English Dub Review: You and I Are Polar Opposites “Past and Present”
Overview:
Azuma realizes she has feelings for Taira, and Tani seems down about graduating.
Our Take(Spoilers):
Before I get into the review, I need to shout out that this episode showed my favorite bird. You might be thinking, “Who has a favorite bird?” I do, and it’s a shoebill! They’re one of the most intimidating birds in the world. When they clack their beaks, it sounds like a machine gun, and they even eat crocodiles sometimes! A picture of one showed up behind Azuma when she was describing that she had to act like her emotions don’t faze her, and I can’t think of a better bird to embody that.
Most of this episode focused on Azuma and Taira, and I will get into that, but first I want to talk about some of the other things. First, I didn’t know that Yamada dyed his hair, but I suppose if you look closely, you can tell that he had black roots. His hair is back to black now that he’s going to have interviews for college, and one thing I’ve noticed from anime is that people who dye their hair are looked down on in Japan.
The second thing is that something is going on with Tani. He and Suzuki are getting close to graduation like the rest of the cast, but there seems to be something hanging over him. If I had to guess, he might be thinking that he and Suzuki are going to end up going to schools that are further apart than they’re expecting. Suzuki was talking about how if they got into their first choices, they would be close to each other. I imagine that means that either his first choice has changed or he doesn’t like his odds of getting in. This is something worth monitoring for sure because I don’t want this show to have a bittersweet ending. That’s assuming this will be the ending from the manga.
As for Azuma and Taira, I’m both extremely happy with where we’re at and vastly frustrated as well. What makes me happy is the fact that both of them have feelings for each other. The problem is that Taira has such crippling self-esteem issues that he doesn’t think she would ever like him. So this leads him to avoid her in trying to make things less awkward. This, in turn, leads Azuma to think that he doesn’t like her because of how weird he’s been acting. I’m pretty invested in this couple, and I hope that if they don’t get together by the end, we can at least be optimistic that they will.
