You and I Are Polar Opposites Season 2 ‒ Episode 11
The last time we saw Azuma and Taira, the latter had circled to completely dismissing any possibility that the former could be into him, and nothing seems to have changed since then. Acting like the very notion that anyone could be romantically attracted to him is the height of arrogance is pretty in line with what we've come to expect of Taira at this point, but just because it makes sense for his personality doesn't make it any less depressing to see him convince himself he's being delusional, especially since Azuma isn't doing nearly as much as she thinks to hide her feelings. Ironically enough, though, all of Taira's posturing means he's actually starting to think more about Azuma, and even if he still hasn't deduced that he's also crushing on her, it's still cute watching him get increasingly flustered as he attempts to gauge how she feels. From Azuma's perspective, this is basically what she wanted, but as much as she's reveling in the attention, it just makes her more worried about her crush staying one-sided.
With how much Azuma is trapping herself in a rut here, it's easy to sympathize with her friend Sato when she gives her some helpful, but brutally honest advice that Azuma should ask herself if she even likes Taira as a person rather than simply as a member of the opposite sex, and if she doesn't, she's better off cutting him out of her life. At this point, we already know that the answer to that question is a resounding yes, but it's still good to see Azuma come to that conclusion herself as she spends more time with him, even if all it does is make her hope that Taira can return her feelings. Sadly, Taira's whole inferiority complex means he isn't quite there yet. Still, when he starts to wonder just what exactly it is he feels inferior about, he realizes that he's been assuming that people like Azuma or the rest of their friends could never be accepting of someone like him. That fear of rejection has made him put up more walls than he needs to. It's only when he talks with Azuma about hanging with the rest of the group after exams, while accurately assessing how everyone would react to getting an invitation, that he realizes just how well he knows them and that he can read people better than he thinks. While I'm glad to see he seems to be finally moving past most of his self-doubts, none of this seems to have really brought him any closer to realizing he likes Azuma. With only a couple more episodes remaining, I'm getting increasingly worried he never will. At this point, I'm wondering if the show is leaning towards the possibility of ending without any kind of explicit hook-up between these two, and leaving their crushes as simple springboards for their self-improvement. That wouldn't exactly be the worst thing, but it would feel a little anticlimactic after how long all the will-they, won't-they tension in their relationship has stretched on for, so however their relationship ends, I hope it'll be a bit more satisfying than that.
Of course I'd be a lot less worried about any potential disappointment if the second half of the episode hadn't opted to mostly put Taira and Azuma to the side in favor of everyone coming together to have a random snack party. It's not totally devoid of romantic subplots, as Taira manages to successfully invite Azuma to join them of his own accord, while Miyu frets over accepting that her relationship with Tani might be going long distance now that he's going off to his dream college, but neither of these is at the forefront, so most of this segment is pretty relaxed. There is something kind of nice about seeing these characters all come together to just have a good time for 10 minutes, and I do agree with the overall sentiment it expresses about how moments like these are the ones that are the fondest to look back on, but considering just how close we are to the end of the show with so much to address, I do have to wonder if now was the best time for this kind of scene. We'll ultimately have to see how all these threads play out as Polar Opposites heads into its home stretch, but when it wraps up, I hope these kids will be all right.
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You and I Are Polar Opposites Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
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