This is what I wrote on my site after the ep aired...
"Wow! You won't believe this but the whole Piffle arc was wrapped up in this episode making it three episodes long! Niiice! Let's hope Bee Train can keep this up for the rest of the season. While the last episode was a bit slow I'm pretty sure watching all three piffle episodes as a whole will make the whole thing flow a LOT better (as with most Tsubasa arcs). BeeTrains seems to be attacking Tsubasa like a book. Read a random chapter and the story goes nowhere, read an entire act in one sitting and it's a completely different experience.
Anyway, as for this episode as a whole the animation was rather good overall though Ryou-ou did see a return of his one-tooth-fang look from last week that simply looks stupid. Good action sequences, no wierd looking faces I was actually suprised by the explosion at the end!
Something that I've thought about before but was reminded of while watching this episode is that Kurogane and Sakura really don't interact at all. In the scene where Kurogane helps her, it reminded me of one of the final episodes of the first season of LOST when Claire asked Sawyer about the raft. It was like episode 20 or something and the two characters had never spoken up until that point. But unlike Claire and Sawyer I felt a bit of chemistry between Sakura and Kurogane. Call me crazy but I hope the writers do something there... but I know they won't.
Something to think about.
Ah, and guess what? Next episode looks like an anime exclusive world! That'll be interesting to see as the first anime only world on the first season sucked and the second one rocked. I wonder which way this'll go? Seems to feature lots of fighting and a huge dragon."
On another note, is there a way to unlock these topics after the episode airs in Japan or at least a few hours before but to tell people not to post unless they've seen it? Waiting 12 hours to post can kill one's enthusiasm.
My guess is they're making more anime only worlds to pad the season out. Only two other major worlds have been done in the manga after Piffle right? Sharano and Lecourt.