The following contains spoilers for Episode 21 of A Couple of Cuckoos, "It'll Just Be Our Secret," now streaming on Crunchyroll.

It’s not a secret that A Couple of Cuckoos is a roller coaster of an anime. What it means is the quality of each episode varies wildly, especially in the first 12 episodes of the series. In the words of Forrest Gump, every episode of A Couple of Cuckoos is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.

That being said, part 2 of the series is actually not that bad. As a matter of fact, the last few episodes have been nothing but homerun. They manage to provide an enjoyable watching experience while carefully and creatively threading the balance between dramatic romance and hilarious comedy. That’s why we really have high hopes for this new episode. So let’s see whether episode 21 can live up to the hype.

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Previously On A Couple of Cuckoos

A Couple of Cuckoos Hiro Nagi Erika

There are two major events happening in episode 20. First is Nagi’s date with Hiro. After his meeting with Erika’s father about the whereabouts of Erika’s brother proves to be a gigantic waste of time, Nagi fell into his usual mini despair. He can’t think of anything for a few days after that meeting. Hiro immediately notices that Nagi is currently in a bad state of mind, so she asks him out on a date. They simply ride their bike together into the sunset, but it instantly helps cheer Nagi up.

The second one is Sachi’s meeting with Erika’s father. Since Erika refuses to talk to her father about her day-to-day life, he asks about it from Sachi instead. Just like the previous meetings, he also brings Sachi to a fancy restaurant with delicious foods. This time around, however, he posed a question to Sachi that caught her off guard and left her speechless. It’s the same thing that he asked Nagi in their last meeting. He asked Sachi, “What do you think about marrying your brother?”

It’ll Just Be Our Secret

A Couple of Cuckoos Erika Doubting Nagi

After briefly falling into 13th place in the last exam, Nagi finally regained the top position in this exam. He finally manages to dethrone Hiro, the eternal number 1 in their school. This means the time has come to once again confess his love to Hiro. However, when he got the chance to do so later on that day, Hiro said something cryptic to Nagi that can be interpreted in different ways. To Nagi, it seems like a love confession, but when he talks about it to Erika and Sachi, they say it simply means she acknowledges Nagi as her rival.

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In order to get to the bottom of this pressing issue, Erika invites Nagi, Sachi, and Hiro to spend the summer vacation in her family’s beach house. Needless to say, they all agree. That being said, before they go, Nagi and Erika agree to keep the fact that they both live under the same roof a secret from Hiro. Unfortunately for them, Sachi invited Hiro into the house because she wants to study and learn from her. And that is when Hiro finds out that Nagi has been living together with Erika all this time. After that, they still go together to the Beach House, but the situation couldn’t be more awkward between them.

The Cat’s Out of the Bag

A Couple of Cuckoos Nagi Apologize to Hiro

As you can see, the cat’s finally out of the bag in this episode. This is an extremely major milestone in the story. The biggest one before it would be when Hiro found out that Nagi and Erika are actually engaged. But with this episode, all of Nagi’s cards are finally on the table, and the future of his relationship with Hiro is in great peril.

This means the romance and the complex relationship between the main characters can finally move on to the next phase. After all, if things stay secret for any longer, then the story will be stuck there forever. But now, it can finally move forward. What would the characters do next? How will this revelation affect the relationship that they’ve carefully nurtured for an entire season? Who will Nagi eventually choose at the end? This event opens up so many questions and so many possible relationship developments. The thrill and excitement is at an all-time high right now.

A Perfected Formula

A Couple of Cuckoos Sachi Play With Nagi

We always complained about the lack of balance between drama and comedy in this series. But the last couple of episodes manage to showcase different story structures, each with their own blending formula, that tries to thread that balance. And you know what, they may be different, but they all have been rather successful in presenting a nice balance between the two major aspects of the story.

This episode is those formulas finally perfected. The drama and the comedy are woven together to create a seamless blend of meaningful yet entertaining story. It makes us smile, it makes us worry about the characters, and it makes us feel excited to see more. This episode is proof that you don’t have to sacrifice humor in order to present a drama. You can make people feel happy and concerned at the same time. This is easily the best episode in the series thus far.

From the sudden revelations to the fact that the showrunners finally perfected that elusive RomCom formula, there are truly tons of great things happening in this episode. It is just a shame that they decided to drop such major development so late in the season. Because with only a handful of episodes left, we know that we won’t get the answer to those questions here. Hopefully there will be a second season of A Couple of Cuckoos. But one thing for sure, we can’t wait to see what will happen in the next episode.

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