An Appreciation for Witch Hat Atelier

WARNING: Contains for-sure spoilers for the story of Witch Hat Atelier

What is Witch Hat Atelier?

Witch Hat Atelier (WHA) is one of my favorite Manga’s I’ve ever read. It is a manga about a young girl who learns about the world of magic that she thought was only accessible to people who were born as witches. In doing so, she makes a terrible mistake, encasing her mother in stone. A witch takes her in to both protect her as well as gain information from her about something he is investigating in which she is now involved. She gets adopted into witch society, using her unique outsider view to preform magic unlike other witches. There are many reasons that this manga is my favorite that I would like to break down, but one of the main reasons is what is has taught me about storytelling, meaning, and themes.

The Depths of the Atelier

WHA is a masterclass in implementing both themes and lessons into a story. By themes I mean centering the plot around big ideas. By lessons, I mean telling or teaching the reader something that could actually be important in their lives.

Themes

WHA has some overarching themes that add a lot to the plot of the story:

• What is worth more, peace or freedom?
  • Magic is a well kept secret, restricted to those who are born into it. Normal people who find out about it have to have their memories erased
  • Magic used to be common, but because of its power it caused constant wars and violence beyond comprehension, causing the witches at the time to erase almost everyone’s memory and instill the belief that magic could only be wielded by those with innate abilities
  • This also restricts uses of magic to certain things, it can only be uses on inanimate objects and there are some spells that are forbidden such as those that harm people or even healing spells, and any breach of this is seen as high treason
  • The story grapples back and forth with asking the audience if the good that could be done with magic if unrestricted is worth the price of the damage it could also do
  • The main antagonists of the series are a group of magic users called “The Brimmed Caps” who ignore the established rules and practice forbidden magic, their goal is to free magic and give it to everyone again, but they are willing to go to any means to make that happen somewhat proving the point of why such magic is restricted
  • However, the main council of witches who are considered the “good guys” are not presented as black and white either, the events of the story cause even them to grapple with these ideas, the only way they can enforce their secrecy is by using a forbidden spell themselves, one to erase memories, giving them a somewhat hypocritical nature
  • Magic is presented as “a means to bring happiness to people”, but seeing it in practice makes the reader realize how much is not being done for the people of this world because of the restrictions placed on magic.
  • There are also issues with magic society, one issue that is brought up is that the, “refusal to accommodate differences is not an admirable quality of witch society”, this is referring to the fact that people with disabilities such as blindness are often not given what they need in order to succeed given their issues, especially given what unrestricted magic could do for them
  • Even the tree that grants magic to the world does terrible things to creatures and is parasitic in nature.

• Overcoming your shortcomings
  • There are many characters in the story who learn to overcome issues within themselves or that they have through creative or unorthodox solutions
• The capabilities of mankind are terrifying
  • Many stories are contained in the series about man’s folly and how a persons negative actions have effected the world in permanent ways to either lord themselves above others or harm others, directly or indirectly.

In a story about 14 year-olds learning to be kind witches, you wouldn’t normally expect a plot with this depth.

Lessons

WHA also has some incredible lessons imbued within the plot. While it is not necessarily made for kids, the lessons are suitable for all ages:

• Think of what you can do and the skills you have that can apply to a given task in order to aid in its completion
  • Sometimes unique skills can come in handy in situations they weren’t meant for
  • With creativity and a problem to solve you can come up with any number of solutions
• Tests are useful when the taking of them is enjoyable and presents a better test of one’s skills
  • Tests are a way for us to know ourselves
• If you only do things you want and that are easy, you’ll never learn anything new
• It is up to the apprentice to choose who to study under
• We must learn from the past to avoid repeating it
• Don’t fall prey to excuses, find ways to solve your issues by focusing on what you can do, not what you can’t
  • Quit deciding things are impossible
  • Rather than saying you have no idea what to do, asking what you can do to make something work is huge step forward
• You can do things like others but still do them in your own unique way
• Sometimes you have to consider not just how something will be used, but the effect it might have on other things
  • Sometimes the presentation of a good thing can be irresponsible
• When you do something for everyone, that has to include you too
  • When you agonize over something to make others happy, it better make you happy too
• Incremental progress can work wonders
  • You don’t need to focus on a goal far in the future, and its not good for that goal to be set in stone anyway
  • Think a few steps ahead of where you are right now
  • Imagine what that future version of you is like
  • The future version of you relies on the choices you make right now
• Happiness comes from inside you

The Magic System

WHA uses a magic system of such simplicity and power that it can create just about anything. Most users create magical tools that function in interesting and creative ways. Additionally, the symbols drawn actually mean something to the point that every spell’s function can be interpreted if you know how the system works. There are solid rules that provide the basis for what is possible and how things function. The intricacy and creativity of the author makes this magical world vibrant in a way I have hardly ever seen before. Part of what makes magic so difficult to conceal is that it is so easy to perform. It is entirely drawn, and anyone with a pen and specialized ink can perform magic, even on accident in some cases. You only need the tools and knowledge in order to make magic happen.

The Characters

Each character is imperfectly perfect. What I mean by that is they each have their own flaws, goals, and motives that make them interesting to interact with and interpret the world and events around them in different ways. Each character has their own specialty that they apply to a given situation and are creative enough to adapt it to assist. Here are some of the characters and what makes them unique:

• Coco - The main character. Her main goal is to undo her accidental calcification of her mom, and to do so she has to learn the intricacies of magic. She starts initially with a strong love of magic, but as she learns more about the world, she starts to question the established rules and bend them in a a way that makes her considered dangerous to the high council.

• Tetia - Tetia is one of the girls at the atelier. Her main goal is to crate a spell that is worth being remembered for.
• Richeh - The third girl of the atelier. She despises tests because she doesn’t like being told what to do, this stems from experiences in her childhood with her brother where he enjoyed her spells. This experience, along with him leaving, made her never want to draw any spells that weren’t completely hers. She ends up learning that she can apply her own spells to problems to solve them in a way that is uniquely hers.
• Agott - Agott is the final girl of the atelier. She is a witch with a strong magical family and something to prove. She is dedicated to being the best at magic and has put in a lot of work to make sure of it.

• Qifrey - The head of the atelier, he woke up one day missing an eye that was stolen from him by the brimmed caps. Ever since then he has been slowly losing vision and is in a race against the clock to figure out what they did to him, why, and how to potentially reverse it. He has been using forbidden magic and breaking the rules in order to attain his goal, but he is a sympathetic character who seems for now to have the best of intentions.

Other

The world of WHA is alive and vibrant. So many ideas that could only have been concocted by the people of this world whose knowledge of magic run deep exist. This makes the world feel so real and each place visited is its own unique and memorable environment. The world itself has been warped by magic of old, leading to unique environments with cool backstories.