Not only is Vysache hot as hell, he's a great character! I legit want to see where SLF's game story goes because I want to know what he's doing to do in it!!
I just watched an autistic hunk hook up with a crossdressing bisexual twink to try and find a wife so his lesbian sister can live in peace with her girlfriend, and also they're all super-assassins.
i just i love i love love love how they incorporated the little bits of characterization here ITS SO GOOD
cocos confident straight line
agotts incredibly swift line as if shes rushing, right in front of coco??
riches little circle!!!! THE WAY SHES IN HER OWN LITTLE CORNER IS ALSO EXCELLENT
tetias excited swoop
THE WAY OLLY WAITS FOR THE GIRLS TO START THEIR LINES BEFORE GOING IN HIMSELF IS SOOOOOO GOOD
QIFREY JUST SITTING THERE, WAND IN HAND, NOT DRAWING BUT WATCHING
I’ve seen a lot of people talking about the snugstone and how they were surprised to see it colored in all these blues instead of the traditional reds that come with fire magic
Not to mention it’s the color of Qifrey’s eyes I don’t have the time to go into that
And I was thinking. You know what other spell I saw animated and went oh wow that’s so pretty and not the colors I expected it to be animated as?
Qifrey’s water dragon. Which does in fact have the traditional fire magic coloring
All of their magic contains bits and pieces of each other in one way or another they are making me ill
so i've noticed something about orufrey's body language
and i have been going insane about it ever since! kamome shirahama your attention to details will be the death of me /pos
hands are the most expressive non-verbal tool humans have, and since it's also quite literally the tool that gives the witches their magic, watching hands in witch hat atelier is beyond important. implied spoilers up to ch93 under cut! [don't mind the language of half the screenshots, that's beside the point]
qifrey so very often tends to clasp his hands together, rubbing them against each other or simply clinging to his long robes. a gesture so telling of just how uncomfortable due to silverwood he constantly is, always slightly nervous, always tip-toeing around the edge of a cliff.
and he's been doing so since childhood! his emotions are so closed-off when it comes to casual body language, which is both an indicator of his character and the ways in which he deals with his curse. unable to trust even his closest friend, he chooses the only vaguely soothing thing: to curl into himself, to detach, to distance.
meanwhile olruggio, despite his scruffiness, generally comes off as a more open, "simple" man, hands flying all over the place when he's agitated. he expresses his emotions freely, without restrain.
qifrey curls into a ball for comfort, meanwhile olly splays like a star, comfortable in his skin an in qifrey's presence
and what happens when they start to interact?
olly keeps reaching for qifrey, talking some sense into him with his hands, with spontaneous and emotional physical touch.
he does so even upon first meeting
he keeps and keeps reaching out to qifrey, both literally and symbolically.
no matter how hard qifrey tries to run away, to hide deeper into himself, olruggio will always be there to offer him a friendly hand or otherwise
this particular parallel is especially dear to me:
they changed so much,
but they also haven't changed at all
and the culmination of this dynamic in a single image for me is this:
qifrey, gaze averted, hands uncomfortably clasped together, fake smile on his face
and olruggio, calm and confident, leaning into qifrey's personal space with familiar ease, resting an arm on his shoulder in a friendly gesture.
everything that shirahama consistently portrays as the manga goes on and the history unravels, neatly and wordlessly shown in a single static image. the art of showing, but not telling, thus nurturing a deeper understanding of these characters. absolutely brilliant
The thing about the Witch Hat Atelier world is that the magic system sounds great until you realize it's essentially programming and that sobers you up immediately. Sure, maybe you reach the level of skill needed to draw perfect curves, straight lines, and circles without looking down, but after that you still need to be able to logic out which combination of sigils will actually give you the desired effect, and if you misplace a single line it all goes to shit. Add to that the inclusion of effect-altering inks and you start to understand why Olruggio is Like That.