I wouldn’t swear to it, but I’m pretty sure Seihantai na Kimi to Boku didn’t do a Valentine’s episode in the first cour. There’s no more obvious staple of a romance series than that one. As such, this marks a pretty big milestone. And the fact that Seihantai chose to give almost the entire Valentine’s Day ep to Kentarou and Natsumi was fascinating. This series never short shrifts its B-couples, to be clear. But this is one of the iconic tropes of the genre, and MiYuusuke barely got a taste of it.

This was charming as always, and cute as hell. I mean, obviously. If I’m totally honest, I think I prefer NishiYama in their usual dosage. I love desserts, but I don’t eat them as entrees. As adorable as these two idiots are, the whole relationship is just a little too precious to carry an entire episode for me. They’re both incredibly nice of course, which inherently makes a pair like TairAzuma more interesting. But they do uphold the spirit of the title as well as Tani and Suzuki do, if not more. And it’s nice to see some acknowledgement that the casually friendly social gadflies like Kentarou can struggle when things get serious.

The big kahuna here for Yamada-kun is telling Nishi-san he wants to formally date her. I mean it’s obvious, but he’s struggling to get the words out because this is the first girl he ever cared about enough for it to matter. And there’s sort of a natural assumption that Nishi being Nishi will never say the words to him. He tries to call her out in the evening, but she’s already in into her pajamas (at 7:30) and can’t find a good reason to give her parents. So he settles on a not-date, with recommendations from Gapacho (still the MVP, still a mystery).

Two teens waiting in line on a stairwell at a pancake cafe – where have I seen that before? This all goes well enough until Natsumi spots some boys at the bookstore and panics. She doesn’t know them, but they look familiar enough to freak her out anyway – that’s some good neuroticism right there. This all puts Kentarou into a bit of a panic trying to figure out an audible, the silence drives Natsumi crazy, and finally she blurts out “I love you!” and Kentarou’s poor smartphone once again pays the price. That bit with the slots & pachinko truck was the thing that really made me laugh though.

And so, that’s now officially official, leaving only one couple fully unresolved. Valentine’s Day shares the swag among all three pairs. Miyu makes icing cookies for Yuusuke, Natsumi makes a bunch of stuff for Kentarou but is too bashful to hand them over until after school. As for Azuma she basically blows it off altogether, though she does trick Shuuji into accepting a piece of gum and thus putting the onus on him to White Day her. I have to say this whole Valentine’s/White Day reciprocation scheme seems very stressful, especially for tightly-wound guys like Shuuji – how the hell do you track who gave you what and who expects what in return?

As for NishiYama, the housekeeping aspect is the question of secrets. But when he asks if he can tell his friends because he’s horrible at keeping secrets (that tracks) she says she’s already told Honda-san (who’s the only one she would, really). He’s not upset, though – just glad it’s that much more official. In a funny sort of way this puts more pressure on Shuuji and Shino I think – their closest friends are all paired off and all eyes now turn to them. They’re the two hardest to read among the main cast, and the two least in touch with their own true feelings. That makes them the most relatable, and finding out the evolved form of TairAzuma is the main event of You and I Are Polar Opposites for me.