You and I Are Polar Opposites Season 2

Episode 7

It seems as though I might have spoken a little too soon about where we're at with Azuma and Taira. With how last week's episode ended, it seemed like Azuma had more or less come to terms with having feelings for Taira, but it's not quite that simple. She is aware that what she's starting to feel for him might be more than friendship, but she's pretty deep in denial about her new crush, and most of the time we spend with her revolves around forcing herself to acknowledge it.

This does make a good deal of sense. Besides Azuma lacking any other close guy friends that could help in distinguishing if what she's feeling is love, pretty much every other guy she's gotten close to has done so with the intention of initiating a relationship, and she keeps allowing herself to slip into them for the sake of going with the flow. Being the one to have to make the first move is a new experience for her, and learning that makes it a lot easier to get behind the choice of her being the first one to realize there's more going on between them. That choice also allows her to provide some high-quality silly faces this week, and considering that Azuma can sometimes be as overly self-serious as Taira is, seeing her spend half her screentime fretting over Taira acting as aloof as always without fully comprehending why is some of the funniest material she's ever gotten. This reaches its peak when Taira is seemingly unfazed by the two of them being in separate classrooms for the new year, but Azuma perks up pretty quickly when it turns out that's only because Taira's been under the assumption that they'll just keep hanging out when they walk home together. Azuma might be trying to convince herself there's nothing there, but the happy skip she does home is pretty clearly that of a girl in love, and even this isn't quite the direction I thought the show was going to go in with these two; if the jokes we get out of it can stay this strong, I'm more than happy to get behind it.

All that's just the last third of the episode, and the first two provide much-needed downtime with our two official couples. Between them, it's somehow Yamada and Nishi's section that ends up being the fluffiest, but since we haven't seen them do much as a couple up to now, it's a good opportunity to see them on an actual date. Most of that aquarium date just revolves around Yamada trying to get himself used to saying Nishi's first name while Nishi keeps worrying about how much fun Yamada's having, and even though those hang-ups quickly work themselves out, it's adorable to see just how out of sync they can be in wanting to make the other happy.

None of those anxieties are enough to keep them from having a good time, which is a bit more than can be said for Tani and Miyu this week. Their relationship is still going pretty strong, but with them becoming third-years and facing all the pressures of college entrance exams, they're understandably worried about the possibility that it'll force them to spend less time together. It's not exactly the heaviest bit of relationship drama we could have gotten. Still, these are pretty realistic fears for the two of them to have at this point in their lives; it's still nice to see the show dwell on them for a bit, and since Tani isn't very outwardly emotional, the fact that he ends up mulling over this even more than Miyu does really indicates just how much this relationship means to him. It makes me wish we'd get moments between these two like this a little more often, but the fact that their dynamic remains largely uncomplicated is its biggest appeal, so it's probably for the best that the show mostly keeps them where they are. At any rate, with how understandably Taira and Azuma focused the show has been recently, having an episode where all three pairings have something to do was a good little breather, and while I imagine that's going to get a little rarer as we head into the home stretch, seeing them all used so well was a nice little refresher of just how many tones this series can juggle.

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You and I Are Polar Opposites Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.