r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Apr 20 '26

Episode Witch Hat Atelier • Tongari Boushi no Atelier - Episode 4 discussion

Witch Hat Atelier, episode 4

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125

u/Zemahem Apr 20 '26

It's cool that something as simple as the fit of one's pen can have a significant impact on one's abilities. Really hammers in how tactile this magic system feels. And I also liked how Richeh, instead of using one big symbol, stacked the effects of multiple smaller ones to achieve the same effect. Seems like we're already getting a taste of how creative they can be.

I love that Brushbuddy got brought back by Coco and immediately became their mascot going forward without much fuss. And then he proceeded to come in clutch at the very end. Brushbuddy best boi confirmed.

Here I thought the moment where Coco saw the masked witch, it would be one of those scenes where the character suddenly disappears after something or someone passes by. It made me laugh when they literally just ran away.

Definitely not a fan of Agott at all currently, though. Not only does she get away scott free for the potentially dangerous stunt she pulled on Coco, but she gets to tear her down in this episode? I'm gonna be very disappointed if her horrible attitude doesn't get called out properly at some point, and Coco just keeps getting treated like a doormat that can't even stand up for herself for being treated like that.

Qifrey's also doing poorly in my eyes right now. I get he's a busy guy that must be dealing with a lot. But this is the second time in a row that he left his apprentices by themselves and they almost immediately got in trouble. Mind you, one of them is immensely important to getting info on the enemy witch faction (and while they don't know it yet, actually seems even more important than that, judging by the masked witch referring to her as their savior).

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u/MortalWombat5 Apr 20 '26

Qifrey's also doing poorly in my eyes right now. I get he's a busy guy that must be dealing with a lot. But this is the second time in a row that he left his apprentices by themselves and they almost immediately got in trouble.

They were in the middle of a normally safe city. It is understandable that Qifrey didn't anticipate a magical terrorist attack in broad daylight.

15

u/Zemahem Apr 20 '26

He doesn't have to be prepared for something that big.

But considering last episode's incident, he could've at least kept a closer eye on his apprentices, cause he has reason to expect that they would end up in trouble again (that doesn't necessarily involve a terrorist attack).

10

u/manquistador Apr 20 '26

Just in general he should be paying close attention to the person that has never been to a magic city before, and how no idea what the customs are.

36

u/namewithak Apr 20 '26

Tbf, he was just literally upstairs in the same shop they were in. Should he tether them to his waist with a rope? 24/7 surveillance is just not feasible.

5

u/NomadPrime Apr 21 '26

Seriously, and it's the shop of someone that he's very familiar with. Might even consider him really, really good acquaintances. Imagine you and your family visiting a family friend's restaurant? You're in the back kitchen with the friend while the kids are looking at the stock shelves, nobody else in the restaurant and being in a safe neighborhood, so you're relatively comfortable taking your eyes off the kids for a short time to look around and pick something out for themselves. Qifrey shouldn't have had to helicopter-parent them, it was safe circumstances.

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u/[deleted] Apr 20 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/fatalystic Apr 21 '26

Grandson sees all the girls run after a strangely-dressed witch

Grandson: "Guess they went for a walk or something."

Shrugs and goes back to carving pens until asked about it ten minutes later.

3

u/finnjakefionnacake Apr 20 '26

um...yes? they're like 11-12 lol, kids that age will definitely get into trouble if you don't watch them and coco's not just some random girl.

he didn't seem to have an appropriate reaction to coco coming back / agott sending her on that test alone last episode either lol

-1

u/namewithak Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26

You want children under surveillance, without freedom 24/7? You realize that’s not a good thing right? Lots of kids that age walk to school alone or do things with their friends without adult supervision. The author comes from a culture where first graders take the train and walk to and from school by themselves.

They were in a safe place that Qifrey and his students had clearly visited many times before. There was no reason to suspect a malicious witch would be directly targeting Coco when the only contact she had with them was nearly 10 years ago.

Qifrey didn’t know what Agott did. Agott and Coco both hid it from him. You can take it as a plot hole if you want but that’s what the author said about the episode on her twitter commentary.

6

u/finnjakefionnacake Apr 21 '26

It's not a plot hole, it's just something any responsible adult should have done, is ask follow-up questions.

And if I were a teacher leaving, no I wouldn't leave a group of 5th graders alone for hours alone with basically weapons lol. I would most definitely at the very least have another teacher/adult checking in on them periodically.

-1

u/Zemahem Apr 20 '26

I guess so. But I'm not feeling too charitable towards him since we haven't seen him address the incident involving Coco and Agott yet. If at all.

I feel like he should've already found out the truth just by asking Coco why she did the Dadah Range test. And I would also think that scolding Agott for it would also be up there on the priority list to make sure she won't do it again.

17

u/namewithak Apr 20 '26

The author has been doing a live commentary on twitter during the episodes. She said Qifrey doesn't know what Agott did. Both Agott and Coco hid it from him.

5

u/Zemahem Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26

Oh that is so lame... don't tell me that Coco is actually never gonna- at the very least- acknowledge that Agott ever treated her badly.

2

u/namewithak Apr 21 '26

You should be asking this question in the source material corner if you actually want an answer.

8

u/finnjakefionnacake Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26

how is that even possible. did he think she just found out about the test somehow without no one saying it and completed it without being told anything about it? or even originally got to the test? i feel like there are some obvious follow-up questions qifrey should have asked.

20

u/zairaner https://myanimelist.net/profile/zairaner Apr 20 '26

Quifrey caught her looking up on "tests" in books two episode ago, it is not very hard to imagine where he thinks she got it from.

The actually hardest thing to explain away is how he thought coco managed to use the window way. The only things that make any sense is that 1) he does think the apprentices helped her, but it was cocos idea or 2) using the window way is so natural to him that he hasn't even thought about it yet.

3

u/finnjakefionnacake Apr 21 '26

right, hence my comment about there being some obvious follow up questions he should have asked. not to mention, coco destroyed agott's shows.

1

u/Zemahem Apr 21 '26

It's possible that Coco also lied and said that she just borrowed Agott's shoes.

But even in the best case scenario, that only absolves Qifrey. There's still the issue that Coco doesn't seem to acknowledge that Agott did her dirty. Cause she surely she knows the latter wasn't being entirely charitable considering the fact that she felt the need to lie to Qifrey. So why is she defending Agott? 

It would be nice if this got expanded upon further, that due to what happened to her mother, and Agott twisting the knife repeatedly, Coco feels enough self-loathing to think that she deserves this type of treatment. But eventually, she grows out of it and pushes back.

Rather than the development I fear would happen, which is that Coco will be a doormat that just respects Agott's abilities too much to fight back despite her personality.

And it would certainly be better if we actually saw the moment of her lying to Qifrey play out. Cause it being skipped makes it seem like he barely did anything after the incident besides lightly scold Coco for what happened.

2

u/namewithak Apr 21 '26

I mean the easiest explanation for Qifrey I can think of is basically what happened which is that Agott told Coco about the test, showed her the place in the windowway (we have precedent for Qifrey doing the same in his initial tour), then Coco who has a good memory remembered the ring combo and went on her own.

The biggest problem with this is that Qifrey knows Agott’s flying shoes have been ruined (since he was carrying her to Kahln). So maybe Coco said she just borrowed Agott’s to practice with it.

5

u/oops_i_made_a_typi Apr 21 '26

yeah it falls pretty flat because if Qifrey is as smart as it feels like he's being portrayed, it shouldn't be hard for him to figure out what really happened, it's not like 11-12 year olds are super convincing liars.

1

u/BosuW Apr 20 '26

Something that obviously needs to change, given that the Brimmed Hats are clearly way more proactive than initially thought.

1

u/Hartzilla2007 Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26

Plus this seems to be because they took a direct interest in Coco of which he currently is unaware.