Yikes. This episode was definitely a step down from what we'd been getting this last month.
The animation was a fair bit choppier than it usually was, the storyboard really wasn't that interesting, the lighting and compositing I felt were very flat especially considering how good it has been over the last few episodes, and the direction really didn't do anything for me. Transitions also felt very awkward in places.
There really wasn't much that I could really say positively about this episode. Dennis' Cablao's scene was nice, but also felt uncharacteristically choppy, and was short lived. The only definite positive was Ichikawa's corrections on this episode, they were scattered throughout the episode, and were really nice. It elevated the episode from something that was poorly directed, animated and ugly, to being something that was poorly directed, animated but was pretty.
Not too hopeful for next episode personally, but I at least expect it to be better than this one, the NEP was OK, but I feel a lot of this batch may end up being a slog. Episode 856 can't come soon enough.