Witch Hat Atelier 1

 

Witch Hat Atelier 1

by Kamome Shirahama

Kodansha

2019

 

 

I decided to start a new manga series, and Witch Hat Atelier is one I've had my eye on for awhile, just from peeking at the art in the bookstore. In both her storytelling and her illustrations, Shirahama has crafted a beautiful world with an undercurrent of darkness.

 

I think Witch Hat Atelier is a very post-Harry-Potter fantasy story. Not only is it set at a magical school, but the lead character Coco is kind of a fangirl, someone who's very interested in magic, who's spent her life wanting to learn to do it, but who also had no real expectation of becoming a witch until the start of the comic. (Not unlike Akko in Little Witch Academia.) Harry is an audience viewpoint character because he was raised in ignorance of the wizarding world; Coco is an audience surrogate for readers who grew up devouring such stories and wishing they could be part of them.

 

An important touch-point here, I think, is Fullmetal Alchemist, since it also involves a child attempting magic and causing a terrible accident, though it's much more accidental for Coco than it was for Ed and Alphonse, who at least had some idea what they were dealing with. There are also a number of parallels to Howl's Moving Castle, including Coco's family store, and Qifrey's window that opens on multiple locations.

 

Okay, so Coco is a cute little kid who works with her mom in the family dress shop. She wants to be a witch, but like everyone else, believes that witches are born with something extra that lets them do the impossible. The world Coco lives in (something like 19th century England) is powered not by an Industrial Revolution, but by magical tools that only witches can make.

 

One day, the witch Qifrey comes to the shop to buy some fabric. Coco manages to watch him doing something that's normally done in secret - casting a spell. When he does, she realize that spells aren't spoken or performed, they're written, they're drawn. 

 

Coco remembers years ago, when a creepy costumed witch at a festival gave her a book of diagrams, and realizes these are spells. Coco copies some of the diagrams and produces small effects, then traces a complex one and accidentally turns her mom and the whole shop to stone. Qifrey's intuition leads him back just in time to save Coco and adopt her as an apprentice.

 

Apparently in the past, everyone knew that everyone could do magic, and terrible war-spells were created that nearly wrecked the world. Witches used memory erasing magic to drastically curtail knowledge of magic among the public. Now memory modification the only allowed spell that directly affects people. All the other non-forbidden spells only affect objects, and thus create magical tools. Not unlike the allowed and illegal magics in Charlie Holmberg's Magician books.

 

Qifrey has a handful of other students, including Agott, the top girls and Coco's new roommate. Coco learns some magic drawing; survives being hazed by Agott by being sent on a too-hard solo assignment that she initially fails, but doesn't give up, and passes by creatively applying knowledge from the dress shop; and then everyone goes on a classic wand-buying trip to a village of witches. 

 

Coco knows the tropes and is delighted to be participating. She also feels guilty about her mom, is afraid she might not be smart enough or a good enough artist, wants to be friends with the other girls, and wants to learn as much as she can so she can save her mom.

 

Shirahama's art is very pretty, and Coco is an appealing protagonist, curious and genuine and enthusiastic. I'm looking forward to finding out what happens next, especially with the mysterious costumed witch who gave out the cursed spellbook...