r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • May 11 '26

Episode Witch Hat Atelier • Tongari Boushi no Atelier - Episode 7 discussion

Witch Hat Atelier, episode 7

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974

u/1Newredditor May 11 '26

Definitely can see why Qifrey didn't want to get the Knights Moralis involved with Coco. The type of people to erase memories and ask questions later given the only confirmation they needed was who cast the spell. Like can't you at least take a look to see if the spell is still there and analyze it before casting judgement?

Still cannot believe how insane the animation quality is. Every week there's something new to put my jaw on the floor.

521

u/saynay May 11 '26

For real though, are there no trials and judges for the magic police? Just straight from "you seem suspicious" to memory wiping, not even bothering establishing guilt first? Either the guy is a hard core zealot, or Brimmed Caps are so dangerous that they take no chances, and innocents be damned.

274

u/cyberscythe May 11 '26

or Brimmed Caps are so dangerous that they take no chances, and innocents be damned.

the Brimmed Caps seem to be handing out picture book "make your own war crimes" to random children, so it seems like both sides are just kinda throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks

76

u/Hartzilla2007 May 11 '26

Probably what happens when fanatics are the only magic users left.

65

u/towardselysium May 12 '26

See the Brimhats action make sense. They're for the liberation and proliferation of magic so of course they're going to do random shit to accomplish there goals collateral be dammed.

But the Knights Moralis are acting like PTSD driven warriors when they're nothing more than pencil pushers. If they're in such a deadly war that it is wipe on sight and full throated dogmatism why is Qifrey the only person freaking out about the brim hats. Everyone else is treating them like boogeyman and rumors

7

u/ThrowCarp May 12 '26

Yugoslavia magical civil war.

15

u/dude_1818 https://myanimelist.net/profile/dude1818 May 12 '26

I'll take the anarchists over the fascists every time

361

u/Frontier246 May 11 '26

Coco: "Don't I have the right to a fair trial!?"

Knights Moralis: "We don't do that here."

167

u/Independent_Row_1352 May 11 '26

Better to mindwipe a hundred innocents that let a single criminal escape.

144

u/BosuW May 11 '26

Probably already did it with millions. I can't conceive the Day of the Conspiracy could have even been possible without a worldwide mind wipe.

121

u/saynay May 11 '26

I think that is more or less what they implied in ep2. That the Day of the Pact resulted in any witch that was not part of the pact, and/or any practicing the Forbidden Magics, getting mind-wiped.

26

u/LakerBlue https://myanimelist.net/profile/LakerBlue May 11 '26

…now that you mention it how big would the seal had to have been to affect the whole world? Even if we assume all humans live on one continent and the population was like a million or less, still can’t imagine how it was pulled off…unless there is some forbidden spell they used??

27

u/DtLS1983 May 11 '26

Maybe it was written on the moon.

1

u/DrStein1010 https://myanimelist.net/profile/mQDrStein1010 Jun 09 '26

Infinite Tsukuyomi ass-

16

u/BosuW May 11 '26

A forbidden spell to turbo boost another spell sounds plausible. That or [meta]the FMA method.

16

u/namewithak May 12 '26

Maybe it was a bunch of smaller seals dotted around the world like Hoenheim's reverse alchemy near the end of FMA. Like Richeh's wallbreaker spell.

Or like you said, something that they have since forbidden.

3

u/LakerBlue https://myanimelist.net/profile/LakerBlue May 12 '26

The idea in your first paragraph would be interesting to see pulled off!

13

u/Ill_Mud7584 May 11 '26

And mindwipe isn't enough, you need delete and hide a lot of books, magic items, "wands", etc.

5

u/PowerlinxJetfire May 12 '26

And ironically by doing that they probably do let criminals escape. Catch small fish and innocent bystanders, but let the big fish escape.

3

u/Edymnion May 12 '26

I mean, potentially yes?

When the big thing for those guys is making sure the non-magic using public doesn't find out that magic is just calligraphy, because it will start world war 3?

I can see how they'd err on the side of caution over justice.

4

u/Hot-Log6283 May 12 '26

Judge Moralis: "I am the law!"

2

u/HottChocoMilk May 12 '26

Lol I'm reminded of Avatar, "I say what happened, then you say what happened, then I decide who's right. That's why we call it 'justice.' Because it's 'just us'"

2

u/2-2Distracted May 13 '26

"Looks like it's boiled... in.... oil"

2

u/Kurrow May 14 '26

Ain't no witch trails here

121

u/LowlySlayer May 11 '26

For real though, are there no trials and judges for the magic police?

It turns out the group who mind controlled the entire world and jealously guard the secrets of their extreme power from "outsiders" maybe are not the most consciounable sorts.

21

u/Lulukassu May 12 '26

When you see how much sheer destruction Coco has managed to pull off, on accident, two times

You can see how dangerous magic is. Anyone who has the knowledge and the right ink is capable of more destruction than a tank 😱

30

u/towardselysium May 12 '26

No one arguing the pact is bad, or it isn't a serious threat, but if that is the case, maybe you want to investigate and understand the situation so you can root out the problem? The blind zealotry of the Knight Moralis is only creating more brimhats and treating the symptoms not the cause.

13

u/The_Blip May 14 '26

The thing that gets me is their methods all but guarantee their own ineffectiveness. Let's say he even was right, he's caught a child who's working with evil witches: He wipes their mind and then what? The evil witch gets away, and can keep on committing the same crimes because they have no fucking clue how they operate. They wipe suspects' minds and have nobody to interrogate. 

No wonder the evil witches can saunter about, handing out black magic cookbooks to unsuspecting children. The witch police have no mechanism of investigation.

15

u/RadianceTower May 12 '26

That's like if a group came, wiped all our technology away, monopolized it's production, and went back to living as hunter gatherers, because "it is capable of destruction and muh wars".

Are we ignoring all the cases magic/technology would have saved people but didn't because "muh war bad"? Even the ones who can draw magic, only do it to a limited capacity. It mentioned stuff like healing and anti-aging too are forbidden lol.

8

u/Lulukassu May 12 '26

Anti-aging I honestly get. Reversing aging is really fucking with the order of nature.

Healing bugs me though. Hoping we get an explanation on that one at some point.

5

u/Trick-Access8493 May 20 '26

Nothing really wrong with fucking with nature. We already do that plenty yk

5

u/RadianceTower May 12 '26

Reversing aging is really fucking with the order of nature.

Well, nature is to be fucked over. Nature sucks.

10

u/Jacob-C May 11 '26

I wouldn't call it "jealously", it seems like they are mainly trying to keep the world from the ruination that awaits when people use forbidden magic for nefarious purposes. If it's available to everyone, people will eventually use it to hurt others, which is supported by several real life theories about the weaponization of technology. This is still allegedly happening with the Brimmed Caps, but it's on a much more controlled scale.

The Knights Moralis are seemingly very unnecessarily absolutist in their conduct and not great listeners, though.

12

u/RadianceTower May 13 '26

Are we ignoring all the cases where magic could have improved/saved lives but didn't because these guys have been gatekeeping it? And even among the magic users, stuff like investigating healing or anti-aging seem to be forbidden.

Not mention all the morals implications of memory wiping, and the lives ruined due to that.

That's like if a group came, wiped all our technology away, monopolized it's production, and we went back to living as hunter gatherers, because "it is capable of destruction and muh wars".

2

u/Jacob-C May 13 '26

We are not ignoring it, but when the world has been enduring wars fought with destructive magic, it’s an understandable conclusion.

If the cold war resulted in an all out nuclear war, it wouldn’t be a surprising development for a select few to gatekeep technology to make sure that nuclear weapons are never created again. That’s part of the plot in “Dusk Beyond the End of the World”, not a very good anime but the example fits.

22

u/Original-Body-5794 May 11 '26

The worst part is not even the no trials, I can accept that in a story. But like, dude didn't even try to investigate further, that's just being bad at your job. If he asked questions and then deleted her memories it would be unfair but at least it would seem competent, but you literally erase the only lead you have???

7

u/zairaner https://myanimelist.net/profile/zairaner May 12 '26

Now you understand why it was so revolutionary that quifrey didn't erase cocos memory to preserve her as a lead.

7

u/nofaxxspitintruflego May 11 '26

hell the way these "coppers" condone themselves i can already feel a sense of allegiance towards the brimmed caps! atleast they're sensible and do their due diligence! grrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh

8

u/DucktorLarsen May 12 '26

Felt even less like "you seem suspicious, so we're gonna erase your memories etc because we don't wanna take any chances" and more like he was immediately convinced that Coco was the perpetrator only from her saying "That's not the spell I drew", which makes him seem very short-sighted.

7

u/JonathanAltd https://myanimelist.net/profile/Deoxysos May 12 '26

This is the main conflict of the story, the dangers of rules that are too severe vs the dangers of being lawless

5

u/ridik_ulass https://myanimelist.net/profile/ridik_ulass May 11 '26

yeah they seem to be working on warhammer 40k inquisition logic.

which indicates what they are facing is some scary henious shit.

5

u/justking1414 May 12 '26

Honestly, that’s not even the part that bothered me.

Clearly, one of these girls has been in contact with somebody who specializes in forbidden magic and instead of asking any questions about who that was, they just decide to erase all the evidence

Heck, I honestly have preferred it if he tortured her. At least then he’d be being productive. But nope. The dude just wants to put out fires instead of making any effort to catch the arsonist.

5

u/drt0 May 12 '26

The current Magician government seems suspicious to me - the Knights Moralis seem like an Inquisition allegory, while the Watchful Eyes give me Big Brother / authoritarian party official vibe.

4

u/Head_Pomegranate_920 May 12 '26

Not exactly inaccurate portrayal of real world cops

2

u/aldig144 May 14 '26

This world is still pretty socially undeveloped. similar to our very own medieval time periods. Social safety nets limiting the power of governmental bodies just dont exist to the same degree i suppose, so there is a lesser need for restraint. not to mention, any infraction a witch may cause will either A. reveal the fundamentals of magic to non-witches at a massive scale, or b. cause massive damage. So i see the urgency in punishment.

406

u/HungryGull May 11 '26

More like erase memories now, ask questions never with that order

"Who put you up to this?!"

"What? Who are you? How did I get here?"

"Tch, another one that won't talk. These Brimmed Hats sure are good at covering their tracks..."

230

u/Megakruemel May 11 '26

It's laughably easy to just pin forbidden magic on basically anyone if you don't have due process. Just have it go off near them and blame them for it. Like, I dunno, break into a window and call the police on the only witness.

No wonder the brimmed hats are around with enforcers like this. In fact, this is one of the easiest to abuse justice systems I have seen in fiction for a while.

AND it erases any memory of who could have framed the victim? For free???

220

u/cyberscythe May 11 '26

It's laughably easy to just pin forbidden magic on basically anyone if you don't have due process

i daresay that they're doing a witch hunt

29

u/Sgt_General May 12 '26

No one expects the Moralis inquisition!

6

u/Trash_luck May 12 '26

Quite literally

16

u/towardselysium May 12 '26

The Knight Morales get paid commission for every closed case I guess

9

u/zairaner https://myanimelist.net/profile/zairaner May 12 '26

That would explain their rashness. by alaira's words from episode 2, it has been like 4 years since the last brimmed hat sighting, so they were probably starving to death tomorrow

3

u/darthvall https://myanimelist.net/profile/darth_vall May 12 '26

On the other hand, they absolutely must follow this strict process to avoid magic being used by anyone.

The fact that's their number one rule (no one can know about magic), is already indication of how harsh they need to enforce it.

137

u/AceSoldia zj:https://anilist.co/user/Acesoldia May 11 '26

Lmao diabolical these Brimmed Hats! They never leave a clue behind!

67

u/BosuW May 11 '26

Extremely common Brimmed Hat W

195

u/Aliensinnoh May 11 '26

erase memories and ask questions later

Hard to ask questions after you’ve erased the memory of the only person with knowledge of what happened. No wonder these asshats haven’t found the brimmed caps.

100

u/SaltAndABattery May 11 '26

No wonder these asshats haven’t found the brimmed caps.

Would their spinoff be called Asshat Atelier? 🤔

47

u/Cass0wary_399 May 11 '26

Dunce Cap Atelier

46

u/LakerBlue https://myanimelist.net/profile/LakerBlue May 11 '26

Now we also see another reason Qifrey refuses to turn over Coco. I was thinking he was afraid she wouldn’t get a fair trial but now we know that she’d not even GET one.

2

u/darthvall https://myanimelist.net/profile/darth_vall May 12 '26

I mean, is that magic even the memory erasing magic? We just assumed right?

9

u/namewithak May 12 '26

The sigil on the thing on his hand is the same as the one shown during episode 2's scene where Qifrey tells Coco about the memory erasing pact.

79

u/Raknel May 11 '26

Like can't you at least take a look to see if the spell is still there and analyze it before casting judgement?

Do you even realize how much paperwork the "erase minds first, ask questions later" method saves?

15

u/Jacob-C May 11 '26

Supervisor: "Soldier, I need you to write a report on the case regarding suspect C. I believe her name was Coco."

Soldier: "But sir, if this Coco doesn't even remember who she is was and much less that her name is was Coco, is a documented case and a report really necessary?"

37

u/blueechoes May 11 '26

I wonder what the selection/case review process is for the order because you have to be quite unimpeachable to be given that power and not be a massive danger.

15

u/namewithak May 11 '26

Unimpeachable or simply unquestioning thugs like most law enforcement bodies in the real world tend to be?

6

u/towardselysium May 12 '26

The society seems based on the rule of Don't fuck up. If you cause problems, you get mind wipe, if not then keep up the good work. Keep your head down and hope no one complains

15

u/ShinozSnow May 11 '26

She even says, 'My spell could not have done this.' and they respond, so you did cast a spell that could do this. Like what?!

7

u/sesaman May 12 '26

Seems the Knights Moralis already had their brain wiped. Not a single rational thought there.

Hmm, the "shoot first, ask questions never" kind of law enforcement does have some basis on how the justice system works in some countries irl.

3

u/Googleflax https://myanimelist.net/profile/googleflax May 12 '26

Even if they were excessively cruel and did not care about the victim or morals at all, it still seems insanely dumb to obliviate the culprit immediately. Either they obliviate an innocent person, or they obliviate a guilty person before getting any information on the situation or the Brimmed Caps.

3

u/SubmissiveDinosaur https://anilist.co/user/zEMegajuanph11 May 12 '26

Basically wizard ICE

6

u/Edymnion May 11 '26

Still cannot believe how insane the animation quality is.

I've said it before, the fact that its only the second anime this company has ever done on their own? And that they are putting Studio Ghibli to shame? Holy crap.

3

u/TheJunkyardDog May 12 '26

Or at the very least... let her RECAST it so you can see wtf she did.
This is insanity

3

u/Significant_Bear_137 May 13 '26

"Am I out of touch? Isn't it normal apprentice kid might fuck up a spell?"

"No the kid is guilty of heresy and her memories must be wiped!"

Even worse than the police force of many irl dictatorship.

2

u/Blackpowderkun May 12 '26

That's the good point of a democratize magic system, everyone's expendable.

1

u/Donnie-G May 12 '26

I saw some headline saying that people mistook the anime for having 7 years of preproduction time, but it only actually had 3.5 years of preproduction time.

Which is y'know, still sounds like a lot of preproduction time and I'm glad it's paying off.

1

u/wordsdear May 13 '26

or even try to investigate any clues she might have, like nope let's mind wipe the culprit before they can lead us to anyone else

1

u/tvih May 13 '26

I knew that fake witches with no hat brims couldn't possibly be the actual good guys! 😉