I Just Became a Witch Hat Atelier Manga Reader

[00:01] have gotten invested in enough to want to read the source material. That's favorites like Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan, and The Apothecary Diaries. So, you might be surprised to hear that my next read

[00:15] next read is Witch Hat Atelier.

[00:27] channel and to another video. I'm not going to lie, I already knew prior to that cliffhanger on Monday that I was going to be reading this manga. I know just can't wait. I need to know what happens next." And that's partially

[00:42] true. But I actually bought volumes 5 through 14 last week in preparation for feeling it was going to end on a cliffhanger, but also because I am quite

[00:56] invested in the story. And not a lot of shows do that to me just in season [music] 1. So, today I'd like to talk about why Witch Hat Atelier got to me so quickly and why I want to read the source material. But before we dive into

[01:08] video, subscribe to the channel, and leave a comment your thoughts. I am currently trying to hit 30,000 followers on Instagram by my 30th birthday, which is about 3 months away. I've got a long ways to go, but you can help out by

[01:22] following me by using the link in my description. On Instagram, I do post some things that don't go on any other platform including pictures and stories, so you definitely want to check it out. If you haven't watched Witch Hat

[01:34] Atelier, you might be sitting here going, "Why is everyone talking about this show? Is it really that good? Or is it just another overhyped shonen?" And I do first want to say that everyone has their own preferences. I'm sure there

[01:49] are plenty of people out there who did not like the show very much and they my opinion, Witch Hat Atelier has deserved all of the hype that it has been getting. And I feel like I need to back up a few months and explain to you

[02:02] why Witch Hat Atelier got on my radar at all. This is an incredibly biased a lot [music] of time on, but it is important to know the context of why I decided to even watch this show in the first place because I honestly hadn't

[02:16] barely heard of it prior to this announcement. I had a couple of friends really brought it up in conversation much, so I didn't really know anything about it. And then, I believe it was

[02:28] late last year, there was a big announcement of the casting. And none other than my all-time favorite Japanese voice actor, Natsuki Hanae, had been cast as Qifrey. I have one rule when it comes to watching new anime. Everything

[02:41] that he's cast in gets prioritized. What can I say? I'm a fan of his work. And when it was announced that he was cast as one of the lead roles in the show, I I knew had read the manga and asked her, "One, is this that manga you were

[02:55] mentioning on your story a couple times? And two, should I get into this?" And she said yes to both. The casting of this voice actor opened the door to a story that I might not have noticed immediately right off the bat. Sure,

[03:09] this show was going viral quite often. I had a few viral videos myself about it throughout the season that probably would have led me to watching it at some point, but I just want to throw out there that any show that has him as a

[03:22] character, I'm [music] going to have a biased love towards. So, I wanted to get that out of the way and just throw out the disclaimer that I am slightly biased in it. So, now let's talk about some of the things that I loved about this

[03:36] season that are a little less biased and a little bit more just about the story. And while we're on the subject of Qifrey, let's talk about him. Throughout this season airing, Qifrey was getting compared to Gojo from Jujutsu Kaisen,

[03:49] which of course the long-time fans of Witch Hat Atelier don't love because 2016. Jujutsu Kaisen started in 2018. [music] So, Qifrey was actually around before Gojo was. And I think it just kind of

[04:03] shows the difference between popularity. Shonen Jump mangas tend to get their anime adaptations a lot faster. There is a very big market for [music] Shonen Jump and a lot of those shows do very, very well. So, I think most animation

[04:18] studios do prioritize getting the next big Shonen [music] Jump title rather than something that's maybe a little bit more niche. Because Jujutsu Kaisen got the earlier anime adaptation and Gojo is a very well-loved character, it was

[04:32] inevitable that Qifrey was going to get compared to him a lot. And I don't really blame people for doing this. However, my hot take is I like Qifrey a lot more. In my opinion, and I have a lot of thoughts on Jujutsu Kaisen that I

[04:47] don't really say because I'm not a big fan of talking about things that I just don't love that much. But, Gojo as a character is one of the better written characters in the show in my opinion, but I still find him kind of meh.

[05:01] There's so much potential to make him such an interesting character, but I do cut when it came to writing his character. And while he is beautiful, I find Gojo to be a bit of a generic the strongest in universe. Qifrey gets

[05:15] introduced in a way where we feel like he might be strongest in the universe, but then we learn pretty quickly that he's probably not. He's just strong cuz he's been doing it a while. And he also becomes a very mysterious character. I

[05:29] love the characters that are very, very protective over the kids within the universe. Witch Hat Atelier, like a lot of battle shonens, have a lot of traumatized kids in it. We'll talk about Coco in a minute. And one of my favorite

[05:44] tropes is when an adult character who is equally traumatized takes them under their wing and does everything in their power to protect them. And Kiefer fits that bill very well. But Kiefer also is shrouded in mystery. He seems very very

[05:59] focused on trying to catch one of the brimmed caps which are the evil people in the story so far, but it doesn't feel like it's for the sake of the world. It seems like it's more for the sake of himself. But there hasn't been much

[06:13] information revealed about that. So we're kind of just left wondering what is going on with him. Kiefer had some of the sweetest moments with the main cast while also having some of the craziest moments. I'm sure you saw that shot of

[06:28] his eye being like super wide, the ringing noise in the background, and then him saying, "You will tell no one. Not a soul." Which I'm of course quoting but shout out to Joshua Waters for doing an incredible job as Kiefer from what I

[06:43] there's a lot of lovable things about them, but there's also a lot of mystery around them. So Kiefer really fits that bill. And so far he's my favorite character. Speaking of traumatized children, we have Coco, our main

[06:57] character. Episode 1 follows a very common shonen first episode, if you know what I mean, where trauma hits her right in the face. She's introduced to a world of magic that she was not a part of even though she always found it interesting

[07:12] and learns how the magic works in this world. Through a very traumatizing experience. What I love about Coco is she feels very realistic. She's a child. decision. She can seem a little bit stupid at times, but she's a child and

[07:27] children should be allowed to be curious and to not always know the answer and make mistakes. In fact, all four of the main children in this cast, which are main children in this cast, which are Coco, the main character, Agott, Tetia,

[07:42] and Riche are all in an environment where they actually get to act as children, which is something I don't see a lot in a lot of animes where the main cast is kids. They all mess up. All of their emotions are all over the place

[07:57] all of the time, but it gives them the opportunity to grow. Coco has grown a lot in season 1, but she is still learning a lot about the world. She is an outsider with no experience in magic, and her introduction to magic was very

[08:10] traumatizing. But over time, she is learning and she is growing, and she is just a really kind soul. While Qifrey is currently my favorite character, Coco favorite character, so I'm interested to see where she goes from here because I

[08:24] think she could end up being my favorite character depending on how the story goes. Agott is a character that on introduction is kind of someone that I think we're as an audience meant to not really like. She's crude. She's

[08:37] downright mean to Coco and puts her in a situation that is actually very life-threatening. But that makes her character arc that much better. And by the end of the season, she is quietly realizing how much she's accepted Coco

[08:49] and is even fighting for her right as a witch. I don't want to get into too much detail. I might make a more detailed video a little bit later, but I do really love that the children in this show do truly act as children. They can

[09:02] be emotional. They can be annoying. They can be a little stupid, but it gives them all the room to grow and to advocate for themselves. And that's is that he gives them the opportunity to be children in a world where they're

[09:16] kind of expected to just study and be really good at drawing spells. The villains are also very interesting because I can already see that they're offering a perspective that might resonate a lot with the audience. In the

[09:29] story, you have the brimmed caps and the pointed caps. The pointed caps are the people who are following the pact and the government to try and keep world peace. And essentially what they do is they don't use forbidden spells. And

[09:43] forbidden spells are explained really well in the first few episodes where anything that alters a body, anything that can cause harm is forbidden. So essentially people with pointed caps are people who are considered good because

[09:58] forbidden. Now, the brimmed caps are considered villains because they don't follow the law and they continue to use forbidden spells. And they're very clearly depicted as pretty evil at this point because they're using spells that

[10:13] are harming people and trying to cause chaos. But you can kind of already see and I have a feeling the story is going perspective of things, which I'm really

[10:26] excited to see unfold. It has already been clearly established that there is a problem with the way the good people do things and there have been already a lot of characters introduced that don't really like even though they're on the

[10:41] good side. I don't know much yet, but I'm excited to learn more about that. Overall, the cast of characters are very interesting and very well done. And because of my preferences within what I watch and what I consume is to love the

[10:54] characters first, the story second, that's one of the reasons why it wiggled its way into my heart. The plot is also intertwined with those character interactions. There's a lot of plot involving Keyfrein wondering what he's

[11:07] doing, why he's doing the things he's doing, if he's truly on the side of the doing, if he's truly on the side of the pointed caps, why does he want to come very interesting questions that I hope I have the answer to soon because I'm

[11:21] reading the manga soon. The magic system is very well thought out and explained incredibly well. It's pretty straightforward, but it has complexity that makes it interesting to learn about, but not hard to understand.

[11:33] Someone did call me out in my last video when I said that I felt like it was very unique because they draw spells, and I felt like that was one of the first times I saw that in a story. And they said that's actually pretty common, and

[11:45] pretty common when you think about things like Fullmetal Alchemist: there still is a lot of uniqueness within this power structure because the drawing, it can be done on anything, but it's majority done on paper, and they

[11:58] have to use a special ink, and it's really like using a pen. They explain how spells will work or not work that well very well with squiggly lines, meaning that it's going to be a little bit topsy-turvy. If the circle is not

[12:12] perfectly round, it'll cause the spell to maybe shoot one way or the other or not be as strong. It's done incredibly well and also explained incredibly well, so I feel like as a viewer, I already understand it without having to

[12:25] second-guess the meaning. There is just so much care that has gone into the story. You can tell from the way the story is written from the mangaka, and also the way Bug Films has animated it. A lot of time, a lot of care, and a lot

[12:39] really want to make sure that people are aware. This is clearly a passion project. It perfectly combines good characters, a good plot, a good magic

[12:51] is there that we can have to make it within just a couple weeks that I was going to be picking up the manga after waiting for the season to end to do it because I wanted to have a good starting

[13:05] point. Which by the way, in case you're wondering, start at volume five. You're welcome. And I've taken a peek, and the artwork is absolutely stunning. I think at some point I'm actually going to also buy volumes one through four and go back

[13:18] and read those as well. Even though they've been animated, I know nothing beats the source material. But my goal is actually to have all of this done by Anime Expo, which as of recording this is less than 2 weeks away. I can pretty

[13:31] much read one volume a day, so it'll be fairly easy for me to get through it, but I am going to be cosplaying Keyfree at Anime Expo and I'm going to be attending a cosplay meetup as well as the Witch Hat Atelier panel, which is

[13:46] going to have the mangaka and the voice actors for Keyfree and Coco. So, I thought what better way to celebrate how much I've enjoyed the show than to just read the manga leading up to it. So, I'm going to be caught up at least in what's

[14:00] printed. I think it's pretty close to how many chapters are out. I think there's only a couple chapters after the end of volume 14, which is the last one printed in English, and I honestly can't wait. This show definitely surpassed my

[14:13] expectations and I can't wait to see what happens next. Have you been watching Witch Hat Atelier? Did you get mad at the cliffhanger or did this video convince you you need to start watching? Let me know in the comments. Also, I'm

[14:25] thinking of possibly doing a very short review of each volume as I read them. That would be pretty much daily short form videos though, because like I said, day. So, if you are interested in that, please let me know. But, that is going

[14:40] it, don't forget to like the video, subscribe to the channel, and leave a comment your thoughts, and I will see you [music] all in the next one. Mwah you [music] all in the next one. Mwah bunny.