After the start of NieA_7 (read: "Nee-eh-Ah Under Seven") I am cautiously optimistic.

• Where most shows start with their best animation and then fade as the animation team stretches, NieA starts with the worst of cartoonish art an anime from 1990s could display and not being cut, then gradually ramps it up. The only other series with such reversal which I remember was Mai HiME (and that one never was quite as bad).
• There's some uncomfortably familiar art (see the Exhibit 1 above), but it's not overbearing and also fades as the series progresses.
• Overall ambience of the poverty is depressing.
• NieA is rather unpleasant. I am wondering if she's impervious to violence. In place of her host I would certainly ivestigate that.Episodic, yes, but there's a bit of foreshadowing and small pieces of background scattered around, so it may be going somewhere.