The new animations are definitely quite nice, especially for the Rapiers. However, they are too slow for the weapon class, which are now as slow as Maces. This is unfortunate since Rapiers are one of the weakest weapons in both damage and stance damage, relying on fast hits to keep up the DPS compared to slower options.
By comparison, the much harder hitting and better stance-breaking Wakizashis are now as fast as Rapiers used to be, with no reduction to their damage or stance damage.
This seems rather lopsided and affects the viability of Rapiers, which are now a lot less effective as a weapon option.