We finally get to see what happened between Yamada and Nishi during the school festival. They even address less-than-fulfilling text conversations over the summer. It’s nice of Yamada to tell Nishi that she can make mistakes with him — that she can be stupid with him. Sure, that’s great. But if I recall correctly, his one-word replies to her long text messages were pretty much conversation killers. He kinda takes ownership of that? Some people are bad texters, and I know he wanted to have a phone call at one point. But it would been nice if he had been a little more explicit about what he could do to help her feel more comfortable.
Despite Yamada’s reassurances, however, Nishi continues to be mired in her own self-doubt. She keeps asking herself questions that are just bizarre to me: “M-Me, talk first? Can I do that?” Yes…? Why not? The thing is, I remember being shy, and the inability to speak up wasn’t this… articulate? Is that the right word? To put it another way, there wasn’t a conscious thought in my head telling me not to say hi to someone. Instead, I felt a strong aversion that I never put into words. Of course, I know not everyone experiences things the same way. And this is a story, so it’s easier if the characters simply voice everything they think to the audience. But yeah, I can’t relate even though I would consider myself an introvert like Nishi.
Nishi can admit to herself that Yamada makes her feel a certain kind of way, but she now is doing that shoujo heroine thing where she wonders if she would still act and feel this way around other boys. Is it Yamada or is it the situation! Again, just overthinking it. When you get down to it, does this distinction really matter? Yeah, maybe some other boy could have the same effect, but Yamada’s the one in front of her. So just roll with it. I’m glad Honda agrees with me. Again, I think Honda is an interesting character, so it’s a shame that the series is so short-lived. I would’ve loved to have seen her get an arc of her own.
In any case, Nishi gets the rare opportunity to walk home with Yamada and the rest of the gang. Suzuki can’t help but take notice of the girl’s behavior. The following day, Suzuki goes into detective mode when Nishi dashes off instead of simply sticking around to say hi to Yamada. We already know from that yeti movie that Suzuki tends to pick up on certain things that others wouldn’t notice. She seems to study her friends’ behavior (like how she knows when Taira is headed to his part-time job). She quickly deduces that Nishi is the girl that Yamada was referring to when he wanted to know how to get someone’s contact info. It’s just to see Suzuki’s character portrayal be consistent. She can easily put two and two together and realize that these two are lovebirds having their own little romance series in parallel with her and Tani.
Meanwhile, Tani is clueless even though he has all of the same information as Suzuki. He was there when Yamada talked about being on the way to falling in love. He was there when Nishi dashed off at the first sight of Yamada. And yet, he has no idea what’s going on. He’s especially confused by Suzuki’s questions about Nishi. Tani ends up turning to Taira for advice, who hilariously leads him down the wrong path: assuming that his girlfriend is jealous of Nishi. To be fair, Suzuki does look and sound almost accusatory when she asks her many questions, but I can’t tell if this is from Tani’s perspective or if she really does come off that way. Either way, if Tani was truly a light novel protagonist, his girlfriend being jealous of Nishi might actually be true. But it’s not, and when he finds out later that there was no jealousy involved whatsoever, he crumples to the ground. Just a tiny bit of humble pie can still do that to ya.
A jealousy subplot laden with misunderstandings would be so common in other shows, wouldn’t it? I saw a few reactions to last week’s episode, and one of them stood out to me: a few people think that everyone on this show is too nice. They’re wondering where all the drama is. They don’t think these kids are relatable. Meanwhile, I feel like have the exact opposite view. I like this show because everyone is so nice. I have a hard time stomaching other romance series, because everyone is always so dramatic. At the end of the day, our reaction to art often says more about us than the art itself. If you’re surrounded by dramatic people, then you will think drama is normal. I can’t remember the last time I had a full blown argument with anybody, much less a friend. As a result, the interactions in You and I Are Polar Opposites seem to pretty normal to me.
Nishi creates her own worries. Meanwhile, Tani got a little push from the overly negative Taira. As a result, the miasma of overthinking is spreading like a contagion. Luckily, Suzuki is immune to all this nonsense, so she easily bursts Nishi’s bubble, pulling the latter into the friend group when it initially looked like Nishi was about to let her anxiety cement her in place. And in one quick swoop, she also dispels Tani’s silly concerns as well.
Stray thoughts & observations:
— I’ve never had a middle school gathering. Hell, the thought of having one never would’ve occurred to me. I haven’t been to a single high school reunion either. They make a big deal about it on American TV shows, but I’m no longer in contact with anyone from my high school days. I deleted my Facebook halfway through college, so I don’t even know how to reach out to anyone from my past.
— It’s very weird to hear Oka (Rihito) moan on and on about how high school sucks compared to middle school. You usually peak in high school, not the other way around…
— I wonder why Oka ended up going to a different high school. Didn’t score well on the entrance exam? Would Suzuki’s story have changed at all if he had attended the same school? Probably not. Nothing about her and Tani has anything to do with Oka.
— I remember my middle school friend group going our separate ways simply because we lived in different areas of the same city (yes, really). My hometown had two high schools, and depending on where your house was, you’d go to a different school. Funnily enough, it also ended up being a racial divide: the Asians went to one school, and the rest went to the other school. Hm.
— I have no fond memories of middle or high school. I hated waking up so early, I hated the dreadfully boring classes for six hours every single day, I hated standing for the pledge of allegiance, the mandatory pep rally because it was rivalry week, so on and so forth. On the other hand, I loved college… minus the tuition.
— Of all people, Taira is not allowed to accuse someone of being “too hung up on the past.” The gall of that boy!
— Plus, why is he trying to stir up drama? Eh, they’re kids. Kids are immature. But then I see people in their 30s getting jealous of their partners interacting with other people, so I don’t even know anymore. I think everyone’s just immature. If I can’t trust my girlfriend to attend a hangout with old friends — even if one of them is technically an ex — then I shouldn’t be dating her in the first place.
— Taira is curious about Yamada’s love life, but he doesn’t pry. Not out of respect, but because he wouldn’t know how to respond. C’mon, if it’s bad news, all you gotta do is pat your bud on the back and say, “That sucks, man.” Taira would probably think that this comes off as inauthentic, but it really isn’t. Sometimes, all you can do is commiserate. And if it’s good news, I dunno… give him a high five or something. I mean, we’re all monkeys. And monkeys are good at imitating each other. Even if you’re weird, just copy what normal people do. It’s not that hard.
— Yo, nobody wrote on Nishi’s shirt. Yamada should get on that. But knowing Nishi, she’d probably have a meltdown if Yamada touches her (even through a shirt).
— I love how the straightforward, WYSIWYG Yamada keeps ping-ponging from one overthinker to the next overthinker, and he doesn’t have the slightest clue how mentally tortured they are.
— I saw a height chart for the cast, and apparently, Nishi is only 4’9″. It seems extreme, but I think my mom is only 4’8″. Hell, even Tani, one of the taller members in the cast, is only 5’7″ish.
— C’mon, Taira… isn’t this mentally exhausting to be like this? Go find a hobby.
— One bad experience and he’s just reliving it over and over.
— I like Miyu’s prank ’cause it’s harmless. Every time I hear about pranks nowadays, they seem so mean-spirited. Too busy trying to go viral, I guess.
— Aw, he’s happy that his friends want to see him. Y’see, life ain’t so bad.
— I know Honda makes that face because she doesn’t want to smile… but why can’t she smile? Maybe it would embolden Nishi to see how happy Honda is over her making even the slightest progress.
— Kinda funny how many English loan words these characters use in their everyday conversations — simple words like “fancy” and “realistic.” I think English speakers take for granted just how ubiquitous the language is.
— Wants to exercise? Or just wants to have an excuse to hang around until a certain person is free…
— Like with Honda’s smile, Nishi wants to hold back her laughter. Why? What makes you think this way? In a more dramatic show, we’d probably get some tragic backstory.
— Do high schoolers normally get this excited about toys?
