Episode 8 rolls out some more laughably bad fight choreography... honestly it's like the animation team isn't even trying here, the direction that the background scrolls in the cockpit shots doesn't even match the direction they're moving.
The actual fights themselves... they're just boring. Ohashi Yoshimitsu is clearly out of his depth as a director. His filmography shows that he's been an illustrator and a storyboard artist since the 90's, and I think that's probably a comfort zone he should stay in. I'd like to say I can't recall the last time I'd been this bored by a mecha anime, but I do remember Tatsunoko's 2019 stinker
The Price of Smiles as much as I'd prefer not to. They only seem to have two tactics: driving in straight lines at each other then backing off in a straight line, and driving in circles around each other while magically also strafing because what even are backgrounds anyway?
Writer Kimura Noboru's filmography suggests that he's far better suited to ecchi and romcoms than mecha or action, with credits like
Tenchi Muyo! GXP,
Motto! To-Love Ru, and
Cosplay Complex. He does have a few prior mecha credits to his name, but they're substandard offerings like
Mobile Suit Gundam AGE and
Cross Ange... which I guess explains why this show manages to be boring, incoherent, and horny on main at the same time. The writing is terrible because they hired a writer with a terrible track record in this genre.
That's how dull this is. I looked up who made this mess and read their filmographies because the actual fight scene in episode eight was doing THAT bad a job of holding my attention. When every character is axe crazy, no character is interesting. This isn't
Berzerk or
Hellsing damn it...
Oh boy, Ash is doing his low rent Suzaku thing again and it seems we have TWO Great Value Jeremiahs on the field at the same time! Red card, ref! Send this formerly blue-haired femboy off! He uses a geass canceller on Ash, so now Ash knows that Roze isn't his real (dead) brother.
Characters in this series have a disturbing habit of reacting to new events like they've been aware and involved in them... without actually doing so. Dollar Tree Jeremiah 2 here reacts to Japanese reinforcements like he's been fighting them the entire time, instead of literally standing still and just letting them shoot at him.
Ash runs away from the fight because he's confused, and everyone just kinda... lets him.
Scissorman's apparently got enough free time to make battle royale collars for all his test subjects? He's killing anyone Sakuya doesn't use a geass on.
Ash somehow knows, without being told, where Sakuya is being kept and manages to get there within minutes of leaving the fight against the other Einbergs to singlehandedly raid the facility. Were they holding her in a facility right up the street from the fight or did he magically teleport between shots? So we get to see Ash 1v1 Scissorman.
The Britannian forces instantly overpower the Japanese forces once the Einbergs get bored, so one of the other Japanese resistance groups starts committing suicide bombings with sakuradite bombs, wiping out dozens if not hundreds of Neo-Britannian KMFs.
Once Scissorman is defeated, everyone just sorta lets Ash take Sakuya... because stopping ONE DUDE you outnumber hundreds to one who has neither guns nor body armor is just too much effort, right?