I was really excited about episode 3 because the producer said Miura wrote it top to bottom... but I'm with most of you here on this one... I cannot believe Miura wrote this. I just can't. Maybe the over extended monologue on meat meat meat would work across several panels of a manga, but in anime form it definitely dragged on for too long. And apart from that, I really felt like this ep didn't leave any moments to take a breath and absorb what was happening. Or more so, it didn't allow the characters (namely Farnese) to absorb what was happening. So on the story telling and pacing aspect of this episode, I was disappointed.
Also... I didn't want the sword clang to bother me (I've been able to tolerate it in eps 1 and 2)... but when it cut through the ghosts and still clanged... it pissed me off. It makes no logical sense. Yes, it didn't make much logical sense when it cut through Colette in ep 1, but here in ep 3, it's just undeniably ridiculous.
The lack of seeing Guts and Puck relationship build organically is also starting to weigh heavy on me. It didn't feel right to me this time.
As for any parts that I did like about the episode... I actually liked the scene between Guts, Farnese, and Serpico. Pretty annoyed it was covered up by the credits (if they were short on running time they should have cut part of the meat monologue), but I just really enjoyed seeing those 3 characters banter with each other. Also, this episode I didn't think about the music at all, which is a good thing. Maybe I got used to hearing the music cues, but I felt the music didn't overpower or distract from any scene this time around. I also enjoyed the hounds. I thought they looked cool (cgi wise) and were pretty terrifying.
But all in all, this was my least favorite ep so far, while ep 2 was the best. But ep 4 from the preview looks hopeful, and I'm glad to see that Casca is dark-skinned again. Really hope things improve~