Not So Different

Not long ago, I had occasion to stop by my local Barnes & Noble for the first time in forever.

 

While there, I took note of three new manga series that looked like they might be worth a review.  Today I will be discussing only one of them, and leaving the other two as a surprise for later.

 

This one is Kocha Agasawa’s “You And I Are Polar Opposites”, which I just so happened to find a few days later on the shelves at my local library.

 

Talkative social butterfly Suzuki secretly has a thing for the aloof Tani.  But she isn’t just your run-of-the-mill bimbo (for lack of a better term).  Suzuki works hard at being agreeable and going with the flow and trying to be liked by everyone, which is the standard Japanese approach to things.  But, while Tani doesn’t exactly go against the grain, he doesn’t exactly go out of his way to be liked or super-friendly with anyone.  He stays true to himself, rather than follow the herd, even if it means that barely anyone likes him or know him.

 

Gasp!  Individuality is cool?  Why didn’t anybody tell me, he said sarcastically.

 

To be honest, going by the cover art and the blurb on the back, I was expecting a bit more of a clash of personalities.  Like, Tani would be the one kid in the class who never said or did anything, and Suzuki would be this tattooed violent biker gang chick with dyed hair or something.

 

Not to say that the series is bad or anything, it’s just…very ordinary.

 

But it does try to be funny, which, I think, is a bit of a reprieve.  I mean, I didn’t laugh, but I could see how some people would.  And, on occasion, the art slips into a super-deformed Doraemon-like style to help emphasize that a joke is being made.

 

I enjoy that the problems and the romance are down-to-earth, but I wish that there could have been more of a hook to make the series even more memorable.  As it stands now, “You and I Are Polar Opposites”, despite the cool, long title is, at the end of the day, a pretty standard romantic comedy manga with a slightly above-average emphasis on the comedy.

 

I mean, if you’re into that kind of thing, then feel free to pick it up.

 

Guess that’s why they tell you not to judge a book by its cover…