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Review

by Rebecca Silverman,

Witch Hat Atelier

GN 3 - 5

Synopsis:
Witch Hat Atelier GN 3 - 5
After Coco's spell stops the river by mistake, Qifrey's hunt for the Brimmed Caps kicks into high gear, potentially endangering him. Whether his efforts are totally in the service of protecting his apprentices or for some more selfish purpose isn't clear; he does want to keep Coco out of the hands of the Knights Moralis, however, who are now paying more attention to the girl. Things start to spin more out of his control when the Brimmed Caps meddle in Agott and Richeh's witch exam, claiming a new victim in another witch's apprentice, Euini. What do the Brimmed Caps want with Coco? And why does Qifrey want to find them so badly? The answers may start to appear when the members of Qifrey's atelier are summoned to the center of witch society.
Review:

Who has the right to hold power? Despite its outward trappings of a magical education series, Kamome Shirahama's Witch Hat Atelier begins to ponder this question more fully in its third volume, building the theme up more fully in books four and five. The first two volumes let us know that the story Coco and other children have been taught – that only those born into witch families can use magic – is a lie, one concocted to keep the power out of overzealous hands that might abuse it. But as in the classic conundrum, who watches the watchman? Who is to say that the current witches will be any less dangerous than their ancestors and that their laws aren't somehow arbitrary, or worse, designed to give power to one or two specific individuals?

Perhaps the bigger question as of these three books is where Qifrey, the man who serves as teacher to Coco, Richeh, Agott, and Tetia, stands on the issues. Qifrey took Coco in when her magic casting went awry, costing her her home and her mother, but even from day one there's been some question of whether his motives were purely altruistic. Throughout all five books Qifrey has been semi-secretly looking for the Brimmed Caps, witches who refuse to follow the laws put in place after a series of bitter wars, and he's definitely come close to crossing a few lines himself. The most obvious case is when he erases Nolnoa's memory of their investigation in volume three. Qifrey has figured out that somehow Coco was given enhanced ink that caused her spells to be more powerful than they should be, and Nolnoa helped him in that query. When the realize that her ink was being “twinned” using a spell to share contents between two containers and that the Brimmed Caps have to be involved, Qifrey silences the old man by casting the only spell fully sanctioned to tamper with the human body – memory erasure. (That the spell is wielded primarily by the Knights Moralis is perhaps a warning sign of power imbalance/abuse that we should pay attention to.) Nolnoa's grandson Tartah is aware that something's off, but he's too young to trust his instincts…so far. This seems to set up a parallel between the protected and the so-called protectors – is it really protection if the information being kept from someone is done for the wrong, or at least suspicious, reasons?

The Brimmed Caps would likely say no. In volume five they reveal their reason for chasing after Coco, and it basically amounts to their feeling that the Pact, the agreement that governs magic, is largely unfair and is curtailing freedoms. The rest of the witches (dismissively called Pointed Caps by the Brimmed Caps) see it as a matter of public safety, and so the Brimmed Caps think that by using children to spread the word, the adults will see the error of their ways. It's flawed reasoning for sure, and the story of Romonon, the lost cavern city that crumbled under its misuse of magic, certainly seems to show that the Pointed Caps may have a very good point – as does what happened to Coco's mother. Yes, Coco's warm heart and love of magic for its own sake does enable her to help the lost souls of Romonon and to save Euini from what the Brimmed Caps did to him, but the damage was done by people who, at some point, may have had the same innocent feelings that she did. Can you trust the Cocos of the world not to grow up to be corrupt?

It's not clear where the series falls on that question. The Knights Moralis are not all as gung-ho as the Easthes, and at least three adults – Qifrey, Olruggio, and Alaira – don't feel that Coco and the other children should be blamed for any of the things that happen in these three volumes. It's equally obvious that it's the teachers like Euini's who stand to gum things up; his mistreatment of Euini could easily have driven him in dangerous directions, much as Richeh's fears of losing the things that make her magic “hers” could have done the same had Qifrey not taken her in. Likewise we could see an Agott who never learns to trust herself going off the rails, albeit possibly in a different way more akin to Easthes than the Brimmed Caps – and that could be just as dangerous. No matter what the rules put in place are, power of any sort could still corrupt, and that may be part of what the Brimmed Caps are trying to point out.

Certainly it could send Qifrey in that direction, although in his case “power” is more equivalent to “knowledge.” He seems to have a very personal stake in the hunt for the Brimmed Caps (one I suspect is related to the introduction of a pair of twins in volume five), and how much of his focus that takes up remains to be seen. This is where we should start to wonder about Olruggio and his position as the atelier's Watchful Eye. He and Qifrey seem very close – the extra material in volume five says that they traded hat ornaments, which appears to be significant in one way or another – but is Olruggio his Watchful Eye because he's an instructor or because someone higher up knows something about Qifrey that makes them worry? Could Olruggio be playing a dual role at Qifrey's place? He's certainly very involved with the apprentices despite claiming zero interest in them, which again may mean something more than “well, I'm stuck here now, may as well interact.”

With each volume Witch Hat Atelier successfully builds on its world, characters, and themes to give us a picture that is coming clearer and clearer. The ideological fight between Brimmed and Pointed Caps is building as Qifrey gives us more reason to question his own motivations and Coco finds herself pulled between two schools of thought. Fortunately her fellow apprentices are all learning, too, and as even prickly Agott opens up, that means that Coco won't be forced to stand alone any time soon.

Grade:
Overall : A
Story : A
Art : A

+ Beautiful, detailed art and a story that solidly builds on itself to become increasingly intricate.
Not quite enough Coco in these books, cast is increasing at a worrying pace.

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Production Info:
Story & Art: Kamome Shirahama
Licensed by: Kodansha Comics

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Witch Hat Atelier (manga)

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