English Dub Review: A Couple of Cuckoos: “You’re going to be my boyfriend”

Overview: Nagi Umino (Nicholas Andrew Louie) meets Erika (Lindsay Sheppard) in a fateful meeting that will forever change his life. 

Our Take: The premise of two babies being switched at birth and reuniting unbeknownst to each other with the lives the other would have had is an intriguing concept and one that makes for an excellent introduction for the new couple. The whole setup makes it entirely clear how different each main character’s lifestyle and upbringing are in Nagi’s relatively small and simple apartment that makes him close knit with his family. Sachi, Nagi’s stepsister, excellently represents this with her feelings for her stepbrother and the fear that he will leave for a more affluent life with his biological parents that he is meeting. 

Nagi Umino’s chemistry with Erika, before anything else is established, is down-to-earth with how much they relate to each other’s parental issues, with them unknowingly aware that their issues are connected and one in the same, making it that much more impactful. It is also strong in how Nagi comes to that realization despite Erika’s wealthy upbringing. Erika’s plan to pass off Nagi as her boyfriend to her parents to dissuade them from setting her up for an arranged marriage, transitions to a fun shopping spree. We get to see both of their personalities come out with their little day date in Nagi being out-of-touch yet very booksmart making him charmingly awkward with Erika’s strong willed and slightly mischievous qualities. Things take a turn when obnoxious guys come up to Erika questioning her relationship to Nagi. Nagi immediately shoots up as one of my favorite main characters for not showing to be a pushover and punching the tar out of the douchebag’s punches in self-defense. The cliché, mild-mannered main character is a trope I and I am sure many others tire of, so this was a breath of fresh air. It is a small detail but a much appreciated one.  

Inspiring Erika to literally punch the hell out of whoever her parents chose as her suitor, their departure feels bittersweet in a relationship that could have been. Of course that does not last long at all, with both showing up at the same restaurant and realizing their situation of an arranged marriage to each other. So Erika, sticking to her word, hits him anyway which is surely unjustified but funny in her scrambling to come to terms with it. The only other little issue here is Nagi is already crushing hard on someone else in his sweet and brilliant classmate Hiro. Only on screen for a few minutes and Hiro already makes an adorable impression. Nagi’s vow to beat her highest test score so she will go out with him because she would like someone smarter than her, makes for an interesting challenge as well as the start of a fun harem (or love rectangle?) with his Sachi’s feelings starting to bud even more in realizing that they are not blood related. And you know the saying: if they are not blood related, they are free to be dated (one rule which not all anime follow but that is really besides the point, right?).