This was not the best week in spring anime, I am sorry to say. Carole & Tuesday had what was easily its worst episode to date, and leaned into pretty much all of the show’s most dubious qualities, from its questionable sense of humor to its nearsighted cynical streak. Demon Slayer’s visual execution tried its best to make up for its lousy writing, but with even the mechanics of this week’s fight lacking in creativity, there was only so much to be done. And Sarazanmai… well, I’ve actually dropped Sarazanmai for now, after having it feel like a chore for most of the season. The show had recently made some strides towards humanizing its relatively flat characters, but trying to care about the show has always felt more like work than pleasure – like it assumes I should care about its characters and their entirely metaphorical world just because those things exist, and not because the show offers any points of emotional entry or narrative hooks. But hey, at least JoJo is still great! We’ll save the JoJo rambling for the finale then, and start off this week in review with a treacherous journey through the week’s lowlights. Let’s break down some cartoons!

Once again, the formatting demands of Mars Brightest kept Carole & Tuesday from exuding its usual effortless energy and warmth this week, with our titular stars mostly spending this week somberly watching performances from stage left. Also once again, the show’s efforts at overt comedy were significantly less compelling than the incidental, often visual comedy of its earlier material. Beats like GGK’s opening speech and Shakti’s regular “but I’m an AI” gags felt tedious from the start, even if intended as overt riffs on self-important artists and vapid reality show hosts (to say nothing of the exhausting and transphobic Mermaid Sisters routine). Watanabe’s curmudgeonly attitude towards musical artifice and the industry is far less compelling than his obvious passion for music itself, so it wasn’t surprising that this episode’s saving grace was its earnest array of performance segments. Mars Brightest has turned out to mostly be a venue for indulging in Carole & Tuesday’s weakest elements, but I’m hopeful this lull is a direct result of our current narrative circumstances, and look forward to a semifinals with far fewer wince-worthy gag characters.

Demon Slayer was sadly unable to mitigate its terrible writing with some sweet fight scenes this week, as even this episode’s central fight was pretty darn stupid. “Nezuko and the six-armed demon repeatedly kick a ball at each other harder and harder” was so silly I ended up having to find my own means of personal entertainment, meaning Demon Slayer has officially crossed the threshold into MST3K range. Meanwhile, Kibutsuji continues to be an entirely one-note antagonist, whose apparent preeminence as a threat within this universe only makes the show’s world feel incredibly small and insubstantial.

With silly action and worse dialogue, the only real saving grace this week was a perhaps accidental gesture towards a potentially interesting concept – how the nature of demons lets this show reflect on the cruel binary of damnation and salvation, with Tamayo condemning one forlorn demon before being “saved” by Nezuko’s validation. But congratulating the show for that potentially interesting thematic thread demands believing it is capable of a level of subtlety and thematic curiosity that it hasn’t come anywhere close to demonstrating in the past, and this show has squandered too many chances to really earn that level of trust. I still like watching Tanjiro and Nezuko go on adventures together, but this show sure isn’t making it easy.

Fortunately, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure maintained the intensity it’s been holding all through Golden Wind’s third act, as Polnareff of all people faced off against King Crimson. Watching Polnareff mitigate his physical limitations through careful planning and a clear understanding of Crimson’s weaknesses was a classic JoJo thrill, meaning that even if his appearance here was pretty brief, it didn’t feel like his character was wasted. In fact, his reflection on the history of the arrows was perhaps the first time that JoJo’s larger worldbuilding choices felt like they were genuinely leading somewhere, and not simply being randomly appended whenever Araki came up with a new idea. I mean, I’m still pretty sure that’s how JoJo is generally written, but the allure of a pan-JoJo climax that incorporates characters from all its various arcs feels pretty sweet, too.

I also liked this episode’s almost psychedelic visual illustration of their bout, and am consistently impressed by how coherent, satisfying, and flat-out terrifying King Crimson is turning out to be. The World was just “really strong,” but details like the constant focus on active range and slight forward jumps in time really help King Crimson to feel more hopelessly unbeatable than any prior enemy Stands. Realizing you’ve jumped forward three seconds, followed by the natural conclusion that something horrible has happened somewhere else, offers a unique sinking feeling that really exemplifies JoJo’s clever fusion of action and horror. Golden Wind looks to be ending strong.