First of all, I'd just like to say that the animation throughout the majority of the episode was spectacular. All the attacks had a feeling of raw strength and power behind them, and the movement of the pokémon themselves was very impressive. Some moments which spring to mind are when Grovyle uses Quick Attack to weave in and out of the onslaught of Ice Beams, and when Swellow and Scizor were charging into each other in mid-air.
The drawing style may not have been as definable as Team Ota, but damn, it was still great fun to watch regardless.
...also, Kaeda looked freakin' hot *nods* Especially when she looked seriously pizzed off
And of course, the battles themselves were all brilliant. Corphish's battle, as many have already said, was absolutely hillarious. The entire spectacle just suited Corphish's character so very well. I had to start laughing when it leaped out of the water in its merry little drunken state, clubbing Golduck in the back of the head. His voice during the entire ordeal just added to the humour XP
Flying pokémon getting redemption for so many years of being useless = tear-jerker. Seriously, seeing a bird-based pokémon landing such excellent KO's and performing all those moves was just wonderful. Ariel battles are always cool, plain and simple~
I think that thus far, The Grovyle and Walrein battle has to be one of the most believable confrontations I've seen in a while. The whole thing was choreographed superbly, and was definatly the best battle in the Houen league to date. Although, seeing a large slab of blubber like Walrein fly through the air at such speeds was slightly amusing~
Regarding Masamune, I actually felt quite sorry for him. Although, I feel that if we'd been introduced to him sooner in the series, many people would feel a lot more sympathy for the character. And I'm all for character development, but at the expense of knocking out Girafarig so soon? Bah, I didn't like that at all. Speaking of which, did anyone notice the use of CG animation for Light Screen?
Just to note, but I'm with V-Faction on this one. There are far too many redundant attacks, and I'm not fond of the writers taking the easy way out and not attempting to animate anything new. Ice Beam seems to be cropping up more often than it should. An Ice Ball from Walrein would have been more appropriate and the fact that Metal Claw looks no different from Crabhammer was laugable. Also, everything and their mothers know Iron Tail these days T.T