A Couple of Cuckoos

Episodes 23-24

I'm not sure how much of an actual ending I expected from the finale for A Couple of Cuckoos. It's a show that's always been content to coast along, and coast it does in this "hour-long" finale. Those quotation marks are there on account of the fact that this doesn't even really pretend to be a whole final episode, instead being two basically separate entries simply aired back-to-back. They are nice enough entries, mind, and seem to set out with the intent to show the kinds of growth several of the characters have undergone as we reach this perfectly cromulent stopping point. But if you were hoping for any kind of resolution or revelations for the show's relationships or ongoing mysteries, you're probably going to leave disappointed. But then, here at the end, I'm not sure how many people are still coming to A Couple of Cuckoos for that sort of thing.

The twenty-third episode is probably my favorite of the pair, self-admitted Segawa supporter that I am, though some of the follow-through on her situation feels a little odd here, namely Erika and Sachi's seeming surprise at Segawa's previous-episode indication of going after Nagi. Yes, everyone in this show has the memory and attention span of a gnat, but I still must look incredulously upon Erika acting like this is the first indication she's encountered of Segawa being interested in Nagi when her confession to him was one of the inciting incidents that led to Erika planning this beach trip in the first place! I guess you could read this as Erika (and Sachi) having been in denial, but mostly it comes off like A Couple of Cuckoos simply sticking to a particular well-worn romance-comedy playbook in having its characters interact and react to these situations.

That certainly bears out in the writing's approach to putting Nagi and Segawa together in this episode. You know the drill: Go off together without the others, get caught in some abject weather, check into a hotel together pretending to be a couple, only one futon. Like I genuinely want these two to get together, but even I felt like watching this was just checking off obligatory genre boxes. It's that payoff, however, that makes arriving here worth it. That is, apart from just contriving to get Nagi and Segawa together alone somewhere, the sequence is designed around fleshing out Segawa's more mischievous side. She lies about her age and situation to get into the hotel, and has no problem flirtatiously playing with Nagi in the room, getting to the point where she enthusiastically suggests they get some drinks to really get the party going! I knew I liked her for a reason.

Segawa's rebellious efforts fill out an expected, but still entertaining element of her character niche: the respected honor student who wants to act out. In this case it also rings well with her particular situation: since she's got her whole adult life planned out for her, she might as well do all the wild, 'bad' stuff she wants to while she can. That does cast an interesting interpretation for her recently-admitted attraction to Nagi. With her arranged-marriage engagement waiting for her on the other side of adolescence, getting together with anybody else fills the criteria for rebellion, especially with someone in a similarly spoken-for situation. As much as I like seeing Segawa and Nagi together, and think they do have chemistry, it begs the question of how much of her going after him at this point is based on genuine interest, compared to him simply being the best target for her escapist attractions. It's that potential for the messier emotional elements powering this plot's love-polygon that drives that penultimate episode effectively, and of course any tension is immediately defused by Erika and Sachi busting in wearing cop costumes, causing a wacky misunderstanding, and things ending with virtually none of those explorations followed up on in the actual final episode. Classic Cuckoos.

What that final, twenty-fourth episode actually brings us then is an even more low-key come-down of a finish than I might have expected for this series. And referring to it that way is pretty impressive considering this episode contains an actual party being thrown! Granted, it's a one-man-arrangement birthday party effort by Papa Yohei, who still rules by the way, only begrudgingly attended by Nagi and Sachi with Erika in tow, so it's not exactly communicating serious exuberance. It is seriously adorable to see how this man apparently goes to town celebrating his own birthday for himself every year, and it's brought up by Erika's natural enthusiasm for it. To say nothing of the point that Erika came along to attend her biological dad's birthday anyway, which forms the backbone of the kind of emotional connection Cuckoos seems to be looking to end on here.

That is, the idea is that Erika marrying Nagi is confirmed as more of a means than an end for the Umino parents. They ultimately just wanted more good kids, and Erika has welcomed herself so warmly into this new, effectively chosen arm of her family that they now only care for her and Nagi to be happy. It's an incredibly sweet, simple sentiment separate from the continued (even shown in this very episode!) machinations of whatever Daddy Amano is still trying to plan. It's the most agency Erika has been afforded in this situation for a while now, bringing us to the idea that family is something you can choose, and the sorts of support you receive from them must necessarily be a deciding factor in that choice. It prompts a pondering, though not really suspenseful, question from Erika and Nagi about what their relationship might get to look like now that the engagement isn't really seen as necessary.

The answer, for now, is still wishy-washy and unresolved, arrived at on account of Erika catching a timely cold necessitating some nursing from Nagi, which forms probably the firmest emotional conclusion we're going to get from these two at the end. But the care does indicate the kind of chemistry the pair share at this point, distinct from Nagi's rapport with Segawa in the preceding episode. After all this time cohabitating, Nagi and Erika have become 'engaged' in spirit, if not personally-pursued action. They are, as much as they choose to be at this point, still a kind of family, and they don't yet need to put society's or their relatives' demanded labels on what that is in order to exercise it. It's a genuine feeling that even seeps out to the eavesdropping Sachi and Segawa, who realize they might have recently honed in too much on the romantic aspects of this love square they're navigating, and momentarily forgotten about Nagi and Erika as people, as their friends.

It's all fine as a demonstration of emotional resolution, if not evolution. All the other plot balls are still firmly up in the air as the final credits roll on this one, Daddy Amano continuing to spout vagaries about his manipulations of the kids' relationship even as he shallowly claims he's letting them 'choose' in the end. And Sosuke's still no closer to being found, that kind of story compounded by Erika catching a glimpse of Nagi and Sachi's own mysteriously-missing childhood-photo interloper. Who keeps leaving these things around? The show seems to have known that even with a two-cour run it was never going to arrive at answering these kinds of burning plot questions, and while I wish they had made a little more effort to blend together this pair of episodes if they were going to insist on airing them as this kind of extra-long event, their shot at satisfying us with the story somehow still mostly lands. It all still looks as serviceably chunky as Cuckoos always has, save for a few decent drawings of Erika in the last episode. But that and the odd pacing of all this doesn't bother me as much as when I took this assignment, as I've grown to mildly enjoy these kids well enough. I'll be curious to see if another season down the line answers the more pertinent questions I've got, but for now, I'm fine with this realization that maybe, the real family was the family we found along the way.

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A Couple of Cuckoos is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris is a freewheeling Fresno-based freelancer with a love for anime and a shelf full of too many Transformers. He can be found spending way too much time on his Twitter, and irregularly updating his blog.