Holy hell this episode looked great. The animation was fantastic while also feeling like it was ripped straight out of history. I can't put my finger on it, but between the character designs, sound effects, eyecatches I was feeling nostalgic for an era of anime gone by...and I never even watched the series it was trying to evoke nostalgia for.
I enjoyed this episode a lot. I am sure that I am only getting the surface level comprehension of this recap. Even I can tell that it was probably packed full of references to things I have no knowledge of. However, it was good enough. The one big question mark I still have from this sequence of events is what the hell happened to Char that caused him to go rogue? I am sure it is something that will be explored during this show (I am guessing it has something to do with the kira-kira vision that happened in the first episode). Looking forward to meeting Char eventually during this season in the current timeline.