(L) 5-Toubun no Hanayome

[Lex79]

I'm going with 18 chapters, ending at the same time as the anime.

[RDNexus]

Given previous track record with stories of this kind, what could be the chances of Fuutarou choosing Yotsuba now only to, a few chapters later, realize there's another girl who might be THE ONE?

[Chosen_Hero]

Sigh, this is basically Haganai all over again, there are 3 girls that clearly like the MC and have practically confessed and others that never had the same kind development. Then the writer, after developing the 3 the most chooses the "safe" option that isn't one of the 3 to not make a real choice between the ones that have made the most impact.

[Ichinotachi]

^But on Haganai the MC ended up alone.

[Chosen_Hero]

^the writer still made him make a choice when it mattered and chose to not choose any of the ones that were putting an effort and that he was developing/developed. The MC ending up alone was just the last rusty nail on the series coffin.

[Marcus H.]

Based on the reactions of Japanese fans on the developments of 113, I assure you, they are just as perplexed as most of you are. Some even say that they would be pleased if it would be "anyone but Yotsuba" and they called her "the girl who keeps on running away".

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[shanimebib]

^I dunno. Yotsuba is now getting quite the stick everywhere but I cannot say that this was not expected. It's basically the more vocal Miku and Nino fans following the forums/twitters.

But I can assure that it would have been significantly higher if it were any other quint. We are talking about fans' "second pick" here. I have noticed in almost everywhere Yotsuba was the least disliked overall and read comments like if my girl doesn't win, I want it to be Yotsuba at least. But now that she has won, everyone is upset that their favourite didn't win. You cannot expect this not to happen.

Don't get me wrong. I am still bitter that it was not Miku. For the first time in a long while, I desperately wanted two girls to win in two harem manga I have been following week-in week-out. The last time I felt like this was in KamiNomi. But I am just gonna accept it with a bit of sadness. Although, I have to admit I found myself in a bit of an odd position seeing Nino cry. That was harder to see than seeing Miku coming in to comfort her.

The two of them comforting each other and accepting it with broken hearts felt like Negi's way to telling the two biggest fanbases to accept it and move on.

[runset]

Originally Posted by Chosen_Hero

^the writer still made him make a choice when it mattered and chose to not choose any of the ones that were putting an effort and that he was developing/developed. The MC ending up alone was just the last rusty nail on the series coffin.

The latest chapter of the still running manga right now deviated greatly from the original LN storyline.

Spoiler for spoiler:

The scene where kodaka accepted yukimura confession in the LN, in the latest chapter of the manga he just firmly rejected yukimura confession and we don't know where the story will go from there...

Also for yotsuba.... is there any chance that maybe he will ended up with another girl in the end? For now maybe they will started going out and maybe by some circumstances they broke off and he ended up with another quint?

[DragoonKain3]

Originally Posted by Kuroageha

Only 14 users voted for Yotsuba on this thread.

Feels good.

Feels good indeed!

Originally Posted by Sixth

If anything, masamune-kun revenge has taught me is don't celebrate until the manga is actually ended.

PREACH! Don't count out 'main girl' unless she's like dead (and maybe not even then lol). Yotsuba may be in the driver seat right now, but Itsuki is still very scary. I'm not falling in the same trap meido shippers were in... XD

Originally Posted by usspaul

what i dont like about either of the yots and itsuki winning is you give the least developed girls the win.

Imagine what you're feeling and multiply it by 100. That's how I felt with Ichigo 100% - I still feel butthurt about that to this day, over a decade after the fact! Aya was pretty much forefront focused for at least 2/3rds of the manga, then Nishino (who already broke up with MC early in the manga) somehow wins from behind? Yeah, @!$% that >_>

On the other hand, Ichigo 100% did teach me that "screentime" does not necessarily mean better chances to win, and as such one shouldn't get emotionally invested in an LI just because she's getting more panels. This is especially true when the author said he wanted to write a manga that's like Ichigo 100%... XD

Originally Posted by 1001010

Once you really think about, the fight was never fair and that one interview confirms it. The one where the editor revealed that the entire premise of this manga was about Fuuts reuniting with his past love, but not knowing who she is from the get-go because she's a quintuplet.

You don't know how much as I jumping in joy when I read that interview (or as much a 'despairfag' would be jumping XD). As I said before, if there was one thing I truly deeply believed in, is that the opening pages of c1/c33 already spoiled who the bride is, and this interview was merely confirmation of that. Of course, at that time I did NOT debate anything outside of the story (so much easier to debate that way), so I just 'celebrated' in silence.

Of course, now that we're near the end of the manga, I guess it's a good time to actually go back with his interviews. In fact, before that editor interview, there was an interview before where Negi specifically said something to the likes of "He wanted to make such a manga himself so he thought about what is necessary and unnecessary". That was so weirdly phrased it got my attention immediately. Thinking about it, Negi wanted to make a manga about what is "necessary" and "unnecessary". And who in this manga is connected with those words? Fuutarou and KG of course!

So yeah, with two things from interview that is pro-KG, it just made the subsequent Negi interview where he said "I don't like heroines who liked the MC from the beginning" to be damage control to me.

Oh yeah, another interview also said Ayaneru was originally planned to reprise all the roles, but they deemed it too difficult. I could understand if they didn't have her reprise ANY role (or heck maybe even just the bride), but her reprising as Yotsuba was super duper fishy even with my "There's no way that'd happen" mindset.

Overall, I'd say I was happy with the interviews hinting at KG being a major part in the plot (especially when naysayers were saying "Fuutarou already moved on" or what have you). The only thing that scared me was that Negi ALSO said he doesn't like the 'main heroine' archetype, which is too much on the nose just like the "I don't like heroines who liked MC from the beginning". Which is the reason why I think Itsuki still has a shot at this, if even just a long one.



As an aside, there was also an interview where Negi admitted that the reason why Miku was given the first "story focus" was because she placed last, in an unreleased poll about the one-shot. He was so happy that Miku went from last place to first place because of his efforts. This means that indeed, Negi DOES use popularity polls to affect his writing, but only because he wants to raise the popularity of the worst ranking quint.

Why is this relevant? In the official poll, Nino placed last. Any wonder why she got wanked so hard in the middle of the story?

Another interview had Negi deciding on an antagonist sometime around SE arc, and he said he couldn't put Ituski/Nino because they already had an antagonists role already. So he said he had to choose between Miku, Ichika and Yotsuba, and he chose Ichika.

In any case, from the interviews, Ichika/Nino/Miku have been given story focus because of factors outside of the ongoing plot, and NOT because their parts was actually integral. Their contributions to the plot wasn't premeditated, and thus if the 'winner' has been decided from the very beginning, it's very unlikely to be any of them.


And with that, I think that covers just about everything why I always felt Yotsuba/Itsuki was endgame, including stuff outside of the actual story itself. I'm glad Yotsuba now is definitely part of endgame, now all I can do is wait to see if my fear of Itsuki is unfounded. Will expand on the reasons why I don't think Yotsuba end is a confirmed yet once direct from JP translations are online... hopefully that's soon as I can't sleep the past few nights lol.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by Chosen_Hero

Sigh, this is basically Haganai all over again, there are 3 girls that clearly like the MC and have practically confessed and others that never had the same kind development. Then the writer, after developing the 3 the most chooses the "safe" option that isn't one of the 3 to not make a real choice between the ones that have made the most impact.

Please, Haganai is far better written than this. The writer here literally just pointlessly wrecked his own characters for nothing, starting with Ichika. Haganai was simply non-committal but none of the girls were pointlessly expended or screwed over to no end

[Lex79]

Originally Posted by xrick

Given previous track record with stories of this kind, what could be the chances of Fuutarou choosing Yotsuba now only to, a few chapters later, realize there's another girl who might be THE ONE?

Maybe if we were still in the middle of the story. Not now.

[devil_slayer]

Originally Posted by Lex79

Maybe if we were still in the middle of the story. Not now.

Inb4 Nagi writs 100 chapters more.

[WingedAccelerator]

The only way Yotsuba can lose this is by treating Fuutarou's feelings as not LOVE, but serious necessary complex. He wants to be together with her not because he loves her, but he thinks she needs him to be there for her.

I don't think this will happen at all given how he smiled there at the end, but who knows. Just wish Negi wouldn't retcon Scrambled Eggs completely, because I still can't fathom Maeda's question this chapter, which heavily suggests that Fuutarou actually recognized Yotsuba first, but somehow he only talked about Miku in his monologue in Chapter 68 or how he was able to see through Miku's disguise to Ichika in Chapter 74. The only thing that comes to my mind is how KG flashed before him during the date with Yotsuba, but Itsuki also got that in the hospital.

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

As an aside, there was also an interview where Negi admitted that the reason why Miku was given the first "story focus" was because she placed last, in an unreleased poll about the one-shot. He was so happy that Miku went from last place to first place because of his efforts. This means that indeed, Negi DOES use popularity polls to affect his writing, but only because he wants to raise the popularity of the worst ranking quint.

Why is this relevant? In the official poll, Nino placed last. Any wonder why she got wanked so hard in the middle of the story?

As far as I'm aware, Negi only said it on Twitter that Miku was the least popular after the Oneshot, yet won the official poll. There is nothing about giving her first story focus because of the Oneshot. Ichika won the Oneshot poll, yet got destroyed progressively in the story for no reason. Also, your Nino logic is also flawed. The poll started around Chapter 49, August, results came in Chapter 59, October. Nino placed last, despite Seven Goodbyes almost being finished in the magazine. Understandable, because it was a recent arc, and she had no time to gather new fans. Yotsuba placed second, because her date chapters came out in Volume 5, July, while Volume 6, containing 9 chapters of Seven Goodbyes and finishing it, came out in September. One month after the poll has started. By the time Nino could have had more votes, most people probably already voted for someone else. The timing of that poll was no good for her at all.

[256]

This whole juice thing is dumb. Apparently everything was already over in 102 and nothing in the last 3 months mattered.
Fuutarou didn't give a single fuck about Nino's kiss.
Ichika kissed him after he made it seem like she has a chance and she already knew she lost a second after that.
Fuutarou just laid there and took it when Miku kissed him even though he already made his decision.
Why not make him buy the juice at the start of this chapter?
If Negi wanted to keep the "I don't have money" charade for the karaage coupon to work, then he could've had Takeda treat him and have Fuutarou say "I want juice."
Yotsuba forgetting her phone in the infirmary is also a dumb plot device.

Originally Posted by shanimebib

Negi also started forgetting to make sure Nino having longer nails and colouring her nails, which were her distinctive features etc.

It's the opposite actually.
Nino gave up her nails to be able to work with Fuutarou in the cake shop in 71, as that's a no-no when working with food professionally.
He confirmed it was his concious decision for chapter 71 when somebody asked him on twitter few months later.
This was never confirmed, but I've noticed that he also did that for Scrambled Eggs to make Nino indistinguishable from her sisters when disguised. That was also the reason why Fuutarou had to look at her toenails which were still painted.
Combined with cutting her hair, he really wrecked her design and I hate him for it.

Originally Posted by WingedAccelerator

Just wish Negi wouldn't retcon Scrambled Eggs completely, because I still can't fathom Maeda's question this chapter, which heavily suggests that Fuutarou actually recognized Yotsuba first

This (second to last panel) https://mangadex.org/chapter/642616/10 maybe? A tiny panel in a flashback that we've never seen before.
Makes me wonder what would make her think that she can kiss him in 68 without being distinguished.

[RRW]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I am happy that Yotsuba is the winner. She finally found her happiness (assuming no bait and switch)

Personally I do think all 5 girls have a chance to win and I am pretty satisfied if any of them is the winner. each has its own story to tell how to approach the romance.

Ichika winning mean that Fuutarou willing to give her second chance even after all those problems she causes
Nino winning means that Fuutarou likes her passion for pursuing her (admittedly very shojo) love.
Miku winning mean that Fuutarou admire her gradually character development
Itsuki winning mean Fuutarou value their friendship regarding advising each other as a "teacher".
and of course, Yotsuba winning means he appreciates her continuous support way back from Kyoto days.

We know that Fuutarou is appreciated all of them and "like" them all. But in the end, he only able to chose one.

Honestly, Yotsuba deserves this as much as other quints. Fuutarou as a character value her support and selfless act as an important thing.

I cannot wait for next chapter to know why Fuutarou chose her. I could be a bait and switch but thereis way too much hint for that.

[WingedAccelerator]

How come he values her selflessness, when he also agreed that what she is doing can't be considered normal? It's not a one time thing. He always thought that she should prioritize herself more, but somehow we are going to a direction, where her self-destructive nature won him over, because it's genuine in Fuutarou's eyes? Even though everything is the result of her thinking she is special, she is above the rest of the sisters, then when it's not the case, she just goes and takes up an entirely opposite personality in hopes of making amends forever? I feel like whatever explanation Negi is about to tell us, it's just going to make things worse. It's just going to show the rest of the sisters never stood a chance.

Originally Posted by 256

If Negi wanted to keep the "I don't have money" charade for the karaage coupon to work, then he could've had Takeda treat him and have Fuutarou say "I want juice."

I know that Isanari is not Fuutarou, but when he can buy pancakes for Raiha and himself, it's really ridiculous that Fuutarou being poor is exaggerated to this extent. He was working with Nino and Miku, so even if his payment was gone to hire Ichika, he should have gotten something from both jobs afterwards, if Miku can ask for daily payment to buy him the gym tickets, which he never ended up using. It was all leading up to the moment that only Yotsuba cares about him, even though Miku already said that he should come and eat some pancakes in the festival if he has the time. It's even more sad when I think about it how he said that he supports Miku's decision of going to a cooking school, even if he was reluctant. Miku was dead to him the moment she gave up on going to university.

Originally Posted by 256

This (second to last panel) https://mangadex.org/chapter/642616/10 maybe? A tiny panel in a flashback that we've never seen before.
Makes me wonder what would make her think that she can kiss him in 68 without being distinguished.

If this actually ends up being true, then I call bullshit. This is like the worst, a never ever seen scene. It happens before Chapter 41-42, and Yotsuba never disguised as Nino, so what kind of situation is this? She also has long hair there for some reason, so I really don't get what that panel is supposed to represent? Is she wearing a wig? Well, she acts suspiciously which was Fuutarou's main way of telling her apart, so I can't wait for that to be considered LOVE, even though she easily gives herself away by doing that.

[Lex79]

I don't think that panel has some special meaning other than giving the reason why Rena was played by Itsuki. Yotsuba herself said She was found because of her own inability to lie.

[RRW]

Originally Posted by WingedAccelerator

How come he values her selflessness, when he also agreed that what she is doing can't be considered normal? It's not a one time thing. He always thought that she should prioritize herself more, but somehow we are going to a direction, where her self-destructive nature won him over, because it's genuine in Fuutarou's eyes? Even though everything is the result of her thinking she is special, she is above the rest of the sisters, then when it's not the case, she just goes and takes up an entirely opposite personality in hopes of making amends forever? I feel like whatever explanation Negi is about to tell us, it's just going to make things worse. It's just going to show the rest of the sisters never stood a chance.

Okay, it's not really selfless nature that captures his feeling. but Fuutarou respects how she supports him no matter what since the beginning. Fuutarou notices her self destructive selfless nature is it's time for him to ensure she didn't go that way. In one way, Fuutarou wants to give Yotsuba answer of her effort for all this time.

Also, you contradicting yourself. Her selfless nature makes herself to be "not special" compared to other sisters. she should not get special treatment.

I agree that whatever answer he gives my hurt other girls (and fans) feeling more. but that's the reality. Fuutarou have his own value to make his own decision and you should respect it. We see how the author handles it.

[kona~chan]

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

Feels good indeed!

You don't know how much as I jumping in joy when I read that interview (or as much a 'despairfag' would be jumping XD). As I said before, if there was one thing I truly deeply believed in, is that the opening pages of c1/c33 already spoiled who the bride is, and this interview was merely confirmation of that. Of course, at that time I did NOT debate anything outside of the story (so much easier to debate that way), so I just 'celebrated' in silence.

this, but they changed it in tankoubon version stripped away yotsuba's hints and give it to itsuki instead, for me this pretty much confirmed 5 was only red herring tho.

Oh yeah, another interview also said Ayaneru was originally planned to reprise all the roles, but they deemed it too difficult. I could understand if they didn't have her reprise ANY role (or heck maybe even just the bride), but her reprising as Yotsuba was super duper fishy even with my "There's no way that'd happen" mindset.

this is actually where i suspected yotsuba was the bride. look at anime's production committee 5toubun is pony canyon and kodansha's game, so its easy to think that 1&5 were only guest stars here, lower ranked ZERO-A should be satisfied with what itou miku and uchida aya get, taketatsu belong to pony canyon but the problem is ayaneru is their favorite too and with kodansha originally hired her for manga's CM + the pick of matsuoka as fuutarou at this point its just way too obvious, but since this is before lolikano reveal i can only think "There's no way that'd happen"

[WingedAccelerator]

Originally Posted by Lex79

I don't think that panel has some special meaning other than giving the reason why Rena was played by Itsuki. Yotsuba herself said She was found because of her own inability to lie.

Yes, but Takeda asked which quint did Fuutarou recognize first? Scambled Eggs made a big deal out of it that it was Miku, and it's only the beginning for Fuutarou to start recognizing them. But he picked Yotsuba in the end, possibly indicating that it was actually her all along, that's why I said that can't wait for her inability to lie to be changed to Fuutarou using LOVE all along.

Originally Posted by RRW

Also, you contradicting yourself. Her selfless nature makes herself to be "not special" compared to other sisters. she should not get special treatment.

I don't see the contradiction. She tought she is special, but it turned out not to be the case, when she failed. Then she took an entirely opposite personality up, meaning her selflessless is just a result of that failure and it's not her original, genuine personality.