Episode was slow paced. The flashbacks in particular killed a lot of the momentum and were really unnecessary.
I liked the atmosphere throughout the episode. I've seen some complaints here about the ambient sound, but I think its appropriate and definitely adds to the dower atmosphere of the battlefield. The music choices also were generally really nice.
But yeah, the episode was quite slow. Especially during the first half.
The second half was significantly better.
There were also some storyboard choices that made things a bit confusing in relation to Kaido and Luffy in the crater.
Although there were scheduling issues with the Asura scene, I do think its a really great highlight, and I appreciated the change in compositing to make the scene stand out, even though I think that some of the choices perhaps didn't work the best.
Overall, a fine episode, liked the atmosphere, but very much on the slow side. The highlight was definitely memorable, but the first half is a bit of a slog to get through in order to get to it. The second long flashback this episode was actually super annoying. Smaller flashbacks can be fine. I liked the flashback Kaido had to thinking of Zoro's prior attacks, but the ones showing full scenes again are redundant.
Next week looks like it'll be fun. Shida is doing the main bit of action based on the NEP, which is surprisng considering he did a scene on 1025.