English Dub Review: The Quintessential Quintuplets “Five Cranes in Return”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Futaro’s birthday is coming up, so Ichika goes full schemer tries to keep everyone else from getting him a gift so that she’ll be the only one, but Nino is wise to her antics, leading to the two basically declaring war over him. Miku continues working on her baking and Itsuki focuses on her new dream of becoming a teacher, while Futaro takes Yotsuba on a little date as thanks for her help on the trip last year. It’s also almost time for the annual trip to Kyoto for the seniors, so both Ichika and Nino scheme to get Futaro in a group alone, but he’s already made a group with the other guys.

OUR TAKE
Ichika has fully taken on her “snake” persona, as she became known in the fandom after her confession as Miku and is continuing to spiral down into manipulating things in her favor. Or at least, attempting to manipulate and having everything blow up in her face, only getting as far as they do because she asks Yotsuba, the family people pleaser, for help. Nino obviously is having none of this and continues her own strategy of direct attack…which is also not working, but at least she’s honest, even if her bratty nature is overpowering the honesty. Meanwhile, Miku is making genuine effort to improve herself both for her own benefit and for Futaro, Itsuki is pursuing her own goals after being inspired by her mother’s legacy and Futaro’s tutoring, and Yotsuba is…very nice and helpful. If I were to take a stab at what I think the story’s stance on all of them at the moment, I would guess that Ichika and Nino are doing things the bad way, Miku and Itsuki are doing things in a good way, and Yotsuba is just kind of there (even though it seems like she got an oddly large amount of focus this time).

As much as I like Ichika as a character, it’s pretty clear that she’s sabotaging herself here, as I do not see any route from these choices to getting with Futaro. Meanwhile, I have NEVER liked Nino even before she officially entered the race, and even I can tell that this route is at least marginally better than Ichika’s, but even if you took out the abuse and drugging from early in the story, I do not see any real chemistry here anyway, so she’s pretty much out already anyway. So, that leaves the younger three Nakanos, and among them, I feel like I’m rooting for Miku the most right now considering how much she’s putting into becoming a better version of herself. Itsuki, despite not even liking Futaro as far as we know, is a close second, as she is just as committed to finding her true path in life which is equally admirable, but she’s doing it without any romantic goals in mind. She is a strong independent waifu who don’t need no husbando. And Yotsuba is definitely the dark horse, as she is a very pleasant presence and has done no wrong, but she’s been such a background character throughout compared to everyone else. Weird how we have two episodes left and Ichika is kind of the closest to a season end boss, but I guess we’ll see how that shakes out in the start of the season finale two parter: Sisters War.