For me, A Couple of Cuckoos Season 2 is like “Sunk Cost Fallacy: The Anime.” I enjoyed the far-fetched and dumb, but sweet, twenty-four-episode first season, and found myself sleepwalking into the second out of a misplaced sense of duty. Like many long-running anime romcoms, the “plot progression,” if one could even describe it as such, consists of an eternal dance of one step forward, two steps back. When it looks like something – anything – is about to happen that might change the interminable status quo, it's almost immediately reversed. If that kind of storytelling brings you to tears of frustration, then steer well clear of this series.

Despite now spanning a total of thirty-six episodes across its two seasons, A Couple of Cuckoos's anime adaptation covers only up until the ongoing source manga's thirteenth volume (of thirty). For a moment, it looks like the season's final episode actually might solidify the central relationship… only for it to completely sabotage itself with two maddening teaser scenes at the last minute. These promise yet more contrived complications to come… if the show ever receives a third season.

Endemic of the show's ghastly approach to storytelling, at the beginning of the second season, a full two-thirds into the anime's cumulative runtime, it decides that's the correct time to introduce a fourth girl to complicate protagonist Nagi Umino's abortive love life even further. She's the heretofore-unmentioned childhood friend who declared her undying love for him years ago, before moving abroad, vowing to return someday. Perhaps Nagi just forgot about her, or perhaps her introduction was a last-ditch attempt by the author to inject further complications into what was already a fairly anemic story, without committing to any kind of concrete character development for the established cast.

Ai is a weird character. She gives off stalkery vibes, not helped by the way she's framed in shadow during the opening sequence, plus her almost vampiric-looking canine teeth give me shivers. Her perpetually dead-eyed smile makes her look like she's about to brandish a bloodied meat cleaver at the slightest provocation, but alas, nothing so interesting occurs in this rather pedestrian season. If we're going to have a vaguely yandere-coded character, couldn't we at least have her do… something? As she's introduced so late into the narrative, we know there's little to no chance she can ever become “winning girl,” so her only function is to complicate an already needlessly complicated situation.

It's clear from the outset that Nagi's telegraphed future partner is almost certainly to be Erika, the girl with whom he was implausibly switched at birth. Erika is, without a doubt, Best Girl. She's caring, considerate, and (usually) emotionally intelligent despite her lack of IQ in almost every other aspect of life. She doesn't even get that upset or threatened when other girls encroach upon “her” territory (i.e., Nagi). That's one of the odd features of the show that could act as both a strength and a failing, depending on what you want out of it: the almost complete lack of conflict.

In many harem anime, the various rival girls often hate each other, or at least actively try to sabotage one another's chances with the protagonist. Not so much in A Couple of Cuckoos. They're all so incredibly chummy with one another. There's no bitching, almost no arguments, and everyone's happy to go along with even the most absurd situations, like Nagi and Hiro's fake “wedding.” For such a supposedly smart character, Hiro isn't very good at manipulating situations to her advantage; her writing is so half-assed she may as well hardly be in the show, despite Nagi's longstanding infatuation with her.

Hiro's also supposed to be engaged to a man she's never met (and the audience never sees). Perhaps if this storyline were explored in more detail, it would add some much-needed drama, but it's there only as mere background at present. Likewise, Erika's brother (Nagi's biological sibling), who's been teased for so long, and he's clearly hovering around in the background, but his peripheral involvement in the plot has amounted to… absolutely nothing. Apart from a last-minute declaration to no one in particular that he, for some reason, wants to interfere in Nagi and Erika's future, I wonder what the point of his minimal appearances this season has even achieved? Perhaps he'll figure more prominently in whatever plot line any tentative third season might cover?

Nagi's little sister Sachi (and biological sibling of Erika) at least tries to make progress this season, by somewhat hilariously stealing Nagi's first kiss, prompting Erika later to stake a claim to him more overtly. She's the only character with any kind of agency, spreading rumors to cause chaos, and she's probably most overt about wanting to date her brother. Although they're not biologically related, this still gives me an attack of the squicks because they were brought up as siblings together since infancy. I can't see any future where she and Nagi end up together, unless the author is truly a psychopath intent on igniting fan flame wars. (I hope they don't take plotting tips from the authors of Domestic Girlfriend or Rent-A-Girlfriend.)

While I find the overall plotting, structure, and pacing of the show extremely frustrating, episode to episode, it's still a fun, painless watch. It's a colorful, comforting anime that requires minimal brain power to consume, which means it's a good show to wind down to. Oftentimes, the more absurd humor makes me giggle, and it never bores me. With changing studios since the first season, the production quality seems to have taken a hit, the animation seems more limited, and the character designs seem a little “off”. There's something about each of the girls' huge, moist, shiny eyes that freaks me out a little. I do like the frequent switches to more cartoonish facial designs during the dafter scenes, though; they're cute and silly.

Musically, the opening track is pretty generic female vocalist J-pop, but at least it's peppy and upbeat, which suits the show's style. The closing track is decent enough, but unremarkable as is the episode score itself. Most episodes reach a baseline entertainment level of “good enough, but forgettable,” although some storytelling choices remain baffling, not least the actions of Erika's parents (Nagi's biological parents), whose motivations seem to change depending on what the plot requires them to do. In the final episode, when Erika's dad states that it took him three years of dating to hold his future wife's hand and then a further four until they kissed, I can't help but worry that's a blueprint for the show's future plot progression...