Oof, what a weird episode. The pacing, battle tactics, animation, etc all felt off.

I did like this exchange though:

@rikka@ani.social

Ars giving him the toy spoke volumes without using words. It makes his appearance later feel very natural and in-character.

But the battle itself felt very un-natural. Telling people to get in a circle formation to counter the cavalry... no, that's what pikes are for. And it wasn't like the cavalry was a surprise; they knew the castle had cavalry.

"Hey great strategist, should we get some pikes? You know, the most basic military infantry tactic against horses?"

"Nah, just stand in a circle with swords. They'll NEVER see that coming!"

Later:

"Retreat!"

"What about our infantry?"

"They have horses now!"

"Uh... where were we keeping all these horses? And if they have horses why are they infantry and not cavalry?"

"Pssh... i dunno."

Even Later:

"The enemy cavalry has speed hacks and can get in front of us!"

"It's because your horses have to carry all that heavy armor"

"But... your troops also wear armor."

"I know what I said..."

I feel this probably made a lot more sense in the light novel but translating that into animation didn't quite work out. Speaking of animation, some of it was bad enough to be distracting. I know that horses are notoriously difficult to get right in anime but this wide-angle shot felt especially off:

If the foot soldiers had just retreated normally without magically summoning horses from their horse pocket, then the enemy cavalry catching up would not only make more sense, but would be more dramatic when they split the retreating army in two rather than nipping at their heels (as would be expected). Maybe we fix the animation struggles too since people are marching instead of horses bouncing around like they're on pogo-sticks.

I would also have liked to see more of the hostage rescue. "Oh no, it's the enemy." "We're here to rescue you whether you like it or not. Check out my knife. It's a Benchmade." "Oh, okay, we'll go with you."