How I Met Your Mother…and aunt. And aunt. And aunt. And aunt.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Futaro Uesugi (Josh Grelle) wakes up from a dream to go to his wedding, remembering the day he met his beautiful soon-to-be wife.

Back then, he was a bit of a loner in high school, trying to conserve as much money as possible, even for lunch. This is when he met Itsuki Nakano (Tia Ballard), a girl who very much likes to blow money on food. The two are at the others’ throat from the start until the topic exams comes up, as Futaro got a perfect score and Itsuki’s in danger of failing, so she tries asking for some help studying which he outright refuses. That night, Futaro learns of an offer from a rich father to tutor his daughter, which would offer five times the regular rate. Turns out it’s actually Itsuki’s father, much to his horror.

Futaro tries going to apologize to her at lunch, only to find her sitting with what seem to be her friends, who he ends up getting to know as he continues his mission to explain things to Itsuki. The first, Ichika (Lindsay Seidal), is very encouraging. The next, Yotsuba (Brynn April), is very energetic and chipper. The third, Miku (Felecia Angelle) is very stoic. And the last, Nino (Jill Harris), is very aggressive in keeping him away. But eventually, Futaro manages to find Itsuki to tell her he’ll be her tutor. He also gets a bit of a shock as he learns that all the other girls he met are the reason the job pays five times as normal. They’re all identical quintuplets.

His first day on the job doesn’t go much better, as Yotsuba is the only one to show up to the tutoring session. She tries to be helpful by showing him to all of the other sisters’ rooms, but none of them want to study. Eventually he manages to get all except Itsuki to the table, but none of the four are eager to get started. Even worse, Nino drugs his water, knocking him out and sending him on a taxi back home. Luckily, Itsuki decided to join him but warns him to give up now, but he won’t. Just then, Futaro’s own sister, Raiha (Dani Chambers) shows up and convinces her to have dinner with them, which informs her about why they need this job’s money. So, she relents and says he’s free to tutor them.

OUR TAKE

And so begins another harem anime to throw on the pile with the rest of them. However, despite having covered a few of these already and having watched several dozen since the days of Tenchi Muyo on Toonami, this first episode really seems like a breath of fresh air from the rest, beginning with a rather pleasant and charming journey for our hapless male lead and his many potential suitors. I must say I haven’t seen one of these that have all of the girls be directly related to each other before. Usually it’s just one or two siblings of a main girl and that’s it, but this set up allows for each of their growing relationships with Futaro to tie back to the rest’s development, which is a welcome change from things like Conception, where all the girls were practically strangers to each other except in how they were connected to their own protagonist. A low bar, yeah, but it’s the bar I’m at right now.

There’s also the framing device that begins the series, Futaro’s wedding to one of the sisters, which gives us an idea that this story already has a happy ending for one of these girls and probably sad ones for the rest. In the original black and white manga that this is based on, I imagine it was easier to hold the mystery so as not to get people immediately guessing who would be the girl to win, but I’m not so certain things are as obvious as they might appear. Yes, Itsuki has a lot in her favor, being promoted on all the covers and in the opening as the “main girl”, as well as being the first to meet Futaro and their initial friction and eventual reconciling being the main thrust of this first episode…and also the bride’s hair is red like hers, BUUUUUUUUT…

…well, hair dye exists, right? Plus, I’ve seen some harem shows go in unpredictable routes before with a group, so I wouldn’t count the rest of the Nakano’s out just yet. Personally, I’m pulling for Ichika, so that’s where my money is going on the roulette. Though sadly, however long this series will go, I have my doubts it will have much of a conclusion, considering the manga is still ongoing, but stranger things have happened. Maybe they’ll allow this to have an ending and pick a girl to throw people off about who will win in the manga! Either way, definitely a show I’m eager to see progress.

Score 7/10