters and always tries to create harmony. Nino calls her a "schemer" and that sums her up to a tee. From the moment Futaro talks to Itsuki she tries to ship them. then Miku and Futaro when she notices Miku's feelings. This culminates when she becomes interested in Futaro herself and starts to scheme because she is not truly confident and bold enough to just let him know head-on. Ichika puts on an act, and Futaro calls her on it early on.

To go with the traits she displays, she calls Futaro "Futaro-kun" practically off the bat, using the first name immediately and adding the endearing suffix. Ichika's friendly and outwardly social, so she skips the whole dance of Japanese social rules altogether.

Initially Ichika acts as Futaro's helper and "woman on the inside" when most of the quintuplets reject him, mending upsets and mediating between him and the tsundere duo, Nino and Itsuki. This changes once she wants Futaro for himself which puts her actual lack of confidence on full display.

Ichika's outer accessory is her short, pink hair.

Nino

Keeping with the pattern, "ni" being the way you count to two, the second-born quintuplet is Nino. Is Nino a tsundere? You bet she is. If she hates you, she's mean. The first thing she does upon Futaro being revealed as the tutor is that she drugs him. Nino is honest and extremely forthright, though to her "technically true" is good enough. ("I didn't poison [the cookies]." Yep. It was the water instead.) So when her dad asks her if she speaks the truth, she is believed.

Nino talks about trust a lot - "Can I trust you?" is practically her catch phrase. This speaks to her insecurity. Nino's brash personality apparently roots in the fact that she doesn't want to be hurt first. She would just not admit that. But when caught "one-on-one", Futaro notices she can be surprisingly easy to talk to. Nino is not as aloof as she would have you think though she plays it cool all the time, followed around by her two fan-girl like friends.

Her relationship with Futaro presents a side of her that we will see on display eventually - all-in or all-out. She first just calls him "Uesugi," and without a honorific that makes it sound like a "stranger you do not pay respect to." Though this can also be the name used between classmates. However, as soon as she changes her mind about him, she decided to give him a pet name (though Miku has to think it up): "Fu-kun." This is basically the most familar (and hence "dere") way of showing affection. Nino's affection isn't won easily, but once you have it, you've won.

Keeping with her traits, she's the only one that manages to outright tell Futaro that she's in love with him in two seasons of anime. She's the only one who has the guts to do so - because, once she's in, she's all in.

Nino's worries about loss and dislikes outsiders. She's also a talented cook. Her trademark accessories are little scarves she weaves into her hair - reminiscent of butterfly wings. Which hints at her soft side. Nino likes cute things - her phone has a bunny ears protector, and the first kimono we see her wear has bunny patterns. When we see her room, it shows displays of nature scenes with animals in them.

What's unconvincing about Nino is that for someone who cares about being truthful she's awfully casual about Futaro posing as Kintaro (who she had a crush on). While the whole idea of Futaro posing a bad boy (which she's hot for) is laughable to begin with, it actually is a bit of truth in fiction piercing the usual anime/manga art style conventions. Hair style and clothing of students are tightly regulated, something completely handwaved for heroines. However, with Futaro it's played straight. He seemed like a bad boy as his younger self, having both pierced his ear (which she's afraid of) and being blonde. Many Japanese schools enforce dark or black as the "natural hair color" students have to have, and hair has to be straight. People with natural curls or not-typically-Japanese hair colors can even be singled out by teachers, even after presenting a medical note proving that's their natural hair. So we're getting a hint at how actual Japanese school life might be (and that teachers probably cut Futaro some slack because his mom died).

Nino's most awesome moments are when she goes into intimidation mode - that's just outright funny. I personally would not vote her as my best girl, but she is instrumental for keeping the show going. First when she delays Futaro's acceptance, then when her confession forces all the others into action.

Miku

Miku is the middle one, and her name derives of from "mittsu", a word regarding the quantity of three. Probably because it made a better name. (Typically you would count with "san.") Miku is the shy one, constantly hiding herself. She's most likely to hide from others (like in an igloo at camp) or shut the world out (her accessory are big headphones, though you never see her wear them much on her ears after the series gets going). While Miku will wear a short skirt she will also wear black tights like a protective screen. Her style of clothing seems to deliberately tone down her bust whereas the others either do not care or dress to attract attention. Miku would wear long sleeve cardigans instead. She speaks quietly and is often called "bland" by Nino.

Miku bonds with Futaro over her passion for old, bearded Japanese warlords which she knows all about. She loses respect for him when he knows less "warlord trivia" than her, but when he studies up to be her peer, she relents. It's beautifully played: She walks into the library and verifies his claims that he checked out all the books. Once Futaro proved that he was going an extra mile to actually gain access to her world (which she so carefully hides) she accepts him as friend immediately, calling him "Futaro" - like you would a friend.

Seeing Miku with her sisters it's hard to grasp how shy she really is. She constantly leads an inner dialogue and rarely lets it escape. She seems to be especially rewarding and easy to write for for the original author, seeing how long the story arcs are that focus on her. (Or maybe that's what the animation studios chose to highlight.)

This is because it takes a long time for her to set anything into action. She tries daring herself by defining thresholds she needs to cross instead of instead doing something straightforward. Miku also compares herself a lot. One of the sad things about her is that she thinks she needs to be a certain way to be liked, whereas Futaro just naturally would care for her. So her whole attempt to get a better cook can be seen as endearing but also as a problem. She's the only one of the five that considers changing herself to be more "appealing." She also takes the list of traits Futaro looks for in a girl as is.

To me, Miku is always wonderful to watch, I root for her constantly.

One of her odd properties is that she apparently is maybe the best at imitating the others. Seeing her imitate Ichika is downright spooky - when she turns her frown "upside down."

Miku is the first to know that she's in love with Futaro, she just has the hardest time lining up her actions with it.

Go, Miku!

Yotsuba

Number 4 is our "genki girl", Yotsuba, whose name is a reference to "yon," an alternative version of "shi" which is considered unlucky because it means "death" as well. "Genki" means healthy, but also describes a lively personality, constantly positive, endless energy.

Yotsuba characterizes even herself as most child-like, she's naive and trusting, and people get in the habit of abusing her willing-to-help personality. She's the only one to never question the whole tutoring thing, and she never stops calling Futaro "Uesugi-san", which is the most formal way to do it and could be sometimes considered to be the equivalent of "Mr Uesugi." Adding "-san" shows respect, and as their tutor she gives it to him.

Yotsuba is the reason why the girls changed school because she's the only one who couldn't remedy her failing score in a second exam. She has a correspondingly low opinion of herself. While she is indeed a scatterbrain she also has a good mind for English, a subject that requires some intuition and feel for language.

In keeping with her generally cute and puppy dog personality, her accessory is a ribbon that sticks out like two bunny ears. When Yotsuba is tired or sad, it flops. When she has an idea, it perks. Yotsuba is near-incapable of saying no, and her physical prowess makes her sought after by sports clubs in school - including the basketball club and the track team.

Yotsuba can be refreshing, but she wears herself down trying to make everybody else happy. Technically she's the first one to say "I like/love you" to Kintaro, though she says it was to prove she can convincingly lie. The moment is perfect, and in fact surprises are Yotsuba's theme. She sometimes catches on surprisingly quickly only for the others to deny her intuitions (which she believes). Count on Yotsuba to do something outlandish.

Technically Yotsuba, however, has never said she has a crush on Futaro - whereas the other four have all admitted it. She's however the girl Futaro met in Kyoto five years ago where she became his big life-changing crush. She's also one of the two hottest candidates for the spring break mystery as to which girl ran up to Futaro and kissed him under the bell just because how spontaneous she is. (All girls were wearing the same to appease their grandfather, so we as viewers can't really tell who it was. But Futaro later references this moment as the start of what leads to marrying one of them - when that one started to become "special.")

Yotsuba is wonderful for comedy because she's like a broken flight recorder. She takes in everything but then combines factoids in surprising ways.

And after two seasons of this show I can't believe Yotsuba will be "it," but they keep awfully quiet about her actual feelings, dammit.

Itsuki

Does this show need another tsundere? Why yes, it does. Number 5 (named after an alternative word for five instead of the "go" used for counting) is the best tsundere by far. Brash and awkward, inside Itsuki cares. She will cry by herself over the arguments she has with Futaro or if she excludes herself because of her stubborness.

As season 2 finally establishes, Itsuki strongly takes after the mother role. But even at the start she immediately "falls" for Futaro's little sister Raiha. She also immediately fits like a mother into the Uesugi household whenever she shows up. When she doesn't know where to go she shows up on the Uesugi doorstep, being the only one who ever visited the place. We see her in a picture with Raiha making the two of them look like mom and dad, we see them sleeping in the same room with the girl between them - she just slots in, she can almost not help it.

Her mother was a teacher, and every month Itsuki goes and burns incense to honor her late mother at her grave. Itsuki wants to become a teacher, and she also wants to ensure Futaro is suitable as an authority and teacher figure, making this her motivation to check him out more.

She also tries to discipline Nino when she crosses the threshold. It's Itsuki that notices that Futaro hand-wrote all their problem sets because he's too poor to print them and he actually cares about tutoring them properly. However, she cannot handle the ensuing situation and runs away herself, knowing she put Nino into a spot that it's really hard to walk back out of after demonstrating how wrong she is in front of the others.

Itsuki calls Futaro "Uesugi-kun", a term appropriate for a classmate while also being nice. Prim and proper and a bit compulsive are her traits. She actually studies but then messes up her exams by obsessing about some answers and then not finishing. At times when the quints mislead a teacher or go against a teacher's order she's the only one that's outright mortified.

It's clear that Itsuki wants Futaro, though she is least vocal about it and supports the others in their pursuits. She tries to showcase Yotsuba as the Kyoto girl, for example. When she shops for hot underwear she also struggles with how forward that is. We learn the least about Itsuki's feelings, though, since her other trait is awkward. It's downright funny to see the same girl calling Futaro "too forward" when he leans his head on her shoulder (he actually was near passing out) but then buying a pair of underwear that makes both her and Miku blush and sweat when they actually look at it, showing her conflicting sides in lace.

While I'm personally in Team Miku, I consider from what I know now Itsuki as the hottest candidate for Futaro's heart. From their clashing personalities to being the first he runs into at school to the ease with which she slots into his life to... everything. To her Futaro says he will be a surrogate father if her own isn't up to it. And I consider her to be one of the two likely candidates for the kiss.

Why? Even in disguise, Miku is still Miku. (Though Futaro "seeing her" even in disguise is huuuuge for her.) We see Ichika, Nino's, and Miku's moves on screen - which makes you wonder where Itsuki is in all this, especially given all I said above. She's almost hidden in comparison.

Also take note of another thing she does: She wants to evaluate Futaro. This is brought to us in an exchange with Ichika which states that he's not like their dad. Which implies that her mom chose poorly for her second marriage - Mr Nakano has the charm (and eyes) of a snake and none of the daughters actually lives with him, they just visit him like he was a divorced parent. You could think she evaluates him for the sake of her sisters (she does this after discovering Ichika's crush, and everybody knows about Miku - even Futaro notices). But we might as well assume that in Itsuki's potential self-deception she also wants to make sure he's good enough for her. She never excludes herself when she says "we" need to be wiser about choosing men, after all.

Itsuki's accessories are her red hair, her cowlick, and the stars she wears in her hair. And she seems to burn calories real quick because she's always eating.

My bet

My personal favorite is Miku, partially because the show really makes us feel her plight, but I also have a foible for the "type." After making us care and empathize this much and giving her this much felt spotlight, it would almost be mean if it was anybody else.

However, I suspect it would turn out to be Itsuki for all the reasons stated in her section. She's "meta-positioned" best.

If it was anyone but these two I would be mad. Because the other three are a stretch, even though Ichika and Yotsuba are great as well. Nino... I don't know.

It shows how strong the show is that I would be sad no matter which one "wins." They all are characters we come to care about, their problems, their little dramas, their quirks. That's what makes the whole show work. It doesn't obsess about romance. Futaro and the girls meet on a human level first. While it cannot be called a "slow burner" by any means, it definitely establishes things first properly and always builds from the characters. I guess I'll know after tonight - unless there's a twist or cop-out ending. Which I might be happy with, too. (The enormous amount of white dresses seemed excessive.) Lame as that may be. Once a show convinces you that streaks of color on a screen are people you care for, it really did its job.

The only thing I know is that the underlying manga has finished. I wanted to see the conclusion on screen, though, as voices and color play such a big role in the show and are executed so well. Sadly all good things come to an end, and I hope a satisfying one.

#the quintessential quintuplets #anime #romantic anime #anime comedy

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