REVIEW: ‘You and I Are Polar Opposites’ Season 2 Episode 3 – “The Year That’s Passed, and the Year to Come”

With its bubblegum effect and the cutesy character designs, You and I Are Polar Opposites Season 2 Episode 3 explores the tender insecurities of being a teenager. Which, all in all, is what the series is all about. Anyone who watches or reads the manga it is based on knows that there’s genuine depth lit by the sunny disposition of its protagonist, making the moments of raw honesty and bruised pride all the more effective. Our experiences are all different, and not one of us walks the same path, but my god, most of us know the awkward pains of being a teen. 

In some ways, it’s tough writing weekly about this series due to how the story itself is structured. While there are overarching plots dealing with the main pairings or would-be pairings with Suzuki (Sayumi Suzushiro) and Tani (Shogo Sakata), Taira (Wataru Katoh) and Azuma (Miyuri Shimabukuro), and Yamada (Anji Iwata) and Nishi (Kokoro Ōmori), it all operates in a vignette-style approach. We jump around stories, seasons, and significant moments without a real grounded sense of the passage of time. It’s more that this specific period of their lives has been bottled for the story to pick through. 

This isn’t a knock against the series, because Kōcha Agasawa’s writing embellishes the world and the characters with such specific particularities and strong personalities that even if we skip certain events or, you know, establish the main romance in the premiere, it still works because the characters are so well-defined. We never feel like we’re missing key attributes or lacking a reason for why a character behaves a certain way. 

In ” You and I Are Polar Opposites” Season 2 Episode 3, Suzuki is at her most insecure. 

The worst thing about it is that, because of how well-written the characters are and how vibrantly infectious the story is, we’re already mourning the ending (with only 62 chapters, the series will end with Season 2). But all of this can make it hard to write consistently, since it builds on similar stories as the characters grow increasingly close. But then, you dig a little deeper, and a story like “The Year That’s Passed, and the Year to Come” leads you to the well. 

As was the case with “Dilemma of a Winter’s Night,” You and I Are Polar Opposites Season 2 Episode 3 gives way to a deceptively simple and genuinely thoughtful story. Or, rather, simple for those of us well outside of the turbulent throes of being a teen. 

Tani, in a clear sign of growth and affection, asks Suzuki on a whim to join him and his family on New Year’s Day. He asks because he thought of her and realized he wanted to see her. And while his asking came from a pure place, it throws Suzuki into a tailspin, not helped by her mother, who, hilariously, asks if it’s okay for Tani’s family to interact with people like them, since she has the unfounded belief that Tani’s family must be very proper. 

Suzuki’s worries are relatable as she meets Tani’s parents for the first time.

Suzuki’s panic leaves her sleep-deprived and in a rush to get a gift for her hosts. On top of that, she takes out her piercings, dyes her hair back to black (leaving her with the hilarious detail of ink-dyed fingertips), and dresses more formally. She’s worried about her image, insecure, and embarrassed about everything. Even the first meeting with Tani’s mom is awkward, as she takes a beat of silence to take Suzuki in.

While we later learn it’s just because she looked so different from the photo Tani had shown her, it doesn’t diminish the fact that, in the moment, just before falling on her face, Suzuki feels, for once, out of her social depth.

And Tani, thankfully, realizes as much, getting Suzuki to confide in him when they visit the local shrine together. Her honesty with him about her feeling overwhelmed is cleverly constructed. Because while the signs of her insecurity are obvious, Tani struggles to understand how and why, given the contrast with the Suzuki he knows. 

You and I Are Polar Opposites Season 2 Episode 3 shows what happens with emotional buildup – it’s due to spillover. Tani apologizes for the rushed invite, and he and Suzuki tend to her bruised pride as he tries to reassure her that his family isn’t as formal as she thinks. Tani’s family helps as well, once they return, from showing her baby photos of Tani, to offering her coffee and sweets. 

As the ensemble files in, You and I Are Polar Opposites Season 2 Episode 3 exudes its signature warmth.

It’s a comforting resolution to a minor scale mishap. The effect is warm and inviting, a reminder of how our innermost struggles are best relieved when expressed aloud. Sometimes it just takes hearing our emotions out loud to walk back some of the mounting pressure and sense of gloom. 

The rest of You and I Are Polar Opposites Season 2 Episode 3 involves the entire friend group as they visit another shrine together to ring in the new year as classmates. Even here, there are hilarious character beats: Azuma’s nonstop chattering, Taira struggling to keep up, and Yamada yelling at Suzuki and Tani to stop flirting, still bothered by his own inaction with Nishi. 

The group outing shines because it clearly demonstrates each character’s distinctive personality. Be it in how they walk up the many, many steps to the shrine, to their casual interactions with one another, and even in how they dress, their differences make for a lived-in world that feels real regardless of the abundance of color and soft, rounded corners. 

From character details to how lighting is captured, the artists at Lapin Track are doing strong work.

You and I Are Polar Opposites Season 2 Episode 3 also displays some well-guarded by no less effective backgrounds and lighting. The lighting in the series has always been an understated strength. Still, it comes into clearer focus in a brief moment when, as Suzuki turns to wave bye to Tani, her hand crossing the expanse of the sky momentarily changes the lighting each time it passes the sun. What a superb, minor detail that adds a lot to the world’s weight. 

These details – the smudged fingertips, the shadows, and the change in Suzuki’s walking while wearing a longer skirt – all express an artist’s intent. This is a story ruled by the personalities of its players, and the animation team sprints ahead with it, ensuring that not a single beat is left unthought-out. There’s intent behind every movement, and it matters. 

You and I Are Polar Opposites Season 2 Episode 3 is yet another stellar installment to a series that, at this rate, is happy to coast on a “fantastic” default. In showing a brief sign of weakness in Suzuki’s typically loud, exuberant demeanor, the series introduces yet another strength. 

You and I Are Polar Opposites Season 2 Episode 3  is available now on Crunchyroll.

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