Watched the episode.
It was okay. Was better than expected all things considered.
Shingaki's art was a bit bleg. I don't really care for how he draws characters, and he did mess up some of the potentially cooler shots in the episode.
Directionally and storyboard wise, the second half was very strong with its action scenes, and Big Mum and Kaido meeting up was nicely done(if marred by Shingaki's rather meh artwork).
The first half was bogged down by flashbacks and uninteresting content, however, Luffy's training with Hyo was cool enough, and was pretty solidly animated. Nothing is confirmed, but it appears Luffy's punch against Hyogoro was animated by Dennis Cablao and Tetsuro Nireki. The first 5 seconds till Luffy opening his eye appears to be Cablao, with everything else being Nireki.
PRESUMED: DENNIS CABLAO 0:00-0:05/ TETSURO NIREKI 0:06-rest
The action scenes this episode were really impressive. They had a lot of weight, and the camera was very active in quite a few of them. Zoro vs Gyukimaru was incredibly well animated, with Tetsuro Nireki going in hard.
TETSURO NIREKI
The final clash between Big Mum and Kaido was nice aside from the reuse and redrawn shida animation leading up to the clash. I think they did a decent job selling the scale of the impact, and there was a lot of really nice effects works. Masahiro Kitzaki animated the clash, and he did a remarkable job with the animation. Even if it wasn't the craziest thing ever, I still think the animation more than sufficed in depicting the scale and energy of the clash.
MASAHIRO KITAZAKI
Overall, a mixed bag of an episode, with some nice animation highlights. Tetsuro Nireki's work on this episode was really great. He was the top creditted key animator, and his been consistently one of the best animators on Wano.
Next episode looks really good. It seems that the extended Big Mum vs Kaido fight is going to be animated by Tu Yong Ce, the animator behind the entire second half of 946, and the Brachio Bomber only a few episodes back.