Alright folks, pile in, pile in. The summer season isn’t technically over yet, but we’re basically there – Granbelm and Carole & Tuesday still need to pop out their last episodes, but Given is already over, and the fall premieres are just a week ago. That’s frankly a terrifying thought to me, as I feel like I’ve been perpetually trying to catch up this entire season, and have no idea how I’m going to power my way through O Maidens and Vinland Saga. But hey, that’s a problem for another day – for now, I’ve got plenty of rambling thoughts on the week’s cartoons to share with you all. Without further ado, it’s the Week in Review!

Granbelm’s twelfth episode at last explained Suishou’s true nature, which came far too late to really instill this final fight with much emotional weight, and frankly felt kinda clumsy even in concept. Suishou embodies my issues with this show in several ways, from how her backstory apes the concepts of Madoka (faith broken by repetition of a hopeless cycle) without any of that show’s thematic or emotional heft, to the fact that we’re only now receiving such basic context for her journey. 

Even through its penultimate episode, Granbelm was still busy explaining elements of its worldbuilding that felt totally irrelevant to its drama, and hypothesizing about Magiaconatus’ motives in ways that felt more appropriate for mid-series “what are we truly fighting for” self-reflection than finale-adjacent speeches. But the more important issue is that I simply don’t have any reason to care about Suishou – she’s more of a device than a character, embodying a kind of cyclical hopelessness that it seems Granbelm has only just now decided to care about. Granbelm’s most effective drama has always been rooted in personal, sympathetic character motives – I had issues with Anna’s characterization at times, but I could at least understand what she was fighting for. But Suishou isn’t a person, she’s a plot twist, and ultimately it’s feeling like Granbelm itself also prefers plot twists to people.

As this season only covers the opening act of a still-ongoing manga, I wasn’t expecting the final episode of Given to tie all of its threads into a neat knot. But even without knowing the franchise will be continuing with a film next year, I think I’d have felt pretty satisfied by this final act. The show’s major dramatic conflicts were more or less already resolved by this point, with Mafuyu’s meeting with Hiiragi and subsequent live performance, as well as Ritsuka’s reaction to that performance, pretty much resolving each of their immediate arcs. With that out of the way, this episode was able to return to the strengths Given has embodied all along – effortlessly convincing incidental dialogue, sympathetic characterization, and quietly well-shot scenes of anxious adolescence.

Though there were no single big moments to point to this episode, there were plenty of fun incidental pleasures along the way, from Ritsuka being unsurprisingly flabbergasted by Mafuyu’s declaration of love, to their charmingly awkward “seeking the parents’ approval” negotiation with Ritsuka. Mafuyu’s relationship with Hiiragi was paid off beautifully during their brief reunion, as we got to see Mafuyu at last so comfortable he can actually joke with his old friends. All in all, this sort of odds-and-ends cleanup episode might not be the most epic way to end a season, but it felt appropriate for Given, especially since I know the journey’s not over yet. A fond and endearing goodbye from one of the year’s very best shows.

Finally, this week’s Carole & Tuesday was absolutely relentless, honing its fury about the state of the modern world and our commodification of public figures to a fine point in the context of the Mars Grammies. The episode started off slowly, indulging in some fun montages as the girls worked on their Crystal collaboration, and offering a beautiful moment of Tuesday celebrating Carole’s birthday. But even from the start, Crystal immediately framed their collaboration as a political act – as a song that would hopefully offer a “light in the darkness,” keeping people upbeat even through the harshest of times. It’s a theme I often return to while critiquing optimistic media, and it’s one I even mentioned during last week’s C&T writeup – how even theoretically “light” entertainment can fulfill a crucial emotional and cultural purpose, by making its audience feel understood and accepted. It’s important to critique unfair worldly conditions through art (something Crystal herself acknowledges), but it’s also important to offer a light in the darkness.

Of course, Carole & Tuesday itself isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. While After the Fire offered a much-needed cry of hope and solidarity, it was actually Angela’s twin songs that stole the show, as she sang out a cry for help before collapsing on stage. While C&T’s song seemed to embody the hope we try to bring to the age of Trump, Angela’s collapse felt like the actual experience of living through the age of Trump, while simultaneously furthering her compelling personal narrative in the most painful way possible. Angela’s smoldering singing voice was a perfect match for her two songs of abandonment and despair, seeming to carry all the resignation of a generation while still feeling undeniably her. Even with the caveat of the Mars Brightest arc, this could easily still be my anime of the year.