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Itsuki Nakano

Itsuki Nakano (中野五月, Nakano Itsuki) is one of the main characters in The Quintessential Quintuplets and the youngest of the quintuplet sisters, alongside Ichika, Nino, Miku, and Yotsuba Nakano. She is the first quintuplet that Futaro Uesugi meets, and their relationship remains complicated throughout the series.

Itsuki is intelligent, confident, and sometimes stubborn and headstrong. She is very close to her sisters and often takes on a protective role, particularly concerning their father Maruo Nakano’s expectations for their academic success. She is also passionate about food and aspires to pursue a career related to it.

Over the course of the series, Itsuki experiences significant personal growth as she confronts her feelings for Futaro and navigates her relationships with her sisters. Her arc emphasizes themes of family, personal development, and the challenges of adolescence.

“
I am one of the quintuplets, and… your student!
 ”
Itsuki Nakano

Appearance

Itsuki is a serious-looking girl with medium-length hair and an expressive ahoge. Her hair color ranges from light pink to salmon pink in Volume 1, and deep orange to oriental red in Volume 4. She wears a pair of star-shaped hairpins near her eyes, which Futaro Uesugi once called unfashionable. Like her sisters, Itsuki has dark blue eyes, an average height, and a well-endowed figure. She often wears glasses in class or during academic activities.

Itsuki is considered cute by her classmates and, according to Shimoda, bears a strong resemblance to Rena Nakano. She usually wears her uniform without accessories, like most female students, though she occasionally carries a handbag.

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Personality

Itsuki is a serious and earnest girl who usually wakes up earlier than her sisters. She is well-mannered, never late, never absent, and consistently speaks in a formal tone. In the Japanese script, she almost exclusively uses keigo. Nino, her older sister, even remarks that Itsuki is too straight-laced.

She is someone who bears grudges, shown when she initially rejects Futaro’s tutoring partly because of a past quarrel. Itsuki also struggles to be honest with herself and finds it difficult to express her true feelings. These traits often cause her to deal with problems alone. She becomes easily agitated, whether due to unfavorable situations, frightening things, or her own stubborn tendencies.

Itsuki has a notably large appetite and is often seen eating or feeling hungry throughout the series. She can be a bit unfair toward her sisters when food is involved, as shown when she suggested sharing their cakes, an idea Ichika suspected was her way of sampling every flavor.

According to Futaro, each Nakano sister has unique habits when it comes to their worksheets. For Itsuki, she prefers using an eraser rather than scribbling on them.

Ability

Itsuki is often praised for being diligent, performing tasks with precision and care. She is perceptive, attentive, and possesses a strong sense of detail. Despite these strengths, she has a terrible sense of direction, first highlighted when she felt cold and accidentally wandered into Nino’s futon. She also has poor eyesight and frequently wears glasses. Itsuki’s observation and deduction skills are impressive, and she consistently scores high on exams compared to her sisters, with Science being her strongest subject.

However, despite her strong reasoning skills, she was the last among the quintuplets to realize Miku’s feelings for Futaro.

Trivia

  • Itsuki is the only girl whose name is a portmanteau (a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others, for examplemotel(from ‘motor’ and ‘hotel’) orbrunch(from ‘breakfast’ and ‘lunch’)) as the nameItsukimeans “five” (五) (itsu) and “moon” (月) (tsuki).
  • Itsuki is seen wearing glasses when she’s about to do a test (Chapter 2), suggesting she has hyperopia (far-sightedness). In Chapter 3 with Futaro Uesugi, he remarks that Itsuki can’t see far away, suggesting she has myopia (near-sightedness). Despite sharing eye problems withNino Nakano, only Itsuki wears glasses.
  • She and Nino seem to be the most similar to each other among the quintuplets (both of them do sit-ups in the morning, have long hair, poor eyesight, a fear of needles, and a tsundere-like personality, being initially harsh to Futaro). Both of them are also close to each other and often seen hanging out, and Nino is very vocal and protective regarding Itsuki.
  • Itsuki believes in fate and charms.[39][40]
  • Itsuki’s notable accessories are two stars on the front of her hair, representing number 5, which is a part of her name and the order of her birth.
  • Itsuki won 3rd place on the Japanese popularity poll with 1235 votes.[41]
  • Itsuki’s food critic pseudonym,May(M·A·Y?) literally means May in English, as in the fifth month of the year. The Kanji ofItsuki(五月?) is also used for “May” in Japanese.
  • Itsuki is the secondNakano Quintupletto get her picture taken alongside Futaro. However, she is the first Nakano to have a picture with Futaro taken properly.[42]