Cool to see Ishitani directing the "Fan Letter" thingy. Lots of personality and life in the presentation.
Anyway, hope the break will lead to better pacing going forward. As normal as it's been for OP, the 1 chapter per episode standard isn't a great viewing experience. Only a couple of chapters have enough content to justify it or have scenes that benefit from extra build up or "stretching" for the sake of atmosphere and tone.
If that can somehow be fixed while maintaining the current animation quality, Toei would be giving us the definitive way to experience the story.