Visually Departures is the best the series has ever looked. There were some cool nods to LN fans with some of the characters casual clothes from SWEET! getting animated. The service scenes were never going to be on the same level as the novel, because that would have certainly pushed it into R18 territory, but the anime original scenes were a let down, because they lacked the variety and intensity of the novels.
I think Departures did a better job of setting up the Nonaka's getting summoned back to the Village, but the rest of the anime original content was kinda filler nonsense. They would have been better off just doing a straight adaptation of chapters 2 and 3 from volume 8.
There's some really good world building that happens in chapter 3 of volume 8 that makes most of the events in the series make much more sense, and it's a shame they didn't adapt those scenes.
The onsen trip with Chisato was adapted badly and they were real ambiguous about an important event that happens during that trip which has lasting consequences on the rest of the novels.
Basara's anime original fight against Lars was well done. This was probably the best animated fight of the series and it gives me hope that they'll be able to do justice to the fights from volume 9 onward if a S3 is green lighted.
My favorite part of the OVA came during the credits. As an LN reader, I got to see a character animated that I never thought would have ever been animated. So that was a treat for me. Overall Departures is a decent watch that sets the stage for the best arc in the series. I recommend picking up the novels though if you want the most authentic version of the story.
