You and I Are Polar Opposites

Episode 11

With how well the first part of this Field Trip arc managed to balance all of its romantic subplots, I was expecting the second leg to follow in its footsteps, so I was a little surprised that it ended up stumbling a bit. It still does a good job of giving each of our three of our main pairings a sufficient amount of screentime, and they all have something to do, but not Nishi and Yamada; it's a little lacking in the romance department. None of this necessarily makes for a particularly bad episode, but with all the build-up we got last week, the payoff so far has been a little underwhelming.

Our first stretch of the episode brings us back to another round of Nishi Watch, as the poor girl is still making up all kinds of excuses when it comes to her feelings towards Yamada. Despite their previous promise to spend some time on the field trip together, Nishi tries to convince herself that it was only ever meant to be a very casual hangout and doesn't want to do anything that would pull Yamada away from the rest of his friends. Even when the two do meet up during the trip, it takes everything Nishi has just to mix in with the rest of the friend group, and they never manage to be alone. It's a sorry state of affairs, but thankfully, Hon is having absolutely none of it (and gets some absolutely killer funny faces this week to vent her frustrations), so the second Yamada texts Nishi to meet him in private, she throws her to the wolves so the two of them can finally sort out their feelings. However, even with Yamada asking to meet her, Nishi still can't help but downplay the possibility that there's anything romantic going on, and seeing how casually he can talk to other girls only adds fuel to the fire. With all those self-doubts, it would have been easy for this to result in a classic misunderstanding, which is why I'm glad that Yamada avoids beating around the bush and asks if the two of them can hang out together alone once the trip is over. Sure, he didn't explicitly ask her out on a date, but the pretense here is obvious enough that even Nishi can recognize how big it is, and it's enough to get her to fully admit to herself that she's in love, so I'm feeling pretty optimistic that whatever this upcoming date entails will result in these two finally going out.

Unfortunately, that's about all the major romantic progress we get this week, as Taira and Azuma's bit in this episode has absolutely none of that, despite some serious promise. A lot of their time here is based around Taira having the funny but sad realization that, for all his usual moping, he's actually having fun on the trip and is getting a lot more caught up in the positive atmosphere of it than he could have ever imagined. He also can't help but notice that Azuma seems to be having a really good time, too, and that compared to how much she was faking smiles in middle school, she looks to be a lot happier. Between that and making the unprompted decision to get a drink for Tani when he notices him suffering from car sickness, we can see that Taira is actually pretty observant, and it's a good demonstration of how he can be a lot more thoughtful than he tends to give himself credit for. But as always, no screentime centered around Taira can ever be totally positive, so all his kind gesture towards Tani gets him is the awkwardness of having to watch him and Miyu have a moment alone together. Even if it still would have left this section lacking in romantic vibes, I would have taken this as a solid final punchline, which is why it's so disappointing it wasn't. Instead, we get Taira commenting on how much more “classmate” like Azuma has become recently, when he really wanted to bring up how much she's changed for the better, but since he was too self-deprecating to say the latter, this rightly earns him a look of absolute disdain. It's funny to be sure, and it is perfectly in character for him, but considering that Taira's observations of Azuma were all these two got this week for progressing their relationship, it sucks to see those developments get thrown under the bus for a joke. Maybe it's possible that this little misunderstanding here could be used as a setup for them to have a bigger moment together next time, but with how much this show enjoys having fun at Taira's expense, I can just as easily see this being a cheap gag that's never brought up again. Either way, with how much of the episode these two took up, this was a pretty lame note to leave them on.

Miyu and Tani do fare at least a little better here on the romance front, though not by much. This time, the two of them decide to enjoy their class trip by going to an amusement park. It is kind of cute watching Miyu push for them to wear matching accessories around the park together while Tani is too embarrassed to ever consider them. Funny enough though, their big romantic moment this week happens towards the end of their date, as when Miyu decides it's time to meet back up with the others, Tani finally decides to take some initiative and indicate that they can take their time meeting back up with everyone by…holding hands. Now I've watched enough anime rom-coms to know that handholding is basically the equivalent of watching two characters make out, and it's certainly enough to make Miyu swoon. Still, considering they have had an off-screen kiss, I was hoping to get something a little spicier. The moment still works, but coming off of how Taira and Azuma's segment ended, it didn't really do much to make my heart flutter, and I walked away from this episode feeling a bit starved for romance. Luckily, we still have the (presumed) finale next week and while I don't know how much of that is going to be dedicated to the rest of this trip, it does mean that there's still a possibility for it to end on a high note so hopefully whatever's in store for us next time comes packed with a higher dose of heartthrobbing escapades.

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