English Dub Review: You and I Are Polar Opposites “Gradation”
Overview:
During spring break, Yamada and Nishi spend some quality time together at the aquarium that brings them even closer. Suzuki’s birthday arrives, and on a date with Tani, she expresses her anxiety about things to come. Tani’s words set her at ease, but in truth, he also feels anxious. For the new term, Azuma and Taira end up in different classes. Azuma tells herself that they’re just friends, but…
Our Take(Spoilers):
Today I learned a new word, gradation. I thought that this episode title was a typo when they meant to spell “graduation”. Turns out that gradation is a word, and it means a gradual change. Which I think is a fitting title for this episode because there’s a lot of change that happens for our characters in this episode. If nothing else, when you read this review, you can say you learned something.
Change is something that’s fitting for this episode because everyone is literally changing classes. I was surprised that all of the couples and stuff were split up. Oftentimes in anime, they hint towards main characters getting split up, but then they end up in the same class anyways. It was nice to see how this change is handled by teenagers dealing with budding romance and friendships.
You know, the main two I’m going to talk about are Taira and Azuma. They’re no longer in the same class, and Azuma seems bothered that it isn’t as big a deal to Taira as it is to her. Azuma is slowly coming to terms with the fact that she’s developing feelings for Taira. When Yamada and Taira are hanging out, Yamada invites Azuma to join after she gets off work, and she freaks out when she hears Taira’s voice. This girl has it bad, and she hasn’t realized it yet. When Taira tells her that nothing will change and they’ll still have their after-school hangouts, she literally skips away. If she’s not in love, then I don’t know what love looks like.
I feel bad for Nishi and Yamada because normally I would talk about them. But their relationship wasn’t a surprise at all. They’re, of course, super cute together, and I love seeing it. But there’s something about the trauma that Taira and Azuma have gone through in the past that makes them way more interesting to me. The fact that they knew each other in middle school makes it even more intriguing because they know what issues they went through. I wish we could focus on them a little more, but that’s the nature of a show like this.
