A Couple of Cuckoos

Episode 18

Well I'll give that to A Couple of Cuckoos: They did, in fact, have a reason and plan for Sachi getting shuffled off by sickness last week. Turns out her illness wasn't just a contrivance to let Shion join the trip, it was also a contrivance to motivate Nagi to leave the training camp early in this episode! It's a standard setup for the series, but it does also provide opportunities for some plot directions that are a little more interesting, plus some appreciable character moments. So I'll let Cuckoos have this one, especially given how I previously so pointedly questioned the reason for the narrative decision and now know they technically had one.

Not to be too sardonic with my appraisal of Cuckoos this week, since things genuinely do feel all-around stronger in this episode. And it's not even entirely on account of Shion's more energizing presence this time! He is still there, of course, with implications that he's going to continue to be relevant even after the training camp's over, seemingly still aligned with Segawa in their mutual wingmanship. But as with Segawa herself in those efforts, many of the characters, least of all Nagi, seem to be taking just a little more initiative, keeping up on the conspiring events of the plot. I guess that's how you know the season must be winding down, as there's more visible character development and several story points coming back into focus.

The biggest of those flags to follow up on is definitely that dang family photo showing both Erika and Nagi together as kids, which was already the one thing that snapped me back alert around the end of this show's first cour. Turns out, not only was the photo planted there by Mr. Amano as part of whatever his ongoing convoluted baby-switching-marriage-arranging scheme is, but Erika is aware of its existence and now Segawa has caught on too. The latter is a little funny, honestly, given that Segawa only barely found out what the core plot of this whole show even was a couple episodes ago, but as a way to pull her more into the thick of things and have something potentially happen, I'm down for it. More than just her angle though, I think we're all chomping at the bit to figure out just what the photo means, and how it all factors into what Erika knows about her past and her usage of social media in attempting to find someone. Okay, at this point we can pretty much connect the dots on our own, but there's still plenty to dig into there, in terms of how much Erika actually knows/remembers about the situation and just how absurdly far back the father who raised her actually arranged all of this.

But even if all that is just a collection of complicating curiosities making itself known in the last bit of this episode, the rest of it still does better in terms of tone and character work compared to last week. It doesn't get off to the most rollicking start, taking the potential interest of a solid test-of-courage plot and derailing it with a resolution to Erika's underwear-forgetting subplot from last week that comes and goes so quickly you have to wonder why they even bothered. But then it does allow for scenes between her and Nagi that contrast with just how uninterested the chemistry was between her and poor hopeless Shion in the preceding episode, and lead into some genuinely compelling moments between our cover couple. Stuff like both of them coming around on wanting to scare others for fun, and her comment on appreciating the little pushes in life she's gotten from him, do an effective job at selling Erika and Nagi as the kindred spirits their entangled family situation positions them as. That sets the stage for things to come back at the end of this episode, with Nagi motioning to learn more about Erika in ways that could pay off regarding her past and that photo.

For Segawa's part, she still comes off like she's merely on-deck this episode, holding on to her knowledge of the photo and her alliance with Shion. Around here, I oughta stress how I feel kinda bad for Segawa and those in the audience rooting for her, especially since I am one of those people. She has her own strong rapport with Nagi just in their simple interactions this episode, and he's still being written as if he's crazy about her, which again, is appreciable in a setup like this. But she just so unilaterally doesn't have a chance in this core romantic conflict, with both her and Sachi destined to lose out to conceptual centerpiece and cover-girl Erika. I know the (often over-long) journey is more interesting than the destination in romance series like this, but it still comes off like little more than taunting to keep red-herring-ing her as Nagi's best girl, when the meta side of the story can't convince us that he'll end up with anyone other than Erika by sheer proximity.

Nagi does continue to give his affections an effective spacing out in this episode though, returning to Sachi's side at the eleventh hour in a bit that, while as contrived as previously mentioned, does ring sweetly. Part of that may be down to my weakness for caring sibling stories (sans the actually-romantic attachment), but it's also just nice to see this earnest side of Nagi come out. His mom was right to text him. Our boy ends up being the MVP of this episode overall, in that regard, with the revelation that he really wanted to come on the trip as a stargazing opportunity. After so many months of him being defined by stories spinning out of his study habits and bizarre family situation, it's just nice to see him enjoy a hobby in an uncompromised way, with new friends accompanying him. It makes the moment where that's interrupted by him learning about Sachi and thus rushing to her side hit that more effectively, which is then strengthened by her confirming that she knew him well enough to be aware of his stargazing plans. I told you, siblings.

So yeah, this was the back half of a plotline that used all the characters mostly well, delivered on developing more overall storylines, and continued to look a little better comparatively (the ending of the episode shows these artists can still draw a pretty nice Erika when they want to). I don't know that it was as thematically-effective as Cuckoos has been in other episodes that did that well, apart from showing how nice companionship between people who actually are interested in and care about each other can be. But given the upbeat density of everything else happening, I don't mind.

Rating:

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.