Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Witch Hat Atelier
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Aerdra
Posts: 550 |
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I wasn't entirely sold on the story after the first two episodes. Maybe my expectations were set too high by the hype, or maybe the story just needed more time to develop. Episode 3, however, was fantastic. It perfectly captured the feeling of wonder and excitement at going on an adventure in a magical world. The visuals have been strong in these three episodes, always nice to look at even when not much is happening.
This was a neat way to show how an "outsider" like Coco might thrive in the world of magic. She didn't gain any new skills ex machina; she's been developing them all along without realizing they were necessary for magic. And though she doesn't have much experience, she uses what little she's learned to create a deliberately imperfect magic seal, cleverly exploiting its properties to do what she needs. Also, a bit of meta imagery: Witches in this world don't appear to fly around on magic brooms, but Coco's improvisation made it feel like that's what she was doing. |
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TJ_Kat
Posts: 868 Location: Saskatoon, Canada |
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I don't think she wanted Coco to die - she wanted Coco to give up - but she may have considered dying an acceptable alternative. ...but Coco thwarted her with the power of not knowing what one is not supposed to be able to do 
I also loved the simplicity of Coco's spell. The seal on the sylph shoes looks intricate and complicated, but Coco got similar enough results with something incredibly basic. |
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Covnam
 Posts: 4364 |
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Enjoyable start to the series. I like that magic here is a tool anyone can use with the right instruments and knowledge as opposed to how it usually is.
Not sure if it's the same pacing in the manga or if it's the adaptation, but at the beginning of the 3rd episode it did feel like there should have been another episode inbetween 2 & 3. I would have liked to have seen a little more of the time Coco had already trained. At least when watching the 3rd episode it seemed to imply like she had more time than we were shown in episode 2, but perhaps that's my misconception... There was also what seemed to be a flashback, but could have just been Coco's imagination, that showed (presumably) Agott with long hair even though she's never had it... Inventing a way to fly that's different than you'd usually see was neat too. Definitely goes to show how it helps to have outside perspectives from time to time 
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EmeraldSaucer
 Posts: 915 |
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Was already very impressed with the show, but with episode 3 they showed a real willingness to expand on stuff that was only alluded to or otherwise abridged from the manga. By placing extra emphasis on Coco's struggles from figuring out a way to fly up to her having to take multiple passes at getting the flower (rather than getting it immediately like in the manga), they did an excellent job of further hammering home the show's dedication to deliberate and measured pacing (where skill is a magic that takes time, effort, and trial and error to hone)
Last edited by EmeraldSaucer on Wed Apr 15, 2026 7:07 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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prime_pm
 Posts: 2488 Location: Your Mother's Bedroom |
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The premise sounds like the movie Wish if it was done right.
But apparently also has Coco in it. |
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meiam
Posts: 3673 |
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I think they went way too far with Agott in the third episode, to the point that I don't see her ever recovering in my eye. I get what they're doing, establishing her as the rival that Coco will charm over time before they become good friend as Agott recognize Coco value (and superiority). But realistically, what she did was downright sociopathic, and the fact that she'll, I assume, get off with a slight slap on the wrist really damage her character and Qifrey's character.
Like, imagine you're in charge of some kid, and one of them tell the other one they have to drive down the highway if they ever want to get their driving license, and so they give them a car key, point them toward the nearest busy highway, and just goes "welp, guess we'll never see them again". At best their trying to get rid of them for essentially no reason, at worst that's attempted murder. As a guardian, that's not something you just brush away with a "tsk, tsk, tsk" (or whatever minor punishment she'll get next episode (if even that). On top of that, trying to kick Coco out because she's an outside is just dumb because outsider can bring outside viewpoint, and on top of that Coco read some sort of forbidden book, which could have plenty of value. So now all I can see Agott as is the dumb socipath. |
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Kaylee Smerbeck
Posts: 163 |
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Perfect anime got a perfect adaptation
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Bern73
 Posts: 56 |
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Why is that the conclusion I see people jumping to?? She was hoping Coco wouldn't even try and just go home. Now, this was a faulty assumption on her part based on her own faulty understanding of Coco's character which in turn led to Coco being put in danger, but that is 10000% not the same thing as attempted murder |
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Kaylee Smerbeck
Posts: 163 |
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spoiler[Agott eventually falls for Coco if you remember how Amity treated Luz at the beginning that's the relationship. ]
[MODERATOR NOTE: This is a significant spoiler for later in the series. Please don't post spoiler-tagged comments without some explanation of what they're for. - Key] |
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EmeraldSaucer
Posts: 915 |
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The anime has pretty clearly hammered home why an outside viewpoint would not be valued in witch society, from its origins in people very nearly destroying everything because of the unchecked proliferation of magic to the modern system where select individuals are raised with magic since they are basically old enough to perceive of it. It's no surprise at all that that would breed a suspicion of those outside the closed system, for a number of reasons. That doesn't make a character "dumb", it makes them raised in a particular environment And yeah, as others have pointed out, the clear intent from Agott is that Coco would realize she can't hope to reach the flowers with just her shoes (as Agott directly states to the audience in this episode) and that she'd give up before being in any mortal peril. This doesn't make her a sociopath trying to murder somebody, unless you're going for the most bad faith interpretation of her actions possible |
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MFrontier
Posts: 20003 |
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I feel like this adaption has been firing on all cylinders (animation, direction, music, voicework, etc.) Clearly the time it took Bug Films to finally complete it was worth the wait.
Coco is so cute and endearing and the world feels so vast and magical in both the fantastical and horrific variety. I think Agott assumed Coco would give up and underestimated the actual danger aspect or that she could've gotten seriously hurt. She's probably really good at magic for her age, but she's also still a kid. |
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meiam
Posts: 3673 |
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Even ignoring Coco outsider status, like I said, Coco has seen a book that few people have. That alone is knowledge Agott doesn't have, and another regular witch apprentice wouldn't. And I'd argue that dismissing people just because you were raised that way is dumb, especially considering its apparently common knowledge amongst witch that there's no difference between witch and regular people. Coco doesn't know she can't reach the flowers with the shoe, and Agott should obviously know that Coco has no idea what the range of the shoe are. But Agott does know that the range of the shoe are enough to put Coco in a possibly lethal situation. All that matters is whether or not Agott purposefully placed Coco in a dangerous situation willingly for little to no reason. There's no way to know what someone was truly thinking, you have to judge them based on their action. You can reason it all you want, but in the end that's just abating incredibly dangerous sociopathic behavior and willfully negligent from Qifrey. It'd be the same as someone pointing a loaded gun at someone else, but letting them go because they say that they were just trying to scare them, and would never shoot them. |
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EmeraldSaucer
Posts: 915 |
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You can think it's "dumb" all you want, that doesn't change the valid reasons for distrust of outsiders that the show has already spelled out for you (doubly so for a random outsider dabbling in forbidden magic that left her mother functionally dead due to her ignorance), I don't know what's hard to get about that (and I will say it's a little humorous to go on about sociopathy while being unable to understand Agott's cultural perspective lol)
She directly experiences this fact for herself when she is unable to make it up to even one piece of land before falling into the water, and she herself says as much.
No, she knows the exact opposite, which (again) is directly shown to you the viewer by how far Coco is able to get with them. And this is further reinforced by the rules of magic already established, where the length of the markings on the shoes would be nowhere near powerful enough to get her into real danger (it takes her drawing a far larger seal on a sail for that to happen)
Again, she did not place her in a dangerous situation. It is Coco's unwavering personality (that Agott would not have known about) that made it dangerous for Coco, hence why Qifrey admonishes her at the end of the episode
Your analogy here makes no sense. The tool Agott provided for Coco is not inherently dangerous, for the reasons described above. Under your analogy Agott instead would have given Coco a wooden facsimile of a gun and expected her to give up once she realized she couldn't shoot it, only for Coco to find the means to make gunpowder and bullets All this comes across as trying to find reasons to hate Agott, irrespective of what you actually see and hear from the show lmao Last edited by EmeraldSaucer on Wed Apr 15, 2026 11:17 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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FireballDragon
 Posts: 737 |
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Here's my reaction after the first 3 episodes:
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thecritter
Posts: 118 Location: Northwest GA |
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There's something in every episode that reflects Hayao Miyazaki's influence, whether it be an artistic technique, staging of a scene, his love of flight scenes with certain methods of tracking, and the style of music. And all of it works so, so well. This anime, in many ways, is the standout of the season.
I'll have to stand with a previous poster. Agott's behavior is sociopathic. It changes later in the manga, and I'm interested to see how it proceeds in the anime. |
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