#and honest and will say what he needs to say. where as qifrey ..

[sailermoon]

what is witch hat atelier about ?? need something new to fixate on and carry me through spring 😳

*inhales* okay so it is about a world where witches and magic is a norm of society and a young girl named Coco who loves magic and dreams about being a witch and so a series of events leads her to becoming a witch and joining qifrey’s atelier after she meets him one day. it seems all idealistic yada yada EXCEPT there are also evil witches and coco is a link to them unwillingly and qifrey is obsessed with finding them and that’s kind of way he takes coco in at first. so the plot mainly revolves around coco and her classmates mastering their skills as witches, and then also qifrey’s behind the scenes of finding out more about this group

the artwork is honest to god so beautiful and it was so funny to go from the messy scribbles of jjk to witch hat atelier. right now i would say it’s fairly lighthearted! there are some dark moments but for the most part it’s a very hopeful story about these young girls. it’s definitely getting a lot more intense due to recent chapters but i highly recommend it!!! just be aware there’s only around 67 chapters rn 😔 no one warned me and now i suffer

also the moment I fell in love with it

[meringuejellyfish]

i like qifreys way of speaking soo much its so special to me. personally i want more guys who who just speak ever so whimsically in casual conversation and in drastic comparison to those around them. at times its not even whimsy he just says phrases like “yeouch! ooh, that smarts!” and its like. yeah!

[bemused-writer]

Witch Hat Atelier Chapters 38-40 Analysis

Anyone who is caught up with the currently translated chapters has been having a lot of thoughts, and since I didn't do it chapter-by-chapter, I decided to go over all three in one go.

At the very start of chapter 38 we see Coco decide what path she is going to take, but rather than go to the "right" or the "left," she goes right down the middle. While this is portrayed as very literally (in each direction is a physical destination), I think we can safely say that there is a symbolic take on this as well.

What is the middle path? It's one that's supposed to be balanced; it avoids extremes, and it's true that by choosing to save Qifrey she's also symbolically choosing his path, one she believes that avoids the Brimmed Caps willingness to do anything and Beldaruit's refusal to test the boundaries of magic. Beldaruit is basically a stand in for "normal witch society," so it's basically the middle path between orthodoxy and heresy.

Of course, one has to wonder if Qifrey really qualifies as a middle path. It's what he portrayed to Coco, and maybe what he believes he's doing, but as we've seen, Qifrey's sense of right and wrong is a little skewed.

This is the most honest depiction of Qifrey's logic; he has "hope" and he is willing to sacrifice anything to see it realized. He knows he is walking a dark path and he will not be dissuaded from it.

As for Coco, she's not all that different from Qifrey; the only real difference is what stage of life they're in and that Coco has a teacher who is willing to encourage her, even when she has "unrealistic" expectations of magic.

She knows that if he hadn't provided that bit of hope, she would have gone to the "dark side." She knows perfectly well how easy it would be to join the Brimmed Caps because there's something she needs to accomplish no matter what. This leads to another question: if Coco is willing to join the Brimmed Caps should no other course present itself, what of Qifrey? He says he has hope, but where is that hope even coming from? Why hasn't he taken up forbidden magic outside of taking one's memory? There's either something holding him back (likely his loyalty to his students) or he knows something he hasn't revealed yet.

Okay, so here we can see that a lot of Coco's motivation--and indeed the reason she refused forbidden magic--is because she wants to make Qifrey proud. His opinion means a lot to her and he holds a lot of influence. If Qifrey were to join the Brimmed Caps, I think Coco would be likely to join him unless she found someone with equal or more influence to him to convince her not to. The way things are developing, the most likely person would be Agott, who has already cautioned her against using forbidden magic, and is basically developing into the Olruggio of their friendship. Actually, one of the main things that got Agott to begin changing her ways was Olruggio when he first reminded her of what her duty as a witch is back in volume 2.

Speaking of Olruggio, chapter 39 is an entire flashback designed to give us some insight into his personality.

We're shown that Olruggio has at least one admirer, Hiheart, and likely many more than that considering how well known he is to the witch world. Utowin mentioned he was a genius and we've seen several of his inventions used regularly. Even so, he doesn't seek out fame or seem all that interested in it.

This only gets emphasized by how little he's interested in helping the aristocracy. He does it because it's his job, but his passion lies in helping the poor.

But this is more or less what we already knew about Olruggio; it simply reemphasizes the point for us, perhaps to demonstrate just how important this is. He lives his life by this philosophy. It's a juxtaposition to his lack of students when he so enjoys helping others. (And we've seen that he enjoys instructing as well.)

All right, all three of these panels are pretty important because they give the final insight into why Olruggio doesn't have students and his viewpoint on helping others. He believes a teacher should place their students above all else; it's what he's always telling Qifrey. Likewise, he's saying he couldn't do that himself and that's why he isn't a teacher. Why wouldn't he be able to place students above all else? Probably because of his loyalties to Qifrey; he is Qifrey's support, the very support Suzie was saying would be so useful to have so that you can both be a teacher and pursue your other goals. But Olruggio doesn't have that himself because, frankly, Qifrey hasn't reciprocated it. Therefore, Olruggio can't have his own students.

There's also the matter that I think in the end, Olruggio kind of agrees with Qifrey on one thing in particular even if he wouldn't come right out and say it: magic is being held back from so many people who could benefit from it, and is that really fair?

Olruggio wants to help those in need, but he can't help as much as he'd like. He can't teach anyone he'd like. There are restrictions. He can't use healing magic to help this child and he can't teach him magic; he can only make a device to help him. I think that both he and Qifrey would agree that's unfair. The difference is that since Olruggio is Qifrey's support, he ultimately wants Qifrey to be safe, more than he wants him to do whatever he pleases (such as taking Coco in and breaking all kinds of other laws).

Come chapter 40, and Olruggio straight up admits that "as a friend, I'm supposed to help you, right?" He feels he has failed Qifrey and been a bad friend. More than that, he feels he's failed at the two jobs he cares about most:

Literally the only requirement Olruggio has for helping Qifrey with whatever it is he wants to do is that he continues to be a good teacher to the kids because they trust him and he should earn that trust. Not exactly an absurd thing to ask of somebody. He asks him why he's reopening his investigation into the Brimmed Caps, not to stop Qifrey, but to offer support.

And the reason Qifrey is looking into things again is because he's losing his eyesight; he won't be able to be a teacher anymore if that happens since he has to see the kids' drawings to teach them. He would lose everything that has made his life worthwhile up to this point if that occurred. So, his desperation is understandable as well as some of the more extreme methods he's used.

It's also suggested that the eye they already stole from him is being used for a plan that could have catastrophic results, but what that plan is exactly is left a mystery save that it's a new kind of magic.

But rather than confide in Olruggio any further, he attempts to "protect" him.

He erases Olruggio's memories and it's implied that he's either done this before or that he's willing to do it again. "You're such a kind person. I'm sure you'll end up forgiving me again." And isn't that seriously taking someone's friendship for granted? That no matter what you do to them, they'll understand and still come back? That's not how it works, not even for a friendship as powerful as theirs.

Sadly, I do believe Qifrey has Olruggio's best interests at heart here, but he's gotten so caught up in his own world that he's hurting the people around him. And Olruggio isn't an idiot; he's going to figure out that something odd happened. He knows he meant to talk to Qifrey and he's eventually going to figure out there are gaps in his memory as well.

All this "protection" is likely going to lead to Olruggio being in more danger than Qifrey as well. At least Qifrey is going into this with his eyes wide open; Olruggio is going to end up trying to help him without all the necessary information. It seems all too likely that at some point in this series, Olruggio will be seriously injured trying to help him, and only then will Qifrey realize how much he's jeopardized in his pursuit of the Brimmed Caps. What if Olruggio can no longer perform magic? Would this be the breaking point that leads Qifrey to practice forbidden magic? Some food for thought, if nothing else.

This is such an odd statement to me. Why would Olruggio be good at telling lies? Does Qifrey think Olruggio's been lying to him about something and if so, why? If anything, Olruggio is one of the most honest people in this series. It seems to me that at this point, Olruggio is better at understanding Qifrey than the other way around.

This wrapped up the chapter more or less. Coco noticed something was wrong immediately, but Qifrey assured her things were fine. They then see some shooting stars and the next arc is about to begin with Tartah introducing a new magic shop. I'm very curious to see how these different threads are woven together and how Olruggio fairs after this.

[hoshiko2000]

Witch Hat Atelier Chapter 40 Spoilers

Just as a quick disclaimer I’m not a native Japanese speaker, just someone in their final year of a Japanese degree. As such I’m far from fluent and there may be a few inaccuracies in my understanding of this chapter (so please correct me nicely if I’ve got anything wrong!). But in any case I’ve tried to sum up the gist of all the drama and revelations to the best of my ability, and boy there is a lot to unpack!

The chapter basically revolves around Orugio and Qifrey having their long awaited chat about the whole business with Qifrey and the Brimmed Hats. Sitting together on a hill, Qifrey remarks that he’s surprised by his approach and thought Orugio would be angry with him. Orugio retorts that he is angry; he’s angry at Qifrey for placing his apprentices in danger, he’s angry that he fought while badly injured and he’s angry that’s he’s just generally worried Orugio to death as a result. But on top of that, he’s also angry at himself for not being seen by Qifrey as someone he could rely on, since Qifrey chose not to confide in him about his situation. Well, he says angry but comes off as more hurt than anything else. Qifrey is very taken aback and argues that that’s not true and Orugio hasn’t done anything wrong. Orugio retorts that even so, Qifrey treats him as if he has nothing to do with his situation. 

There is then quite a sweet moment where Orugio tells Qifrey that while officially his job as a watchful eye involves him living at the atelier to help everyone out, at the same time he’s also his best friend and will be there to stop Qifrey if he ever puts himself in danger again, and to help him out if he ever needs it. Qifrey appears touched but unhappy, asking Orugio how come he’s still doing this. Orugio muses that whatever motive he may have had when taking her on as an apprentice, Qifrey has proved to be a very good teacher to Coco. And this extends to his other apprentices as well; up until this point ‘Professor Qifrey’ has existed in the eyes of his students as their ‘kind, reliable teacher’. Therefore Orugio implores him not to betray the trust they have placed in him.

Now comes one of the parts I struggled to understand. Calling back to their childhood, Orugio urges Qifrey to come to him once again like he did when they were children. Or something along those lines. Japanese, it’s important to note, is a vague and highly contextual language. I say this because the exact verb that Orugio uses is tsukiatte, which can have a wide range of meanings, from keeping someone company to being with someone romantically, to following another person’s lead or example. From what we’ve seen of their childhood I’m going to place my bet on the latter meaning. In short I think that Orugio is asking him to turn to him for guidance and support like he used to, instead of heading down whatever destructive path he is currently on. Leading on from this heartfelt plea, Orugio once again implores Qifrey to be honest with him. 

Seemingly zoning out for a moment, Qifrey begins wistfully talking about how he likes the peaceful, quiet, tranquillity of the atelier, how he get’s pleasure watching the children grow and learn magic, and how happy his and/or the girls lives are right now (once again, unsure of exact context). However, his expression promptly darkens, with him declaring that it is for this very reason he is unable to forgive them. The ‘them’ being the unknown witch who, in Qifrey’s words, not only robbed him of his past, but is currently robbing him of his future. Orugio realises that Qifrey is referring to the loss of his left eye and his impending blindness.

Continuing on, Qifrey talks about how he has suffered greatly at times over the steady loss of vision in his remaining eye. How the magic glasses he created have helped preserve some of his vision, but sooner or later ‘it’ (his sight loss) will be complete. Therefore, before he loses the ability to draw magic, he has been spending as much time as possible thinking about what to do. He begins talking agitatedly about how the brimmed hats have studied that kind of magic, how they have a plan that must be stopped, about taking back his left eye and about something that must be destroyed before people find out about it.  

The oddness of Qifrey having knowledge of the Brimmed Hats ‘plan’ is not lost on Orugio, who asks him how he knows all this when he supposedly arrived at The Great Hall with no prior memories. In response Qifrey gives him a pretty shady look, before asking if he remembers the day the two of them took their test at the Tower of Books. Orugio recalls that although they both took the test, Qifrey was the only one to actually enter the tower. Qifrey then explains that while it is referred to as the ‘Tower of Books’, the books contained within not only include reference books, but also diaries, records and even scribbled notes. Basically literally anything that is ever written down ends up in the so-called ‘Tower of Books’, which is in fact an alias for ‘The Tower of Memories’. And it was here that Qifrey found a fragment of paper that made him remember something pretty disturbing.

Qifrey had been used as a test subject for new forms of forbidden magic. 

While a stunned Orugio reels from the revelation that the Brimmed Hats are trying to invent new forms of forbidden magic, Qifrey goes off on an inner monologue that I couldn’t make complete sense of but seems to imply he views their efforts as a source of hope of which ‘new possibilities’ (i.e a  cure for his blindness) can be born out of. 

After saying how Orugio is a kind person and will probably still try to help him and forgive him even after all the things that he’s just told him, Qifrey uncovers a hidden seal on his cap and uses this to wipe an (understandably shocked) Orugio’s memories, telling him ‘I’m sorry’. As Orugio lays unconscious, Qifrey reflects back on Orugio’s saying he wanted him to ‘remain Professor Qifrey’ (i.e. to keep being the person his students believe him to be), and mournfully murmurs that if it’s within his power to do so he wants that too. 

Cue the girls emerging from the atelier to fetch Qifrey and Orugio for dinner, all in time to witness a rain of shooting stars while a very confused Orugio wakes up to find he has a) randomly fallen asleep, b) is unable to remember the conversation he was just having. The chapter then ends on a much lighter note with Tetia telling Coco about the ‘Silver Night Festival’ that would be happening soon, and Taata arriving to ask Coco to come meet him on the night of the aforementioned festival. 

So yeah, quite the chapter. A lot of interesting revelations, and a lot of stuff to mull over as we wait for the next chapter to be released. Once again I am a languages student not a native speaker so there may be a few errors here, but I hope this helps tide people over until the scanalated chapter is released. 

[colachampagne3]

I think of orufrey and sometimes I need to compare them with Taichi and Arata from Chihayafuru. Like. The "I need be honest with you" thing. The "I can lie to everyone but you" thing.

Taichi was the worst kid with Arata, out of jealousy, and he did hide Arata's glasses to win over him at karuta, but he couldn't lie about it when he was face to face with Arata. He could have said he didn't know where the glasses were or that he found them while looking for them, but he blurted out he took them and he blurted out the reason too. He lets Arata see him for who he is. Because Arata is his rival, his peer, and his soon-to-be friend. And it's interesting watching their relationship develop because Taichi tried to hide what he said otherwise what he thinks to Arata but Arata knows, Arata repeats words from their dialogues to let Taichi know he heard what he says, and everything is to get them to be peers and rivals and friends again. So Taichi can't lie out of some kind of love.

At the same time when Qifrey and Olruggio talk (yk, The Chap 40 Talk) Qifrey knows Olruggio knows something is off and Olruggio was for Qifrey the first person to see him as a whole, just like Arata was the first person to see Taichi with his flaws and everything. He's not doing something wrong at Olruggio, directly (maybe he is, indirectly) but when Qifrey looks at Olruggio in his eyes he can't lie. It's not out of guilt. It's neither out of obligation. It's out of love that Qifrey can't lie looking Olruggio in the eyes.

Like their both helpless when in front of Arata and Olruggio, but they being in 2 different genres, the result is different (Arata is some sort of brat, and I love him for this)(Olruggio best boy can't do anything because of Qifrey) but I can't help thinking about them and their similar emotions and feelings.

[bemused-writer]

Witch Hat Atelier Fairy Tale Pictures

What does one do when they have insomnia? Write more meta, of course. Since I went over the Valentine pictures for Witch Hat Atelier, I figured it would be fun to also over-analyze the fairy tale pictures! I'm just going to preface this with the warning that it's been a little bit since I've read any fairy tales so... if I get anything wrong that is why. (^^)"

I'll start with Coco here, who is very fittingly depicted as Alice from The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland. There's no doubt that Coco has landed in a mad world, one she's always dreamed of but found to be much stranger than she expected. She's curious and bold, so Alice seems like a good pick. I don't think that kid was scared of anything. 8D And she was definitely willing to investigate everything around her! Having said that, she wound up in a lot of trouble because of that, and while things turned out all right in the end, there was a lot of danger along the way. Perhaps Coco's journey will be similar.

Agott is Snow White, but she's not about to be tricked into eating that poisoned apple. If anything, she might be the one experimenting with it! Visually, Agott fits Snow White pretty well: fair skin, dark hair, etc. There's also the matter of her liking company more than she lets on (our "seven dwarves" or just the other students). Another thing about Snow White: she's very helpful and diligent. She cooks and cleans with all her might. Likewise, Agott works hard to teach her fellow students (Coco in particular) and winds up being more of a team player than she probably expected. Because of Snow White's helpful nature, I think it's fair to expect Agott to take on a similar role in terms of being someone you can rely on; I expect Coco will come to rely on her as the series goes on.

Tetia is ... Puss in Boots? I think? I can't read the Japanese there. Anyway, assuming that's what she is, I have to admit I'm not terribly familiar with the tale, so I looked it up! It seems to be a rags to riches kind of story that emphasizes working hard and passing various trials. Wikipedia also notes it emphasizes dressing well, and Tetia is certainly stylish with her desire to customize her future witch's hat.

So, the rest could certainly be applied to Tetia. She works very hard and always with others in mind and she may have been poor. We know the least about her, so it's hard to say much about how she's similar to Puss in Boots outside of her being courageous and working hard for her goals.

Olruggio's makes me laugh. XD I'm pretty sure he's supposed to be Sleeping Beauty (I think the vines are a reference to what the Prince fights to get to her?) and that's fitting enough because, well, the man really wants to get some rest. However, let's not leave it at that and let's see if we can find something a little deeper to his being Sleeping Beauty!

Well, Sleeping Beauty is induced into a magical sleep that can only be broken by true love's kiss. And she falls into this slumber because she's been cursed. As we know, things haven't been going great for Olruggio in the latest chapter and he has been "cursed" to lose his memory. A symbolic sleep, if you will, where he is unaware of what is happening around him, just like Sleeping Beauty. Likewise, this can only be broken if something jogs his memory. Whether it's a "prince" or not remains to be seen.

Qifrey is continuing the Alice in Wonderland theme to compliment Coco, which is suiting once more. He is the rabbit that so famously led Alice deeper and deeper into the mad world of Wonderland and, well, that kind of speaks for itself here. (^^)" The rabbit may not have had evil intentions, but he wasn't perfectly helpful either.

Tartah is Pinocchio, and I like this take in particular. He wants to be a "real boy." That is, he wants to make his way in witch society regardless of his impairments. Pinocchio finds joy in the end when his wish is granted after he's honest, and as we can see Tartah is an honest boy. Perhaps this means happiness is in his future and he will be permitted to study magic? That would suggest witch society itself changes, and that couldn't hurt.

Beldaruit is the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, which means we now have a trio of madness being passed from teacher to student. The Cheshire Cat largely amused itself and had no qualms with messing with people. Yeah, I can kind of see how Beldaruit fits the bill... But the Cheshire Cat didn't really intend to cause harm either; arguably it offered advice. Beldaruit is always extending his hand to others, but it often results in the negative (Qifrey and Coco both). Will he be able to change this in the future now that he has a new student?

We don't know Suzie too well yet, but here she is portrayed as Cinderella! Hard working, stylish, and a wish fulfilled all characterize this princess, and I can see these qualities in Suzie as well. She must work hard to be an assistant at her age and she definitely has style. Will she have a wish granted? Hard to say at this point, but I'm rooting for her.

And then there are all of the Knights Moralis depicted as mermaids. This is actually quite fitting: nowadays we have a tendency to think of mermaids as positive creatures. Beautiful, alluring, all of that. But they're also dangerous and willing to lure sailors to their deaths. Likewise, the Knights Moralis should be trustworthy and they're certainly all very stylish, but as we've seen they take their methods too far and become more like vipers. Fitting indeed.

Riche and Euini share the same theme: Little Red Riding Hood with Riche as Little Red and Euini as the Wolf. This fairytale gets interpreted a lot of different ways, but straightforwardly it's about a girl trying to reach her grandmother while being hunted by a wolf. We know Riche cares deeply for her brother and wants to make him proud. We also know that she and Euini are inextricably tied together, though the hostility of the relationship in the original fairy tale is replaced by mutual care and growth. They need each other and have learned from one another. Riche takes the lead and Euini follows, sort of like Little Red and the Wolf. I'd say these two are the closest we have to a "canon" couple, so it makes sense they'd share the same fairy tale.

And that's all I got for now. (^^)