In those high-falutin’ video game preview events, there’s a development term called a “ vertical slice .” In it, prospective gamers witness self-contained chunks of a game, thus allowing them to see all of its major systems and mechanics in action. Witch Hat Atelier had something damn near similar to that in its fifth episode—an episode that cemented its status as the forerunner for anime of the year while beckoning the question: if you aren’t watching this anime now, what are you even doing?

By now, we’ve already waxed poetic about how animation studio Bug Films’ adaptation of Kamome Shirahama’s manga —after an initially troubling delay —proved itself up to the task, animating a magical premiere of the fantasy series .…