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

Helpful

read more

Witch Hat Atelier is like the demon slayer version of Shoujo manga. I know it's technically Seinen, but that's just what I think.

First off, let's start with the showstopper. The art. It's phenomenal. I probably haven't seen any storyboarding and art so well drawn. If Yusuke Murata, who draws OPM is highly technical, then Witch Hat Atelier's art is more creative and still has highly elaborate design and technical skills.

However, what else does the manga have to offer? Ultimately, it follows the same formula that shounen mangas do, which is to introduce a character with "dangerous abilities," one that needs to be monitored by the "good guys," and ultimately is left alive because of "reasons." Finally, Coco, the main character will go on to encounter dangerous incidents revolving around the bad and good guys. It's the Sukuna of JJK. It's Nezuko in Demon Slayer.

So if the story is generic as all hell can be, how about the characters? I think Coco is a decent--kind of mediocre--main character, and so are the side characters. Qifrey, Agatto, Tetia, and the other apprentice mages are decent enough, but the enemies are just so poorly written. The antagonists are so "mysteriously edgy" and they do things in such an inefficient manner so that Coco can develop alongside the story that it's ridiculous. Custas was the character that pushed me to drop the manga. He's such a shallow antagonist-type character that only serves as character development and a foil to Coco. If this is how the manga decides to progress story and worldbuild, count me out. It's lazy, not good writing, and it shows a lack of creativity to the story.

Helpful

read more