After my week off to deal with real life I’m now back and it gave me time to hit another one of the greats that just came out.

So let’s look at another entry in what is being now described as one of the Big Three of fantasy anime. You know Frieren and Sgathaich: Delicious in Dungeon are considered the other two, so feel free to read those and get hyped.

Witch Hat Atelier is a 13 episode anime adapting the manga of the same name. The manga came out in 2016 and fans of it have been eagerly awaiting its adaptation. It’s worth saying this is not an isekai, but what I call a true fantasy like those other 2 greats. This is a fantasy world.

We open up in a world of magic, a world where it permeates everything from what we hear in the open narration, only those born with the talent can use it. Sadly for Coco, a young girl obsessed and enamoured with magic, she is not one of those people. However as you can guess things happen after the meeting with the witch Qifrey as she hopes to learn a way to help people, and her as an outsider’s view of magic gives her new ways of viewing things from those that have handled the talent for years.

I’m not going too much into the plot as it’s worth letting it be expanded for you as the story progresses. Characters are introduced as the world is delved into, and in a way that leaves things a little grey for those that are paying attention. Coco is an outsider

Bug Films handles the production of the animation and it is breath-taking what they have achieved, especially by the time of the last episode. It’s more than turning an anime image to motion – here it’s turned into such a work of art, not a still image but yet not some simplified animation, it’s a world showing the wonders and terrors of magic and Bug Films do that well.

But on the topic of that episode. That’s the finish of the season and yet closes on what many would see as the end of an episode, not so much a cliff-hanger you would see at the end of a season to hook you to the next, but at the end of an episode to be continued in the next. Yet that is the end of the season. Fortunately there is a second season coming and my friend and I, who I was watching it with, are extremely excited for that.

It’s hard to talk about a work that I can barely touch on the plot, but it is doing a good job of expressing its world and characters. There is a small ensemble cast and a number of recurring ones that you want to see grow and learn as we find out more about this world and the growing questions going on in it.

I am eagerly anticipating the next season though that is quite a bit away, and with that ending I want it to be resolved, I have to now resist the desire to look up the manga or wiki’s to find out what happens next to the characters.

Rating : 🪄🪄🪄🪄🪄