English Dub Review: The Quintessential Quintuplets “Scrambled Eggs”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Futaro discovers that all five of the quintuplets have decided to dress as Itsuki, but before one of them can explain, another decides to test if he can tell who is who. He interrogates each of the four fakes, and one of them explains that they all used to look alike until SHE started wearing her green ribbon, which tells Futaro that this one is Yotsuba. But since this concerned their aging grandfather, they all decided to dress like Itsuki when visiting him so that he would know that they were all getting along. Futaro still has trouble telling them all apart, but he does confirm that the fake Itsuki he talked to was among them. Once they split up, Nino asks Ichika for love advice, which Ichika knows is about Futaro even if Nino hides it, concerning Ichika that things are going to change. The next day, Futaro is able to determine which one of the sisters is Miku, which she appreciates. But later, another Itsuki finds him near a famed bell and tackles him to the ground.

OUR TAKE
Fun fact: this is about the end of the material that I didn’t first read in the manga! Even knowing how the story ended, I wasn’t quite sure what this part of the story with the multiple Itsukis was about, thinking it might have been some elaborate test for Futaro, and…it kinda was, but it also turns out that it has a practical reason too, in that it’s to put their grandfather at ease. It also just so happens that it acts as an opportunity to test how well Futaro has gotten to know the sisters in all this time. I don’t remember if I mentioned this before, but telling the five of them apart isn’t nearly as tough for viewers as it is for Futaro, especially if you can tell the voices apart. It was surprisingly easy watching the subbed version as the Japanese voices are all quite distinct, though I will give credit that the dub voices all did an impression of Itsuki’s dub actress, Tina Ballard. And honestly, if this were in real life, I imagine it would be harder for anyone to tell identical siblings apart, but it’s just one of those things that didn’t quite translate as well from the source manga to this anime. It really will take love for him to tell them all apart, as their grandfather says, which will likely be evidenced by if he can tell which one just tackled him.

The quieter scenes happening between the guessing are also important for later, with Nino confiding in Ichika and then later Ichika reflecting with Yotsuba, as well as Itsuki and Miku discussing things about Miku’s feelings that everyone else already knows except Itsuki. So the main draw here is how this is all forcing Ichika to take action now that it’s clear that both Miku AND Nino are pursuing their feelings and planning to bag Futaro, which means that Ichika has gotta get in the game too. As for how she plans to do that, well, her chat with Yotsuba is another seemingly innocuous set of details that is worth keeping an eye on down the road. And by down the road, I actually mean the very next episode, as we are closing in on the final third of this season! Honestly, back when I was trying to predict how much this season would adapt, I assumed it would end here and save the rest for a third and final season, but now they’re doing a movie? Ah well, I guess we get to talk about this next spicy section too. Neat!