Witch Hat Atelier

a series by Kamome Shirahama

Summary

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 as so far as to erase the memories of any uninitiated when they discover this secret. Thus, as Coco immerses herself into this new, wondrous world, a sinister plot begins to thicken around her.
Source

Characters

Qifrey

Coco

Agott

Books

About the Author

Kamome Shirahama is a Japanese freelance manga artist and illustrator. She is best known for her Witch Hat Atelier series. She has created variant covers and other illustrations for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and stories in the Star Wars franchise. She did the character designs for The Elder, part of the Star Wars: Visions short film series released in 2021, and she wrote the 2022 manga adaptation for it. She has won and been nominated for multiple awards, including the Eisner Award, the Harvey Award, the Kodansha Manga Award, the Manga Taishō, the Daruma d'or manga at the Japan Expo Awards, the Mangawa Award, and the Prix Babelio.
She graduated from the design program at the Tokyo University of the Arts. She works using analog tools such as pencils, pen and ink, and colored pencils rather than digital tools. Influences on her work include The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter novels, which she read in junior high school, as well as the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles. Her art style has multiple influences, including Alphonse Mucha, Mœbius, Hayao Miyazaki, and Moto Hagio.
Her debut story was Watashi no Kuro-chan, published by Enterbrain in Fellows! in 2011. She made her multi-part story publishing debut with Eniale & Dewiela in Fellows! in 2012. She began doing variant covers and other illustration and concept work for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Star Wars comics in 2015 after her art was noticed at New York Comic Con, working on titles such as Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, Deadpool, and Batgirl and the Birds of Prey.
Witch Hat Atelier began serialization in Kodansha's Monthly Morning Two manga magazine in July 2016. When the first collected volume was released in January 2017, the manga was so popular it became hard to find copies in stores.
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