It's the time of year where many of us are busy in the kitchen with holiday meals and goodies galore, so there couldn't be a better time to talk about this particular spinoff.
WITCH HAT ATELIER KITCHEN (Tongari Boshi no Kitchin), by Hiromi Sato, based on the manga by Kamome Shirohama. First published in 2019 and first published in North America in 2023.
PLOT:
When Qifrey isn't busy teaching his students and Olruggio isn't busy tinkering with his devices, the two of them need to eat. They use the magical ingredients they have on hand to make simple dishes to enjoy together as well with Coco and the rest of the girls.
STORY:
Like that time I covered the Fate/Stay Night cooking spinoff, Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen is a series made for established fans of Witch Hat Atelier. That's not to say that it's totally impenetrable for newcomers, as there's more than enough context to get a basic grasp on who these characters are and their basic relationship to one another. It's just that it presumes that the reader is already familiar with the main manga's story at large and the finer details about these characters.
Sato takes the slice-of-life moments that were already present within the original series and basically expands on them to create little framing stories in which to insert the recipes. Structurally it feels very similar to What Did You Eat Yesterday?, complete with step-by-step documentation of the preparation, followed by the characters going to raptures about the food, and wrapping up whatever drama might have been left in the framing story. It's a fusion that works shockingly well, and as you might imagine this sort of combination is 100% My Jam.
The focus on Qifrey and Olruggio here will likely intrigue the small but fervent contingent of fans who ship them. While this series isn't explicitly homoerotic, there's definitely a vibe between them that I can only describe as 'casual gay dads." Many a chapter is about one of them making food for the other because they are exhausted from work or distracted with other tasks. I was surprised to see that Coco and the other girls of the Atelier are featured almost as heavily as their guardians, with them occasionally helping at meals or demonstrating the challenge for cooking regular meals for four young girls with particular tastes and preferences.
I also appreciate the variety of recipes that are featured. I'm used to a lot of these cooking series focusing entirely on the usual Japanese home cooking classics and calling it a day. While we do see the magical equivalents of things like croquettes and caramel pudding, there are also some more exotic or adult selections such as yogurt soup, sangria, or little apple tarts styled like roses. The recipes themselves are not overly complex but do presume that the reader has at least some experience in the kitchen.
ART:
Based on what little info I could find on Hiromi Sato, she's a fairly new mangaka with only one series to her name previous to this and no evidence that she had worked previously with Kamome Shirohama as an assistant. That makes it all the more remarkable that she was able to copy Shirohama's delicate, elaborate art style so convincingly. The big difference is in the paneling, as Sato doesn't try to copy any of Shirohama's playful framing tricks. Everything looks lovely here, be it the characters, the backgrounds, or the food.
PRESENTATION:
Like any good cooking manga, there are proper recipes after each chapter. They do carry over the conceit of including the fictional, magical ingredients, although there's a guide at the end with suggestions for their real-world substitutes.
RATING:
This series is published by Kodansha. This series is ongoing in Japan with 5 volumes available. 1 volume has been released and is currently in print.
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