The anime is clearly aimed at Veterans and people who played it. Hard to feel bad about cutting some of the small stuff if you look at it like that.... but well I can understand why folks would want some of the small talk included if you like certain characters. They totally skipped discussing the origins of Kuku, and during the mountain trip to Ishtar they didn't bother to explain the legend of how she fuggin' #rekt it. I'd love if they squeezed in some Da Vinci lectures, her voice is so good.
That said, the alternative is cutting down those epic fight scenes we have coming up, and I really like epic fights in the Nasuverse so...
I mean they don't have to cut those down, they could have just extended it through more episodes. I'm just wondering what they're trying to fill out in the 2nd season that warrants cutting the first half down so much.