Nagi Umino is a high school student that’s super smart and strict about studying. He seems almost at odds with the rest of his family however, from how he looks to his personality. There’s a reason for that — he was mixed up at birth! Someone placed him in the wrong spot next to another newborn, and for the past 16 years no one realized there was a switch — until his current parents learned the truth. Nagi has decided to meet his actual parents, but he plans to tell them he’s happy with his current situation.
But on his way there, he meets Erika Amano, a pretty young girl who’s willing to pretend to kill herself in order for her parents to call off their proposed arranged marriage for her. Nagi soon realizes she’s actually a popular Instagram model — and also not that smart! She tries to get him to take part in a contractual partnership where they act like they’re dating so she can get the marriage called off, taking pictures to even prove it so. This proves to only be a bad decision: When Nagi finally meets his real parents, they decide, with his current parents, to have him marry the one that was switched at birth.
And that person is Erika!
A Couple of Cuckoos is certainly no Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, but Miki Yoshikawa’s humor and Sobasshi is all over this manga. It takes the concept of parents mistakenly raising someone else’s kid for a long period of time thanks to the hospital (Baby switching is an actual thing!), but throws in your face shounen romance elements alongside pleasing art and two seemingly different personalities. As mentioned Nagi is somewhat serious and studies a lot, but he wants to improve his family situation…and also wants to confess to someone at his school. Erika, meanwhile, is very spoiled! Maybe too spoiled, as she’s outspoken but also dumb.
Makes sense she is spoiled though: her family is rich, so she’s been able to live relatively comfortably. But she aspires to do something as well, and as she maintains her Instagram account, she’s using that to accomplish her goal. It’s clear she doesn’t want to actually marry anyone right now, but her family seems set on wanting her to do so. For now, her interactions with Nagi — and how she felt in trying to connect with her real parents — are fun, though her thinking Google G**gle can make you a doctor…
The humor is what stands out in this manga. Obviously Nagi and Erika spend a lot of time together (and especially very closely in one part in this volume), but it is their interactions with others that help as well. Remember when I said Nagi had something else aside from improving his family situation that motivated him to be smart? Well there is one student in his school, Hiro Segawa, whom he wants to surpass as #1 on the proficiency tests, and he wants to do so to date her. Funny then when he ends up getting a letter from her…and it doesn’t come close to being what he thought it was. And that made him love her even more!
The families of these two, alongside Nagi and Erika, very much impact how this series will go. You have Nagi’s family who’s poor but quite direct and Erika’s family who’s rich and quite set on certain things. It’s clear how they can all get along will move the story. Well, also how Nagi and Erika each have to face unexpected challenges — there’s a cliffhanger involving Nagi and his crush Segawa, and a picture surfaces at Erika’s school that definitely needs to be answered. Lots to be curious about, and at the rate it’s going, it’s more hijinks to laugh at as well. Certainly looking forward to what crazy situations these characters find themselves in next.