A Couple of Cuckoos, family and identity drama

Debuting in 2019 as a one-short manga, the saga "A Couple of Cuckoos" has been a huge success and is now available as an anime. Its author, Miki Yoshikawa, didn't expect it to be such a success, but she's holding her own, with a second season of the series scheduled for 2025, based on the manga published in Kondasha's Weekly Shonen Magazine.

Introduction to the plot

For those who haven't heard of it yet, this is a family drama/comedy that begins with a terrible misunderstanding, pushed to the extreme that only mangaka know how to do. The main character is Nagi Umino, a 16-year-old schoolboy. His modest parents run a restaurant, and he has frequented unsavoury circles. The story begins as he makes his way to the home of the wealthy Amano family, who have made their fortune in the hotel business. He has just learned that he is the biological son of Namie and Soichiro, from the same family. He was accidentally switched at birth with their daughter. Along the way, he comes across Erika, a young Instagram star, who asks him for help. She has just learned that her parents want to marry her off by force to an unknown boy. She wants Nagi to pretend to be her fiancé. After some thought, they drop the plan and she decides to go and meet the boy and beat him up. Nagi arrives at the home of her biological parents. He learns that they want their adopted daughter to marry him... and much to his surprise, Erika arrives and we learn that she is the adopted daughter. After hitting Nagi as planned, the two teenagers finally meet up again, at the insistence of the Amano parents. The young girl visits Nagi's modest home and meets her biological sister, Sachi Umino. The rich parents buy a house and ask the children to live there for a few weeks, hoping to make them fall in love. For his part, Nagi is in love with Hiro Segawa, the top of his class and his great academic rival. Hiro claims that she will only date a boy who is smarter than she is, forcing Nagi to study until she is sick.

The family theme

The main theme of "A Couple of Cuckoos" is family. The Amano parents are determined to marry Erika off to Nagi, despite the fact that the latter was brought up in a modest family and has been involved in questionable circles. After all, Nagi is their biological son, but they've raised and loved Erika as their real daughter, and they'd be far too pained to part with her. The same goes for the Umino parents. In fact, the beginning of the series focuses a lot on Sachi, who is trying to bond with her biological sister, while at the same time struggling with uncomfortable feelings towards Nagi. On the other hand, Hiro represents another facet of the family theme. She has created barriers between herself and the boys, suggesting that she is engaged to someone. In reality, she's not engaged, but she is committed to taking over her parents' legacy: a Shinto temple where she works as a miko. She wants to follow in her parents' footsteps, but can't bring herself to force a boy to abandon his dreams and plans for the future by forcing him to run the temple alongside her.

In contemporary Japan, the family is a value under threat. Many Japanese simply no longer have the time or energy to make and bring up children. All that counts is work. And those who do have children tend to push them to study like machines to get the best possible results. This problem is also explored in the manga/anime Spy x Family. But faced with societal constraints and certain heritages that have to be respected, many Japanese people are experiencing a real identity crisis.

The theme of identity

The manga A Couple of Cuckoos examines what happens to people when their world turns out to be wrong. Nagi has always been the Umino son, working hard to please Hiro but also to get a good job and help his parents financially. He has always been Sachi's brother. Erika has always been the daughter of this wealthy family, living in luxury and opulence, but in search of a mysterious person. She became a celebrity influencer mainly to attract the attention of this person, in the hope of meeting him one day. And then, on the basis of a simple revelation, this whole world falls apart. Nagi is no longer Umino's son, he is no longer Sachi's biological brother, and the heroine is no longer Amano's daughter. These characters will each have to build a new identity for themselves, while untangling their feelings towards each other. Sachi, for example, goes from jealous sister to jealous daughter as her old fraternal feelings are gradually transformed into romantic feelings for Nagi. As for the heroine, she discovers a world of modesty and hard work. She tries to define herself outside the luxury and wealth of her adoptive parents. Deep down, everyone wonders what would have become of them if they had been raised by their biological parents.

A success now and in the future

With a second season due to be released in 2025, the anime has been a huge hit with the public and critics alike. The manga was nominated for the 2022 Kondansha Manga Award in the Shonen category, but lost out to That Time I got reincarnated as a Slime.

Products available in our geekshop

If you're a fan of 'A Couple of Cuckoos', you'll find a wide range of products featuring your favourite characters in our geekshop. We offer high-quality collectible figurines, such as those of the Segawa and Amano children, as well as a complete selection of manga from Volume 1 to Volume 17. We do everything we can to offer you the best prices, so you can add to your collection without breaking the bank. Whether you're a collector or an avid reader, we've got something for every fan of this captivating series, all at competitive prices.