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EP. REVIEW: Witch Hat Atelier

Canonically speaking, how old are the girls supposed to be? I don't think it's ever specified in the anime. Also, am I just imagining it, or is there some irregularity to how tall Coco is compared to Qifrey?

@AdamW

That threw me off too. That Coco is an outsider who discovered the secret of magic and accidentally cast a forbidden spell seems to be common knowledge. Despite that, Qifrey got approval from whoever governs these things to take her on as an apprentice. So I'm not sure what Olruggio's problem with her is, or what taking her to the morality police would actually accomplish. She's been approved to be an apprentice full well knowing her background, so they have no reason to do anything to her or Qifrey.

@AdamW

That threw me off too. That Coco is an outsider who discovered the secret of magic and accidentally cast a forbidden spell seems to be common knowledge. Despite that, Qifrey got approval from whoever governs these things to take her on as an apprentice. So I'm not sure what Olruggio's problem with her is, or what taking her to the morality police would actually accomplish. She's been approved to be an apprentice full well knowing her background, so they have no reason to do anything to her or Qifrey.

Sadly, Olruggio and Agott can't appreciate the wonder of magic. Even the little details here, like the gentle flow of Qifrey's water magic or the sudden glow of Olruggio's fire rings, show us how beautiful and special magic is.

Quote:

Sadly, Olruggio and Agott can't appreciate the wonder of magic. Even the little details here, like the gentle flow of Qifrey's water magic or the sudden glow of Olruggio's fire rings, show us how beautiful and special magic is.

I appreciate that the anime takes care to highlight the wonder of magic. The mountain exam and dragon labyrinth felt like magical adventures. This time the focus is on the use of magic in everyday life. The idea of discovering a wondrous world of magic is my favorite aspect of this story.

TJ_Kat wrote:

@AdamW That threw me off too. That Coco is an outsider who discovered the secret of magic and accidentally cast a forbidden spell seems to be common knowledge. Despite that, Qifrey got approval from whoever governs these things to take her on as an apprentice. So I'm not sure what Olruggio's problem with her is, or what taking her to the morality police would actually accomplish. She's been approved to be an apprentice full well knowing her background, so they have no reason to do anything to her or Qifrey.

This hasn’t really been established in the manga so take this with a grain of salt, but my inference was that this scene sort of establishes a kind of pecking order. Coco basically falls under Qifrey’s protection and he seems to have gotten some kind of official approval to raise her as an apprentice, but there seems to be a strong kind implication that as a Watchful Eye, Olruggio could make a judgement call that Qifrey has ultimately failed in his duties as a teacher and turn her over to the Knights Moralis, who are the deciding factor in whether someone is a threat to witch society or not.

whiskeyii wrote:

TJ_Kat wrote: @AdamW That threw me off too. That Coco is an outsider who discovered the secret of magic and accidentally cast a forbidden spell seems to be common knowledge. Despite that, Qifrey got approval from whoever governs these things to take her on as an apprentice. So I'm not sure what Olruggio's problem with her is, or what taking her to the morality police would actually accomplish. She's been approved to be an apprentice full well knowing her background, so they have no reason to do anything to her or Qifrey. This hasn’t really been established in the manga so take this with a grain of salt, but my inference was that this scene sort of establishes a kind of pecking order. Coco basically falls under Qifrey’s protection and he seems to have gotten some kind of official approval to raise her as an apprentice, but there seems to be a strong kind implication that as a Watchful Eye, Olruggio could make a judgement call that Qifrey has ultimately failed in his duties as a teacher and turn her over to the Knights Moralis, who are the deciding factor in whether someone is a threat to witch society or not.

But both Qifrey and Olruggio believe the Knights would erase Qifrey's memory, which they can only do if they're higher in the pecking order than him. I still don't see how the intervention of someone between Qifrey and the Knights in the pecking order changes anything. AFAICS, if we believe the Knights would believe it necessary to erase Coco's and Qifrey's memories if they knew about her, then we have to believe they don't currently know about her in order for Olruggio to be a "threat". I just can't see how it's plausible that they know about her but can't do anything unless Olruggio does something.

I seem to have a different read on Qifrey and Olruggio's conversation than what I have seen in this thread so far. I thought that when Qifrey said that his memory would need to be wiped too because it was his fault that Coco learned the secret, I think he was threatening that he would rather fall on his sword than let Coco go. That is, the Knights might not normally judge it necessary to wipe his memory, but he threatened Olruggio that he would ensure that would happen if he took Coco away without hearing him out. Olruggio doesn't want Qifrey's memory to be wiped.

Yeah, I'm kind of missing what your point is here. Do you just dislike that Agott got upset? That she, in a life-or-death situation, was unable to act perfectly rational and lost her temper and reacted poorly (to put it mildly) to someone else acting in a (to us) well-intentioned but to her in a(n unbeknownst to us) rude and poorly timed way? Because that seems like perfectly normal behavior in a high-stress situation.

I think you are really getting hung up on the etiquette aspect of it. The point that you shouldn't touch someone when they are drawing a spell, just makes sense. It could lead to some unintended results. Even accidentally closing a cirlce when you didn't intend to. Whether that warrants her blowing up on Coco like that is a different story, but considering the situation and the stress, not that hard to understand. Even someone sweet like Tetia "blew up" in her own way.I think in a lot of discussions, what gets kinda lost is that no one is saying that Agott isn't being mean and unfair to Coco, but there is a reasoning behind it. Nothing that justifies it, but I do think that it is important context. I find that a lot of posts are making it sound like there is absolutely no logic and reasoning behind her actions.

As for effiency, Richeh was able to draw a bunch of smaller circles faster, because that is her speciality, as they point out later in the episode. Agott taking longer is because she was drawing a bigger circle. They just have different skillsets for different situations.

[
Imagine a movie like "Friday the 13th" or w/e, where characters are running from a monster. One character accidentally walk on someone feet, and that person just stop running and start yelling at them about not walking on people feet.

In Friday the 13th, that could works because its about a bunch of dumb teenager who are just cannon fooders for Jason to kill in creative way. The fact that the character is dumb enough to stop running would be the setup to the catharsis of having the monster kill them.

But here's, there's no payoff, its just a scene that happen, it can be removed in it entirety, and nothing would change. Argott never apologies, even when she reference it later. Coco doesn't really learn anything from it. The "lesson" of not touching people when they write is incredibly trivial (you'd need some Mr. Bean level shenanigan to justify a dangerous outcome from touching someone while they write, Argott drew the inner portion of the seal first, which seems to be standard, so she'd need to accidentally draw a circle). It's "dramatic" because character are yelling but that's all it is.