‘A Couple of Cuckoos’ Review: Two Teenagers Are Involved In The Strangest Of Engagements
The new anime season is bringing some very cool heavy hitters into your weekly anime content. We have shows like Spy x Family that bring up the comedy and action doses that audiences crave. While the new season of Kingdom transports us back to ancient China to see the dawn of that nation, along with epic giant battles and a lot of political intrigue. All of those things are super fun, and the level of quality present in those shows is staggering. However, they can be a bit too intense for some audiences who only want something more chilled and cute. Here comes A Couple of Cuckoos to bring the romance and the comedy some people crave.
A Couple of Cuckoos is an anime adaptation of the manga series written and illustrated by Miki Yoshikawa, the mind behind other cool manga series like Flunk Punk Rumble and Yamada-Kun and the Seven Witches. The anime is being produced by Shin-Ei Animation and SynergySP. The anime tells the story of Nagi Umino, and Erika Amano, two young 17-year-old teenagers who discover they were swapped in the hospital when they were born.
On their 17th birthday, they meet each other. And thanks to a series of circumstances, once they meet their real parents, the parents believe that it is a sort of miracle that they are dating each other. Now they have to follow their parents’ plans or there will be consequences.
The premise of the show is quite fun. Babies getting swapped at the hospital where they are born is not a laughing matter, but it happens from time to time. Fortunately, both Nagi and Erika were lucky enough that their parents protected them and raised them well, even if they were not their real kids.
Now that they are almost adults, their parents see it as an opportunity to keep it all in the family if they get married. That last part is a bit twisted, but the show presents the situation as a sort of destiny, and the parents as a sign that everything is going according to plan.
Erika and Nagi are presented as very good kids. For example, Erika is a social media influencer. She has a charming personality, even if she can be a bit harsh and impulsive at times. It is clear that she is the real daughter of Nagi’s parents; their designs share a lot of characteristics, and their personalities are similar. Erika has a problem, though.
Even if she’s famous and has been graced with extreme physical beauty, her parents are ready to marry her to someone she doesn’t know, and she also feels like she has no friends at all. The character becomes the living example of how many of those social media influencers that look so happy on social media are just real people, and they have just as many issues as anyone else.
Nagi on the other hand, has lived a more simple life. He is very smart and he is one of the top students at his school, which is famous for being one of the top schools in the country. He applies himself very well to his studies and seems to have a bright future ahead of him.
However, he has focused his energy so much into studying that he has missed having a girlfriend or much of social life. When Nagi meets Erika, they bond quickly when it is clear that their perfect lives have little holes that make them sad and not satisfied enough with their lives.
Following their first meeting, the two of them start to form a strong bond. They clearly enjoy each other’s company, but “A Couple of Cuckoos” is a very special kind of show. One that falls into the “harem” genre makes Nagi the main protagonist and the one that seems to have the most clear goals and ambitions.
For example, while Nagi starts caring for Erika on a level that goes beyond their almost forced engagement, Nagi has his sights set on another girl. One that studies at his school and who is the best student in his whole school. This is already starting to create a conflict. We want Nagi and Erika to fall in love with each other for real, but the main character wants something else.
At the same time, Nagi’s younger sister starts having feelings for him on a romantic level now that she discovers he is not really his blood brother. So, right from the get go, Nagi has three young, beautiful women around him, and this romantic square becomes the main focus of the entire show.
This isn’t a bad thing, but let it be known that this show falls into every trope of the genre, especially when it comes to making the female characters just archetypes of the hot women in turn. There’s a lot of fan service, putting the characters into very suggestive situations and showing a lot of their skin in moments that feel a bit forced.
But hey! The show is aiming towards that kind of audience, and they will be delighted with how the show portrays these girls. If you can get past the fan service and thin characterization of the girls, then the show can also become appealing to you. It can become a new show to watch when you want something light with not a lot of drama.
The animation is standard for this type of show. There are a lot of pastel colors, pinks, and blues, and everything always remains on a warm color palette level. It is cute to watch, and there are some scenes that are quite funny. The plot is predictable, but that can serve as a comfort to a lot of people. A Couple of Cuckoos isn’t anything new, but it is quite enjoyable at the end of the day.
