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Manga Thoughts: Witch Hat Atelier 4
Managing to say something about the first three volumes of a new manga series just might threaten to set a pattern. I was certainly pleased to see the fourth instalment of Kamome Shirahama’s Witch Hat Atelier show up, but did find myself trying to articulate my reactions even as I sped through it, pulled along by the story. One of those first reactions, though, just might have been wondering if I was starting to take the manga’s art a bit more for granted.
As for the story, though, I did notice how the front cover featured Richeh, who’d seemed the most withdrawn of the main character Coco’s fellow apprentices. This volume set up she was intent on creating her own spells to the point of disdaining established solutions, and got her involved in a second test towards becoming fully qualified. From there, it’s revealed the fantastical setting of the first test Coco managed to pass in the first volume was also a relic from an age of misused magic.
Just so it’s not all serious stuff, one part of the second test involves having to escort small “penguin gryphons.” Alongside Richeh and the generally serious and determined apprentice Agott, though, an apprentice of a different master is trying yet again to pass. Just as Agott made a pointed observation about some different fantasy animals at the beginning of the volume it was very easy to see as having some deeper bearing on her own character, so too does Euini (whose eyes are usually hidden by his hair) get described by his master in an obviously undercutting way. Just as it seems he’s getting past that in the test, the larger plot kicks in and we’re left with a double cliffhanger. For the next volume to show up will take waiting into next year; still, as I looked back over this volume to refresh and articulate my impressions I did get more caught up in its art again.
As for the story, though, I did notice how the front cover featured Richeh, who’d seemed the most withdrawn of the main character Coco’s fellow apprentices. This volume set up she was intent on creating her own spells to the point of disdaining established solutions, and got her involved in a second test towards becoming fully qualified. From there, it’s revealed the fantastical setting of the first test Coco managed to pass in the first volume was also a relic from an age of misused magic.
Just so it’s not all serious stuff, one part of the second test involves having to escort small “penguin gryphons.” Alongside Richeh and the generally serious and determined apprentice Agott, though, an apprentice of a different master is trying yet again to pass. Just as Agott made a pointed observation about some different fantasy animals at the beginning of the volume it was very easy to see as having some deeper bearing on her own character, so too does Euini (whose eyes are usually hidden by his hair) get described by his master in an obviously undercutting way. Just as it seems he’s getting past that in the test, the larger plot kicks in and we’re left with a double cliffhanger. For the next volume to show up will take waiting into next year; still, as I looked back over this volume to refresh and articulate my impressions I did get more caught up in its art again.