Very excited about Elan playing the classic Gundam character "What if the protag's transhumanism, but BAD". I feel like this character usually gets introduced in mid Season 2 after we have more exposure to whatever makes the protag special but introducing it in epi 5 and as an extremely petty character is fun.
Generally, i've felt that the show has done a poor job of making the mechs feel weighty, the combat feel visceral, or demonstrating the pilots' skill in piloting and i think that that continues in this episode
That being said, this episode also continues the season trend of "precisely one sick action shot per fight" with the Elan's mech slicing off Juterk's mech's arm and ripping the antennae right off with his hands. (my other sick shots include "aerial's two handed beam saber" and "aerial's off-the-wall-dive-attack"). (Other note is that this series seems to do "horrified faces while terrible thing happens off screen" pretty well, everyone's reaction to Juterk's mech getting ripped apart reminded me of Suletta's mom being horrified when she realized Lfrith bonded with her 4 y/o child)
Lastly, shout out to the scene where Elan pilots the Aerial. first time we've seen what the pilot experiences when they activate the permet scores and the view when they embody the mech directly
