Saw a comment on the Journal with Witch episode discussion to this effect… what other anime had that effect on you?
For me, as soon as I watched the OP of Girls und Panzer: Das Finale Part 4, I know I’m in to something great. Everything about it was an elevated experience from the past entries. Same with Rose of Versailles (2025) (OP) and The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity (teaser visual and from awareness of staff and studio)
The beginning of Redline gave me the impression that the whole movie would just be a sequence of cool shit happening, and then the whole movie was a sequence of cool shit happening. It ended up being one of my all-time favorites, and proved to me that an anime doesn’t need a complex story to be excellent.