Pretty Little Liars.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Futaro awakens in horror to find a sleeping Miku beside him, panicking and trying to get out of there before anyone notices. Ichika suggests studying in the library, but sends Futaro back to get Itsuki. Knowing the quintuplets don’t think he can tell them apart, he uses the fact that Itsuki is using Miku’s headphones to pretend that he thinks she’s Miku, which (in a weird opportunity) gives them both a chance to honestly apologize for their fighting yesterday.

Though the next day is the exam, which they oversleep for and have to rush to school. Using their resemblance as a way to fool the teacher guarding the gate, they all manage to arrive at the exam before it begins. Things are looking good…except for the test results. Turns out each of the sisters passed just one section of the test each, but they were all different sections. Unfortunately, this means that Futaro will have to resign as their tutor. That is, until Nino of all people rises to his defense, telling her father that they all passed every section. Which is…TECHNICALLY true, but is not likely to fool their dad again. Still, they’re all showing improvement, even if just a little.

OUR TAKE

This resolves the two parter about the midterms with the expected ending. Like I said, there’s no way Futaro is going to resign only halfway through the season, so that’s not what we’re here to see. What we’re here to see is how things have progressed for the quintuplets and how Futaro will be able to keep his job. The combined 100 on the practice test awhile back was something I found pretty clever (as well as an indicator of where each sisters’ individual interests lied, and so fleshing out their characters a bit more). The results of this midterm show that progress has been made on the academic front, but also on the relationship front, as Futaro’s bonds with all five of the girls has grown since they first began studying.

Besides the obvious crushes two (possibly three?) of the sisters now have on him, these episodes focused mainly on how Itsuki is slowly warming up to him too. Their fight last week brought out the worst in both of them, so this is about how they make up, but because they don’t know how to be honest with each other, they need to resort to roundabout ways of getting the others attention, including Itsuki either disguising as Miku or Futaro pretending to mistake her for Miku. Poor Miku. But it does end up with the two of them making up over some breakfast, so all’s well that ends well. And hey, Nino seems to be making a push towards likability too, if the “Best Girl” polls that came out around the time this episode aired in Japan are any indication.

And besides fixing possible love interest bonds, the quintuplet impersonation game also seems to help get them into class. I’ve made my issues clear regarding how this isn’t translating well to a colored show, but this time makes me think I can let it slide if it’s too fool an old teacher who’s probably already losing his eyesight.

But yeah, hard to believe we’re nearly two thirds through this season. It’s really sped in just a short amount of time, and it’s definitely going to be up there in my list of pleasant surprises when this year of anime is all said and done. It’s certainly been a lot more fun a ride than I expected, so with five episodes left, I’m very much looking forward to seeing where it lands. I just need some significant Ichika progress, dammit!

Score 8/10