While the television anime did go off base a bit from the manga, this OAD release really felt like a sequel to it (that's how I see it anyway), and it felt really nice. What made it even better was that they brought back the original voice cast, cranked up the animation value, and essentially made it feel fresh and exciting again.
I had some issues watching it at first as I was a bit confused on whether or not the voices fit (ended up looking up the seiyuu list and found out it was the same people). This was probably from the change of animation as I had to readjust a bit on their character design (Hime looks less tsun tsun :< ).
Despite this though, the first episode rekindled my love for this series. Can't wait to see what's in store on the next episode.
I have to agree with you on the ballerina bear part. It was an amusing "lolwut" moment followed by "HOMG" since this is actually the first time Yae was seen going batshit like that in full animation.