When you see “Witch Hat Atelier” in motion, you quickly understand why BUG Films needed nearly four years to bring it to fruition. It is the long production period that the company’s president has confirmed, making it clear that the anime industry is an environment where increasingly ambitious projects are required.
The president of BUG Films acknowledges the arduous process of working on Witch Hat Atelier
It was Hiroaki Kojima, president of BUG Films, who spoke in a social media post about what working on “Witch Hat Atelier” has meant for the studio. Here are the highlights of his comments:
- Kojima clarifies right away that he cannot speak openly about all the details, but he does confirm that although the Witch Hat Atelier anime was announced in 2022, BUG Films was not involved in the project from the start.
- In other words, it is most likely that the relevant production committee made the official announcement without having yet determined which studio would work on Witch Hat Atelier. But everything changed in 2023.
- The executive notes that they managed to secure the project thanks to “a lucky connection,” and ultimately, BUG Films worked on the anime itself for nearly three and a half years.
Kojima says this is the anime he has spent the most time working on in his career. This makes it clear that the “Witch Hat Atelier” project is no ordinary one. And that raises the following question: Will each season of the anime take this long to arrive?
Will Season 2 of “Witch Hat Atelier” not arrive until 2029?
The truth is that right now, this is a difficult question to answer. Obviously, we can assume that the production process won’t be as lengthy since BUG Films already has many assets that it won’t have to create entirely from scratch, but that doesn’t mean another season of the series will arrive as early as next year. Likewise, we must also consider the fact that “Witch Hat Atelier” is a manga that is still being published, with 14 volumes available at this point. Until the current first season ends, it will be difficult to determine how much material has been adapted and how much remains available to continue expanding the anime.
In any case, everything suggests that BUG Films has already got the hang of the “Witch Hat Atelier” anime. Considering, moreover, that it is clearly one of the standout productions of the entire year, we are looking at a project that, although it has only just begun, has a very bright future ahead of it. Once you learn that BUG Films spent nearly four years working on the anime, it’s hard not to view Witch Hat Atelier in a new light. And judging by the final result, it’s clear that BUG Films didn’t just want to adapt the manga—they wanted to make it one of the greatest anime of the decade.
