A Couple of Cuckoos Episode 19 Review - We Have A Brother? (2024)

The following contains spoilers for Episode 18 of A Couple of Cuckoos, "You’ve Realized it, Haven’t You?," now streaming on Crunchyroll.

Recent episodes of A Couple of Cuckoos have been quite good. It’s not even a stretch to say that the last two episodes are some of the best ones in the second part of the series. Interestingly enough, both of them have their own way of presenting the balance between dramatic romance and hilarious comedy.

This means the showrunners have been tinkering to find the best story structure for the series. Gone are the days when the story alternated between full-blown drama and jam-packed comedy every two episodes. Sure, A Couple of Cuckoos as a whole still has its fair share of issues, but recent episodes certainly prove that the quality has been going up.

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Previously On A Couple of Cuckoos

Episode 18 is the last part of the Study Camp storyline. About two thirds of the story is about Nagi, Erika, Hiro, and Shion having fun together. Erika does get to spend some quality time with Nagi, but there’s still no major progression whatsoever in regard to the romance between them. Not only that, the four of them also get to see the starry night skies together.

Unfortunately, that wonderful moment is quickly ended when Nagi gets a message from his mother telling Sachi is admitted to hospital. As soon as he reads the message, Nagi grabs his bag and dash into the nearest station, leaving his friends surprised and dumbfounded. Thankfully, Sachi quickly regains her health as soon as she sees her brother. When Nagi comes back home, however, he immediately apologizes to Erika and steel himself in case she wants to call him a siscon. On the contrary, Erika praises Nagi for prioritizing his sister over everything.

You’ve Realized it, Haven’t You?

Back in episode 7, Erika told Nagi that she is waiting for somebody that is close to her heart. At the time, Nagi didn’t have the courage to ask for any details about that person. But now that they have become closer and Erika seems to open up more to him, Nagi finally decided to ask her about that person. And as he suspects, the person that Erika has been waiting for all this time is indeed a man.

That being said, that man is not Erika’s first love or anything like that. His name is Sousuke Amano, and he is Erika’s long-lost brother. What’s even more surprising is the fact that he looks exactly like Nagi. Not only that, Sousuke is actually Nagi’s biological brother.

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Erika said that she hasn’t seen her beloved brother for years now. But the strange thing is her parents insist that Sousuke doesn’t even exist, which frustrates Erika even more. Seeing how Erika truly misses her brother very much, Nagi decided to help her find him. And the first step for that journey is by talking to their father and asking him the truth about Sousuke.

A Happy Medium

One of the main issues of A Couple of Cuckoos that we have been moaning about all this time is their struggle in balancing between drama and comedy. But as mentioned earlier, recent episodes proved that they have crafted different formulas and structures in order to get closer to that elusive balance. They may not be perfect, but those episodes are certainly way better than the rest.

Then episode 19 comes along and offers something unique and refreshing to the series. Unlike episodes 17 and 18 which try to get closer to that balance between dramatic romance and hilarious comedy, episode 19 opts to downplay everything instead. The story is not that dramatic while the comedy is not that hilarious, yet they both somehow blend together perfectly.

It’s not really a balance between the best of both worlds, but instead a good marriage between the average of the two. You won’t laugh nor be filled with deep emotions with this episode, but you will still have a good time watching it.

An Annoying But Exciting Cliffhanger

Cliffhangers were designed to entice the readers or viewers of fictional works to see the next installment of a series. It was created to make us eagerly wait for the next episode. And that is exactly what happened in this episode. This is the first true cliffhanger in A Couple of Cuckoos, and it is both annoying and exciting at the same time.

As mentioned earlier, Nagi decided to talk to Erika’s dad, who is his biological dad, about Erika’s long-lost brother. But rather than answering Nagi’s questions, her father not only evaded the question, but he posed a counter question that left Nagi speechless instead.

He basically says, “Rather than talking about this alleged brother, what do you think about marrying Sachi instead?”. He essentially pulls a reverse UNO card on him, and on the viewer. And then the episode ends. That is so annoying, but it should keep fans invested in the series.

A Couple of Cuckoos has produced nothing but greatness for this past couple of episodes, and it continues its winning streak with episode 19. It manages to tell an enjoyable drama and still put enough comedic elements in it to make the story feel light and entertaining to watch. Not only that, this episode also manages to pull one of the greatest, albeit a tad annoying, cliffhangers in recent anime history. All in all, this is a good episode, and should be excited for more.

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