And again, I'm only talking about the parts in AnJ1 before where AnJ2 picks up. Its been like 6 years since I saw the parts of AnJ1 beyond that point, so I don't remember it well enough to argue for or against it, but I do not doubt that the pacing gets worse to some degree

Beyond that, while I suppose you aren't really wrong that only like one "thing" happens in each episode, imo the "thing" almost always had enough depth, whether dramatically, emotionally or in regards to how it altered the characters/situation, to work for a whole episode by itself

...I'll concede that specifically the stuff in between the juvie arc and Wolf fight could have (and should have) been paced better (which is the stuff I was referring to in my initial message), but even then, I didn't think the pacing was terrible, it just could have been better

I personally never felt the sluggishness you described in regards to dialogue and gestures.

Now that I'm looking back through the episode list...

With all due respect, what are you going on about with "totally glacial pacing"?

Aside from a few episode in-between the juvie arc and the proper build to the Rikiishi fight (and maybe some post-manga diversion stuff, which I haven't seen in a long time), I think the pacing is perfectly fine