In this week’s installment…

With 91 Days taking a week off and Orange feeling like filler, we’re left with nothing but sunshine and rainbows with the rest of the perpetually pleasant Roundup shows. Sweetness and Lightness does give us a few gut punches while playing the Mom Card, but stick around for Iro’s important PSA on cutting food.

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!!

Iro: This was about as standard of an episode as this show can possibly get, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Funnily enough, though, I praised the show not long ago for not playing the Mom Card, and then it proceeds to play it multiple times throughout this episode. We actually see her face and everything! I thought for sure that Mom would stay a horrible eyeless Flashback Monster. As for the cooking, Tsumugi’s cat-paw cutting technique is indeed proper cutting form, though I’ve never heard of a “children’s knife”. Knife Rule #1 for grown-ass adults, though: sharp knives are less dangerous than dull knives because they cut more reliably. If it’s still sharp enough to cut food, it’s sharp enough to cut into your flesh, and duller means harder to handle. So do as I say, not as I do: keep your cutlery sharp!

Artemis: As expected, things came to a head with Hisashi this episode but were actually resolved… not quickly exactly, but with a lack of melodrama that left me pleasantly surprised. Cheer Boys has actually been consistently solid on that level, but last week’s tensions left me expecting (and dreading) something a lot more exaggerated. With this plot point seemingly over with, Cheer Boys finally looks to be moving on to Kazu and his grandmother – something that’s been hinted at since the very first episode of the show. This could make for some very welcome character development for Kazu himself, who we’ve really only been seeing through the eyes of other characters up until now. For someone who could probably be viewed as the MC runner-up and is certainly one of the core members of Breakers, his character remains something of a mystery despite his largely easygoing, down-to-earth and positive persona. Pretty unusual, particularly for a sports anime, right?

Art Club – Those SJWs always take away… guhhh I can’t even say that sarcastically

Jel: The fact that this show takes place in middle school kind of helps it more than if the kids were older. It makes innocent moments like Uchimaki sincerely viewing his anime girl toy as a third person more endearing than annoying. That was probably my favorite moment of the episode as it was funny, it diffused the tension of the cliché “trapped in a room” set up, and it was kind of sweet how Uchimaki genuinely thought that would be comforting. Either that or the glowing, terrifying light up eyes. The second half of the episode wasn’t quite as good, but it was amusing to see our love triangle (if we can call it that) build on their friendship. Imari manages to keep her chuuni side just barely in check enough to avoid being obnoxious and seems more interested in helping Mizuki than anything. Overall another solid episode, and I have to say this show has me really looking forward to it every week.

Jel: I guess we’ve been overdue for some time focused on the the twins and their relationship. Probably not a big surprise to see how much they care for each other seeing that everyone in this show is so nice, but it was sweet nonetheless. At the very least we could see Ai has a vulnerable side and Makoto does actually have emotions. The second half was more “friendship” building with Teko and Pikari, you know just gals being pals etc., although oddly enough it had nothing to do with diving. I’m kind of surprised we’ve gone as long as we have without resuming Teko’s quest to be licensed. Maybe she’s still learning to swim? Anyway, on a scale of 1 to Euphonium I’d give their relationship a 7 at this point, but they are climbing the charts. I couldn’t help but say to myself as they walked off at the end of the episode, “and then they went and made out behind the school. THE END.”

Amanchu – I think the actual magic words were “I’ll make out with you if you win”

Jel: I know we needed a break from last weeks drama but I was thinking more buddy road trip with Avilio and Nero than recap episode. Oh well, see you next week.

Artemis: I’m normally the last person to complain about slow pacing but… c’mon guys, move it along. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that this or any episode has been a waste – Orange is particularly good at squeezing in those great emotional and character-building moments in a very short space of time – the majority was basically filler. Not even especially fun filler, and given that last week’s episode already felt a little drawn out, this one struck me as blatantly unnecessary. It re-trod pretty much exactly the same emotional ground covered in previous episodes, didn’t deliver at all on the whole class relay thing, and only served to amp up my frustrations with Kakeru and his sensitivity issues that I talked about last week. Every other member of the main cast might have the patience of a saint, but I do not. The fact that the production values took a noticeable dive certainly didn’t help.