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I can't say I was really excited by this episode considering how awkward it was executed but well...
First, the match was a total mess with the camera not really giving a proper focus for the action (such like a zoom on Houki swinging her sword, then only afterward focus on Charlotte on the receiving end), which is worse with recycled animation sequences patched here and there quite obviously (most notable part was Ichika attacking Laura after realizing something is odd).
But again, the way they are handling Shield energy is just a chore: Byakushiki was shown with a value going like above 80, but suddenly dropping dry with an obvious alert (whereas it didn't happened in the previous occurence). Now, it is perhaps another nitpicking, but it just confirms that the energy blade is actually the shield nullifying attack, which means Ichika is just running dry almost all the time, because he doesn't seem to practice "pin point strikes" (therefore explaining why he was so low on energy back in Episode 7).
It is just... a frustrating to see a decently built universe (if you deliberately omit few points), but in practice, the action doesn't really go on the same direction.
At least, the animation wasn't bad for the non recycled sequences, although the way how it was stitched was a bit a glaring flaw.
On the positive side, the presence of an actual strategy and execution of it, with tactics being changed here and there was definitely a good sight. It is certainly a proper way to deal with a fight of this kind.
As for the characters, color me as surprised and puzzled like Houki regarding Ichika: it is all good to have some admiration for their elder sister, but reckless reactions like these didn't exactly seem in line with what we were presented so far, and it just makes the whole deal harder to believe so. Overall, it really seems they wanted to make a huge unecessary connection between the Orimura siblings, despite we had various scenes beforehand.
Meanwhile, I'm still rather neutral regarding Laura. The whole deal almost look way too similar to Cecilia's "switch" although the reasons are obviously drastically different. I would have been slighty less annoyed if they didn't pull flashbacks right in the middle, leading to a momentum break.
In the end, Charlotte is again the notable saving grace this week, and the bath scene was surprisingly good in term of relationship development, instead of your expected fanservice antics.
Quite an average episode I guess...
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