When I was growing up, I always had a very extensive imagination. I was a bit of a weird kid – who would have guessed – and especially during my teenage years when I wasn’t fitting in all that well with my peers my mind would spend a lot of time wandering. I would also read a lot of books and it was around that time that my love for the fantasy genre came into full force. As much as I actively despise the author, I have to admit that as a child I was enthralled by Harry Potter. The idea that there was an entire world out there that was filled with magic was so incredibly appealing to a young boy. Appealing enough that I would even be able to ignore one of the most glaring issues with the series. No, I’m not talking about the inconsistencies or the racist undertones, I’m talking about how at the end of the day, much of the magic we are shown in Harry Potter is incredibly boring. At least the books let us apply our own imagination, but in the movies it looks uninspired at best.
Now I’m not here to take shots at Harry Potter – although I don’t mind doing so – but instead I want to talk about why magic has been such a big obsession for me and many other lonely children. Because what is magic? Magic isn’t something we can very clearly define. You can argue it’s things that science can’t explain, it’s tricks that magicians use like sleight of hand, or it’s the mastering of the elements like in Avatar. Magic can be whatever a storyteller wants it to be, but that comes with its risks. In fiction we have what we call “soft magic systems” and “hard magic systems”. Lord of the Rings is a great example of the former, where magic is this strange power that just sort of does things to advance the story. And hard magic is what we see applied in the anime we’re discussing today.
That’s not to say that hard magic is better than soft magic or the other way around, either system can be great if it is executed well. Suspension of disbelief is a powerful tool and if an author does not abuse this then even the most unexplained magic systems can still function wonderfully. But for me personally, there is something incredibly special about a hard magic system that also manages to look cool. In the world of Witch Hat Atelier, the masses are made to believe that magic is something you are born with, and only those who have the aptitude for it can become witches. In reality, that is not the case. Anyone is able to use magic if you just know where to get some special ink and learn how to draw magic circles. Depending on the size, design and direction of the circles the magic will change and witches are those who study these circles and learn to draw them so that they can cast magic spells. They need to do all of this while hiding the truth from the public as readily available magic can easily be abused like it was in the past.
In this world, Coco finds out about the truth and becomes a student at Qifrey’s atelier while the duo try to save her mother from the spell that Coco accidentally cast on her as well as figuring out more about the brimmed caps. These brimmed caps are the villains of the story – at least at this point they are, I don’t know if that will change since it feels like this story definitely has the ability to go into many directions – and keep messing with Coco as she seems to be a tool in one of their schemes. Coco in the meantime is learning rapidly and alongside her three fellow apprentices she is working hard to master more seals.
Now, what really sells this manga for me is the way that magic gets applied to tools. The concept of drawing magic circles to cast certain spells is fun for sure, but it’s not the first story that uses this concept. Fullmetal Alchemist did it decades ago and I myself am an avid fan of this type of magic and use it in several of my stories. But the way these circles are also drawn onto objects to make them function just really blew my mind. Flying shoes? Half the circle is on the left shoe and the other half is on the right shoe and when put together the magic activates. Only when the circle is completed does the spell activate, so all witches have a small round notepad with prepared spells they can cast in an instant if they need to. Powerful spells are engraved into weapons and objects to give them the properties of the magic. It’s honestly a really fun application of a tried and true concept.
So why do we love magic so much? I should probably deliver on the premise of this post by now. Magic – to me – is the idea that there are things out there that we cannot fully explain. As sensible as a magic circle is, why does it do the things it does? Why does using the ancient language in Eragon give you the power to do magical things? Why can the people in the world of Avatar use their bending to control the elements? Just because a magical system is well explained, doesn’t mean that it’s a reality. And we don’t like reality. Reality kind of sucks most of the time. Just turn on the news for an hour and you’ll be going to bed depressed. So what would be more optimistic than the thought that a world could exist where magic could be used to solve some of our problems?
Magic is the idea that anything is possible if you just put in the time and effort. It’s why we love a story about someone who doesn’t expect to have the talent or ability for magic to find out that they actually do. I think that creating a world where you require special powers to use magic is kind of sad. Instead, think of creating a world where anyone can use magic if they get the right tools for it. That is exactly what the world of Witch Hat Atelier does and I’m very curious to see how its limitations come back to bite it in the long run. Thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 