I like your reviews because it makes me feel like I am not alone.
I am sure I have watched this whole series before but I don't remember clearly. watching it this time, the series is WEIRD. I tried to compare it to other anime and I just can't seem to find a match.
the pacing, the sound, the content of it, just feels incredibly vacant. I was thinking it is possible that it is Allegory for Sho's life. we see him from near the start and is a bit of a douche to his dad. but then I thought.. this is suggesting that he is depressed and without focus in his life. the following scenes seem to reinforce that. it's not very tight though and I feel like it could be easily missed. Or I could just be wrong. I also felt like the characters were introduced very vaguely. Each time a new character was introduced I felt like it wasn't really clear who they are or if they are important.
the music too, was absent for a lot of the time. the whole thing had this vacant ethereal aspect to it that was neatly topped off with the stoned woman talking at the end for the next episode preview.
The monsters were quite well drawn but I agree there was a lot of missing animation for the first episode. it's supposed to make a good impression and I think it fell short.