With preview week stretching well into this week’s set of episodes, a great deal of this week’s shows have already been covered elsewhere, and then also again for my retrospective, and possibly even a third time for Why It Works. Not all of them, though – the season’s most punctual contenders are already on their second episode, and JoJo’s momentum has continued unabated all through the premieres. Given all that, we’ve got a relatively small collection of episodes to break down today, but the Week in Review will not be deterred. Starting with one of this season’s most promising new properties, let’s break down one more week in anime!

While I greatly enjoyed the first episode of Demon Slayer, its followup felt more like the traditional Shonen Jump pitch, demonstrating how this story will actually move forward as an action vehicle. Tanjiro’s first fight and the introduction of his demon slaying teacher neatly aligned Demon Slayer back on the standard Jump track, but if this episode lacked the unpredictable structure of its predecessor, it made up for that in excellence of execution. Moving away from Tanjiro’s snowy home allowed Demon Slayer’s beautiful backgrounds and rich colors to really shine, and his fight against the demon demonstrated the versatility of the 3D action choreography ufotable have been developing through their Fate properties. Energetic action with a restless camera within a predefined CG space has become one of ufotable’s signature strengths, courtesy of their prominent CG division, and I felt this episode leaned on that strength without sacrificing the rugged appeal of its woodland setting. Also, Nezuko in a giant wicker basket is adorable. This show is good.

Fruits Basket’s second episode wasn’t necessarily any worse than the first, but still left me feeling somewhat skeptical that I’ll actually be keeping up with the show. Fruits Basket seems like it might be experiencing that awkward phenomenon where a formative work’s major components all eventually become standard assumptions of its genre, leaving the actual source of these assumptions overshadowed by its inheritors. Stuff like Yuki’s kabedon in the classroom, Kyo’s tsundere act, and the episode’s overall style of slapstick comedy all felt very familiar and fairly dated, and much of my own enjoyment came from thinking about how this show’s assumptions about adolescent romance and high school drama all seem to come from a resoundingly pre-Toradora, pre-Haruhi anime landscape.

Additionally, while the show is consistently pretty, it never really feels intimate. Its characters feel somewhat stiff and the direction leans heavily on flat mid-distance shots, meaning it was often hard to relate to Tohru’s feelings both tonally and through the dialogue. I’m hopeful the show will establish a stronger identity soon, but at the moment, I’m not sure Fruits Basket’s historical significance will be enough to keep my attention.

Finally, I had a fair amount of catching up to do with JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, having abandoned Trish with a goo monster shortly before preview week began. The conclusion to that fight was one of the best JoJo episodes in recent memory, with both the sheer, relentless menace of Notorious B.I.G. and Trish’s process of leveling up into a JoJo Hero pulling equal weight. As with the previous episode, the enemy Stand’s single-mindedness made it feel both more threatening and more dramatically parsable than your average preening Stand user. Our heroes always knew exactly what they were up against, and all of their actions followed a coherent logic centered on the enemy’s “always chases its fastest target” directive. Meanwhile, Trish’s awakening did a fine job of mirroring her Stand awakening and increasing courageousness, both further capitalizing on and ultimately paying off her initial powerlessness.

From Koichi onward, I’ve always been a little skeptical when Araki gives Stands a voice and personality apart from their wielders, and Spice Girl didn’t change my mind – I feel like this fight could have resolved very similarly, and with greater tension, if Trish weren’t being actively coached. That said, I could also see Spice Girl essentially representing an unvoiced side of Trish herself that she’s only now embracing, and that’s the sort of clever, emotionally resonant twist that would actually sell me on the concept.

I might have had even more fun with the introduction of the Boss’s better half. The reveal that the Boss’s final shield against discovery was an entire second personality felt pretty in line with JoJo’s general storytelling madness, and this episode was absolutely brimming with standout moments and beautiful layouts. Doppio’s situation could easily feel contrived, but the mix of inspired gimmicks like his “calls to the boss” and intimidating closeups (one of Golden Wind’s most consistently effective tricks) kept me fully engaged. It’s nice to see Araki continuing to experiment with his image of a villain.