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| witch hat atelier | iwtv | dungeon meshi | multifandom | occasionally figure skating | they/them

[and-fishing-equipment]

sorry but someone assuming you have "left a fandom" when you don't post about it a lot anymore feels like bilbo coming home to the sackville bagginses having him presumed dead and selling all his stuff. girl i was just on a little quest????

[wingkink]

btw it's so fucking stupid you can be anxious physically in your body even after you've decided mentally you don't care. I'm supposed to be in charge here

[kriame]

Very few pieces of media have captured the essence of what learning can be like in a way that witch hat atelier has. I haven't seen this many people from completely different fields relating to the joy that witch hat atelier embodies when it comes to education.

There's the obvious parallel between magic and the arts that quite obvious but its magic system also has similarities with math and programming which I personally find interesting. Many people have pointed this out (including references to other stem subjects as well but I digress) and while the hard magic system itself is not particularly revolutionary or anything (a variety of video games have executed this similarly with extensive detail), the way its themes about learning and teaching is unique.

There are so many shows about school, and yet this is one of the few that have actually managed to capture what learning as a kid can be like or frankly what learning can and should be like for anyone. Just like how the manga remembers that these girls are twelve, its also remembers that they are students and them learning is the actual driving force to the story. At no point is it a backdrop to the "adventure", the learning is the point.

You are constantly shown how much effort these girls put. How regardless of the fact its a hard magic system that requires extensive theory, studying and rote memorizations; there's ample space for creativity and self expression. All the girls have styles and preferences to the way they problem solve. (Richeh preferring small intricate spells linked together and it reflects in all her work etc)

Even when its outside the "schooling" environment and actual issues arise, Coco's problem solving ends up coming back to whatever she learnt most recently. Her main one being time reversal spells because that was her most recent lesson before silver eve arc, ("Learn, remember, apply" as Qifrey points out) Of course that what's she's going to think about. She just learned this cool as fuck spell and now that's all she's going to be thinking about for the next 2 weeks. (its so relatable, yeah ofc we're going to fixate on this, why wouldn't we)

And even then, its not all sunshine, it does a great job at covering how difficult all of this can be, learning is hard and you will burn out if you try to overdo it. magic is complicated and sometime unintuitive.

Nothing will make me forget that the girl who was able to verbally forgive herself for not being able to be a prodigy at magic in the beginning of the story slowly turn into the current Coco who broke down crying because she couldn't draw. She couldn't come up with anything, a blank paper filled only with the desperation to keep going. She becomes so focused on the utility of magic, she forgets what its like to just do magic for fun, to learn for yourself.

I also love that the magic is a metaphor for skills in a way. that Qifrey says that Coco's tailoring, that skill and effort she put as a girl is magical in its own right.

Right now where companies thinks the new gen AI is capable of doing all the work in STEM or arts (IT CANT) and no one needs to learn these "boring" subjects anymore, why is it so hard to believe these things can be interesting on its own, that people want to learn. We don't want to delegate all our thinking to your fucking junk tech.

[kriame]

Theres this specific thing Qilfrey mentions when he shows Coco the atelier that is such a good encapsulation of what this story is about that. He shows where everything is and then deliberately specifies that the bedroom doors can be locked.

Because these girls deserve to have privacy and space to feel completely safe for themselves. Its such a small detail but qilfrey pointing out "this is space is yours and only yours" is so important as a guardian. (It also is an amazing way to show what qilfrey is actually like early on and his geniune care for his apprentices)

And thats the best part of the manga & anime, this consistent theme of respecting children and their autonomy (as well as what it means to be a mentor figure). Yes their twelve and a little ridiculous, but he always allows them to evolve by themselves. He let's them make mistakes and guides them while always letting them retain their own autonomy, personality and beliefs.

Shirahama gives these girls the dignity they deserve in a world where everything kids but especially young girls do gets infantalized, ridiculed and demeaned. Their problems are real and given depth.

They question the knights moralis and work to fix it (or find loop holes...) because they have qilfrey and olruggio who back them up and encourage them to have these big ideas and to go against the grain, because even if their twelve, they are people to be heard and respected. Their ideas are not automatically stupid and niave just because their kids.

More often then not, kids get patronised non stop so for qilfrey to geniunely hear them out, no matter what happens or to take their emotional outbursts or stupid decisions seriously and not consider them "tantrums" but rather an outburst of emotions that anyone would have being put under that much stress is just so so lovely. Its just one part of the story but the manga does so much with it.

[istilldontlikemyusername]

Love what you’ve written here, and I’d like to tack on a bit more about Qifrey.

Because the thing is, he isn’t perfect. He’s amazing, one of the best, if not the best teacher in Witch Hat, but even he has had his shortcomings when it comes to being supportive for kids.

And yes, I’m talking about (manga spoilers incoming)…

Tartah.

One of many that got the short end of the stick when it comes to adults, and his end was particularly short due to his disability. He’d already been judged and dismissed by so many adults. There’s speculation that his parents were among them, and that’s why he had to live with his grandfather.

He already had mistrust in the adults and their institutions, which was exemplified even more when he met Custas and saw how the adults treated him.

And yet, for the longest time, there was one exception to that.

Qifrey had proven to Tartah how much he cared about his students, and how he cared about Tartah himself. Tartah knew that Qifrey was kind, and respected him despite the fact that he was disabled.

I don’t have it on hand right now, but there’s a panel in the manga where Tartah is thinking about masters, and Qifrey appears.

But for Tartah, all of that changed in ch 87, when he got the confession out of Coco that Qifrey knew about the silverwood. And for the record, Tartah had no background context to this. As far as he knew, Coco may as well have known about this since the beginning.

It was then that Tartah confirmed that Qifrey had an underlying agenda. But even before that, Qifrey had erased his grandfathers’ memories, and lied about it to Tartah’s face. He didn’t value Tartah’s trust more than his own goals.

Qifrey was the straw that broke the camel’s back in my opinion. And might’ve been the most hurtful one.

[kriame]

This is tack-ception but you reminded me of something aswell

(Manga spoilers warning)

I wanted to add that even when its about the girls, qifrey sometimes has to be reminded that his priorities should be his apprentices, not chasing a potential lead to brimhats. He tries his best and improves as time goes on but he isnt perfect.

He visibly weighs out his options in his altercation with Iguin when coco gets injured and really wants to just drop everything to go after Iguin. This actually makes the dynamic more interesting because he isn't this selfless mentor trope, but he will keep trying to be the best and that's much more valuable then if it was inherently easy for him.

[kriame]

Theres this specific thing Qifrey mentions when he shows Coco the atelier that is such a good encapsulation of what this story is about that. He shows where everything is and then deliberately specifies that the bedroom doors can be locked.

Because these girls deserve to have privacy and space to feel completely safe for themselves. Its such a small detail but qifrey pointing out "this is space is yours and only yours" is so important as a guardian. (It also is an amazing way to show what qifrey is actually like early on. Even though he's clearly not perfect, he geniunely cares for his apprentices)

And thats the best part of the manga & anime, this consistent theme of respecting children and their autonomy (as well as what it means to be a mentor figure). Yes their twelve and a little ridiculous, but he always allows them to evolve by themselves. He let's them make mistakes and guides them while always letting them retain their own autonomy, personality and beliefs.

Shirahama gives these girls the dignity they deserve in a world where everything kids but especially young girls do gets infantalized, ridiculed and demeaned. Their problems are real and given depth.

They question the knights moralis and work to fix it (or find loop holes...) because they have qifrey and olruggio who back them up and encourage them to have these big ideas and to go against the grain, because even if their twelve, they are people to be heard and respected. Their ideas are not automatically stupid and niave just because their kids.

More often then not, kids get patronised non stop so for qifrey to geniunely hear them out, no matter what happens or to take their emotional outbursts or stupid decisions seriously and not consider them "tantrums" but rather an outburst of emotions that anyone would have being put under that much stress is just so so lovely. Its just one part of the story but the manga does so much with it.

[thecollectibles]

Layered cliffs under clear sky by qing ying

[decomposedmaw]

Pixel post dividers for everyone! It's not much, but feel free to use them if you'd like. I don't know the ideal size for these, so let me know if they're too tall. I can make them a bit shorter next time.

[zoinyoi]

teachers

[kriame]

I genuinely love that the girls in witch hat atelier read like actual 10-12 year olds. Their messy and emotional and also a little evil (as 12 year olds usually are).

Like Agott telling Coco "i already did this test when I was TEN" even though the oldest they could canonically be is like 11-12. But for a kid thats a huge difference, thats practically being a baby. Especially for a kid who knows this test can be taken between the ages of 7-10. She already feels like shes taken it late and cannot fathom the idea of learning at your own pace, of course she's going to be a little menace to Coco about it.

[transmascmarypoppins]

why is this post completely broken in every way imaginable

[cecilsrandomeverything]

Broken notes… deactivated account… removed image….

Finally, we have them all.

[spacefinch]

In addition: OP’s name is just… gone. No “[insert username]-deactivated[insert a bunch of numbers]” as is the standard for deactivated blogs.

Just the world “deactivated.” Look upon their post, ye mighty, and despair.

[chatblancofficial]

It’ll be almost impossible to find this post unless it wanders across your dash.

[black-quadrant]

Reblog this triple-dead post for something good to happen to you this week.

[samglyph]

This is true of the manga, but I love how the anime accentuates the absolute physical trust the apprentices have with Qifrey. Specifically with Agott, the way she is so ready when Qifrey says “hang on tight, I need my hands free” to cling to him a mile into the sky, and then in the latest episode, how, as soon as she impacts Qifrey while flying to him, she makes no move to save herself, she just curls into him and trusts that he will keep them from falling.

And I think it works as a signal to the audience, to subtly go “hey, I know we don’t trust Qifrey right now, he’s being shady, but we can always trust him to protect the physical wellbeing of his kids. Remember that.” Idk man maybe I’m getting too attached to a teeny detail but aaaaaaghhhh that’s her dad.

[nolvini]

new moon

[yokolate]

Witch Hat Atelier (2026) — 1x09 Kamome Shirahama

[bluebeesknees]

“can you draw this one?“

[elvyn]

Qifrey

[figureskatingfanblog]

Congrats to Kaori Sakamoto on her marriage!

[luulapants]

If we wanted to engage in nuance (lol, lmao) on the "are audiobooks reading" debate, we really do need to bring literacy, and especially blind literacy, into the conversation.

Because, yes, listening to a story and reading a story use mostly the same parts of the brain. Yes, listening to the audiobook counts as "having read" a book. Yes, oral storytelling has a long, glorious tradition and many cultures maintained their histories through oral history or oral + art history, having never developed a true written language, and their oral stories and histories are just as valid and rich as written literature.

We still can't call listening in the absence of reading "literacy."

The term literacy needs to stay restricted to the written word, to the ability to access and engage with written texts, because we need to be able to talk about illiteracy. We need to be able to identify when a society is failing to teach children to read, and if we start saying that listening to stories is literacy, we lose the ability to describe those systemic failures.

Blind folks have been knee-deep in this debate for a long time. Schools struggle to provide resources to teach students Braille and enforcing the teaching of Braille to low-vision and blind children is a constant uphill battle. A school tried to argue that one girl didn't need to learn Braille because she could read 96-point font. Go check what that is. The new prevalence of audiobooks and TTS is a huge threat to Braille literacy because it provides institutions with another excuse to not provide Braille education or Braille texts.

That matters. Braille-literate blind and low-vision people have a 90% employment rate. For those who don't know Braille, it's 30%. Braille literacy is linked to higher academic success in all fields.

Moving outside the world of Braille, literacy of any kind matters. Being able to read text has a massive impact on a person's ability to access information, education, and employment. Being able to talk about the inability to read text matters, because that's how we're able to hold systems accountable.

So, yes, audiobooks should count as reading. But, no, they should not count as literacy.