After watching a proper raw, it was much easier to give comments:
Spoiler for impressions:
What I didn't like:
-Fanservice: okay, it was annoying with the "boob dive", but here... No I have no problem with Jessica and Natsuhi since it wasn't shown with such intent, but rather I was mind boggled how they really put a smooth and noticeable animation to Jessica's breast jiggling. And of course, Shannon, Jessica and Beatrice got a larger bust for the tea party at some point.
-Natsuhi's death: it weirdly became less "strange" in the anime. I don't exactly mind they have moved the portrait (from the start, no inconsistency IN the anime itself) close to the parlor (despite it should be in the stair case or second floor), but what didn't make sense was the fact the kids saw Natsuhi's corpse collapsing and the lack of smoke on the winchester. Ah well.
-The lack of the ending scroll, but well it would make the first part cramped.
-The faces (design, not the exaggeration) were a bit inconsistent at times, especially Maria: her head is much round than before and her eyes are much smaller. It isn't bad, but the difference is really noticeable (so you can expect a different animating team.
And now, what I liked:
-The pace: we are far from the mad rush of 1-1, 1-2 and 1-4. Heck, it was even smoother than 1-3. It gives the time for the watchers to understand what is going on, as crazy as it is going. I would however complain a bit they didn't put something that would explain why the characters are "suddenly alive". A "purgatorio" thing would have been better, since they used the normal parlor instead of a phantasmagoric tea parlor.
-Maria: aside of her normal design being different, as deathkillz said, her scary face are ACTUALLY disturbing and creepy. I didn't expect anything special and I was taken aback. It really worked as intended.
Horie Yui was doing such a good job I almost thought she was enjoying voicing with such sinister voice.
-Tea party: now that is a very very neat adaptation. They skipped things that should have been skipped (showing again Eva and Hideyoshi murders) and they kept to the strict lines what the characters said and conveyed in there.
And I was even more surprised they didn't chicken out with the sudden deaths: I thought they were planning to make them vanish in anguish, but they really transformed them into lumps of meat. It was as suggestive as in the VN, or even better actually.
-Ono made Battler shine a lot: lots of expressions, finally a not so "timed/lagged" reaction etc. It was obvious he thought everything was bullshit and he was downright pissed off by Maria and the rest in the first part and tea party.
-As much as I'm still not used to Ohara's voice for Beatrice, it certainly fit Beatrice, and her laugh is on the spot.
I think Episode 2 will be truly interesting with Beato's sneers.
-The BGM were well used except maybe once (オルガン小曲_第6億番_ハ短調 being too short), they used really well the rest (dead angle etc).
The only thing I don't get was the lack of ambiance or BGM when the tea party started (not necessiraly the original BGM, but the lack of BGM was weird).
-???? tea party was pretty good as well. The background was surprisingly bright (I expected much darker ones), but it still give a "outerworld" impression.
They really nailed Bern's persona as well.
Ah... "it feels good man" I would say
That is certainly what I can call an adaptation, which makes me let them pass this episode with a 9, as promised.
I honestly hope they will keep such kind of scripting (minus maybe some changes
) for the future episodes.
as usual:
Episode 1-5: Screencaps, summary and comments
And this week's TIPS:
Episode 1-5: Fool's mate
I suggest you all to read the ending scroll, because it contains very important clues regarding the aftermath.