English Dub Review: You and I Are Polar Opposites “Dilemma of a Winter’s Night”

Overview:

In the middle of winter break, Yamada grows anxious about the fact that his relationship with Nishi just hasn’t made much progress. He uses homework as a pretext to see her, but he can’t find the right timing to confess his feelings.

Our Take(Spoilers):

We got a lot of new information about Taira in this episode. For one, he colors his hair, which I found slightly surprising. He also used to be a bigger guy, and once he got to high school, he had lost weight and girls started giving him attention. He was aware that Azuma, who knew him back in middle school, might snitch on him to some of the girls and got anxious about that. One thing we learned, though, is that the girls who were interested in him are shitty.

One girl in particular asked him out on a date, and when he showed up in clothes she didn’t expect, she didn’t seem as interested. Also, when he freaked out about the price of the Starbucks drink, she got less interested as well. I liked how she handled it at first, to a point, because she told him that he wasn’t who she expected and wouldn’t want a second date, which, while kind of mean, is also fair. But then she started talking shit on him at school, and Taira didn’t deserve that. Luckily, he has some great friends, and I think that Azuma is interested in him for the right reasons and not superficial ones.

One thing we did get some progress on is Yamada and Nishi. After spending time with Tani and Taira, Yamada is worried that he’s taking things too slowly with Nishi. To be fair, they more or less have been dating in my eyes, just without the label. He wants to meet up with her and uses homework as an excuse. Lucky for him, she’s also been looking for an excuse for them to get together.

This has been one of the best romance shows we’ve gotten in a long time. Our main couple gets together early on, and to keep up interest, we have side characters that we’ve become heavily invested in. Whether it be Yamada and Nishi, or my personal favorite pairing to root for, Taira and Azuma. But even the side couples have gotten a lot of meaningful progress, and I can’t wait to see more.