Witch Hat Atelier debuts on Crunchyroll on April 6. New episodes will follow every Monday.
Stop me if you heard this one before: An anime is set in a world where some people are born with unique, supernatural abilities. A wide-eyed young protagonist who has always dreamed of having those powers suddenly gains them and is sent to a special school to learn to control their newfound abilities. On the surface, Bug Films’ anime take on Kamome Shirahama’s Witch Hat Atelier uses familiar tropes found everywhere in anime and manga; there are glimpses of My Hero Academia, Mashle, and most magic-related anime here.
But the real magic of Witch Hat Atelier is how unique its take on magic is, and how it uses that to tell a poignant and engrossing coming-of-age story. As Coco learns in the two-part premiere episode, magic is not something you’re born with; instead, it is a tool – a skill you can learn and master. The premiere treats magic with reverence, not as something unnatural or privileged but an artform – a craft that requires dedication. That magic is not cast but specifically drawn makes this quite a surprisingly timely and poignant anime.
Bug Films, known for their visually stunning adaptation of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, does a wonderful job translating Shirahama’s original manga. The premiere is gorgeous, with vibrant colors and striking use of light and shadow. Most notably, where a battle shonen anime would focus on the impact of punches during a fight or the speed of movements, Witch Hat Atelier meticulously animates the weight of penmanship, the texture of the paper, and the drawings in spellcasting with incredible reverence and attention to detail. Add in composer Yuka Kitamura’s (Elden Ring) hauntingly beautiful score, and you get a show that looks like it emerged straight out of a dark fairy-tale picture book.
Another thing that makes this show’s magic unique is that it is only cast on tools and other objects rather than people. You can cast a spell on a lamp to fire it up, on shoes to make them fly, or a window to make a teleportation tunnel, but you can’t transform a person or animal; you can’t even do healing spells. It’s a good way of limiting what protagonist Coco can do as she learns the way of witches, while also teasing the darker aspects of this world, where magic can and has been used for more nefarious purposes.
Unfortunately for Coco, the way she becomes a witch apprentice is not nearly as magical or wonderful as she initially dreams about. After a chance encounter with a witch named Qifrey, Coco learns the truth of magic and tries to do some herself thanks to a magic drawing kit she got from a stranger years earlier. This results in Coco unleashing powerful and forbidden magic that results in a tragic accident, forcing her to leave home and accompany Qifrey to learn magic and undo her mistake. The premise is not entirely dissimilar to Fullmetal Alchemist, and there are similarities between the two, especially that other manga’s 2003 TV adaptation. Like that show, Witch Hat Atelier balances a sense of wonder with deep melancholy. Like Edward and Alphonse Elric, Coco’s journey is not some grand aspiration to chase a dream and be the best, but rather a deeply personal uphill battle of self-doubt and fear to undo a terrible mistake.
Episode 2 especially paints a picture of Coco as a fascinating protagonist who is equally marveled by magic and wants to experience everything related to it, and also terrified of repeating her mistakes and hesitant to try magic again. It’s still very early in the story, but the premiere does a great job of teasing a complex and exciting coming-of-age story for Coco. Thankfully, she is accompanied by a terrific mentor; Qifrey is already a good candidate to be anime’s next great white-haired, blue-eyed teacher, but he stands out as more than just a cocky shonen mentor. Instead, he is more of a father figure to Coco and his other students – a gentle, patient guy who not only has to teach Coco about magic, but also must deal with a grieving child terrified of it.
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