The change in direction and art style for Episode 3 really caught me off guard. Episode 1 and 2 were great, the story and worldbuilding were set up really nicely, and the character dynamics really got me hooked from the beginning. The music and pacing was great too. It set itself up (and my expectations) as a great wholesome girls-bonding anime with good potential for depth in the story and character development. However I would like to talk more about Episode 3. From a little amount of reading online, it seems that the studio is experimenting with the artstyle, animation, and direction. However, in my opinion there shouldbe some kind of purpose or logic behind doing this more than just "wanting unique styles to shine".

As an artist myself, changing the style and direction of an episode out of the blue, and so drastically at that, without a clear purpose or function just breaks immersion. There is a reason why doing this is not common place, because it makes it significantly harder for the audience to be immersed and invest into the world and story. Not to mention it ruins the entire branding and identity of the Anime, and makes it infinitely harder to share or become recognizable outside of the already small audience.

Furthermore, the quality of episode 3 wasn't the best either. Even if you were to objectively look at this episode in isolation, the pacing, continuity, and animation quality of this episode was lackluster. I could see what they were trying to go for, and it definitely did work very well in a couple of scenes, but that is nowhere near enough to justify or to sell this change.

Even if the next episode returns to the style and quality they established in episodes 1 and 2, the whiplash is already, for me, too hard to recover from. I felt that this anime had so much potential, and it's such a shame that just one episode could sour the potential I saw in this anime.

As a note, there is nothing artistic about creating expectations, and shattering it in the name of "experimentation". If that's what you wanted to do, make it clear from the start, and do it tastefully and with a purpose. Don't try to be different just to be different.