Looking at it from the perspective of an episode or OVA makes me feel far more positive about it in the context of the series. It might feel like an afterthought if you're watching it years after seeing the original series and for this, I don't blame you, but given that I saw it not long afterward, I didn't feel that I was left waiting for something that didn't deliver. It actually fit in with the style of the series storytelling quite well and could've easily passed as another episode. If that had been the case, I would've easily considered it one of the best episodes.
The art was excellent with a vibrant colour palette and the animation was smooth. The panning stills people complained about? Gone. There are scenes where they used shortcuts (obvious if you know what to look for), but they still made the series far more visually appealing than pretty much anything in the original series. Their fight scenes were far better choreographed and it looks like they had access to a better team with far more reference material and experience.
The sound quality was fine with excellent voice acting, but what even was happening with the music? It was so out of place in certain scenes that it actively broke immersion. If the music mixing in the episode could be touched up, it'd be basically perfect.
As for the characters, they expect you to pretty well know everyone going in so you don't learn anything new about them, however, their characterizations are vastly improved in this movie. Body language had been an issue in the original series where the characters themselves were pretty much as static as the still shots. Here, characters have a larger range of emotions and expression with weight added to their interactions even if we're not learning anything special. Though they aren't going to win any awards, I was still happy to see Fai do more than close his eyes and smile at everything.
Overall, nothing groundbreaking, but an enjoyable experience nonetheless.
