It seems they already deviated from the start by making Kirie appear much earlier than she did in the source. While it does the job of showing all the mains early on, I don't think it's worth the cost of deviating from the source. Not really a good sign.
Their approach of showing the same scene twice, first without Yuuko visible, and later with Yuuko visible was unexpected, but I don't expect it again in the next episodes. I'm aware the point was simply to establish her as a ghost only visible to certain persons, but it took up so much of the episode...
Anyway, at least there's still the pleasure of finally seeing one of my favorite manga and Yuuko herself animated. And hearing more of Kirie just because I'm a huge fan of her VA, even though she wasn't supposed to appear this early. I also liked how the atmosphere of the comical scenes in the manga was preserved. The animation quality was mostly a bit underwhelming, but not that much of a problem for me.