Witch Hat Atelier (manga)

Is an athlete always an athlete, even from birth?
With about astronauts, or pop stars?
You never know what you're going to be until you grow up, right?
So...

What about witches? Is it the same for them?

—Page one, Volume one

Witch Hat Atelier (Japanese とんがり帽子のアトリエ, Hepburn Tongari Bōshi no Atorie) is a Manga written and illustrated by Kamome Shirahama, first published in Japanese in 2016 in the Seinen magazine Monthly Morning Two, and in English in 2019. A spin off, Kitchen of Witch Hat, is available only in Japanese, and an anime adaption is in development.

Coco is a young girl with a deep and profound interest in magic. Her pursuit to become a witch, however, is stopped by the fact that she knows witches are born, not trained nor taught. That view is shattered when the witch Qifrey arrives at her village in a flying Pegasus carriage. Coco watches Qifrey cast magic, and discovers how magic really works. A person doesn't have to be born with innate abilities to cast magic! Instead, they draw runes and symbols on paper, topped off with a ring to make the spell work.

Knowing this, Coco traces over a basic rune, casts a light spell, fire spell, figures out the basics of spellcasting... and casts forbidden Black Magic that turns her mum into stone which destroys her house. Well, Coco now has no choices but to become a witch's apprentice. Thus, she and Qifrey travels to his atelier and becomes his apprentice. The manga focuses on the (mis)adventures of Coco, her mentors, and the other apprentice girls at the atelier: the quiet and reclusive Richeh, the enthusiastic and outgoing Tetia, and the academic and focused Agott.

Fun fact: Witch Hat Atelier‍'‍s creator Kamome Shirahama is a big fan of The Owl House, and The Owl House creator Dana Terrace is a big fan of Witch Hat Atelier! The two series, despite being produced in different countries, in different mediums, with different languages, still follow the same fundamental concept: an enthusiastic Naive Newcomer witch finds the world of Geometric Magic that seems sunshine and rainbows on the surface, but hides many dark secrets beneath its whimsical layer.

Tropes used in Witch Hat Atelier (manga) include:

Animalistic Abomination: The scalewolf-like abominations created by the Brimmed Caps through Black Magic transformation spells that they use on unwilling victims - while they share the canine appearance and scaly back of actual scalewolves, these monsters are black-colored beasts with pupil-less eyes. Euini is subjected to a forceful transformation into one in volume 4, and attacks Coco and Tetia in volume 5.
The Apprentice: The witches living at Qifrey's atelier. In order to become an apprentice, they have to pass a magical trial. The manga series shows Coco improving at her magical abilities, slowing improving the quality of her glyphs.
Bag of Sharing: Bottle of sharing in this case. Coco is given a bottle with a powerful magic ink that can cause devastation and is refilled by a member of the Brimmed Caps; Qifrey tries to use the bottle to track down the member, but fails.
Black Magic: Coco accidentally casts one of these spells in the first chapter. Black Magic is outlawed, and no respectable witch use it, but it is used frequently by the Brimmed Caps, who gave Coco the book containing the black magic.
Body Horror: One notable example of this is a part where the manga lays off its Shonen appearance and starts using elements of Seinen. Euini's transformation in the second magical trial is harrowing, with the final result being an uncanny and intimidating scale-wolf composed almost entirely out of the colour black.
- The Romonons, who transform people into living statues of gold.
Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: A member of the Brimmed Caps does this during the second magic trial. Richeh, Agott, and Euini are hiding from the member who has interrupted their second magical trial.
Cliffhanger: The end of volume two in English, where Coco is about to get her memory wiped by the Knights Moralis.
Cute Witch: Almost everyone in Qifrey's atelier.
The Dark Arts: The Brimmed Caps use this, using combat and transformation magic which they claim is far more powerful than what the permitted White Magic allows for. They wish to make Coco learn it them, slowly influencing her life, even going as far as to transform Euini into a beast so Coco will be forced to learn the Dark Arts to turn him back.
A Day in the Limelight: The end of volume 4 features a small bonus chapter involving the ridiculously cute brush-buddy — a much more light-hearted story when contrasted with the events of the volume.
Defrosting Ice Queen: Agott, who slowly opens herself up to Coco. Initially, she forces Coco to take the first trial when Coco is barely qualified to do so, with little experience, and eventually starts helping Coco.
Deus Ex Machina: The series makes use of the illogical placement and timing variation.
- In volume three, when Tetia shows up just before Coco is about to get her memories wiped.
- In volume five, when Richeh and Olruggo shows up and casts a fire barrier spell to save Qifrey from danger.
Early Teen Hero: Coco, as well as the other girls at Qifrey's atelier (Tetia, Richeh, Agott) appear around this age. The Witch Hat Atelier wiki states that the characters' ages are 12.
Easy Amnesia: The Knights Moralis are easilly able to wipe the memories of people who have seen magic. This almost happens at the end of volume two, but Tetia quickly rushes in and stalls for time until Qifrey arrives to convince the Knights Moralis not to wipe the memories of Coco.
Escort Mission: The second magical trial, whose objective is to escort a group of migrating Myphons through the dangerous remains of Romonon.
Establishing Character Moment: The personalities of the other witches studying at Qifrey's atelier is established when Coco first meets them.
- Tetia is established to be energetic, enthusiastic, outgoing, and helpful, telling Coco how to use a vapour bubble, and how it collects moisture from air into water droplets that witches can use.
- Richeh is shown to be quiet and secluded, when she instructs Coco to ignore Tetia, saying that Tetia will eventually calm down. Her quietness is further developed when Tetia continues to interact with Coco, with Richeh mostly ignoring what is going on around her.
- Agott is established as an Ice Queen when she flies into Coco's room through a window, and instructs Coco to get out of the way so she can land. She explains that she has been drawing spells ever since she could write, and that Coco's test to become an apprentice starts the next day.
- Coco herself is established to be enthusiastic and energetic when she freaks out and loses control of herself upon the sight of a Pegasus carriage landing in her village.
Foreshadowing: The end of volume 3 has a member of the Brimmed Caps stating, "When the apprentices leave their teacher's protection to take the test we shall have an opportunity we cannot afford to miss", hinting at their attack in volume four.
Geometric Magic: How all spells are cast. Spells are cast via drawing sigils and signs inside a circular ring using special magic ink. Sigils are located in the center of the ring, and determine the type of spell being cast, like water or fire magic. If a sigil is poorly drawn, such as being elongated, the spell may not achieve its intended effect. Asymmetrical sigils can produce powerful, but one sided effects. Signs are used to change the direction, form, and size of the spell. When the ring is completed, the spell is cast.
- The larger the ring, the more powerful and stronger the spell. A poorly drawn ring causes the magic to have weaker effects and be shorter.
- Witches may occasionally choose to almost finish drawing their spell, leaving only a small uncompleted section of the ring, so they can cast the spell at a more convenient time.
- The effects of a spell can be reversed by reversing the signs.
Ghibli Plains: Qifrey's Atelier is located in the centre of Ghibli Plains. This is best shown in a two page panel at the start of chapter 2.
Good Feels Good: Tetia always thank the people who thank her.

Coco: "Wow, that's incredible. Thank you!"
Tetia: "I love when people tell me 'thank you'! So thank you for your thanks!"

Knights Templar: The Knights Moralis, whose members are to find and track down people using magic improperly or using Black Magic. They are very cold and methodical in their duty, carrying out work without any passion so emotions will not get in the way. A large part of the book's conflict is whether the Knights Moralis are justified in their methods, or whether they should loosen control on magic, creating more opportunities for residents to have better lives at the expensive of war and famine.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: The Knights Moralis only targets memories of magic when they use Easy Amnesia.
Mage Tower: The Tower of Tombs, where a magical book is instantly replicated within its library when it is composed. In order to access the knowledge within, one has to pass the Librarian's Trial. Permission to attempt the trial is granted when one completes the third trial for witches.
Masquerade: In this case, the objective is not to hide a secret magical society or supernatural beings. The objective is to hide the truth about magic, holding up the belief that only a small group of born wizards can cast magic. This is to ensure that magic is not abused, and is never used for malicious purposes.
The Perfectionist: Agott, who constantly pushes herself. She constantly persuades her master to let her take the second trial, and dedicates herself to her study of magic.
Plucky Girl: Coco, who has to face almost getting a memory wipe from the Knights Moralis, accidentally turning her mum into stone, and attempting a magic trial when she's barely qualified to do so. Despite this, she's still enthusiastic and willing to learn more about magic.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Tetia's more outgoing and vibrant personality balances out Richeh's more subdued and introverted attitude. This is literally represented via their hair colours, where Tetia is vibrant pink-red and Richeh blue.
Ridiculously Cute Critter: The brush-buddies, a small critter with white fur who is attracted to the ink used to cast magic.
Rose-Haired Girl: Tetia.
Taken for Granite: The Cavern Nation of Romonon, who turns those with no merit or nothing to contribute into gold.
- Coco accidentally transforms her own mother by tracing over a Black Magic glyph, setting up the events of the manga.
Wild Magic: The magic system before the Knights Moralis and the The Witches' Assembly was like this, where everyone had access to magic, although this lead to the abuse of magic, involving acts such as the forced transformation of another person, and war crimes.
Wham! Episode: Chapter 36, the first chapter of volume 7, gives us a big lore dump regarding Qifrey's past reminding you that this is a Seinen manga. It's also the chapter where Coco ran off to the Tower of Tomes.
World in the Sky: The first magic trial takes place in the Dadah range, where the objective is to pick the Diadem herb. The range is made up of many spherical slices of earth floating in the air, suspended seemingly by nothing.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Richeh's blue hair stands out the most, although Tetia's pink and Qifrey's silver are also notable.