Perhaps the content they cut really wasn’t so important in the larger picture of the mystery but I still think bad introduction has consequences and it’s not only 1-4… There were quite a few missteps in executing in the previous episodes as well (some seeming quite amateurish to me). For me many scenes are simple missing the emotions the novel would invoke and the changes in locations make some dialogs confusing if you know the original idea or even contradictory. Well could of cause be all red herrings, so the changes get irrelevant, but nobody knows til now.

On the bright side I just read about an interview with the author of the game where they again confirmed that he had much advisory influence on the production, so at least it’s unlikely that they screw up the solution of the whole story :P
But he also mentioned there was a lot of foreshadowing and many hidden hints in EP1 which most people didn’t notice til now. Also seems he didn’t see anyone who had found THE precise answer to the mystery just yet, even if some are really close. ^^

Also I agree with you: there are many possibilities for improvement… just a little bit disappointed or concerned with EP1 so far.
Higurashi Kei compared to 1st season suggested they had learned much about proper execution so perhaps a had to high hopes for them. XD

Regarding the talking heads:
Well… yeah… Kaiji really mastered this aspect just like Akagi but gambling and mystery-solving are really difficult to compare and the also used quite a different set of stylistic devices to pull it of this way.
On the other hand there was Renas paranoid telephone call to the police in the first season which got critizised for showing several minute of only telephone booth footage etc…. So my train of thought was expo-talk may not be there strong point.
Well enough speculations about that.. let’s wait for a few days an see who was right… :)

Also: I don’t consider the anime really as bad if you got that impression. Otherwise I wouldn’t stick to it anymore… just worse then expected in some aspects ^^
Seems “Book vs Film”-complainitis got me this time ;P

Right now it’s indeed a good anime and people are really liking it. They have a lot of room for improvement, and the “awesome” stuff of the series is yet to be adapted. They did a pretty decent I-III and this I-IV was not that good but good indeed. I think that they can pull it perfectly.

And about I-V… Kaiji have entire episodes of “talking heads” and is a good series indeed. Higurashi Kai have entire episodes of exposition and is good too. There was a lot of talk in I-III and it’s the best one. And this isn’t about the “talking heads”, it’s about if this stuff it’s enjoyable or not. “Talking heads” can be really enjoyable if there’s something interesting to say, and this is the case. Umineko talks are really engaging.

Generalizations, no please.

Well to summarize opinions a read in another blog and I also share: Now there is much time for the start of the meta-stuff but will this result in good pacing? Perhaps 5 min for the “grand final” of the story and then almost only expo-talk with some blood and drama mixed in. Doesn’t sound balanced.
Read any of the Bakemonogatari comments in the blogsphere? Many complained about the “talking heads” problem. To much talk without actions are difficult to pull of in anime. Thats why I’m quite pessimistic.

But what made me sad about it was that they sacrificed so much of the impact of the “in Kinzos study”-scene to get the next twilight done, too. This left me really unimpressed. So much explanations cut up and all the chaos, paranoia, emotions and character development skipped. And once again small details chanced to give to the “wrong” impressions.

The story later on is so much about the fate / background story of the people on this island that toning down all the character presentation and interactions will also make it much more difficult to identify with their struggle. The trade-of gave them more time for the shock-effects and craziness but this also don’t seem to convince many viewers because it’s so overdone….Well the damage is done anyway.

“Well, the original lost that “half-decently realistic presentation of the whole setting” in EP2, so it’s not really a big loss, anyway.”

I think you are confusing two things here: Drifting from realistic murder story to supernatural powered plot it not the type of “unrealistic” I was talking about and Solaris wasn’t, either. EP1 adaption just suffers from unrealistic behavior of the characters. So you laugh how stupid or wonder how heartless they are display where the novels gave you many bits and piece that gave you characters you could identify with.
So after all there is no contradiction here: magic vs. reality is no excuse to display some characters like robot actors :P

Besides: EP2 wasn’t intended to be realistic, but that don’t mean EP1 wasn’t mean, either. If you read EP3 you should know this was explicitly mean to be two sides of the same coin. EP1 kept magic to the absolute minimum in the novels. The “game board introductions” (when starting a game) even give the hints about a easy (EP1), difficult (EP2) and balanced game (EP3) to play for the protagonist (representing the involvement of the witch/magic and how good Battlers chance’s are to deduce the right stuff ^^).
But once again the effect of showing this difference is diminish with all the magical stuff added in the anime for the first story already.

Now, they have a whole episode to five minutes of EP1, End Roll and Tea Parties, after all.

A guess telling any of the anime-only watchers how the original had a gripping and half-decently realistic presentation of the whole setting could get you a lot of ROFLs :P

Don’t get me wrong: I really liked the game-laughter when I started playing. Brought back memories of the cool laughter from Kefka in FF6. But you have to be quite a patient guy to not get annoyed by it after hearing it sometimes more then 10 times in one dialog in all of the games. Just my opinion…
Also my point was: If the can remix the awesome music to me make it more fitting for an anime, why not spice up the adapted sound-effects to.

Anyway, I enjoyed this episode. Next week should be the Tea Party, so I’m looking forward to that.