Kakkou no Iinazuke

I will preface this by saying that this is based on the first 24 chapters, and also, I'm a fan of Yoshikawa Miki 's prior works. I think she's a talented author and has a good head on her shoulders. That being said, why.........

Some light spoilers.








So, here's the deal. The initial premise of the manga (and the one shot) sells us this story of two families who's children were swapped at birth, something they don't realize till the start of chapter one when the kids are now highschoolers.

Our Male lead is raised by the poor family and to compensate for his background studies super hard. He has this weird rivalry with a girl in his class who he's crushing on as well. They make some odd deal that if he takes first place, he will ask her out, which ends up happening, but they don't actually go out. Instead they bond over collecting stickers and studying in the library.

The Female lead is raised as a lone rich kid. She's currently some sort of SNS celeb and goes to an all girl school.

The kids meet first, don't really like eachother, and then the parents later introduce them to eachother and surprise surprise, they're now engaged. Que the "WTF", etc. the parents tell them to move into a house that her dad (his bio dad) has prepared for them.

Ok, so far, so good. This is where shit goes south super fast. Yoshikawa clearly isn't a harem writer, she has no sense of balance for character pacing where there's multiple love rivals. Hell, they each just disappear for entire parts to focus on the other. No one gets anywhere.

She does this thing where she tries to tell us that they're perfect for eachother instead of actually showing it and it comes across as really forced.

Now the most annoying part, suddenly his sister (who's technically not his bio sister) is crushing on him despite there being no mention of this for fucking 16 years of his life?

This manga started as a 7-8/10 and has quickly dropped to a 4 for me. I will keep reading because I like the designs and if Yoshikawa gets back to her roots, it can be good (She wrote Yamada-kun which I was a huge fan of, and it was legitimately good). But in the mean time, be warned. If you like badly written drama, terrible pacing, and the most generic and overplayed harem tropes, you will like this. If not, you won't.

I am up to date to chapter 39. There will likely be 'spoilers' for what little plot there is.

The art in this series is fantastic. Its very pleasing and there are constant hilarious profile picture- worthy expressions and faces from a myriad of different characters.

The premise is odd but creative and original. Two babies- a boy and girl- are switched at birth, and suddenly at age 16 they are arranged to be married. The boy, whose birth father is a billionare hotel tycoon, grows up dirt poor instead. And the girl, whose birth father is a unemployed cook, grows up with the tycoon and becomes a social medial influencer and overall spoiled brat.

However the characters are where it goes wrong.

I dont beleive for a second that any of the 3 main girls in the harem like the MC, Nagi, for his value as a human being. All 3 are extremely toxic in their own ways and it leads me almost feeling bad for the main character of a harem which is not at all supposed to happen.

The worst offender by far is Segawa, the girl Nagi has been crushing on since the beginning of the school year. She likes boys that are smarter then her so he devotes his life to grades to win her affection (and to also get his family out of poverty). He gets #2 in total grades for forever, until he gets #1 once and decides to finally confess. SHe denies him, saying thats because she works at a miko in a shrine and cant marry him. However despite this she keeps deliberately stringing him along as a 'rival', basically treating him as a toy/dog whose only purpose is her own amusement/ motivation to succeed. She says she enjoys his company but not ONCE in the 39 chapters has she had any interaction with him that isnt using him. SHe invited him on a date, but it was to just get a discount. She went with them to a study retreat, only to tease him. She invited him to hangout before school, only to just study, and immediantly invites Erika (his fiancee) whom shes completely enamored with. And through all this Nagi keeps on trying and trying and she keeps on feeding this poor sap scraps that he eats up without realising that she doesent give a shit about him. Thing is, im not sure if this is how i should think. I think shes meant to be portrayed as an uber-driven competetive study freak whose driven and focuses on school, but instead she just seems like a ice-hearted witch woman who treats others as footstools. it doesen't help that she is repeatedly emphasized to be good at literally everything, including sports, socialization, school, and being a perfect good little girl raising her family shrine. She seems like a mary sue, a corrupted one at that. Its obvious she is never going to win and that is a good thing.

Erika, as many rich spoiled millionare blonde attractive teenage girls (sorry if that makes me sound like an incel but am i truly wrong?) is extremely spoiled and frequently voices that in almost any chapter, refusing to eat 'poor food', demanding Nagi cook for her (which he does since hes a simp), constantly incessantly distracting Nagi from studying just to entertain her, etc. This is one of the most forced ships ive seen in a while, they only have around 2-3 scenes of naturally enjoying eachothers company, and many of them already seem kinda iffy in how 'real' and genuine they are, but we are constantly told by other characters how 'perfect' they are together, how amazing of a combination they are. Nagi could whip out a belt and commit domestic violence, and segawa could see that and still blush and say 'Wow, what an amazing couple...'. No they aren't, they dont particularly mesh well nor get along at all. They dont have very much chemistry in the slightest and i dont buy that Erika wants to live the rest of her life with nagi or even wants him to be her one and only companion. Shes just jealous and entitled. While its not as outright toxic and inappropiate like Segawa, it still has a feeling of unnaturality and complete forced-ness

Next is Sachi, Nagi's little sister. Thats all i need to say to say how inappropiate that is. Sachi grew up with Nagi from the day they were born and the SECOND sachi learns nagi isnt related to her she begins to want him. The author keeps on pushing her as a valid member of Nagi's shitshow of a 'harem', but she REALLY shouldnt be. Until like chapter 20 nagi still saw her as a child sister, like anybody with a working brain, and likely still does. Sachi hasnt really given any reason she loves Nagi so much despite being her family member. Its even said she constantly shit talks him at school and even directly shit talks him to his face.

This entire manga is one dudes life being thrown upside down, being dragged to do thigns he doesent want to do by his siter or erika, or being emotionally manipulated by Segawa. Despite the rare, but great, moments of fluff and the great art, this harem is too fundamentally broken to be enjoyable escapism. I dont have a siscon fetish so i dont want to date my sister so i dont want to escape into Nagi to date Sachi. I dont like spoiled brat millionares who get everything on a silver plate, so i dont want to escape into Nagi to date Erika. And i dont like perfect mary sue women who do nothing but string me along like a dead pig so i dont want to escape into Nagi to date Segawa either.

I'm going to tell you about how far I've read (chapter 40), so this will contain spoilers.

If you read the synopsis, doesn't it seems you something similar to some work from a while ago?
Exactly, follow Nisekoi's lead. Still, I don't feel that this is bad, so i'll go by parts:

-First point, art: I will be clear here: The best of manga without a doubt, is the art. I have been reading works by Yoshikawa Miki since Yamada-kun, and the evolution of his drawing is very noticeable, it is what is most enjoyed about Kakkou no Iinazuke, how well it is drawn.

-Second point, Story. This is disappointing, it's cliché, boring, and in a way you already know how the story is going to unfold unless something very unexpected happens, which I don't think so (I hope I regret it).
To give you the idea, in 40 chapters that I have been reading the manga, it is exasperating how the story has not advanced at all, each chapter
more boring than the previous one.

-Third point, characters: I've read a lot of junk romcoms, but i don't remember none with a combination of cheap characters like Kakkou no Iinazuke ... They don't bring any kind of interest to the reader, you could substitute by a potato , and they serve the same function. The MC is something that I already read 50 times, Erika is like Chitoge (nisekoi) without being aggressive, and Sachi is the typical brocon sister ... The only character that is worthwhile and introduces something """""new"""" is Hiro.


The work is typical romcom, if you like the genre you will follow it with no big problems, me, in my case, I started reading it from the Oneshot and by inertia I keep reading it ...
But I don't recommend it, I feel like there are hundreds of similar works that are better.

(Review in Progress) This is the current work of the author who wrote both Yankee-Kun to Megane-Chan (Flunk Punk Rumble) and of course Yamada-kun to 7-nin No Majo (Yamada and the Seven Witches). Both of them good series in their right and they both had their own criticisms but they both had a lot of charm to them to keep you reading. I had to mention these two series first because it's not as funny as those two were, doesn't have a big and colorful cast, not really much drama as I thought it would have for love comedy harem, and it feels like there's not much of foundation to keep you interest. I'll get more in depth but the reason I kept reading was because Yamada had a down time in its series in the middle but it managed to bring itself up to the conclusion... Yankee was a bit of the opposite... but still a good series regardless!

Story (4): All I have to say is that this third series had a lot to live up to after we got both Yankee and Yamada and all I have to say is that it's no where near as good as those two. It's a harem, between his set up to be Fiance Erika Amano, his test score rival and crush Hiro Segawa, and (possibly? It's been over 40 chapters and they still messing around whether they both just see each other as siblings or not) his thought to be biological sister Sachi Umino. The first chapter atleast simplifies these three as the main contenders buttttt there's no conflict..... It feels like there should be conflict but there's none whatsoever, we kept being told that there's a storm brewing the next chapter but again nothing ****ing happens and everything is resolved... I'm going to mention Yankee and Yamada again real quick here, in 48 chapters we get to meet a bunch of characters, had some conflicts, had a bunch of laughs, and we get to see some sort of drama... Cuckoo ain't got none of that, I laughed a few times and most of the 'love' situations are so forced that its cringeworthy and one more thing to note is there's not really any story arcs atleast up to chapter 48.

I'm just hoping the story picks up from here... please do.

Art (7): It's certainly the same as the last two series so I don't know why it feels like she got a bit lazy with the character designs.

Character (4): We only got 4 characters that the story revolves around and they're odd. Lets start with Nagi, he's the main character of this manga but there's really not much known about him... he has some quirks that can be explored but they're not really explained like how he's supposedly really strong but no one mentions it and there's more but I rather keep this short and say that after 48 chapters, there's still so little we know of him....
Erika... I really don't care too much for her and all her interactions with Nagi seemed super forced, the chapters with both of these two are usually the ones I can't get into and had to motivate myself to keep reading, she's not per say a bad character.
Sachi is probably my favorite character in this mostly because she's interesting, she has actual traits of being a complete character and the chapters she's in are some of the ones I look forward to.
Hiro... she's alright, nothing bad about her at all but there's seems to be something up with her and I look forward to seeing what she's up to.
Okay that's it, in 48 CHAPTERS, there's only been little development with and between these characters, and there's only one other minor character that's not their parents but he rarely shows up and you don't really get to know much about him at all!

Enjoyment (4): It's disappointing even without comparing Yamada or Yankee, it's still really disappointing. I only read because I was such a big fan of the mangaka and was hoping to see her get more attention but this is not it chief.

Overall (5): One question... How did they not know that their kids were switched in the first place. Like imagine this, didn't they get told what gender their baby was before they sat them in beds, did they atleast see what kind of colored hair their babies had, and I can keep going but I'll stop here. Okay lets ignored all of the above and try to get into this situation, wouldn't you be questioning your spouse because both Nagi and Erika had no similar traits as their 'mother' and 'father'. It's one of the biggest nitpicks for me and I just can't get over how dumb that sounds, but I guess it would make sense if they were the same gender and had the same colored hair but what ever... Just ignore this big elephant of a question if you truly are going to read on.

Before reading further, this is a review of the first 16 chapters of Kakkou no Iinazuke, the latest work of mangaka Miki Yoshikawa that got a serialization. Many of her works are shonenlike and with some cute moments, but this one is a full shoujo manga of her.

The story is a Romcom about two characters that were mixed up at birth, they don't know each other but are fated to meet anyways. There's the main character (Nagi) that discover after many years he's not part of his family, and goes to a reunion to know his real parents but it's interrupted on the road by Erika, which is the baby who got mixed with years ago.
Now comparing this story to others is hard, it's a fresh story and can remember other shojos like Lovely Complex to pull you through all of this freshness (instead of physical differences they're more of social status differences).
Perhaps because it's a serialization we'll meet many other characters that will improve the story, but at the moment looks like a romcom of one male character and many girls (his not biological sister, Erika, one studen at school, etc.) getting feelings for him. If it's not getting any male rivals on the upcoming chapters then the story's momentum will drop, and believe me comparing this to Miki's latest work (Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo) would be a failure of sorts.

Art is improved a bit from the One shot, by giving us a full page of Erika, Sachi or any other female character on cute clothes each chapter. The artstyle is simpler than in Yamada-kun but that's because the genres are somewhat different. you don't see many action sequences and somewhat because of that it looks stale, but I repeat, that has to do with the genre Miki Yoshikawa's working on.

Characters are solid creations, are well defined the tastes, love triangles and goals of each other. The only bad thing is that sometimes because the story is getting stale they have to bring out some stuff out of nowhere to keep it working. No even the interactions of Nagi and Erika will work on some chapters, and maybe Yoshikawa san needs to use new other combinations because if not then the ship will sink sooner or later.

Enjoyment is based on personal tastes, and until now I've liked Cuckoo's Fiancee, the good and bad moments it has, but I keep thinking that it's a 180º work series and needs some extra stuff in the future to keep it growing, maybe a part-time work for Erika and Nagi or a school event that will improve their relationships. The time will tell at the end how this will work.

Overall, if you're into Romcoms and needs some light content story, that will give you some laughs then Cuckoo's Fiancee is for you.
If you got a bad taste with how fugly was Nisekoi then maybe this is not for you.
And of course, if you liked the manga and anime adaptation of Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo and the works of Miki Yoshikawa, then of course this manga is for you.

this is my first review so Let's go by parts.

ART: the art for the backgrounds is really good with stunning attention to details and great lighting, and the art for the characters is also great with a distinct round look and unique expressions for every character and recognizable silhouettes, BUT there's a huge problem, the background and the characters don't mix, they look too different too fell like they are from the same world, a simple way to fix that is to make the backgrounds more cartoony (that would fit the manga more) or to make the characters more realistic.
conclusion: background art 8/10 Character art:8/10 total 7/10

story: even if I am enjoying the story for now it's still "a been there done that" type of harem that makes it very obvious which girl is gonna win by the start so probably the anding will suck 6/10

Character: all the characters are well-done versions of their tropes (except for Sagawa-san she's unique and I love her) and have great interactions with each other(the comedy is the best part of the manga for me but that's subjective) 7/10

Enjoyment: I had fun 8/10

Overall: it's good manga but noting special that will probably have an unsatisfactory and predictable ending 7/10

I hope this was helpful :)

edit: this story has gone downhill, it still doesn't even have ANY character development nor does it feel like the series has not progressed in any way, even though it teases story development all the time before pulling back (which is really annoying), this had potential to be an entertaining manga (because the start was ) but the absurdly slow passing (even for herem manga) dragged it down, tl;dr: I don't recommend it anymore, it's a 4/10 at best for me now, which honestly just makes me sad :(

It's gonna be a brief review, coming from many one shots Miki Yoshikawa has done on her career as mangaka.

The story is a Romcom about two characters that were mixed up at birth, they don't know each other but are fated to meet anyways. In my opinion, this kind of story on one shots are nice, but it's hard to get a serialization if you're not focused on creating many other problems during the story, so it's probably the serialization will give us more characters and many misunderstandings before it gets stale.

Art is attractive, like coming from a shojo manga, similar to Nozaki-kun but simple like Nisekoi; you're not getting any similar to Yamada-kun, that part is what maybe people don't figure out it's the same mangaka, because the art style is simpler than her last work that was kinda shonen-ish.

And because of this Art, the characters have to be well detailed, that's the nice part she worked hard on giving us some personalities on this 1-shot.

Enjoyment overall is great, you can read it whole and figure out how it will turn out on a serialization, only to then to figure oout what can Miki Yoshikawa include to make this a long serialized series like her other works (200 chapters of her latest manga).

If you're into Romcoms, and you need something simple yet funny then this one shot is going to be for you.