Tongari Boushi no Atelier
Witch Hat Atelier

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Are athletes, athletes from the moment they're born?
What about astronauts or idols? These things aren't decided at birth

So then what about witches?

Story starts off :

In a world run by the magic that flows through it, there are humans known as witches. Such individuals are male or female because the title of witch applies to both genders. Using a special type of ink, magic is drawn rather than being cast with voice or song. Different patterns represent different spells and they are often cast in secrecy. Why? To prevent the misuse of magic in the hands of the naive. If magic is used in such ... hands, the consequences are detrimental, enough to take away the lives of others or cause great harm to many. Magic is a power that requires the responsibility that comes with it.

Realizing her love for magic, Coco bought a magic book and a pen with the ink that can be used to cast spells from the mysterious witch. And thus she enjoyed watching magic ever since, yet just seeing it didn't satisfy her curiosity. What exactly is magic then? And more importantly, how could it be used?

When a flying chariot comes by her house and breaks down with the meddling of two boys, she gains a chance. Flying chariots cannot fly on their own and require a spell to be fixed if they are broken. Once of the individuals who visited her house for cloth was a male witch known as Qifrey. Witches are known by the pointed hats they wear and he carries one with him.

He casts a spell within her house and by coincidence or perhaps by fate, she realizes how magic is cast. Using ink and patterns, spells become real. Ignoring his warnings to not look inside, Coco has the necessary knowledge to cast. Realizing that she had the tools to draw magic for years, she copies the shapes in her book with her wand with the tip of a pen.

However, the consequences of her actions cost her greatly, at the cost of a life dear to her.

Introduced as the very beginning, he enters the shop of Coco's mother to buy smoke-colored cloth. Perhaps it is for another uniform or for something else, it is never clarified.

With just how busy the shop is, with noblewoman from the flying chariot looking at the hanging lace, the tidy trim, the Harian knitted lace and more, Coco takes his measurements for him. Gazing at the cloth with a practiced eye after setting it on a table, she smooths it out and making a hole, cuts a straight line across, in a completely accurate fashion, showcasing her concentration and skill.

He admires her skill and then the flying chariot breaks down. Revealing his identity as a witch, he enters Coco's house to recast the spell on the chariot. Using a pen with the magic imbued ink, he draws runes which will then activate the magic spell.

After all, anyone who holds the magic ink and has the knowledge of the magic glyphs can use magic. These are the greatest secrets of a witch.

He admires her skill and then the flying chariot breaks down. Revealing his identity as a witch, he enters Coco's house to recast the spell on the chariot. Using a pen with the magic imbued ink, he draws runes which will then activate the magic spell.

After all, anyone who holds the magic ink and has the knowledge of the magic glyphs can use magic. These are the greatest secrets of a witch.

Towards the Future

This one chapter ends with a few open ends. Who did the book belong to that caused all of the damage? Which glyph caused the tragedy? How exactly will Coco become a witch? And will Coco's mother return to her former state?

Taking from the same mixed concept between LWA and Ran to Haiiro Sekai with some of an urban fantasy twist. At first, you could take a close glimpse how visualizing and stunning the art express more aesthetic tone and the story within it's chapter focuses over more subpar witchcraft elements. Twice as simple where it granted to be a lot philosophic theme about witches. However, more than the basic story, what enraptured me was the artwork itself. Every panel, every composition and transition seems like a true work of art, a piece that one would hang up on the wall. Not of the traditional style of shounen or shoujo, but like that of a painting.

Magic express which invoke the inner aspects more than saving peoples lives other than gaining a miracle. Genuine thoughts beyond witches may once receive unholy divine blessing by gathering so much blessings through crafting. Telling where once who born as witches may soon be the most choosen one of all.

Granting a tale which can sums up from a picture book, where every color pallets are not only black and white by not only you can think of thoughts about viewing our new beginning through your new chapter once it ends as it tells that magic is the miracle that colors the world.

A path of witchcraft can depicts by soaring through the amidst in the beacon of light, from the light on the pavestones down to your feet.

The world is fun, engaging and simply nice to look at. The time period is pretty vague considering the involvement of magic, but that itself doesn't seem so important.
If I were to have read this series years ago, perhaps I would've given it an 8 or 9. However, there's a few things of note that are a little... Off.

The story is wonderful. I wouldn't say I'm at the edge of my seat, but it's enough for me to want to continue in spite of the other shortcomings.
The art- while gorgeous, has a problem. Size, scale and perspective, particularly for the first enemy are wonky. I ... wish I could say it was done for the purposes of exaggeration, but even that wouldn't excuse it. It's too severe and jarring for me to excuse it as a dramatic effect. If you aren't paying attention to the panels, you likely won't spot it, but it would be poor judgement to rate the art while not closely observing it.

The characters are the real meat of where my problem lies. The character of Agete displays symptoms of psychopathic behaviour atypical even for a young angsty teenage anime girl. As if it didn't stop there, she also tries to murder the main character indirectly through negligence. Think: dropping your nephew or niece on a shady alley and telling them to make their way home.
There's also the uncomfortable racial angle to view things from. It's probably just me drawing unnecessary parallels, but the whole idea of being "born with magic" in the sense that these girls were writing from when they were young, as opposed to our mc, somehow makes them superior doesn't sit right with me.
The cherry on the cake is that her actions are underplayed and chocked up to banter and laughs. She tells the mc to- in effect- kill herself, and then a couple panels later she's being teased and played with. It's complete tonal wilhiplash and what the author's trying to convey through emotions isn't landing. It seems unfortunate but I doubt she's going to be met with the consequences she deserves.

If you're looking for something unique and anything I've written has resonated with you, skip this. The inability to treat Agete with the seriousness her character warrants seems to be a result of trying to mimick or being influenced by peers in the same genre.

Witch Hat Atelier is a very... mixed bag. The art is frankly wonderful; character design, paneling, background, detail, etc. The art is easily the best part of the manga as I think most people will agree. Where I differ in opinion is towards the rest of work. As the story goes on things start to fall apart. I started getting bored during scenes and arcs which are clearly meant to be peaks. The characters are interesting but don't fit that well into the world, partly because the world kind of sucks. I won't go into spoilers as to why but after a certain point, maybe ... 40 or 50 chapters in, things start to unravel. The world makes sense early on but eventually the author starts explaining stuff and, not that it doesn't entirely make sense per say, but as they clear away the fog I started to realize "Oh, this world is a lot less interesting and fun that I had initially thought." The original premise is... sort of comparable to Harry Potter but written in a much more interesting way imo. But as missing pieces get filled in a lot of the mystique fades away. The villains are turning out to be very much the more reasonable people. Having a grey morality isn't a bad thing, and it isn't like the main characters are actually evil, but the whole things starts to feel kind of ridiculous. Especially in the most recent chapters I've read, 60+, where all of a sudden massive consequences pop up out of nowhere. These surprises are cartoonish stupid and feels pretty bad.

Overall, I understand why people like this. The art is wonderful, characters are fun & dynamic, and the concept is ripe with potential. But the manga doesn't hold up under pressure, like a cake built up too high, and topples over. I give it a 6/10 because I did enjoy it for a while and it would be dishonest of me to ignore all the wonderful things this manga does right, but I also wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. Depending on when you see this review, check other ones. If someone has read another 20 or so chapters after I dropped it and says "Ok yeah it has a rough patch but it recovers!" then take my blessing and give it a shot, I've been wrong before.

Story 4/10
Art 8/10
Character 7/10
Enjoyment 4/10
Overall 6/10