Personally, I think this was a great time-skip; I only have one problem with it...
MC:
"I've turned 14, and have grown quite a lot"
Uhhh... no? He's physically identical to the first story-arc, so unless he means that he found some mental and emotional fortitude, he ain't aged for shit....
I guess we should be thankful that they at least they made the time-skip really clear by titling it "Arc 2, Chapter 0" and telling us it was a time-skip...