The Quintessential Quintuplets volume 11 - Negi Haruba

 The 11th volume, and we are now moving "beyond" the anime regular seasons and into the territory of the closing movie.

However, with still 4 books to go, that means a lot of extra material will be in these volumes, as previously it took about 5 books per season with extra material in it.

 

It starts with the sisters showing off how they love to be seen as identical when they where younger, taking it as a compliment.  During a trip, Yotsuba gets seperated and that leads to the fatefull meeting with a young Futaro, making them vow to each other to study hard to make better livings for their family as they graduate.  But when their mom passes away, their current father takes them in, sending them to a prestigious school.

 

At first, Yotsuba has the best grades, but as she joins more and more clubs to please people, her grades start dwindling to the point she is to be expelled from school.  But her sisters step up for her, choosing to transfer together with her. As she meets Futaro again on that first day of school, she remembers him, but doesn`t say a thing.  As she reflects on how she helped her sisters out to get closer to him, all the while supporting them, she states to herself she still loves him after all that time.

However, the quintuplets are moving back to their old place, as their appartment is scheduled for rebuilding.  In the meantime though, Futaro is actually enjoying himself with his classmates at the beach, realising he changed for the better through them.  But he also confesses to himself it would have been more fun had the sisters been there.

The sisters themselves go to the pool, and run into Futaro there as he has been invited by one of them.  Miku and Nino throw themselves at him.  Later on, Ichika tells the group she is planning to quit school and focus on her acting career.  But Futaro convinces her to take a leave of abscence instead, private tutoring her in order that she can graduate with her sisters.

So this first book on which the movie draws already had tons of extra material, which is a fun thing to read for sure.  Sadly, only three left to go before I have to say farewell to the story... and the Nakano's.