The original Cencoroll still holds up well all these years later in terms of the visuals, but this new style is smoother and flows better during the animated sequence. I'm not fully sure if it's a complete upgrade without a side-by-side comparison, but the visuals in Connect are excellent, and I really can't imagine a better aesthetic to go along with the squishy designs of the alien critters and the immense scale of the battle sequences. There's no issue with skipping the original Cencoroll, though it is solid, albeit, less complete and not as refined production.
There's not much context given as to why the aliens inhabit earth or how they got there, and we don't learn too much about the motivations of any of the characters or the group investigating the aliens. As for a summary: a Huge alien goes King Kong on a building, and Tetsu is looking to have his alien, Cenco, absorb the larger alien—presumably, for the sake of becoming stronger. Along the way, Tetsu gets involved with a female classmate, Yuki, who learns of Cenco/Tetsu's secret; Shu is another experienced... alien stand user... and he becomes the antagonist. In the second half, an organization that uses aliens for combat and is investigating aliens for whatever reason are looking for Tetsu and trying to retrieve Shu. The latter being an ornery member of their team who absconded without permission with one of the aliens.
It's ultimately a pretty simple production without a whole lot to say: that's not really a slight against it, but I'd say this feels more like a glorious second pilot film to pitch the director's idea for as big of a budget as possible and to get another chance to finally complete the story he had in mind... rather than a fully fleshed out film. But what's there is charming. The archetypal characters are likable and have amusing interactions—plenty of these interactions being carried out not solely through dialogue, but instead by murky and shifting alliances, and their connection to each other through the aliens and with the aliens. There's a surprising amount of emotion on display for what is today's equivalent of the old OVA format of the 1980s-1990s.
The battles are also great and far more creative than your typical shounen. Charismatic and well-animated aliens. Lots of transforming, stretching, uh... gentle vore (it's really not done in a gross way, and the interiors serve as another battle field in some cases)... :\
There's really not a lot to say. It's just a well-made sci-fi/action anime that may or may not have added depth with its next incarnation.
