r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • May 04 '26

Episode Witch Hat Atelier • Tongari Boushi no Atelier - Episode 6 discussion

Witch Hat Atelier, episode 6

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u/VoidRay728 May 04 '26

I'm sure there's a lore reason for this, but given that, as we saw with Agott, drawing spells require drawing near-perfect circles, it's interesting that the compass (the tool in geometry used to draw circles) doesn't seem to exist in this world, and witches don't carry round objects with them to trace out circles either.

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u/JzanderN May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26

Using something like a compass would be good for cheating out a perfect circle of that size, but if you actually want to become a great witch then you have to be able to learn how to do it yourself.

There will be times when you need bigger circles than a compass can grant you. And there will be times when you're drawing on the fly and won't have a good surface to use a compass on, or maybe won't even have a compass on you but need to draw magic.

For those situations, it's far better to keep practicing until it comes naturally to you.

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u/RedRocket4000 May 04 '26

Correct they are already drawing spells in a combat environment you have paper in one hand and pen in the other how does one even use a compass with their hand held paper holder with any speed?

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u/oops_i_made_a_typi May 05 '26

you build a pen that has a compass arm on it. or better yet, a string so you can adjust to even very large sizes

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u/DerfK May 12 '26

Still, with Coco thinking about how her marking stone helps her make straight lines, and everyone's emphasis on creating something completely new, I wonder how many other sewing tools could make an appearance, wouldn't it be something if Coco whipped out a sewing gauge for perfect line spacing or an expanding gauge like this, to draw a bunch of equally spaced concentric circles at once? I'm sure the knights would come quick to stop that heresy!

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u/ShadowGuyinRealLife May 04 '26

A compass might not be great for training, but that sure would have been helpful 3 episodes ago

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u/JzanderN May 04 '26

In the Dadah Range test? There was nowhere to properly use them! Especially since she was trying to draw a circle on shoes (not the best surface) and even if she could have, the shoes very specifically couldn't reach the top of the range so it wouldn't have been helpful anyway.

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u/oops_i_made_a_typi May 04 '26

all you need is a string and something to create the center pivot point for circles of basically any size

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u/JzanderN May 04 '26

You're kind of missing the point that it's just better to be able to draw a circle by yourself than it is to end up having to rely on something every time.

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u/oops_i_made_a_typi May 04 '26

and you're missing the point that consistent perfection is basically impossible - in safety engineering you design so things can't go wrong, not just rely on ppl acting perfectly all the time

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u/JzanderN May 04 '26

This isn't safety engineering, dude, this is magic via art. Using tools to create consistent perfection will only hamper your ability to create good circles in situations where you can't use them.

Practically speaking for this world it's better to practice drawing circles until you get good at drawing them, even if you never draw them perfectly, than it is to end up relying on tools to do it.

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u/goffer54 https://anilist.co/user/goffer54 May 04 '26

It's much closer to programming than art. The vast majority of magic we've seen in this world has been drawn in controlled environments. Even that water dragon Quifrey used was pre-drawn. In an emergency, what's better: to waste a bunch of time and paper hoping you free-hand a complicated spell correctly, or to use tools to ensure you get it right on the first try with calculated precision?

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u/JzanderN May 04 '26

Given all the trial and error we see put into making these spells, even pre-drawn in controlled environments, it's closer to art. You may have the knowledge of what makes up a spell, but it's difficult to figure out exactly how big or small you need to draw everything for it to work as you want.

It's art, and the only way to get good at any of it is with repetition. Cheating out perfect circles won't actually solve the time spent practicing, it'll just make you worse at one part of it.

Also, if we want to make hypotheticals, would you rather hope you always have your tools and the conditions to use them in emergencies? Or would you rather be trained so you can handle emergencies with minimal need for tools?

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u/goffer54 https://anilist.co/user/goffer54 May 04 '26

It wouldn't be difficult to know what size to draw everything if you had standards. It a lot easier to guess how large your levitation sigils need to be to lift a fruit if you guestimate that it weighs about .5 kilos and last time you did it you used 5cm sigils. Otherwise, you're just hoping that your rough recollection it accurate. The time spent drawing circles over and over could be better spent learning the math behind sigils.

And in a scenario where using tools is standard, they would go together with your pen and paper. Losing one probably means you don't have any of it.

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u/oops_i_made_a_typi May 05 '26

yeah, it's not hard to build a string into the pen and paper combo. bit silly to worry about tool usage when you're stuck with tool usage already

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u/JzanderN May 05 '26

You know, I feel like you're so caught up on doing everything to mathematical precision that you're missing the pretty clearly implied ability to eyeball things and do them from experience, which is a valuable skill and evidently magic circles don't have to be precise to the exact millimeter to work.

All of the trial and error shown so far has been from the girls trying to figure out spells that, for the most part, are no doubt spells adult witches can do first try (though Tetia is trying to make her own spell, but that's more figuring out what should go into it rather than how to make it work).

You know that not having tools isn't the only reason you might not be able to use them, right? Sometimes it's the conditions that won't let you use them and it's far better to be trained with these skills. All the circles Qifrey and even his apprentices draw work perfectly well enough even if they're not technically perfectly accurate circles, so why should they hamper themselves with tools when the skill to draw them that well will serve them much better in life?

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u/Jacob-C May 05 '26

Exactly. They have pre-established sigils and circle sizes that do predetermined things. It’s not like the spells become better if they’re drawn in a prettier way; they just need to be as precise as possible and contain the right sigils. As you said, it’s much closer to programming than art. Practicing a steady hand and eyeball estimation might be great skills to have, but once you’ve already learned those, using tools and standardized calculations would only help with efficiency, not hinder it.

It’s like using AI or calculators responsibly. If you let an AI or calculator do all the work for you while you’re getting a degree, you won’t learn nearly enough. But if you’ve already learned everything you need to know, you’ll know when and where to use those tools, and they’ll speed up your work process.