If you want to showcase cultural pride, you don't show an American being better at Japanese ***than all your Japanese characters put together. And skimping on animation budget? The animation was as good as it has been throughout the series so far.
He focused on shooting because the Sengoku Astray is a melee-focused suit and he didn't expect it to be able to fight back at a distance. Once this was proven wrong, he fought with beam sabers and even tackled the Astray when he lost both arms; he was shown to be very capable of close combat.
Fair enough, I might be just jaded from seeing too many crappy shows. Animation wise its great but I can't help but think they're saving a large part of it for the finale much like how Gurran Laggan did. My only worry is that this thing will be a constantly reoccuring thing. I suspect the italian dude is due to suffer worf effect after maybe a decent showing simply because he has had more screen time and uses a wing series suit. Upon reflection I think I'm just jaded. :/