Manga Review: Witch Hat Atelier Vol. 1 by Kamome Shirahama and Stephen Kohler (Goodreads Author)

Another sweet manga review 🙂

I follow this awesome user on twitter by the name of https://twitter.com/MinovskyArticle who talks about a lot of cool mangas that he reads. He posted about this one a few days ago and it looked enchanting by the pictures he provided and I just knew that I had to read it.

To my utter delight and surprise the first volume is available on Kindle Unlimited! It was fate, kismet, destined to be. And now the review of a witch, magic, and cursed spell books.

Coco is a simple girl with simple dreams.

She yearns to be a witch but what she wants is the impossible. Everyone knows that witches are born and Coco is of the most ordinary.

That is until she meets a traveling magician named Qifrey perform magic in a way that blows the magical theory out of the water. Coco decides to perform her own magic from a spell book that she received long ago from a witch. In her childhood naiviety and excitement she learns that sometimes it is best to leave some doors closed. While she may have found herself the toll she pays is far too severe for it to have been worth it.

This manga is breathtaking.

The story is captivating yes, but it is the artwork that is painstakingly beautiful. This is a fantasy novel and in every panel you can feel the strokes of magic bouncing off the pages with each stroke.

Coco as a character is adorable. I love protagonists like her because she reminds me of me. Adorable yet oblivious. Headstrong yet clumsy. Ridiculous yet clumsy. Look, we’re trying our best. It’ll just take maybe 10 or 20 times for us to get there. She’s a headstrong girl and when faced with horrible obstacles and difficulties still pushes through and I admire the hell out of it. Also, a girl obsessed with witches and magic??? After my own heart.

When Coco discovers that the magic book she was given as a child is perhaps a bit too much to handle she is taken under Qifrey’s hand and becomes his apprentice and he trains her to become a witch. In the witch realm Coco encounters other young apprentices such as herself. Of course not everything is so easy for our humble, easily distracted protagonist. There are tests, spells, and a lot of memorization she needs to go through. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this and I was upset when it ended. I definitely will be continuing this read. It’s interesting and the art is simply gorgeous.

It reminds me a lot of a JRPG or a Hayao Miyazaki movie. I’m enjoying myself so far and all of the magical elements. This is definitely a must read if you’re a fantasy fan and/or you’re in need of a sweet manga with gorgeous illustrations.