You and I Are Polar Opposites

Episode 6

You can't have a fluffy high school rom-com without a school festival, so I suppose we were due for one sooner rather than later, as it serves as the backdrop for this week's escapades. With how much this show is willing to let itself run on autopilot and center its comedy through casual character interactions, I went into this episode expecting it to be as relaxed as ever, so it caught me off guard when this one threw in some actual relationship drama. Granted, this is still You and I Are Polar Opposites, so even its drama is still relatively lighthearted, but we do at least get to see Miyu and Tani's relationship go through its first serious test—and the results make for one of the show's best episodes yet.

However, before we get too deep into that, it's time to check in on our favorite ball of anxiety with what I'm going to call our Nishi Watch segment. Where we last left her and Yamada, the two of them had gotten close enough to exchange numbers, but unsurprisingly, there hasn't been a whole lot of progress since then. While the two of them have at least been texting each other, this has only resulted in making this newfound friendship more awkward, as Nishi is the type who puts way too much thought into her texts, and shrinks in terror at talking over the phone, so her solution for the latter has been to avoid it at all costs and keep making up excuses in the meantime.

This brilliant strategy only backfires as it further convinces Yamada that his crush is one-sided, and we discover that this isn't the first time he's faced such a dilemma. The last time he fell for a quiet girl and wasn't sure how she felt, he simply assumed such girls couldn't be into him, and between holding out on a vague possibility and going out with a girl who better mirrored his personality, he ended up defaulting to the latter. Sadly, we don't see the two get past all this, but we do at least get to see Nishi hold a conversation with Miyu and Tani about her photography skills without her melting into a puddle—which, for someone as overly self-conscious as she is, is its own victory. Maybe someday she'll be able to apply this mild boost in confidence to talking to Yamada without it immediately getting awkward, but for now, that remains a far-off, distant dream.

This now brings us back to our two main lovebirds, as, in between all of his confusion about Nishi's feelings, Yamada lets it slip that he invited Miyu's ex to come and hang out at the festival with everyone. As tactless as this might seem, this isn't quite as bad as it sounds, as this old relationship wasn't exactly a long one. Miyu's “ex”, Rihito, was a close friend of hers back in middle school, and as is often the case with kids that age, everyone around them incorrectly assumed that if they're around each other so much, they must be into each other, which basically strong-armed Rihito into asking Miyu out on a date. They did try to give it a shot, but it only took one instance of them holding hands to realize that dating wasn't in the cards for them, and they quickly decided it was best to just go back to being friends. Having had such an experience around that age, I did like how honest a depiction this was of how easy it can be to be socially pressured into a relationship you weren't really thinking about—and how awkward that can make it when you try to force it. So it's good that these two were able to end it quickly without too much lasting damage.

However, while there may not be any animosity between the two of them, they also never quite cleared the air on that whole saga either. It only takes a few seconds of Miyu and Rihito running into each other at the festival for both to start cringing at the memory of the whole ordeal, and their attempts to act normal in spite of that are absolutely hysterical (that Yamada somehow never picked up on this tension, and assumes Miyu simply didn't want to bring up a past love for some reason just makes the whole situation even more painfully hilarious). Thankfully Rihito is a pretty good guy, and upon realizing that Miyu doesn't know how to act around him, tells her that he's over what happened and frees her from worrying too much about it.

However, this doesn't save her from having to smooth things over with Tani, as much as he tries to pretend otherwise, he can't help but feel jealous about not being the first guy Miyu has dated. At first Miyu's instinct is to simply downplay her relationship with Rihito since in her mind, it never went anywhere. Tani's her first real boyfriend as far as she's concerned, but it isn't quite that simple. Even if they were only “together” for the span of an afternoon, the fact that Miyu is still flustered over it means that the experience did mean something to her, and she realizes it wouldn't be fair to Tani or herself to pretend otherwise.

More importantly, she realizes that it doesn't matter what old relationships she might have had because she's devoted to her current one and tells Tani as much, which encourages the two of them to get even closer and start calling each other by their first names. This isn't exactly high-stakes melodrama, but for a show as generally fluffy as this one, it might as well be—so it's nice to see the series continually navigate through Miyu's attempts to figure out how to be in a relationship in a way that feels earnest. As great as this show's sense of charm is, I'm glad it can back it up with some substance, and while I can't imagine the show ever getting much more dramatic than what we got here this week, it's at least good to know that it can balance that alongside its relaxed sense of humor.

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