Witch Hat Atelier ‒ Episode 13

I know that, ideally, anime based on manga is meant to look like the drawings coming alive, but Witch Hat Atelier really knocks it out of the park. This episode is exquisitely animated in all aspects, from the seemingly mundane hesitance of hands reaching out for each other to Euini's horrifying transformation to the breathtaking final scene of Qifrey activating a spell as he stands between his students and the gilded dead of Romonon. Every choice is deliberate, every line is important, and each scene – whether Agott's horror or the brushbuddy's attempts to wake Coco – is impeccably put together. This is anime at the top of its craft.

This is also the first episode where I really understood why the Brimmed Caps are treated as evil abominations. To just listen to Qifrey explain the differing philosophies of Brimmed and Pointed Caps, it sounds like the Pointed Caps are just being stubborn about things that don't matter or could actively help people, like medical magic. But when the invisible witch attacks the three children in the Serpentback Cave, the stories take on a different light. This is someone utterly without remorse or morals, perfectly content to hurt children to get to Coco. They know that tattooing Agott is a death sentence for her at worst, or at best a reason why she'll have to go over to their side. They know it's wrong to transform Euini against his will, potentially without a way to undo the spell, since they weren't expecting it to go the way it did. They don't care as long as they get what they want: a pawn in the shape of Coco.

To call this episode tense would be drastically understating the matter. Everything about it is terrifying, from the headlong sled ride to the golden dead of old Romonon, lurching zombie-like towards Qifrey, Tetia, and Coco. (I had flashbacks to a Unico film I watched way too young and that gave me nightmares for years.) But while the situations themselves are frightening, it's the implications that are almost scarier. Before now, the Brimmed Caps were sort of a nebulous evil, the equivalent of the boogie man hiding under your bed. He might be there, and that's enough to scare you. That's changed now that we've seen the Invisible Witch in action: the boogie man is not only there, but he's got teeth and claws, a nightmare given flesh. This witch is willing to kill to get what they want, and if the lost souls of Romonon are any indication, that may have been the norm for Brimmed Caps even in the past. It's not that they used different magic, but more how they used it. Transformation magic doesn't need to be terrible, but it certainly is if you use it on someone against their will.

The Brimmed Caps also seem to have a well-cultivated sense of being wronged. The Invisible Witch says that in the old days, the Pointed Caps were the villains, presumably a statement on how the Brimmed Caps disagreed with their views of magic and its use. When it becomes “us vs. them,” things rarely end amicably, and the ill will between the two groups has had more than enough time to fester. And the Pointed Caps are making some bad choices. The Knights Moralis are the distillation of what's wrong with their philosophy. The Brimmed Caps don't even have the market on tormenting children cornered – look at Kukrow, the Knights, and the way Tartah is treated by the community at large. But at least the Invisible Witch is going all-in on dreadful deeds, and the legend (and reality) of old Romonon shows that they're not alone. Unchecked power, whether magical or otherwise, rarely ends well for either the wielders or those it's used upon.

For a story with so many eyes, it does seem like very few adults are truly seeing. Both Brimmed Caps have eyes as their motif, and Qifrey's one dark lens – and his panic when Coco reached for it – is one of our indicators that there's probably more to him than he's admitting. Hiding one's eyes can be seen as a mark of untrustworthiness. What would all of these witches see if they really bothered to look?

This seems to be, for now, the final episode. It's a terrible place to end, but you can pick up the manga and just slip right in. I'd encourage you to do so, because the rest of this story is more than worth telling.

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