Though I like “Atelier of Witch Hat” personally.

Watanabe Ayumu continues to cast a mighty shadow over this season. His Akane-banashi premiere was well-received, which is certainly understandable even if I found it solid rather than revelatory. His other big-name show is Tongari Boushi no Atelier. Like Akane-banashi it’s a manga I regard as pretty good rather than great, but unlike A-B it’s one I haven’t read the majority of. As such I have more optimism (or at least hope) that it could surprise me on the upside. And between the two series, this is certainly much the grabbier debut.

Witch Hat Atelier is a manga that was once a very big commercial hit, but more than most has seen pretty precipitous sales declines. I suspect this adaptation will help because it looks, in a word, fantastic. I mean I know it’s Watanabe but damn – who knew BUG FILMS had this in them? We’ll see if they can possibly keep this up, all the more a concern because this production is rumored to have been something of a clusterfrick. And of course the anime was already delayed from 2025. I don’t know exactly what went down but I do know this is easily the best looking premiere of the year so far. Visually it almost gave me Made in Abyss vibes (though it doesn’t reach that Olympian height by any means).

But then, you know, visuals were always the strength of Shirahama Kamome’s work. The anime does look unbelievable but Atelier is also one of the best-looking manga out there in every sense. Where I struggle is with the writing, which I found to be pretty one-dimensional and trope-reliant. I’ve had folks tell me the manga really improves in that regard, and hey, maybe – though that flies against the evidence of its sales. Unless of course those improvements took it in a less commercial direction. I have no idea but at the very least it’s a feast for the eyes, at least so far.

Story-wise there’s not too much ground-breaking out of the gate. Cute little girl Coco (Motomura Rena, whose performance I’m not in love with so far) is obsessed with magic. But in this world only witches can perform it – you either have it or you don’t. Coco helps out at her mother’s countryside cloth shop, where one day a Pegasus Carriage with a trio of ojou-sama from the capital arrives. So does a witch (he must be, he has the hat) named Qifrey (Hanae Natsuki), though he assures Coco that he’s not with them. A couple of local gamin accidentally bust the ladies’ carriage, and Qifrey volunteers to fix it. He also assigns Coco to watch the door and make sure no one can see what he’s doing.

Turns out that whole “only witches” thing is a conspiracy. Anybody can do magic if they have the right ink and casting equipment. Which Coco does, having bought a book of (forbidden) magic spells from a shady character when she was a tot. And since she spied on Qifrey, she decides to try copying a few spells that night. Disaster is averted until she levels up to tracing, at which point she draws a spell which encases her mother in some sort of giant crystal. Qifrey rescues Coco but tells her that since she knows the great secret of magic her memories have to be wiped. He changes his mind, though, on the bet that she can help him find the person that sold her the forbidden book if her memories are intact.

OP: “Kaze no Anthem” (Anthem of Wind) by Eve feat. suis

To be blunt, the issues I have with the narrative end already start to crop up in the second episode. It still looks tremendous, right down to the glorious transitions between the episode and the OP/ED that Watanabe employs. But story-wise Atelier starts to drag as soon as it arrives at the school where Qifrey teaches the girls apprenticed to him. We meet several, the most important (and least annoying) of which is Agott (Yamamura Hibiku). They’re all right out of central casting, pretty much. And so it Qifrey, with his eternally beatific demeanor and ready creepily-warm smile (even if it’s obviously hiding something darker).

For me this series – at least as far as I got with it – is more or less cute girls doing magic. It vamps, it panders, it takes the easy way more often than not. There is the tragic situation which precipitates the premise but even that is pretty off the shelf, really. I don’t actively dislike any of the major characters – well, I lied, I do dislike Tetia – but I don’t find any of them especially interesting either. The world building and magic system with its sigils, signs, and rings is pretty well-crafted to be fair. And the way it’s expressed through stuff like the “Windoways” engenders the appropriate sense of wonder for a series like this.

Again, it’s entirely possible if I’d stuck with the manga longer my views on it would have evolved along the lines some commenters have suggested. That would surprise me – in my experience writing doesn’t just level up like that very often – but it’s not impossible. Why the big dropoff in volume sales, who knows. And there is the concern that BUG FILMS has had gorgeous premieres devolve into slop before (like Zom 100), a fact which makes the rumored production issues even scarier. But based on two episodes this looks like the spring show Watanabe-Sensei is unleashing his A game on – and that prospect makes it very much one to watch (literally and metaphorically).

ED: “Tada Utsukushii Noroi (ただ美しい呪い)” by Nakamura Hak