Witch Hat Atelier

Witch Hat Atelier (Japanese: とんがり帽子のアトリエ, Hepburn: Tongari Bōshi no Atorie) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kamome Shirahama. It has been serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Morning Two [ja] since July 2016, with its chapters collected in 13 tankōbon volumes as of February 2024. The series follows a girl named Coco, who dreams of being a witch in a world where only those born with magical abilities are able to become witches. However, after meeting a witch named Qifrey, Coco's dream begins to come true.
An anime television series adaptation produced by Bug Films is set to premiere in 2025. A spin-off series, Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen, started in Morning Two in November 2019.
By July 2024, Witch Hat Atelier had over 5.5 million copies in circulation. In 2020, the series won the Harvey Award for the Best Manga category as well as the Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia.
Coco is a kind and daydreaming daughter of a dressmaker who aspires to become a witch; however because only innate magical users can practice and use magic, she has to give up on her dream. One day she meets a witch named Qifrey and after she witnesses how he uses magic (by drawing magical runes and using magical ink), Coco accidentally casts a spell that turns her mother to stone.
As Coco does not know which magic spell she cast and Qifrey is tracking the sinister coven that could be behind the incident, he takes Coco as his apprentice in order to undo the spell and allow her to fulfill her dream. As it is gradually revealed, the coven in question—the Brimmed Caps—have taken an extraordinary interest in Coco, hoping that she will help them revive the free use of magic, which was outlawed because of the atrocities committed with it in past times, with some of their repercussions still enduring in Coco's world. Because rune magic can be effectively made by everyone, the Assembly carefully watches over any abuse of it, even going so far as to erase the memories of any uninitiated (called "Outsiders") when they discover this secret. Thus, as Coco immerses herself into this new, wondrous world, a sinister plot begins to thicken around her.
The Brimmed Cap Group (つば付きキャップグループ, Tsubatsuki Kyappu Gurūpu), or simply the Brimmed Caps (つば付きキャップ, Tsubatsuki Kyappu), is a coven of rogue witches who reject the rules of the Day of the Pact and uses Forbidden Magic like offensive magic and body changing magic, along with the forbidden act of making spell tattoos on their own bodies, or the bodies of others. Their name comes from their hats which have long brims or other ornaments to cover their faces, as opposed to the Pointed Caps, whose cap-brims are pinned up. Some members like Iguin and Sasaran express an interest in having Coco become a practitioner of forbidden magic, claiming to be a "child of hope". Their exact structure and motivations are mostly unknown, but it seems that they organize into big groups and then divide into smaller groups to conduct their plans. There are some Brimmed Caps with the likes of Ininia, Restys and Custas are not shown to have an alliance with Iguin and his faction until much later.
The Witches' Assembly (魔女の集会, Majo no Shūkai) is the institution in Coco's world which governs the use of magic, its spreading (by regulating the enlistment and advancement of apprentices) and the maintenance of its secrecy. The seat of the Assembly is located in an underwater city called the Great Hall, which can only be reached by a certain stairwell descending into the depths of the earth, as well as special magic. This community is financed by the Five Kingdoms of the Zozah Peninsula, in exchange for freely serving the people in times of great need. However, the Assembly is endeavoring to remain neutral in the realms' politics.
Also known as the Order of Moral Spellcasting, the Knights Moralis (魔警騎士団, Makei Kishi-dan) is a subsidiary agency to the Assembly—specifically, its law enforcement branch. Its members are assigned to track any abuse of magic and hunt down perpetrators and victims for memory erasure.
According to Shirahama, the story "was sparked by a casual comment from a friend, who mentioned that the process of bringing an illustration into the world seemed just like magic." Having grown up with the works of Michael Ende and J. R. R. Tolkien, she had always wanted to try drawing high fantasy, as opposed to the bulk of popular fantasy at the time which she felt were mostly low fantasy works set in the real world or revolving around reincarnation. She cites The Lord of the Rings as one of the biggest influences on Witch Hat Atelier. She was also strongly inspired by shōjo fantasy manga such as Knights of Alfheim [ja] by Seika Nakayama [ja], Crystal Dragon by Yūho Ashibe [ja], and the works of Moto Hagio, Ryoko Yamagishi, and Kyōko Shitō [ja].
Due to Shirahama's background as an illustrator, the art style of the series leans closer to that seen in classic children's books than manga, while also drawing from Renaissance art, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, American comics, and bande dessinée. This, along with the original idea of art seeming like magic, also contributed to the art-based magic system of the series, in which magic is an ink-drawn precise system of glyphs, runes, and signs; protagonist Coco's journey has been likened to that of an amateur artist aiming to turn professional. Unlike most contemporaries, Shirahama draws the bulk of the series using wooden ink pens and other traditional tools on paper; she cites the antique appeal of analog art as well as her unfamiliarity with digital tools.
The series has been consistently noted for the diversity of its cast and setting, along such axes as race, sexual orientation, and disability. Shirahama has stated that she sees this diversity as a natural thing and a reflection of the level of diversity she saw in works she grew up with, and is mindful to draw inspiration from a wide range of cultures and not overrepresent one specific region of the world.
Written and illustrated by Kamome Shirahama, Witch Hat Atelier started in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Morning Two [ja] on July 22, 2016. The magazine ceased print publication and moved to a digital release starting on August 4, 2022. Kodansha has compiled its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was published on January 23, 2017. As of February 22, 2024, 13 volumes have been published.
In North America, Kodansha USA announced the acquisition of the series in July 2018. The first volume was published on April 9, 2019.
A spin-off manga series by Hiromi Satō, titled Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen, started in Morning Two on November 22, 2019.
In April 2022, it was announced that the series will receive an anime adaptation. It was later revealed at Anime Expo 2024 to be a television series that will be produced by Bug Films and directed by Ayumu Watanabe, with Hiroaki Kojima as the producer, Kairi Unabara as the character designer, and Yuka Kitamura as the composer. The series is set to premiere in 2025. Crunchyroll will stream the series worldwide outside of Asia.
The manga had 700,000 copies in circulation by July 2018; 1 million copies in circulation by September 2018; over 2.5 million copies in circulation by April 2022; over 4.5 million copies in circulation by October 2022; and over 5.5 million copies in circulation by July 2024.
The series ranked sixth on Kono Manga ga Sugoi!'s top 20 manga for male readers 2018. The manga was nominated for the 11th Manga Taishō awards in 2018. It ranked first on the "Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics" by the Honya Club website in 2018. The manga was nominated for the 42nd and 44th Kodansha Manga Award in the General category in 2018 and 2020 respectively. It was nominated for the French 12th ACBD's Prix Asie de la Critique 2018.
In 2019, Witch Hat Atelier won the Korean Ridibooks Comic Award 2019' Next Manga Award. The series has won four French awards: the "Daruma d'or manga" at the Japan Expo Awards 2019; the 2019 Mangawa Prize for best seinen manga; the Grand Prize of the 2019 "Les Mordus du Manga" award; and the Babelio 2020 award in the manga category. It won the Spanish Manga Barcelona award for the seinen category in 2018, 2022 and 2023. The series was also picked as a nominee for "Best Youth Comic" at the 46th Angoulême International Comics Festival held in 2019. Witch Hat Atelier was chosen as one of the Best Manga at the Comic-Con International Best & Worst Manga of 2019.
In 2020, Witch Hat Atelier was one of the manga titles that ranked on the "Top 10 Graphic Novels for Teens" by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) of the American Library Association, and ranked again on the 2021 list. Along with Taiyō Matsumoto's Cats of the Louvre, the series won the 2020 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material in the Asia category for Kodansha USA's English release. In 2020, the series won the Harvey Awards for the Best Manga category. The English release translation by Stephen Kohler and the lettering by Lys Blakeslee won the Japan Society and Anime NYC's first American Manga Awards in the Best Translation and Best Lettering categories, respectively, in 2024. The series was nominated for the Harvey Awards in the Best Manga category in the same year.
Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network rated the first two volumes an "A−". Silverman praised the series for its world, story, characters and artwork, and concluded that "this is one tale you don't want to miss". Writing for Barnes & Noble, Kelly Chiu listed the series on her list of "The Perfect Manga Matches for 10 Studio Ghibli Movies", and recommended the series to fans of Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away. American animator Dana Terrace endorsed the manga series on her Twitter account after receiving fan art from Shirahama of her recently-concluded animated series The Owl House, describing Witch Hat Atelier as a "magical, queer, heart-racing story of empathy and self discovery".