Lucas Blogs About Witch Hat Atelier Volume 3
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| Tween witch romance? Kinda. |
So, what's this book's deal?
Well, here we are, three volumes into Kamome Shirahama's Witch Hat Atelier.
That it is. Anyway, we're up to volume three. The last volume ended on something of a cliff-hanger when Coco was taken into custody by the Knights Moralis.
They're like witch police?
They're like witch police. You see, what had happened was Coco and her cohorts accompanied Master Quifrey and Watchful Eye Olruggio to help in rescue efforts in a flooded village. Unfortunately, one of their spells accidentally ended up pulverizing rocks into sand and made the flooding worse. Fortunately, the KM didn't find out that Coco had accidentally petrified her mom. In any case, Quifrey is able to smooth things over and discovers that Coco's inkwell has been tampered with (remember, witches draw sigils to cast spells). I wonder if it has anything to do with the strange witch in the fringed cap the story keeps cutting to. J/K we know it does because the mysterious witch says so. Not to any of the main characters of course, just to himself. Meanwhile, Coco's been unable to sleep because of nightmares, and she's used that time to redraw the seal on Agott's sylph shoes, and it's a good thing, too, because Agott will need to run and get Master Quifrey as Quickfrey as a possible when Coco faints.
I hate you.
It's okay, though, Coco's only got like the flu or something. After Quifrey drops her off at the hospital he has to run to help put out a literal fire, leaving Tartah, the stationer's grandson, to keep her company. I lied in the caption, I don't think that this is an actual tween romance, I think they're just tween friends. Anyway: can Coco and her new best bud use magic to find the right medicine to ease her cough? In a manner that makes up for his colorblindness (which witches call silverwash)? Will we ever find out what the mysterious witch's endgame is? Will we ever find out Quifrey's?
Is that where it leaves off?
Yeah, this is a lower stakes entry in the series. I left out a lot of detail.
Whatevs. Did you enjoy it?
Yes, I know I keep harping on how the plot is pretty standard issue for a magic school story. However, the lower stakes in this entry actually give the story room to breathe and for us to learn a little more about the characters and the world. There's a standard infodump when Quifrey explains the five tests that witches must pass in order to reach such career milestones as casting spells in public or taking on students. This lets us know two things: 1) how exactly Coco might gain access to the forbidden magic books she'll need to reverse the spell she accidentally performed on her mother, and B) what the girls' career goals are. Tetia wants to use magic to make people happy and even has a personal theory about the duality of gratitude (after all, there's someone thanking and someone being thanked), Richeh stubbornly insists that she hates tests and will not draw spells just because she's told to, and Agott is not only eager to grow up as quickly as possible, she wants to prove herself by following in the footsteps of her family as the head librarian of the Tower of Tomes. Meanwhile, Quifrey's detective work reveals that he's pretty cavalier about the rules. I mean, we already knew that, but this takes on a slightly sinister dimension when he partially wipes the stationer's memory to keep his investigation a secret.
So then would you say that the series is starting to become a little more than just a standard issue magic school story?
I'm not quite sure about that. Sure, we're learning new things about the world, like what happens to witches like Tartah who has a physical disability that makes other witches think he isn't suited to doing magic.
What happens to them?
Self-esteem issues, mostly. But still, it shows that Shirahama is thinking through the implications of her setting and letting that lead her story-telling. So, once again, I'll state that while Witch Hat Atelier isn't really anything ground-breaking from a story perspective, it executes its story concepts well and enhances them with lovely and inventive visuals. We'll keep this one short, but yeah, I'm still enjoying the series. Even if it is frustrating to wait for the next volume.
Okay. So . . . are you ever going to follow up that post about the SciFi Channel Earthsea by writing about Studio Ghibli's Tales of Earthsea?
Maybe. . . .
You know, you could try to be a little subtle.
Or I could just say that it's the topic of next week's post.
You could just do that, yes.
Witch Hat Atelier, Volume 3 by Kamome Shirahama (trans. Stephen Kohler), Kodansha Comics trade paperback edition, 2019 (originally published in Japan as とんがり帽子のアトリエ (Tongari Bōshi no Atorie), 191 pages, pairs well with cough medicine and harrowing adventures
Links:
Here are links to Shirahama's twitter and instagram accounts, should that be the kinda thing that you're into.
They're like witch police?
They're like witch police. You see, what had happened was Coco and her cohorts accompanied Master Quifrey and Watchful Eye Olruggio to help in rescue efforts in a flooded village. Unfortunately, one of their spells accidentally ended up pulverizing rocks into sand and made the flooding worse. Fortunately, the KM didn't find out that Coco had accidentally petrified her mom. In any case, Quifrey is able to smooth things over and discovers that Coco's inkwell has been tampered with (remember, witches draw sigils to cast spells). I wonder if it has anything to do with the strange witch in the fringed cap the story keeps cutting to. J/K we know it does because the mysterious witch says so. Not to any of the main characters of course, just to himself. Meanwhile, Coco's been unable to sleep because of nightmares, and she's used that time to redraw the seal on Agott's sylph shoes, and it's a good thing, too, because Agott will need to run and get Master Quifrey as Quickfrey as a possible when Coco faints.
I hate you.
It's okay, though, Coco's only got like the flu or something. After Quifrey drops her off at the hospital he has to run to help put out a literal fire, leaving Tartah, the stationer's grandson, to keep her company. I lied in the caption, I don't think that this is an actual tween romance, I think they're just tween friends. Anyway: can Coco and her new best bud use magic to find the right medicine to ease her cough? In a manner that makes up for his colorblindness (which witches call silverwash)? Will we ever find out what the mysterious witch's endgame is? Will we ever find out Quifrey's?
Is that where it leaves off?
Yeah, this is a lower stakes entry in the series. I left out a lot of detail.
Whatevs. Did you enjoy it?
Yes, I know I keep harping on how the plot is pretty standard issue for a magic school story. However, the lower stakes in this entry actually give the story room to breathe and for us to learn a little more about the characters and the world. There's a standard infodump when Quifrey explains the five tests that witches must pass in order to reach such career milestones as casting spells in public or taking on students. This lets us know two things: 1) how exactly Coco might gain access to the forbidden magic books she'll need to reverse the spell she accidentally performed on her mother, and B) what the girls' career goals are. Tetia wants to use magic to make people happy and even has a personal theory about the duality of gratitude (after all, there's someone thanking and someone being thanked), Richeh stubbornly insists that she hates tests and will not draw spells just because she's told to, and Agott is not only eager to grow up as quickly as possible, she wants to prove herself by following in the footsteps of her family as the head librarian of the Tower of Tomes. Meanwhile, Quifrey's detective work reveals that he's pretty cavalier about the rules. I mean, we already knew that, but this takes on a slightly sinister dimension when he partially wipes the stationer's memory to keep his investigation a secret.
So then would you say that the series is starting to become a little more than just a standard issue magic school story?
I'm not quite sure about that. Sure, we're learning new things about the world, like what happens to witches like Tartah who has a physical disability that makes other witches think he isn't suited to doing magic.
What happens to them?
Self-esteem issues, mostly. But still, it shows that Shirahama is thinking through the implications of her setting and letting that lead her story-telling. So, once again, I'll state that while Witch Hat Atelier isn't really anything ground-breaking from a story perspective, it executes its story concepts well and enhances them with lovely and inventive visuals. We'll keep this one short, but yeah, I'm still enjoying the series. Even if it is frustrating to wait for the next volume.
Okay. So . . . are you ever going to follow up that post about the SciFi Channel Earthsea by writing about Studio Ghibli's Tales of Earthsea?
Maybe. . . .
You know, you could try to be a little subtle.
Or I could just say that it's the topic of next week's post.
You could just do that, yes.
Witch Hat Atelier, Volume 3 by Kamome Shirahama (trans. Stephen Kohler), Kodansha Comics trade paperback edition, 2019 (originally published in Japan as とんがり帽子のアトリエ (Tongari Bōshi no Atorie), 191 pages, pairs well with cough medicine and harrowing adventures
Links:
Here are links to Shirahama's twitter and instagram accounts, should that be the kinda thing that you're into.
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