Holiday Review: WITCH HAT ATELIER

That being said, nothing that came out before or since this year prepared me for just how amazing today's selection was or how much I was going to love it.

WITCH HAT ATELIER (Tongari Boushi no Atelier), by Kamome Shirahama.  First published in 2016 and first published in North America in 2019.

PLOT:

Coco has been fascinated with magic all her life, ever since a man gave her a book and a wand at a festival.  When she spies on a visiting witch, she learns the key to magic: it is based not on words, but intricate drawn sigils.  In her enthusiasm, she accidentally traps her mother in crystal, and the witch takes Coco on as his newest apprentice.  Coco's desire to learn is great, but will it be enough to overcome unfriendly students, magical tests, and a strange masked person who watches over her every move?

STORY:

If there's one concept that manga is a great medium for, it's magic.  It's not just about the freedom that drawing allows for, it's the imagination that goes into both its appearance and effects.  Whether it's the whirling swirls of a Clow card or a magic knight, pulling a sword from a woman's chest in a burst of light, or a flick of a wand, it's something that has always drawn me to manga versus other forms of comics and one that keeps drawing me back.

So yeah, it goes without saying that I LOVED Witch Hat Atelier.

On the surface, it's an enchanting coming-of-age story.  Coco's story follows your typical hero's journey, complete with the loss of her only parent, a number of trials (both literal and figurative), and an entirely new world for her to explore.  That alone is very good, but Coco's story wouldn't be all that different from something like Little Witch Academia if not for the darker elements that seep in whenever the perspective shifts from Coco to her teacher Qifrey.

Like a lot of mentors in these sorts of stories, Qifrey is both warm and fatherly but also has an agenda of his own.  It's through him that we learn much about the world of witches and the principles of magic in this particular world, but hints are regularly peppered through his conversations with others that he is something of an iconoclast and that his decision to take in Coco is motivated just as much by his desire to find the mysterious masked witch as it out of compassion or interest in Coco's talents. This, along with the ever-present threat of the masked witch, is the perfect compliment to the sweeter, lighter parts of Coco's story.

What unifies these elements, though is the sheer imagination and wonder that Shirahama weaves into the story.  It's hardly an accident that the method of magic here is ink and pen, through which miracles big and small can be achieved.  It can be read just as much as a metaphor for the magic of art and manga itself as it can be as a straightforward magical adventure, and in Coco's story we can see parallels of a young artist honing their skills and finding their own particular style.  It's a beautiful message on top of a compelling story, and the end result can only be described as enchanting.

ART:

Shirahama's art is nothing short of masterful.  What makes it truly unique is how textured it is.  Where most manga artists rely on screentones for shadow and pattern, she uses hatching and careful, delicate linework instead.  It gives everything not just a sense of dimension, but an almost tangible quality.  You'd swear you could almost reach down and feel the weave of fabrics or the slosh of water on the page, as if it were embossed.

She also clearly put so much thought into everything - not just the character designs, but the designs of the costumes, the artifacts, the architecture, the gestures.  I also love the architectural and sculptural elements she adds to the panels sometimes.  It gives them the feeling of something like a medieval illustrated book.  It's all just incredibly striking.

RATING:

Witch Hat Atelier is an absolute marvel to look at it, but the story is more than equal to that amazing art.  It's a stunning work that reaffirms the magic of manga for me.  It is absolutely my favorite manga of the year and you're denying yourself if you haven't already picked it up.

This series is published by Kodansha Comics.  This series is ongoing in Japan with 6 volumes available.  4 volumes have been released and are currently in print.

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