Well folks, it was time for the Week in Review about an hour ago, and I’m just now typing this introduction, so I’ll keep things brief. The shows I’m watching are very good, and this week offered a bunch of very good episodes – Granbelm pulled off another totally stunning action spectacle, Given retained its sharp emotional acuity and believable characterization, and Carole & Tuesday offered another top-tier vignette that managed a surprising balance of comedy and sympathetic drama. The summer season continues to be extremely strong, and I’m happy to enjoy a crop of shows that could all conceivably be top picks within a less impressive season. Let’s get to the breakdown!

Granbelm pulled off another unholy stunner of a fight episode this week, as Ernesta and Anna’s long-building feud erupted into literal pillars of flame, on the slopes of a volcanic arena seemingly designed to echo Anna’s feelings. Though I’ve felt somewhat distant from Anna’s perspective up until now, I felt this episode did a phenomenal job of selling the tragedy of her position, and smartly illustrated how the existence of magic ruined both her and Ernesta’s lives. “This great power is a curse” is a common narrative conceit, but this episode made that sentiment feel like a truly lived experience, from its sad flashbacks centering on their early friendship (a much better choice of focal point than last episode’s repeated flashback), to Anna’s clear and desperate certainty that she has nothing left beyond her hatred of Ernesta.

And also, the fight was amazing. Both Anna’s voice actor and Granbelm’s animators seemed to have a terrific time with her bombastic behavior, and Granbelm’s usual obsession with glowing and sharply contrasting colors were a perfect fit for Anna’s fire and ice based magic. You really felt a clear sense of escalation and stakes all through the fight, as the battle moved from brutal close-up choreography to insane summoning, and back to that final, desperate tradeoff. Granbelm could easily be the most visually impressive action show of the year in a normal year, and it’s only the existence of the frankly ridiculous Mob Psycho S2 that’s keeping it from that title this time. This show is turning out to not just be one of the summer’s surprise hits, but genuinely one of the best anime of the year.

In the wake of last episode’s backstory bombshell, Given offered a surprisingly low-key followup, as Ritsuka’s conflicted feelings regarding what he’d learned about Mafuyu were echoed by Mafuyu himself trying to think up song lyrics. Given manages a remarkable balance of tone, where its conversations frankly address incredibly charged topics, but do so with a light touch that feels very true to life. Given is unafraid to directly address suicide, social isolation, and coming to terms with your sexuality in a hostile social climate, but it filters those topics through the voices of characters who are actually suffering and largely unable to express themselves, rather than “performing their sadness” in an over-the-top way (sorry, Anna).

I really enjoyed the sequences of Mafuyu diligently wandering around town as he attempted to both come up with song lyrics and sort through his own feelings, as well as what he’s willing to express to his bandmates. While anime often focuses on characters who have social anxiety issues, those characters tend to also possess racing, mile-a-minute internal monologues; in contrast, Mafuyu is a character more like Mob Psycho’s protagonist, who is sensitive and considerate, but quiet even in his own thoughts. It’s a hard trick to pull off effectively, and yet Given manages it while also gracefully illustrating the internal voices of all Mafuyu’s bandmates at the same time. This show is good.

O Maidens offered many more messy revelations as its heroines continued their awkward and mostly pointless club trip. I felt Izumi and Kazusa’s material was a bit more engaging than usual this week, as their reflections on how their relationship shifted over time really emphasized the most interesting parts of their dynamic. Learning how to deal with previously platonic childhood friends as a hormonal teenager is a tough deal, and though it’s a bit more simple than many of this show’s conflicts, the specific details of these sequences kept it engaging regardless. I also loved the aborted argument between Niina and Kazusa, which played on sympathetic insecurities on both sides, and continued to find new emotional nuances in Niina’s unique situation.

I’m even greatly enjoying Hongo’s story, though I’ve seen a lot of online trepidation regarding her relationship with Milo. Hongo actually getting together with Milo would obviously result in a deeply unhealthy, predatory relationship – not only is he a generation older than her, he’s in a direct position of power over her. But I don’t really have any problems with my fiction depicting sympathetic characters performing unhealthy actions, and frankly, Hongo’s character really reminds me of myself as a teen – desperately disappointed by the distance between the fiction I love and the life I’m living, writing my own stories to attempt to bridge that gap, and looking for love in all the wrong places. Hongo is a mess, but she’s the kind of mess I can totally relate to.

And finally, Carole & Tuesday pulled off another of its all-time greatest episodes, once more demonstrating it has clearly escaped its mid-series slump. “Ertegun goes bankrupt” is an inherently great episode concept, and this episode managed to find both endless comedy and a lot of surprisingly sympathetic emotional drama in its execution of that conceit. Ertegun is an inherently farcical character, but his obsession with the media’s recording of his downfall, as well as the needling nature of his insecurities, felt very true to life. And the episode managed to foster genuine sympathy for Ertegun even as it continued to lean on his general absurdity, from his purchase of a “Who Am I?” t-shirt to better articulate his sorrow, to his incredible beatboxing performance of a totally indecipherable electronic hit at the end. Carole & Tuesday’s episodic capers are clearly as strong as ever.