A Couple of Cuckoos has been churning out one good episode after the other for the past couple of weeks. The drama captured your attention while the comedy made you smile from ear to ear. This is genuinely the best run for this series thus far. That being said, while it means people will be excited to watch the new episode, it also means the disappointment will be that much higher when the new one turns out to be bad.
So will episode 22 succumb to the pressure and produce the first disappointing content in a while? Or will it continue to deliver an enjoyable watching experience like the episodes that came before it? Well, let’s find out through this review.
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Previously On A Couple of Cuckoos
Episode 21 focuses on Nagi, Erika, Sachi, and Hiro spending time at Erika’s beach house for their summer vacation. Unfortunately, things began to spiral out of control when Sachi invited Hiro to their house just a day before they visited the beach house. Sachi wants Hiro to help with her study, but what she doesn’t know is the fact that Nagi and Erika are actually hiding the fact that they both live under the same roof from Hiro. Knowing Nagi and Erika are engaged is one thing, but finding out that they both live together in the same house is an entirely different matter altogether.
As expected, Hiro was angry and disappointed, especially with Nagi. Needless to say, the mood was quite despondent when they arrived at the beach house, especially between Hiro and Nagi. Couldn’t bear the thought that Hiro would end up hating him, Nagi immediately apologized to Hiro. She accepted his apology, and the mood finally lightened up between them. That is until Hiro nonchalantly said to Nagi that Sachi might have a crush on him. Nagi being the dense man that he is, he simply asks Sachi if she has a crush on him.
I’ll Be Right There With You
Episode 22 can be divided into three parts. The first part takes place right after the end of episode 21. After giving Nagi a headlock over his blatantly embarrassing question, Sachi immediately confronts Hiro and asks her why she talks about Sachi’s crush on Nagi. But when Hiro asks her back on whether she actually likes Nagi or not, Sachi can’t really say anything back to her.
The next problem arises when the group realizes that there’s only two bedrooms in the beach house. So they decided to draw straws, and the result is Erika shares the bedroom with Hiro, while Nagi is together with Sachi. In Nagi’s room, both of them are too nervous to sleep. Meanwhile, in the other room, before they sleep, Hiro suddenly said to Erika that if she’s not interested in Nagi, then she will take him for herself.
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The last part of the story focuses on the traces of Sousuke Amano, Erika’s missing brother, on the beach house. All four of them look all over the house for any clues of Sousuke’s whereabouts and finally find out that he’s likely left the beach house just a day before Erika and the group arrived. Nagi is convinced that Sousuke must’ve still been in town, but Erika is too afraid to face the brother that she hasn’t seen for years. So Nagi takes her hand and promises to be with her so that she wouldn’t feel so afraid.
An Interesting Character Development
There’s an interesting character development happening to Hiro in this episode. After all, the nice and polite girl who always smiles at everybody suddenly seems to be so aggressive here. At this point, we can say for certain that she has developed a genuine crush on Nagi, and unlike the other two Harem candidates, Hiro is not afraid to chase her love.
In this episode, we know that Hiro realizes that she is not the only one who has feelings for Nagi. Although they are reluctant to say it, Hiro knows that Erika and Sachi also have a crush on him. So what does she do? Well, Hiro goes on the offensive. She talks to Nagi about Sachi’s crush on him, which makes her flustered and desperately deny it to Nagi. Not only that, she also told Erika about her intention to snatch Nagi away from her.
The reserved girl that we know all this time is not so reserved after all. It seems that when it comes to the man she loves, Hiro will turn into a fighter and crush every competitor that dares to stand in her way. What an interesting and unexpected character development.
Stern But Loose 2.0
The structure of this episode is highly similar to the one used on episode 18, stern but loose. It means the drama is quite pronounced, but so is the comedy. When the drama takes the center stage, it will instantly grab your attention, but when the spotlight turns to the comedy side of the story, it will make you smile and chuckle.
That being said, the distribution between the two is not a perfect 50:50. There is more drama here than comedy. And that is quite alright. Because while this kind of distribution used to spell trouble to the overall quality of the episode, such is not the case at all with this one. The show runners know exactly the best place to put the drama and the comedy.
As a result, the line that separates drama and comedy becomes blurred. One minute we smile when Erika and Hiro play around in the bathtub, and the next minute we can’t believe our ears when we hear Hiro talk about Nagi to Erika. Carefully threading that line is the recipe for providing a good RomCom story.
Episode 22 proved to be another enjoyable episode for A Couple of Cuckoos. Hiro’s unexpected character development is certainly the highlight of the episode. On the other hand, the matters regarding Erika’s brother are still as unclear as ever. Hopefully the next episode can provide some sort of explanation to this mystery, because there’s only two episodes left in the series, and the last thing we want is an annoying cliffhanger.
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