Review of A Couple of Cuckoos

To be completely fair, I wasn't expecting a ton from A Couple of Cuckoos, and while it's not really a snoozer of a series, not enough high points were introduced into the series, and any dramatic parts feel half-done. Story & Characters: A Couple of Cuckoos introduces us to a family of four - Nagi Umino, his sister Sachi, and their parents, who run a small family-run restaurant. Nagi has had a long crush on Hiro Segawa, and he considered her to be his rival because they both bounce back and forth between being at the top of their class. After school one day,Nagi runs into Erika Amano, who is a pretty popular Instagram-er (or whatever they call their version). Thus, we see pretty early on this that series is likely going for a comedy-style Harem series between Nagi and our three female characters. Nagi is eventually brought out to dinner where his parents tell him that he was actually swapped at birth... with Erika Amano. Both them, and Erika's parents have brought them together, as they feel they'd make an excellent couple in an arranged marriage.

I didn't hate the premise of the first few episodes, as it seemed mildly interesting. Erika's clearly very popular and spoiled, but she's not that bright in terms of her school work. She's been given everything because of her father's wealth and her interactions with him are actually reasonably amusing. Nagi's quite the opposite - he's extremely hard working, doesn't have the wealthiest parents and does everything he can to make sure they're well off. However, I just didn't see the chemistry between these two. Now, the goal of any decent harem might be to make sure the other female cast members aren't far ahead of the others, so maybe this is planned, but there weren't enough quality interactions that made this arranged marriage feel like much of anything. Add to that Nagi acts like too much as your typical male-in-a-harem character, and this series doesn't really shine on him as much as you'd like. Sure, he's smart and is decently considerate of others, but there's not enough there.

Hiro doesn't fit into the typical harem trope quite as much, as there are some surprising elements in her story that could make you root for her. Sachi doesn't get quite as much inclusion as the others until the second half, and even when she does, it doesn't feel like she fits particularly well. Her backstories are never explored, and it just makes her come off as the fourth character. Shion gets introduced in the second half as a fan of Erika's, but he's honestly so annoying that you really cringe at anything he says. He doesn't fit into the crew and he's not even the least bit amusing. Both Nagi and Erika's parents are decently involved in the story, and both their dads have some decent elements to them every now and then. As a whole though, the side characters don't bring enough to this story, and Nagi and Erika make an incredibly awkward couple.

The story never feels like it gets going quite enough. Maybe that's on purpose because you have to stretch the story across two cours, but it just felt slow and lacking much of a direction. You know the goal is to see how well Nagi and Erika end up together, and while I'm okay with their interactions if you're looking at this from the standpoint that you want these two to "start" to date, as opposed to getting married, that's not what this series is trying to sell you on. There needed to be more about our characters that made us care, and while there was certainly some of that, it feels halfway done, not the least of which is when the series tried to force a character who Erika used to know into the story, then completely ditch the idea without reason. The series doesn't have to be a drama series, but there needs to be more to make us care about our characters.

As you get past the second half, the series does move forward in some meaningful way that made it more tolerable than the first. Living arrangements change, characters meet with outside side characters and they seem to care more about each other as things happen. That part does shine a little here and there. The way the series ends does end up being a little awkward though because, even the finale was fine, it didn't really feel like a finale. It just felt like another episode. Maybe there's more to come as the source materially gets worked on, but unless it ends, I'm not sure there will be enough to hold me for much longer. (Story: 5/10, Characters: 6/10)

Art: This series looked decent enough, and I'm happy to report that the animation didn't really suffer the way many other seasonal series does as it carries on. The way the series attempts to use visuals to make you feel surprised for brief moments are also done decently well as well. Fan service is kept to a minimum too, which is something surprising considering the genre. (7/10)

Sound: The sound was fine and not distracting, which is good for a series like this. Neither OPs or EDs were terrible either. VO work was a bit of a mixed bag, though our main cast with Lindsay Sheppard (Erika), Nicholas Andrew Louis (Nagi), Bryn Apprill (Sachi) and Amanda Lee (Hiro) seemed fine. It felt like Lee tried too hard to sound like the other two female actresses at times, is all. Brendan Blaber (Shion) and Dave Dixon (Mr. Amano) both felt weird at times. Gianni Matragrano (Mr. Umino) was definitely perfect for the part though. (7/10)

Overall: A Couple of Cuckoos doesn't really live up to what I was hoping it would be, as it falls into a lot of harem tropes rather easily, and ditches parts of the story here and there. The sense of progression as the series goes on is definitely present, but the lacking in closure on the ending didn't make it feel like a really strong ending to a series. There's just too many hole in the story, and I'm not sure I pick this up, should it continue, unless I know it's ending from the source material. (6/10)