New year, new... post? It's a big long time no see for this little blog of mine... since honestly these blog posts are some hard work sometimes and I uh, kinda forgot about this whole thing. I can't make any promises to myself that I'll be back to regular updates this year either, but I'll try and upload some things. I'm definitely not going to fill in the gaps retroactively since a year's worth of post is honestly not worth my time.
Anyway, I'd like to branch out a little because I finally got into something that's not a game for once, so here's a first of its kind manga review.
Manga: Witch Hat Atelier (とんがり帽子のアトリエ)
Author/Artist: Kamome Shirahama
Despite being a fan of fantasy, I was surprised how much I liked this series. I had seen it from afar, but I never got around to reading it for various reasons (I couldn't tell you what they are but I just wasn't), but due to the chance of getting my hands on a free trial copy of the Japanese version, I decided to practice my language learning by reading that... and even despite the language barrier I loved what I had read by the end! Maybe I feel extra dedicated because I had to put so much work into getting into it or something...
This manga has a reputation for its beautiful art, and that's definitely true. The art isn't just super detailed and elegant though, one of the things I've noticed is that some moments really use the visuals to enhance the story moments even more than the words on the page sometimes. The large amount of funny faces is a plus, too.
Best Volume: 3
I already vaguely knew beforehand that Qifrey was eventually going to do (something bad) (the memory spell), but with no other knowledge, I figured it was a last resort. Volumes 1 & 2 had elements creeping in that this wasn't the case, but nothing proved this wrong more than this volume of the manga. It's got him misleading people, stealing, his ulterior motive fueled nice deeds, setting off a flashbang as a diversion, straight up wiping memories, and getting having to cover up getting owned by the brimmed cap witches. Basically it's the peak of his deviousness until Volume 7, since otherwise the most concerning thing is his hairtrigger rage between then. That was the most exciting part for me, but the more formal introduction of Tartah, his conflict within witch society and his new friendship with Coco, some of my favorite ongoing plot points. And besides that, the sequence with Coco's nightmare with all her new fears was both strikingly distressing and mysterious.
Worst Volume: 9
The new intrigue this story added with the introduction of the royalty of this world and the deteriorating relationships between witches and "common people" was pretty fascinating and getting to see the Silver Eve festival was super cute and neat. Unfortunately, the sudden in depth look at the effects of sexual assault at a young age (although I do admit it was handled gracefully, sorry Luluci) felt really sudden and caught me off guard. It doesn't help that it put me in a more emotionally fragile state that when Custas came back to lay out all of how he felt betrayed by the witches (i.e. Coco and Tartah), I, who had wholeheartedly believed in their plan to help him the most they thought they could, felt legitimate crushing guilt as if I had betrayed him too and cried multiple times from it. Really not fun...
Despite calling this the worst volume though, none of them are really super far from each other in my personal rankings... I just wasn't feeling it as much (although volume 10's continuation of its plot has improved its image in my mind since).
Characters
I don't think I can pick a single favorite character because there's so many good ones. Even the characters that are pretty terrible (like Richeh's former master or Euini's master etc) serve their purpose well, so up to now it feels like there's almost no unnecessary characters (I'm still not sure about the peeping goggles seller guy to be honest).
Main Character ranking
I'm counting Qifrey's atelier as the main characters here. These are all pretty close but I wanted to at least try and make a list.
1. Coco & Qifrey (TIED)
2. Agott
3. Olruggio
4. Richeh
5. Tetia
Further Thoughts
Coco - I usually do like the protagonist of any given work, but out of everything, I feel like Coco is a rare time where one is /really/ one of my favorites. Her excitement over magic was cute and also I felt the same seeing every new kind of magic. Her melancholy nature underneath the cheerfulness from being responsible for losing her only family, and later inadvertently causing the suffering of others through her newfound status as a witch were so heartbreaking but compelling. Her struggle to fit in with her more experienced peers and witch society in general is really relatable, and her despair over not being to help everyone as well. I also like her unwavering trust in those she believes in. I thought I didn't relate to that one either, but when it came to serve as her character flaw when she couldn't understand why she couldn't solve the whole situation with Custas, I realized I was following her complete faith in her solution more than I expected (see more above). The back and forth between her happiness of learning magic and the lies and secrets that come with being a witch that she faces head on in the later volumes is another sad, but fascinating part of her character.
Qifrey - As one of the characters I saw from the periphery, I had the impression that he was a pleasant guy who took care of his students well and then had to resort to doing (something bad) later on. Well, the first part is still true, even with his ulterior motives, but what I never got from any of it was that underneath he was a troubled man hellbent on revenge, no matter what he had to do. I was actually kind of delighted whenever he did something sneaky or straight up lied because the gap between my expectations and reality kept coming up. I had a level of suspicion of the guy I'm not sure would be normal for someone reading fresh, and personally that really enhanced the experience. Being unsure whether he was doing something genuinely or with something to gain or even both made reading more tense, even when I got way too in my head theorizing about this and got overwhelmed by the thrill. His real belief in and relationship with Coco being touching and sweet while at the same time being built on her usefulness to him is something I don't think I've seen before, and it really drew me in. I'm glad that his story comes and goes with the other story arcs because I feel like it would be too much at once as long one one, but it also means that it feels like it's always lurking around the corner somewhere...
Agott - I saw her design maybe once before hand (unlike the other apprentices), so I had probably the least ground to base my expectations out of the characters I had any amount of prior knowledge before reading. Since the other apprentices are mostly alright with Coco joining, Agott being so opposed in the opposite direction that she basically sends Coco out to die (although to be fair Agott just thinks she'll give up and come back) in order to prove her unworthiness was wild as an introduction to her character. It's also pretty interesting that her dislike of Coco isn't just from her societal view of her as an "outsider", but that it's intertwined with her own insecurity of not being good enough for her estranged family despite trying her hardest, and seeing someone able to easily pick up skills without any background in magic mixing those together. Coco trusting Agott despite how they met and her unorthodox approach to magic allowing Agott to start to relax and not be so hard on herself and others was really heartwarming to see unfold.
Olruggio - I had a little more background knowledge of him than some characters, but honestly not much more than I had for characters like Agott. I did see a fair amount of sad fanart involving him though, so I just kind of assumed he was depressed or something. The first surprise is that is that... he doesn't show up that much for a while, which I didn't really expect. His introduction being similarly hostile to Coco like Agott's was interesting, and his attitude also similarly being softened by Coco's good-natured personality was pretty charming. However, since he didn't have that much time in the story my thoughts were just that he seemed cool enough until like the end of Volume 5 onwards or so. When he has to step in to take care of the apprentices because Qifrey got put out of commission, I got to see his own special way of caring, which endeared me way more to his character. That and he was the first character to confront Qifrey about his secret plans, which I was somewhat shocked because honestly was waiting for a couple other characters who weren't him to do first. I like the fact that he's the most normal guy ever (until further notice) who just happened to make friends with the guy with the worst life in the world, for better or worse.
Richeh - I think the many gags with her blunt face and way of talking and her love of food are very endearing. Her personal conflict over not wanting to be forced into a standard, but needing to follow the rules for it in order to get to the unique future she wants is somewhat relatable to me, despite never facing as horrible situation in school as she did. The expectations of society and how you have to live in it may be different between us, but the pressure is definitely something I feel anyway.
Tetia - I like her design and how she has an even more bright and bubbly personality than Coco, it's very charming. I also like that she starts attaching her name to random comments she makes (which judging by the original first volume might be partly because she refers to herself in the third person). I'm curious about her past, because there's been a few hints of her own troubles, but unlike her fellow apprentices, she hasn't been shown to have some sort of personal tragedy that would have made her end up at Qifrey's atelier. She seems to be shaken by her encounter with the prince, so I wonder if this is going to lead to revealing whatever that could be...
Side Character ranking
1. Alaira
2. Tartah & Custas (TIED, AGAIN)
3. Beldaruit
4. Iguin & Sasaran (not even sure if this is a tie, they basically only have enough story time for one character)
5. Knights Moralis (all of them I guess)
Further Thoughts
Alaira - Her introduction being showing up to insult Qifrey to his face (on the first read everyone talked politely in Japanese and then she shows up with お前 and attaching -め to stuff) was so good that despite her leaving the story by the halfway point I'd still call her a strong fave. She was also the first character to be actively suspicious of Qifrey, so I really thought she was gonna be the one to figure his plans out and confront him... that didn't happen but I was excited at the time. I don't know what she would even have to do with the story as it is now, but I hope she comes back soon...
Tartah - Like Alaira, he also was investigating into Qifrey, so I was excited to see where he went with that... and he didn't get that far before giving it up (I guess I was spending a lot of time in the earlier volumes praying on Qifrey's downfall but it was fun I swear!). Besides that though, his story being the introduction to people other than Coco and her outsider status into people who conflict with how witch society is set up was really interesting, and I thought his budding friendship (and crush on his side) was super cute. He didn't really have much to do for most of the middle, but when he came back in the later volumes is when I think he climbed up the personal rankings a bit more. His decision to take on responsibility and bend the rules of witch society in order to teach Custas, even when the incident that injured him was magic that he didn't cast, was really fascinating to me. This part having to be kept secret putting strain on his and Coco's relationship was also interesting... until both that and Coco's idea to help out too blew up in their faces (but that's already all in the Volume 9 discussion on here). As Tartah said himself, Custas has no obligation to forgive him or Coco, but I thought their friendship was charming so I really hope one day they can make up in whatever form it may take...
(^ These two's complicated relationship is part of the reason for the tie v)
Custas - Whenever Volume 8 came out in English, I saw a bit of discussion from the periphery about how the manga handled the subject of disability and privilege, and didn't think that much of it other than "Wow, sounds interesting". However, this meant that Custas was one of the only characters I knew from the series, if vaguely, so I was surprised to see him show up as a fairly bit character in Volume 2. It turned out he doesn't show up again until Volume 8, but those discussions I saw were right after all, and I thought the way the story introduced another character whose disability conflicted with society (down to discussing how assumptions lead to lacking accessibility, although that was brought up before too) was pretty interesting. I figured that he was going to (unfortunately) accept the witch's lie that "normal" people and witches are just separate and not show up again, but I was totally wrong. Custas learning the truth of magic due to extremely unfortunate circumstances and joining with a brimmed cap witch was so painful... but it makes total sense as a continuation of someone who was already hurt to witness the relative privilege of witches.
Beldaruit - Despite his higher place on the ranking, I don't have many other further thoughts on the guy... I like how he's just as shady as his student though, seeing him try and take in Coco because whatever he thought Qifrey was planning was definitely a top of the list shocking moment. Also, doing leadership coups with his fellow Wises but that plotline has just started so... On the lighter side, I have to appreciate his unique nature of being the wise old crone type but having a quirky personality that annoys people.
Iguin & Sasaran - They may be the cartoon villain brimmed cap witches compared to the sophisticated and more fitting Ininia and her circle, but they were the first to show up, so they get the benefit of the first impression. I almost forgot that Iguin is literally the witch that started Coco's fascination with magic while writing this, so maybe that speaks to the quality of their character, but the first volume ending on the concept of Coco being a savior/pawn for the brimmed cap witches due to her outsider status was pretty striking. Sasaran's design is pretty good and I have way too deep theories about them solely from their run in with Qifrey, so that's mostly why they got on here, but I just need to know what their deal is...
Knights Moralis - Their role as the antagonists on the pointed cap witch's "side" a lot as a story thing but I don't have deep feelings on them as characters really... I like Ekoh & Etlan because they're twins and funny little guys and that Easthies and Utowin are inexplicably buddies, though. With both the story of Luluci's past and Galga getting his memory wiped coming in at the latest volumes I feel like they might get more focus as character and thus I would have more to say, but I still doubt they can move up the rankings that much.