The persistence of hope in Witch Hat Atelier
I made a jokey post about how Qifrey keeps collecting abused apprentices and they keep healing, which is paradoxically bad for him. But all jokes aside, I think it demonstrates how Witch Hat Atelier presents hope as a theme.
The series makes no secret about presenting itself as about "hope and despair". But the two sides of that coin are absolutely *not* balanced. Ininia, when confronted by Coco, says she never expected the silverwood in Custas to sprout. Why would it? He grew up poor and alone, he got seriously injured and lost the use of his legs, he can't get consistent mobility aids, the witches he considered his friends lied to him, his father died, and kept dying in front of him, over and over, every day. Custas has every reason to be miserable forever! And yet, all it took was a brief moment in Dagda's arms for him to feel safe.
(As a note, Ininia seems to treat this as a weakness in Custas. It makes me wonder if her character arc will be exploring the kind of person who, after trauma, over-identifies with their pain to the point of rejecting any hope for growth or recovery as pointless and naive. But that's something for another day).
We can see this in other characters as well. Coco has an extremely traumatic first interaction with magic. And yet, it doesn't stop her from feeling wonder and joy at even the simplest, most mundane spells. Richeh says she hates adults who treat kids as things rather than people- which means she does feel treated like a person at the atelier. We can (and should) criticize the Knights Moralis as a police system. But for Luluci, they turned an experience of being groomed and abused into an experience of being believed, taken seriously, and protected.
This theme is also Qifrey's entire arc and character struggle. The fact that the Brimhat's initial experiment involved wiping him repeatedly is technically evidence that, even back then, he kept finding moments of peace. One hug from Olruggio was enough to help when he was at the point of drowning himself. He has any number of things to keep him stressed (his lost memories, his crimes, his guilt over Olruggio and others, his students, trying to protect other/future victims) and it keeps not being enough. He is actively trying to hold on to bitterness and vengeance as motivators, and they keep slipping away like sand, because despite everything, he's built a good life.
With Hat Atelier does not say that hope or healing is easy. I would hesitate to suggest it even says these things are inevitable. But it does assert that hope, healing, peace and growth are both powerful and persistent. Like weeds, they will grow through the smallest possible crack. Despair looks big and complicated and all-encompassing and nevertheless can be pushed back by the smallest, simplest, weakest token of kindness. It's not even a close fight.
