English Dub Review: The Quintessential Quintuplets “Sisters War: Part 2”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Ichika’s lie is uncovered and Nino and Miku are unsure how to proceed, so all five sisters chance getting Futaro on a different group for the final day of the trip. But unknown to Miku, the other four including Ichika have put her with Futaro to give her a proper chance to confess her feelings. While the day is fun and Futaro enjoys her bread and praises how far she’s come, she forgoes the confession. Everyone reconciles and, in the future, Futaro reminisces about the moment he thought his future wife was special: when she forcibly kissed him under the bell.


OUR TAKE

Due to some weird mishap going on at Funimation, this episode got released a day late (though the app will tell you it was up all day yesterday, LIES!), so I had to wait a day to actually cover it! So, how does this finale live up to the last one? Well, it’s kind of emblematic of all the problems this season has had, so it’s rushed from cramming too much plot in, the animation is a bit off, and this portion of the story has not held up particularly well now that we know the ending…or even without knowing that, frankly. I mentioned last time how neither Nino or Ichika came out smelling of roses from everything they’ve been doing recently since formally entering the competition, leaving Miku the one I was rooting for by default. Well, thankfully Ichika’s lie got called out and Nino didn’t get any wins, and everyone came together to give her time to finally say her piece to Futaro…only for her to kneecap herself at the moment of truth due to her own self doubt, but it’s portrayed as a moment of triumph here despite being shown as what was keeping her from coming her out of her room before.

So great, all three of the older sisters who we have seen tear each other and themselves apart to get somewhere with this guy seem to be out of the running now, which makes things feel…rather anti-climactic. Now I’m fully aware that just the fact that they may not get with Futaro does not mean that the development they all went through was meaningless. They are all fleshed out people with arcs of their own outside of him, he’s just been a catalyst. But while Ichika and Nino felt rightfully doomed in how they handled things, Miku taking herself off the board feels less like the culmination of her own arc and more like self-sabotage. As much as I like her as a character, I was never a huge Miku supporter, but this still feels like she was robbed. Even more so when we get into what the third season and/or movie will get into. But I guess in terms of having this be a season finale, it’s not nearly as good a landing as last season, but I guess it does its job…well enough? It’s just that’s not the feeling I was hoping to be at by this point. But let’s look back on it all with the season review next week.