Manga Thoughts: Witch Hat Atelier 1-2
Jul. 29th, 2019 09:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerAt the start of May, I managed to head to the nearest comics shop for “Free Comic Book Day.” Requested to take only so many of the promotional pamphlets, I found myself most drawn all the same to the ones advertising for manga publishers. The Viz pamphlet excerpted a recent chapter of “My Hero Academia,” although not the “here’s where you can start, however late you may now be” point I admit I’d been hoping for. On a different note, however, the pamphlet from Kodansha did get me noticing a new title called “Witch Hat Atelier.” It wasn’t until the start of the next month, though, that I did manage to see and buy the first volume of that series from the area bookstore. However, this did mean it wasn’t that long before the second volume showed up, and that just added to the impressiveness of the first.
The manga does seem rewarding trying to analyze it bit by bit, although it’s not always easy to answer my own questions there. A comment on the back cover that the manga’s creator Kamome Shirahama was a “DC and Marvel cover artist” had me wondering if the attractive, detailed artwork might be somehow “like western fantasy illustrations,” although the eyes in particular kept pushing me back towards thinking “absolutely manga; just on a ‘realistic’ side, that’s all.” It wasn’t until later that I thought the costume design of one mysterious character reminded me of Hayao Miyazaki’s “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind,” although that’s hardly a case of “the sole influence.”
As for the story the art is in service of, it does ring some changes on the familiar idea of “learning to use magic.” The main character, a young girl named Coco (which does have me thinking back to the nickname of my family’s old home computer) dreams of using the magic that makes her fantasy world a more vibrant place even as she supposes she’s been born without the talent for it. One day, though, she manages to see the secret act of a witch casting a spell, and realises it’s a matter of drawing designs within circles. (This has me thinking of the “transmutation circles” of “Fullmetal Alchemist,” although the designs are completely different between the two manga.) It just so happens that when she was younger, Coco bought a picture book from the mysterious character, with some special ink included...
Coco’s attempts to copy the magical seals in her book culminate in a dark fate she’s snatched from at the last instant by the witch who unwittingly showed her the secret now kept from the wider world; her mother, though, is less fortunate. To track down where the now-lost book came from, Coco’s memory is left intact as she supposes this will give her the chance to learn how to restore her mother, and she starts learning magic for real, joining up with other young apprentices filling familiar roles from “friendly explainers” to “straight-laced rivals who come around bit by bit.” That spells are made by drawing discrete symbols makes it easier for an audience of outsiders to see how things fit together and build than more traditional sorts of magic, building in complications and problem-solving solutions for chapters in a narrative different at the start from “good versus evil” or even “facing challenges threatening in themselves.” Both volumes so far have ended on cliffhangers, and it’ll be a while yet before the next volume shows up, but I will be interested in seeing where the story goes.
The manga does seem rewarding trying to analyze it bit by bit, although it’s not always easy to answer my own questions there. A comment on the back cover that the manga’s creator Kamome Shirahama was a “DC and Marvel cover artist” had me wondering if the attractive, detailed artwork might be somehow “like western fantasy illustrations,” although the eyes in particular kept pushing me back towards thinking “absolutely manga; just on a ‘realistic’ side, that’s all.” It wasn’t until later that I thought the costume design of one mysterious character reminded me of Hayao Miyazaki’s “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind,” although that’s hardly a case of “the sole influence.”
As for the story the art is in service of, it does ring some changes on the familiar idea of “learning to use magic.” The main character, a young girl named Coco (which does have me thinking back to the nickname of my family’s old home computer) dreams of using the magic that makes her fantasy world a more vibrant place even as she supposes she’s been born without the talent for it. One day, though, she manages to see the secret act of a witch casting a spell, and realises it’s a matter of drawing designs within circles. (This has me thinking of the “transmutation circles” of “Fullmetal Alchemist,” although the designs are completely different between the two manga.) It just so happens that when she was younger, Coco bought a picture book from the mysterious character, with some special ink included...
Coco’s attempts to copy the magical seals in her book culminate in a dark fate she’s snatched from at the last instant by the witch who unwittingly showed her the secret now kept from the wider world; her mother, though, is less fortunate. To track down where the now-lost book came from, Coco’s memory is left intact as she supposes this will give her the chance to learn how to restore her mother, and she starts learning magic for real, joining up with other young apprentices filling familiar roles from “friendly explainers” to “straight-laced rivals who come around bit by bit.” That spells are made by drawing discrete symbols makes it easier for an audience of outsiders to see how things fit together and build than more traditional sorts of magic, building in complications and problem-solving solutions for chapters in a narrative different at the start from “good versus evil” or even “facing challenges threatening in themselves.” Both volumes so far have ended on cliffhangers, and it’ll be a while yet before the next volume shows up, but I will be interested in seeing where the story goes.