English Dub Review: The Quintessential Quintuplets “Seven Goodbyes Part 2-3”


OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Futaro tells Nino about his sudden reunion with the girl he met five years ago, who identifies herself as “Rena”. Rena somehow knows about his tutoring of Quintuplets, but when he describes each of them in detail (each ending in calling them stupid), she seems rather bashful. She then tells him to get over her and leaves, but he falls into the lake when trying to chase after her. Nino is surprisingly moved by this, leading Futaro to try and use his “cousin” disguise Kintaro to try and ger her back with her sisters. Unfortunately his mask slips and Nino sees through him, drugging him and moving to a different hotel.

After a talk with Miku, Nino decides to make up and cuts her hair, something she’d been holding onto for a long time due to it reminding her of when they all looked alike. While the other sisters and Futaro try getting Yotsuba out of obligations to the Track Team so she can study, Nino arrives in disguise as Yotsuba and chews them out, though Yotsuba later quits herself. But all of these shenanigans have left the group with no time to actually study, so Futaro resigns as their tutor just before the test. In protest, the girls leave their father’s house and move into an apartment, hiring Futaro themselves with Ichika’s acting money. However, after another accidental fall in the river, Nino may be starting to have feelings for Futaro as well.

OUR TAKE

Funimation decided to bless us with a double episode this week, wrapping up the “Seven Goodbyes” three parter a little earlier than I initially expected. In addition to wrapping up this particular storyline, this also puts many plotlines to bed and sets up a few more. The “Kintaro” disguise is officially retired since Nino sees through it (though credit to Futaro for at least TRYING to come clean, even if he wasn’t given the chance), but it seems now that Nino herself has joined the Falling for Futaro bandwagon along with Miku and Ichika. I guess we’ll see how that plays out as we go into the other two thirds of this season, but with now at least three players on the board, things are definitely going to start accelerating.

We also have a little bit more insight as to who “Rena” is, confirming to the audience that she is actually one of the quints in disguise. Having read the manga, I know which one it is, but like the differing hair color in the anime messing with some of the humor from the manga, hiding one of their voices would definitely be difficult. Thankfully, even if you know which voice to listen for, both the sub and dub do a pretty good job of hiding who this person is with a different take. There are obviously some people you can definitely rule out right away, but I’ll leave that guessing to you readers for now. Suffice it to say that this will be an ongoing mystery for the rest of the season, so we’ll have plenty of time to get back to it.

And lastly, I still find myself a little confused as to what the “Seven Goodbyes” is referring to. My first guess by the end of the fourth episode was that the first two goodbyes were from Nino and Itsuki, followed by all five sisters saying goodbye to the apartment…but then there’s also Futaro saying goodbye as their tutor, albeit temporarily, and Nino saying goodbye to both her love for “Kintaro” and her past, but then Futaro kinda had five goodbyes, so altogether that adds up to about…fourteen goodbyes?! “Seven Goodbyes” definitely sounds cooler, I just wish it was a bit more clear on which ones were the ones to focus on. But that wraps up the first third of this second season, now onto some more juicy developments!