Manga Thoughts: Witch Hat Atelier 14
Apr. 4th, 2026 02:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerAs I got around to the fourteenth volume of Witch Hat Atelier I was conscious the manga’s anime adaptation was nigh. The opening episodes had already been previewed; I knew in the most general sense that they seemed to have impressed. Despite noticing a few people passing along a rumour that “all the episodes have already been finished!” (which has me recalling a report the anime’s premiere had been pushed back by months), though, the general caution I’ve accumulated has kept me thinking I’ll wait and hope once more for some form of all-clear report after everything has shown up. In the meantime, of course, I did have the latest instalment of Kamome Shirahama’s original work.
Although I reported a cliffhanger at the end of the previous volume, the larger continuing crisis in the story of late had reached a point where time could be spared for a flashback to the apprentice years of one of the slightly older characters. Utowin, a scruffy member of the Knights Moralis, had started out as a poor student among witches valuing the fruits of study and practice. It was easy enough to start thinking about “see, witch society is far from utopian!” interpretations; a bit later on, I did wonder about reading and enjoying the manga amounting to coming down on the side of “study and practice and valuing learning is altogether worthwhile” and this latest moment bringing you to certain realisations about possible turnabouts sometimes not being fair play.
As for the continuing crisis, Coco manages to come up with an idea to deploy the time-rewinding spell that’s kept skirting along the edge of permissable magic in recent volumes. Other witches including her friends bring up other elaborations on the story’s rules to move the potential solution forward. Along the way the bandages over one of Coco’s eyes come loose; I was grateful in a certain way to see the eye looked intact but aware there was a mark on her face below it. (I then got to realising I’d just sort of casually accepted the manga’s cover had presented Coco without the bandages, focusing more on her determined look and her pointed cap not being on her head, before taking a closer look and seeing the mark had been half-hidden on the cover.)
Before the solution can move ahead, though, another member of the Knights Moralis crashes in. Easthies, upright to the point of having seemed threatening at times in the story, is intent on stopping the rule-stretching under way. It’s that much more threatening a moment than before, but I did get to thinking not about “rigid adherence to rules” but about “lone dissenters” in other contexts. If the story amounts to “there are no easy solutions one way or another,” that might be a worthwhile point.
Along the way there was a moment where “drawing” extends beyond drawing spells within the story to drawing the characters of the story. (I did want to see it as significant that some people other than witches with their pointed caps showed up.) This leads to a successful resolution to the smaller crisis of Easthies’s rampage, even if there’s a note of uncertainty left to resolve at some future point. The elaborate plan moves ahead only for crucial details to start going awry, but at the close of the volume Coco is leaping ahead with Agott, her first “critical rival turned friend,” at her side. I can wonder at what’s to come from the illustration of the next-volume preview pages, and I have an impression of having seen a Japanese next volume cover as well; I just don’t know how long it might be until it’s available over here.
Although I reported a cliffhanger at the end of the previous volume, the larger continuing crisis in the story of late had reached a point where time could be spared for a flashback to the apprentice years of one of the slightly older characters. Utowin, a scruffy member of the Knights Moralis, had started out as a poor student among witches valuing the fruits of study and practice. It was easy enough to start thinking about “see, witch society is far from utopian!” interpretations; a bit later on, I did wonder about reading and enjoying the manga amounting to coming down on the side of “study and practice and valuing learning is altogether worthwhile” and this latest moment bringing you to certain realisations about possible turnabouts sometimes not being fair play.
As for the continuing crisis, Coco manages to come up with an idea to deploy the time-rewinding spell that’s kept skirting along the edge of permissable magic in recent volumes. Other witches including her friends bring up other elaborations on the story’s rules to move the potential solution forward. Along the way the bandages over one of Coco’s eyes come loose; I was grateful in a certain way to see the eye looked intact but aware there was a mark on her face below it. (I then got to realising I’d just sort of casually accepted the manga’s cover had presented Coco without the bandages, focusing more on her determined look and her pointed cap not being on her head, before taking a closer look and seeing the mark had been half-hidden on the cover.)
Before the solution can move ahead, though, another member of the Knights Moralis crashes in. Easthies, upright to the point of having seemed threatening at times in the story, is intent on stopping the rule-stretching under way. It’s that much more threatening a moment than before, but I did get to thinking not about “rigid adherence to rules” but about “lone dissenters” in other contexts. If the story amounts to “there are no easy solutions one way or another,” that might be a worthwhile point.
Along the way there was a moment where “drawing” extends beyond drawing spells within the story to drawing the characters of the story. (I did want to see it as significant that some people other than witches with their pointed caps showed up.) This leads to a successful resolution to the smaller crisis of Easthies’s rampage, even if there’s a note of uncertainty left to resolve at some future point. The elaborate plan moves ahead only for crucial details to start going awry, but at the close of the volume Coco is leaping ahead with Agott, her first “critical rival turned friend,” at her side. I can wonder at what’s to come from the illustration of the next-volume preview pages, and I have an impression of having seen a Japanese next volume cover as well; I just don’t know how long it might be until it’s available over here.