I gotta give it up for Koucha-sensei. She’s effectively flipped the script in Seihantai na Kimi to Boku’s final act. And it’s clear that was the plan all along. For all intents and purposes Azuma and Taira are the protagonists at this point. The wealth is spread pretty evenly, yes. But unlike the rest of the series when it was MiYuusuke, TairAzuma are batting cleanup every week. it takes guts to ask your readers to buy into something like that, but she clearly had confidence both in her ability and in the appeal of these two characters. Justifiably in both cases.

The new batting order finds YamaNishi (I like NishiYama too, they both work) leading off every game. And that works – they’re a nice appetizer. Nothing with them is too stressful, and the obstacles never seem like anything too dangerous. A big part of that is Kentarou, because he’s so transparent. Nishi notes that about him – he’s exactly the same at home as he is at school (the funny thing is that he thinks he’s different). Holding hands or inviting a girl home when your mom and big sis are there should be a big deal – and of course they seem like one to Natsumi – but to to Kentarou it’s all kind of in stride. What you see is what you get with him – and fortunately, Natsumi likes what she sees.

One thing she sees in fact is a kiss, which she’s the one to instigate. Which, given their dynamic, is probably for the best. Kentarou does give her a hug and suggest it in his bedroom, but – even with Mom downstairs – that’s enough to fry Natsumi’s main board. But that’s as stressful as it gets for the fluffy twins. It levels up with Miyu and Yuusuke, as usual these days the middle of the sandwich. Only to an extent – the hardest thing for Miyu is not being around him. Which is more of a thing as both are now fully in college entrance exam mode (the life of a Japanese student from about 11 on seems like nothing but stressing over exams with short intervals in-between).

Again, because being a couple is now second-nature to these two they can stress over the big picture stuff full-time. Tani-kun’s path seems clear, he’s gonna be a teacher. That’s what his dad did, it’s all he ever thought about. Suzuki-san has no clue what she wants to do and envies him his clarity. But of course, he quite naturally worries that he’s been locked in too exclusively on that and not giving other possibilities a chance. Which is why he considers applying for the “designated school recommendation program”, which I assume only one student gets. As such Taira tries to dissuade him from pursuing that path, though he definitely regrets that later.

Eavesdropping on this conversation is Honda-san, who hasn’t been hugely involved this season as she doesn’t have a significant other. She and Taira-kun aren’t particularly close, which makes their time on the “Living Environment Committee” awkward. Honda is applying too, as it turns out – but she scolds Shuuji for being so discouraging to Tani (once she remembers his name). Shuuji knows he was in the wrong, but Yuusuke has already decided against applying by the time he goes to apologize. He says it was his own decision but that’s not enough to keep Shuuji from feeling guilty about it.

Azuma-san wasn’t too pleased when she heard this either, as the campus of the designated school is quite far away. She’s even less pleased when she sees Shuuji and Honda walking together after the meeting. She’s still in the river in Africa big time, but she won’t admit that to Taira of course. His concerns over all this are very relatable – he doesn’t want to go into debt, he doesn’t want to rely on his parents, he’s sick of studying. It’s all very normal stuff at that age. Since Honda winds up getting the recommendation anyway, Shino gets to be with her “fave” for a while longer at least as they go through Hell together.

Last week’s ep had a line of dialogue that summed up Shino as well as a character can be, as I noted. This time around it’s a panel that does the same for Shuuji. It’s quite remarkable how the tone of the series totally changes depending on which couple is in focus – it’s almost like three shows for the price of one. And it’s with these cleanup hitters that You and I Are Polar Opposites achieves it’s highest level of resonance and weight. This is the subplot that feels most like real life and least like a romantic comedy (even a really good one).