Alternative title(s): Seihantai na Kimi to Boku
Manga Adaptation by Lapin Track
Streaming on Crunchyroll

Premise

Outgoing, fashionable Suzuki and bookish, taciturn Tani are nothing alike. Nevertheless, mutual admiration for how they lead their lives without care for what others might think about them bring them closer together, starting a romance that proves opposites attract.

Aqua’s verdict: Attractive

You and I Are Polar Opposites is a far softer nut to crack in comparison to the other show I checked out this season, and one far less appealing to embittered veterans of seasonal anime like the folks over here on The Glorio Blog. Its high school setting and cookie-cutter premise bring to mind feel-good romances like My Dress-Up Darling or The Dangers in My Heart — shows that owe their popularity to a tastefully measured mix of fluttery romance and zany comedy, but ultimately fail to appeal to a more jaded audience because they remain wish fulfilment at their core. The most popular, cheerful and attractive girl in class unconditionally fawns over some unremarkable schlep, because he displays some nebulous virtues any viewer can recognise in himself? It might be validating to picture yourself in his shoes when you’re, like, fifteen, but it’s not exactly Shakespeare.

It’s a pleasant surprise, then, that You and I Are Polar Opposites, despite operating in the same wheelhouse, deftly pirouettes around most of the pitfalls of high school romance anime while retaining a broad appeal, similar to a show like Horimiya. Suzuki’s crush on Tani is founded in actual, genuine reasons why a girl that age might be unable to get a classmate out of her head, and by casting her as the viewpoint character, the show wisely highlights the importance of her developing feelings, as opposed to carting her out as a perky trophy for a male protagonist contractually obliged to have as little personality as humanly possible. Sure, the main couple’s ascension to official status is hardly a love story for the ages, but the fact that Tani and Suzuki can satisfactorily achieve within 20 minutes what most other anime couples need several seasons for, shows that You and I Are Polar Opposites is willing to look beyond the clichés to bring its world to life.

Even when it is still a show about a stereotypically bubbly extrovert falling head-over-heels for an equally stereotypically plain introvert, You and I Are Polar Opposites nevertheless strikes an endearing balance between meeting and subverting expectations with its cast. Be it their strong performances, snappy scripting or the inclusion of some solid loopy goofs, these characters do come across as slightly more self-aware than the generic nerds, jocks, tomboys and airheads usually stocking the anime high school classroom. There is nothing here that will rock the boat, that’s for sure, yet hanging out with these characters is neither grating nor does it feel like homework. It’s fluff, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t prime grade fluff.

This does however not change the fact that the main appeal of You and I Are Polar Opposites is in its presentation. As laid-back and sometimes even non-committal as writing might seem, the positively Bocchi-esque animation direction is constantly firing on all cylinders, with characters zipping around, bouncing all over the screen and pulling goofy faces even when the words coming out of their mouths are tepid as best. Director Takakazu Nagatomo is a Science SARU alumnus, and fans of that studio’s loose, cartoony style will find lots to love here. Furthermore, the delightful opening credits sequence is one impressive statement of intent, filled with fun visual trickery and homages to different styles of animation, from antique zoetropes to stop-motion antics with Lego figurines, and I hope we’ll eventually see some of that creative excess in the actual show as well.

For now, though, You and I Are Polar Opposites seems to be saving up its true ambitions for when we’ve gotten to know these characters a little bit better. I don’t see it rekindling the flame those of us who are well and truly done with high school romances any time soon, but it might just thaw the hearts of those of use not fully claimed by adulthood yet.