The Quintessential Quintuplets: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

The Quintessential Quintuplets: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

A must-have premium edition for series fans.

The Quintessential Quintuplets is a romantic-comedy anime filled to the brim with entertaining hijinks in the vein of series like the classic Tenchi Muyo. The series features animation by Tezuka Productions (How Not to Summon a Demon Lord, The New Adventures of Kimba The White Lion). Based on the original manga written by Negi Haruba (who also handled the illustrations), The Quintessential Quintuplets is good-fun: it has plenty of charm for fans of comedies and slice-of-life gems.

Futaro Uesugi (Yoshitsugu Matsuoka) is a average student (except that all of his grades are exceedingly good – in that arena, he is exceptional). Futaro is having a peaceful lunch all by himself when he ends up meeting an unexpected guest: a girl who is part of a quintuplet of sisters. The group consists of Nino Nakano (Ayana Taketatsu), Yotsuba Nakano (Ayane Sakura), Itsuki Nakano (Inori Minase), Ichika Nakano (Kana Hanazawa), and Miku Nakano (Miku Itō). Each girl is a handful and the unexpected comedy ensues. As the girls struggle with their grades, Futaro has a big task ahead: becoming their tutor. As the story unfolds, it is revealed that Futaro eventually marries one of the quintuplets – but which one?

The animation is outstanding. The Quintessential Quintuplets is a beautiful looking production. The art direction by Masami Saitô (Romeo x Juliet, Allison & Lillia) delivers on so many levels. The fine art utilized across the background imagery is impressive for a comedy anime. The situational comedy is often at the quintuplets place and the art style used for the environment was highly effective. There certainly is something special about the animators efforts on the series. The cinematography by Kazumasa Someya (Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, Matoi the Sacred Slayer) also gives the series a very bright and cheerful appearance: the anime never seems overburdened by dark imagery and is instead cheerful good fun.

An awesome box-set: an art book, art cards, and more!

Another area where the animation excelled was the character designs. Michinosuke Nakamura and Gagakuga designed the characters and the results are impressive. Each of the quintuplets has a distinctive fashion style and appearance. These characters are not so cookie-cutter that the characters simply blend together. Rather, the efforts at designing the core cast of characters for the anime format are appreciated.

One of the other enjoyable elements of the production is the music. Though it is a light and airy music score, it charms and gives the comedy a nice back-drop to rest on. The scores are composed by Hanae Nakamura (Downtown Rocket, Captain Cook's Banquet) , Miki Sakurai (Diary of Our Days at the Breakwater, The Demon Girl Next Door), and Natsumi Tabuchi (The Urara of Labyrinth Town, Aggretsuko). The talented team of composers brought something nice to the table in each episode.

The series explores a lot of comedic concepts. The cast of characters are fun and charming. This is a goofy and fun-spirited production. The screenplays are simple but charming. Featuring a story by Keiichirō Ōchi (My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU, Our Home's Fox Deity), The Quintessential Quintuplets is one of the (many) anime series which revolves around a nerd-guy surrounded by an enormous amount of beautiful ladies. The comedy begins there.

Directed by Satoshi Kuwabara (Adachi and Shimamura, Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions), The Quintessential Quintuplets is a charming series on so many levels. There are never episodes crumbling under the weight of bad-writing or absurd, outlandish jokes. The characters are quite entertaining. Kuwabara did a commendable job making the series something enjoyable for fans of romantic, comedic, and slice-of-life genres. The Quintessential Quintuplets is worth checking out.

The Quintessential Quintuplets: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Funimation, Quintessential Quintuplets: Season 1 is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition in the original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen. Throughout the entire presentation, the high quality encoding managed to bring the best out of the production. The animation looks downright superb. The bright, vivid, and colorful art style is well suited for a high-definition presentation and the results on this release are truly stunning. This is an impressive effort from Funimation. There are no egregious encoding issues to report (and banding is barely an issue).

The Quintessential Quintuplets: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Blu-ray release features two lossless audio options: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 with English subtitles. Either lossless option will provide viewers with a listening experience that doesn't sacrifice on quality. The English dub sounds rather pleasing in surround sound. Though the series has a strong emphasis on dialogue reproduction, the comical and zany scenes in the series feature some fun surround-activity that makes good use of the rear channels. The enveloping nature of the presentation makes the series more fun. The music score also comes through with the precision that one expects from a high quality encode. Kudos to Funimation for another excellent effort.

The Quintessential Quintuplets: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Please Note: The release is a Blu-ray + DVD + Digital combo pack release. The digital code is included inside of the package.

The release is housed in a collectors edition premium art box. Inside of the package, fans will find a number of enticing goodies to make the premium set worthwhile: a set of 5 collectible art cards, 1 heavy duty art card with extra character art, and an extensive art book. These are great items to entice fans of the series. For any fans seeking a more well-rounded package, this is clearly a fun collectors edition that adds real value to the collection.

On disc extras are as follows:

Disc 1:

Episode 1 Audio Commentary

Disc 2:

The Quintessential Quintuplets Game (HD, 17:21) brings together the cast: Felecia Angelle (voice of Miku), Jill Harris (voice of Nino), Bryn Apprill (voice of Yotsuba), Tia Ballard (voice of Itsuki), and Lindsay Seidel (voice of Ichika) sit down together for a fun discussion (turned in to a zany game!) about the anime series.

Textless Opening Song (HD, 1:32)

Textless Closing Song (HD, 1:31)

The Quintessential Quintuplets: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Quintessential Quintuplets is a thoroughly entertaining anime. The concept is silly but fun. In some respects, it is like an animated How I Met Your Mother. The series lets viewers know that the main character ends up with one of the quintuplets in the end but viewers will have to keep on guessing. Even in to season two (which is currently delayed due to the circumstances of COVID). Full of entertaining episodes, The Quintessential Quintuplets is worth a watch. The Blu-ray release has a strong video-audio presentation.

The collectors edition package for The Quintessential Quintuplets: Season 1 includes an art box, art book, and art cards. The premium edition release is well worth owning for serious fans of this zany anime. Highly recommended.