This Gotoubun no Hanayome 2 review contains spoilers. If you haven't seen the chapters, we recommend that you do so and then go back to read the review.
Gotoubun no Hanayome 2 - Chapter 11: Sister Warfare (Part 1)
As the outing approaches, Futaro goes shopping with Raiha, where she not only receives advice from her younger sister but also reminds her to give the quintuplets a birthday present. At that moment they meet Yotsuba and Itsuki, who are also shopping. While Raiha Itsuki helped choose the underwear, Futaro stood in front of the store and spoke to Yotsuba. And between the conversations came the subject of Rena, Futaro's first love. Though they haven't discussed it thoroughly.
On the excursion in Kyoto, after receiving warnings and messages from the teachers, the students were able to follow the path that their group of five members had decided. So the quintuplets started following Futaro's group from afar. However, you lose sight of him and assume he is at the top of the hill. When the path splits in two, Yotsuba will walk next to Miku on the right path while Ichika, Nino and Itsuki will walk on the left path.
On the way up, Itsuki and Nino stop to go to the bathroom, an opportunity Ichika uses to find Futaro at the top. She disguises herself as Miku again. However, in the end, he meets Miku and Yotsuba on the spot, which creates a big problem and discussion between the sisters. The ending ends with Nino facing Ichika while Yotsuba and Futaro eventually return to the hotel when Miku and Itsuki returned from shock earlier.
The next day, Miku stayed in her room while her sisters enjoyed the excursion. However, Nino stayed behind as well, posing as Miku in order to deceive the teachers. Because she wanted to talk to Miku about what had happened the day before. Well, he took advantage of the great opportunity this excursion presented, which appealed to him as it appeared that his rival was pulling out of his own free will.
Indecipherable like the shadows
First of all, I would like to announce two things. The first, in this "review" as in the previous ones, I will speak from my point of view about what happened in the chapter in question. There may be times when you mention the topic more objectively in general, as in most cases with topics like animation. However, fairness is not the focus of my "ratings". Finally, I want to express how I saw and felt what happened in the plot and with the characters. Either as a fan, reader, or other viewer of the work, both this and other anime. Everyone has their own personal opinion and this may differ from mine. In case you find my brainwashing attempt more than once. The second is that this will certainly contain a lot of text. I hope you are prepared.
I'll talk about the bow. 'Sisters war'what was more than obvious would appear at some point in the plot. After all, this is an anime haremSo I expected something like this to happen to add drama to the story. While I like harem endings in anime, I just as like to see that there is a "separator" to choose a single winner. Regardless of whether the winner was the team they supported or not, as long as it is well developed and implemented. Until now Gotoubun no Hanayome He did a great job of establishing the bonds between the quintuplets and the protagonist, but it's too early for the "Separation" part.
Gotoubun no Hanayome 2 It is not an anime in which the protagonist can afford a harem ending as he is more attached to "reality" (the reality that I detest). This is not harem With fantasy in which the protagonist can have more than one sentimental partner because it is normal in this world. Futaro must choose a path if it does not want to end with an open end and / or as harem generic plus.
As I mentioned before, it has seemed that way to me so far Gotoubun no Hanayome created the bonds between the heroines and the protagonist in the plot very well. Therefore for me Gotoubun no Hanayome 2 - Chapter 11 was a roller coaster ride of emotions. To the point that I didn't feel a straight path on the tracks for the entire episode. I've always been between highs and lows, some a lot steeper than others. I couldn't find a moment of calm.
Fivefold discrimination
The biggest problem with the characters and their development in the series is the interpretation that can be given to them. As it can change due to several factors but the ones to blame most in my opinion are the translation on subtitles, the words / phrases with more than one meaning (similar or not) and of course everyone's personal understanding. To the point that even the same character as two can look completely different depending on who you ask.
Let's take Ichika as an example and everything he's done so far in the plot, from both the first and second seasons. During the first season, Ichika began to develop feelings for Futaro due to the different circumstances. Feelings that he put aside when he saw Miku's obvious feelings for him. Coming to support her younger sister in several ways. In Gotoubun no Hanayome 2Ichika took to the streets as another contender in the love rivalry. Even if his methods weren't the best.
in the Gotoubun no Hanayome 2 - Chapter 11, during the confrontation between Ichika and Nino, the words Ichika says may sound aggressive as it seemed like he was just trying to make Miku cry. But if you think about them carefully, they can have a second meaning, loved a little more, but not enough to atone for it.
Finally, even though she found herself in this uncomfortable situation of disguising herself as Miku in front of the real Miku and Yotsuba, Ichika tried to stop Yotsuba's words as she was unaware of Futaro's presence. Again, the same action can be interpreted in different ways. Given the possibility, it may have been a desperate or impromptu move to keep Miku from gaining even more ground with Futaro. Personally, I interpreted her attempt to silence Yotsuba positively as an older sister. So that Miku still had the chance to confess her feelings.
The character interpretation applies not only to Ichika, but also to the others, including Miku, of course. Well, she also had more than one moment when her words or actions could have more than one meaning. For example, when he told Ichika that he would do his best to stay with Futaro and that she could do the same. At that moment I saw it as if Miku was accepting her as a rival who would fight fair so that Ichika would not be left alone with her older sister supporting her. Not that he literally gave her permission to do anything to stay with him. It reminded me of the typical challenging word "hit me". You technically gave him permission to do so, but it was more of a sarcastic than literal way.
Of course, the number of such situations is much lower in Miku than in Ichika. I think Miku has continued to develop over the two seasons. Ichika felt that she had her high and important points, but she stopped her development in her footsteps so that she would continue to be the older sister who supported Miku.
By that I don't mean that Ichika has poor character development or that Miku deserves to stay with Futaro for having that development. Just like I am not asking Ichika for further development, because that would completely change the plot of the series. For example, if Ichika had confessed to having used his popularity, this arc of 'Sisters war“I think it would have been completely different. It would keep happening, but not in the same way, especially because of the near-zero drama that I think there would be an arc with a hypothetical change in the development of an individual character.
Both have their pros and cons, but it's much easier to find the positives in your favorite while the others are easier to spot the negatives. Everything as if it were some kind of complacency.
In any case, the mighty Yotsuba, who made great strides with Futaro, shouldn't be overlooked. Mainly because he took over his sisters' leadership without them knowing. This time it was the revelation that she is the "Rena" that Futaro met 6 years ago in Kyoto. Its also his first love. The Rena thing seemed obvious to me for a long time, there were several clues / details indicating that it was so.
By the way, one positive aspect of Yotsuba is that she also supports her sisters with regard to Futaro. in the Gotoubun no Hanayome 2 - Chapter 11 supported Miku more directly, but in previous episodes He also helped Ichika. To be Yotsuba, who helped him decide not to be a support anymore and to become another rival. Although this aspect seems negative to me in Yotsuba as well, as it does not enter the competition directly, although it could easily do so.
General details in Gotoubun no Hanayome 2 - Chapter 11
As well as Gotoubun no Hanayome 2 - Chapter 11 kept me on a roller coaster because of the plot, the animation did the same thing in its own way. Having a few great quality scenes while the vast majority barely accepted what was acceptable. However, I appreciate two things: that the important scenes were of good quality, and that the "additional characters" were silhouettes. I sincerely prefer the filling and unimportant characters in the story (who only appear in the background in the scenes) to look like cardboard silhouettes to get a good quality in what is really important than trying to detail those characters to give and exit decreasing the overall quality of the animation.
The lighting on the stages has improved in my opinion compared to the previous chapters. It's not perfect, but the shadows don't feel as jagged anymore. If you just take the one where the quintuplets go through all of these torii I would have had more light and shadow details, it would have been my favorite scene. But since it wasn't like that, I liked it the most Gotoubun no Hanayome 2 - Chapter 11 saw Miku cry. Mainly because the moments in the first shot were always of a better quality than the others. The scene wasn't badly lit, but it couldn't be compared to the rays of light I could imagine in the scene torii. Although this "closeness" from Nino also helped him a bit. Be my moment Yuri the consequence.
To be honest, I hope there's a third season of Gotoubun no Hanayomebecause there is still enough story to tell. There are also details in Gotoubun no Hanayome 2 - Chapter 11, which may suggest a continuation. Most of all, though, I hope there is a sequel that prevents it from ending with an open ending or feeling constrained.
And as we ask, I'd love this hypothetical sequel to show alternate endings for each of the quintuplets. Something like what happened in the manga of Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai (something that I would of course also like to see animated OVAyes, but that speaks of another series).
