The manga “The Bride of the Fifth Class” is scheduled to be released as a theatrical movie in 2022. This work was serialized in Weekly Shonen Magazine until the 12th issue of 2020 by Haruba Negi-sensei, and the TV anime was produced until its second season.
One of the highlights of this work is that the five heroines were quintuplet sisters, and at the time of serialization, there was heated debate over who would be the bride who would marry the hero, Futaro Uesugi.
Similarly in the anime series, the interaction and relationship between the heroines and Futaro has been further deepened, and the movie to be released next year is sure to be a big hit. So this time, I hope to introduce the story of this film in chronological order!
As such, this article will include the contents up to the last 14 volumes of the original comics. For those who have not yet read the original work or have only watched the anime series, please note that it contains spoilers for future developments.
The beginning of the story: Meeting the five children to the forest school.
Encounter with the quintuplets
From the start of the story, it was already indicated that Futaro would marry one of the quintuplets in the future, and from the beginning there was a lot of talk about who that bride would be. However, even if they do get married in the future, there is a lot to be said for how they get used to each other.
In the introduction of this story, we meet Futaro, a poor student who orders “yakiniku teishoku (set meal without yakiniku),” which is a very economical lunch, even though it is served in a high school cafeteria, where he can eat cheaply. The story begins when Futaro, a poor student, is asked to tutor Ichika Nakano, Futano Nakano, Sanku Nakano, Yoko Nakano, and Mayuki Nakano, who are on the verge of failing school.
However, it is a different story if we are to ask whether the relationship was good and successful from the beginning. Futaro had a tendency to say things that would offend others without meaning to, and because of this, he was misunderstood and was not allowed to teach them.
And now to the midterm exam.
He struggles but opens his heart to each of his sisters by confronting them head-on, and then we move on to the midterm examination episode when he goes to see fireworks at the summer festival. Here, too, a test befell Futaro. If he fails to show results, their father informs him that he will be asked to quit tutoring the quintuplets.
He is living in poverty and has debts, so it would be very bad if his income were to be cut off. He becomes impatient, and tells May, with whom he has not yet established a good relationship, that he should just shut up and do as he says, and suddenly he is given a yellow light to clear his conditions.
After that, he stays over to help the other three students study, except for Ninoh, who was still uncooperative at that point, and May, whose relationship had soured due to his earlier comment, and manages to repair his relationship with May before the midterm exam.
The results were still too early to tell, so of course they were all disappointing. If even one student gets a red mark, Futaro has to quit, and the story seems to end here.
However, it was Futano who came to the rescue. She told him that all five of them had avoided red marks in all five subjects, which allowed him to continue tutoring the quintuplets by the skin of his neck.
Nevertheless, it seemed like a big improvement, considering that they had all scored 100 on the first test Futaro gave them. And even though the result was a lie, it is an undeniable fact that each of the five children avoided a red mark in one subject each. We moved on to the forest school episode around what would happen in the future.
Sisters become aware of their fondness for Futaro
In the following episode at the forest school, I got the impression that some of the sisters were becoming more and more aware of their feelings for Futaro.
It was also around this time that Futaro, who does not seem to have many friends, seemed to be enthusiastically taking part in the committee for the “Liver Test,” suggesting that not only the quintuplets, but also Futaro himself, may be changing.
Of particular note was the campfire dance on the last day. Legend has it that the pair who danced together (or held hands) at the finale of the dance would be together for the rest of their lives.
The “legend of the knot” has swept various relationships into motion. Ichika was invited by a boy (*Maeda) who believed in the legend, but at that time, Sanju happened to be disguised as Ichika and told her that he would dance with Futaro to refuse the invitation. From this point on, a serious situation arises.
Futano, who mistook Futaro’s blonde wig for someone else (*Kintaro, a relative of Futaro’s, is unmistakably Futaro himself) during a masquerade for a test of courage at a forest school, became concerned, and Ichika seemed to be clearly aware of her feelings for Futaro.
Finally, Futaro caught a cold, and all five children concluded at Futaro’s room, perhaps to visit him. It was not clear who became the legendary one.
After this, the heroine race was to accelerate even further.
