In this week’s installment…

This being summer we have quite a few Glorio members on the go this week, but me, Iro, and Marlin are here to hold things down in The Roundup. Sweetness and Lightning and Amanchu introduce some new friends, That Art Club show is still pretty good, and blame Artemis for Cheer Boys resorting to a recap episode.

The Roundup is a weekly guide to all the “other” shows we’re watching this season. Check out our full coverage of: 
Macross Delta | Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable | Love Live! Sunshine!!

Jel: It’s kind of amusing this is the closest the show has ever come to having any tension or drama because compared to any other series, it was still an adorably saccharine sweet episode. Yagi’s cool personality and Shinobu’s bluntly honest nature provide nice contrast to Kouhei and Kotori, and yet it’s still believable that they could all be friends. The “drama”, if you can even call it that, is really just Shinobu being super insightful and kind to her friend. How rude. It’s too bad she can take a hint as it seems they will not be joining in on the cooking events, but I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of the friend characters. The real best moment of the episode was seeing Tsumugi’s mind explode at the thought of TWO PARTIES, so I’ll have to take my insulin and prepare for the assuredly adorable kids’ party next week.

Jel: I’ve been told there was a last minute recap episode this week, probably because Artemis is moving and can’t cover it. Yes, this is the influence we have on the anime industry!

Sweetness & Lightning – A lot of minds were blown in this episode

Jel: This was just some simple, good ol’ fashioned comedy done pretty well. After getting to know the characters separately, it was nice to finally have the entire art club together. Collette and the President are so weird that it lets Mizuki and Uchimaki play straight woman and man when they’re all in the same room. It’s kind of cute since it puts them on the same page somehow. They even save the best joke for last as seeing the president pull out the weird bird head was a great way to tie the whole episode together. Yes, it was obvious their painting was not going to come off but the reactions were comedy gold. Overall this might not have been as good an episode as last week but it was a lot of fun nonetheless.

Jel: The divers we met last week are actually the senior diving club members? What a shocking twist! Sarcasm aside, the twin senpais are pretty great and this was one of the most fun episodes we’ve had yet. As I’ve said before, my favorite thing to do in this show is see Pikari and Teko get in extremely mild forms of trouble, so calling back to the consequences of episode 2 was pretty amusing. Ai’s strong personality adds a much needed dose of energy to the show, although they probably overdo it with how much she hits her brother. With the full cast in place and an actual goal to get Teko licensed, I’m feeling good about where Amanchu is heading for its second half.

Amanchu – I hope “Monkey Panties Girl” sticks as a nickname

Iro: I can’t say I expected the road trip to last too long, but I’m a bit sad to see everyone back in Indiscriminate Mafia Town so soon. Thankfully, they do keep things moving, with Nero having to properly go on the run as his family betrays him. We’re getting a few hints that Avilio is starting to actually like the guy, even as he swears up and down that his only purpose for living is to enact his revenge. Still, as he says, he needs to get closer to everyone in order to actually get at the higher-ups, and for the moment that includes making deals with psychopaths like Fango. A troubled alliance is easy drama in a setting like this, so 91 Days is sure still keeping my interest.

Side note, though: making proper whiskey takes years of barrel aging, but everyone’s acting as though Corteo’s been pumping the stuff out in mere weeks, if not days. Come on, Shuka. You’re better than this.

Marlin: Orange seems to try and pull a fast one on us, having Naho insinuate she still thinks Kakeru likes someone other than her. It’s a really irksome development that basically seems to wipe away all of the solid emotional confirmations we had last week. Also, how many times are Naho’s friends going to duck out to give them one-on-one time before it A) becomes blindingly obvious and B) makes one of the group murder the two of them for their prior obliviousness. One thing I did like about this episode is that we are veering back into Kakeru’s deeper emotional scars. The cause of Kakeru and his mother’s deaths had been apparent for a while now, but we never knew just how unstable his mother was. To hear how much guilt he held just from taking a small bit of selfishness was powerful. I also like how overzealous Naho was in this scene. Her continued invasiveness in trying to learn more about him was cringeworthy, and very realistic for a teen who just doesn’t know any better about how to help. On top of that, the reveal in the final scene gives me some hope that this show can still go strong after a really weak start to this episode.