"Witch Hat Atelier" Season One Talkback

[Yojimbo]

In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: She wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch…until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem…

​

Episode 1 "The Magic That Started Everything" - April 6, 2026

Coco, a girl fascinated by magic, meets Qifrey and discovers the secrets of witches.

Episode 2 "The School of the Grassland" - April 6, 2026

Coco meets her fellow students and starts to learn the fundamentals of magic.

Sub Premiere: April 6, 2026
Dub premiere: April 6, 2026

Related Threads:
-News thread

External Links: Crunchyroll

“Kaze no Anthem” by Eve feat. suis from Yorushika


“Tada Utsukushii Noroi” by Nakamura Hak
​

 

[Yojimbo]

Episode 1

Great animation, details, fluidity, colors, tone. Well worth the long wait for this premiere.

Interesting hook that anyone can do magic but that's kept a secret by the witches and anyone else who finds out gets their memory erased. A lot more lenient that the world of Mashle.

Kinda wonder if those customers was a cheeky nod to Cinderella's wicked stepsisters, heh.

A little girl who loves magic and wants to be a witch. Nice touch being a dressmaker's daughter, she makes clean lines when she cuts - no doubt that will be an important skill as the series unfolds.

Finally discovers she can do it and she casts the wrong spell and gets her home and mother turned into crystal stone. And all this is wrapped in some kind of conspiracy the witches, well at least Qifrey is. Seems like a group of rogue witches are trying to democratize magic -- but is it for good reasons so anyone can use magic to their benefit - or is it part of some evil plan to sow chaos so they can achieve some greater goal?

Episode 2

And Coco begins a manga protagonist's worst nightmare - studying!

Funny quirk about liking it when she's thanked and can go on forever in an endless loop of exchanging thank you's, heh. Figures one of them would be harder on Coco.

Very amusing Agott got blasted.

 

[Frontier]

Episode 1:

In any world there are those with exceptional talent, those who were born to stand above all others, and that's equally as true in a world of magic and wonder, a world where Witches exist.

And it's in this world that young Coco (Rena Motomura!) lives and adores magic with every fiber of her being. Even if she can't use it herself, she loves every bit of magic she sees, even as she makes her daily life with her mother as a tailor/fabric seller. And it is there that she has a fateful encounter with legit witch Qifrey (Natsuki Hanae).

Coco's love for magic began as in a storybook, with an encounter of a mysterious masked individual (Mitsuki Saiga!) who showed her a book and even threw in a free wand to boot! Even if that, at the time, didn't seem to make Coco a witch and the wonder didn't last against reality.

Boys will be boys, even if it means breaking the wheel of a Pegasus Carriage, but thankfully Qifrey is there to help set it right. Of course his first mistake was making the lookout for his work be a girl who would absolute wants to see how the magic happens...literally. And then she sees the truth of how this magic system works: spells as scripture that can be drawn by ANYONE!

So what Coco has is not a "wand" in the traditional sense, but a pen with ink that she can draw spells with. And the moment she finally does she's bouncing all around her room in glee and drawing every single spell she can!

Qifrey's mom lost her father to illness and she doesn't want to lose Coco to magic either...so it's a good thing Coco has no intention of leaving her mother! I'm sure nothing will happen that will separate the two of them for the foreseeable future.

Why should Coco have not had this book? Because it's a book with a forbidden spell that, ignorant of what she was dealing with, Coco drew and cast all around her house. She's narrowly saved by Qifrey jumping in and escaping with her...but her home, her mother, become encased in crystal, and she can only watch on in absolute horror.

Qifrey's lost her mother, she's lost the thing most precious to her, and as she's learned the truth about magic it seems she must lose her memories too...but she still remembers what she saw in the spellbook, she's a connection to the masked figure, and as such she has a use to Qifrey. So with that in mind: she must become a witch. And thus begins Witch Hat Atelier and Coco's story.

Episode 2:

The OP is like a colorful and magical storybook brought to life! Featuring Coco, Qifrey, and their fellow Witches as they practice magic and see all kinds of wonders together!

Coco lost one home but she's found a new home with Qifrey and his atelier, where she will pursue magic and a means of freeing her mother. Even if now she knows the true dangers of magic.

But Coco is not the only young girl at this atelier! There's also Tetia, a bubbly and energetic pink-haired girl who will thank you for thanking her! And Richeh a stoic blue-haired girl who is every bit Tetia's opposite! Though Coco doesn't make the best first impression when the other girls realize she was the one who caused the incident with the forbidden spell.

Coco will also have a roomate! Agott! A black-haired girl who doesn't mine words and doesn't socialize much, but takes magic EXTREMELY seriously. Which is why she doesn't take well to someone totally divorced from the world of magic and who doesn't have any experience with it being placed in the same atelier as her. Though immediately telling her "your mother will never be human again" was a little harsh.

These girls are lucky! Not only do they have Qifrey as a magic teacher, but he's also an excellent cook.

Magic was limited to a select few because in the age of magic freedom there were wars and deaths in multitudes, and as such now magic is extremely regulated/restricted. Which means that if Coco is going to make it to the Tower of Tomes, she must complete the trials and become a fully-fledged witch.

But while she's definitely skilled at drawing, it'll take a bit before she can make spells consistently well and isn't blasting water at her fellow apprentices. At least Agott is willing to properly correct her on where she errored!

Dang, Qifrey only teaches Coco for one lesson and he's already leaving...which means Coco is alone with Agott, and Agott isn't going to treat her with kid gloves.

The ED is very melancholic and serene, featuring Coco ascending a staircase, with a glass filled with all sorts of forbidden, harmful, spells...but where she seemingly despairs, she finds the resolve and the wonder to keep pressing forward with magic as a true witch.

 

[PicardMan]

A magic school anime? Cue the Harry Potter comparisons. The visuals and worldbuilding are great in these first two episode so at least the execution is very good. The hook looks to be the protagonist undoing the ice spell she accidentally did in the first episode. Okay, considering how power fantasy isekai anime have long superseded the magic school genre, returning to the magic school genre is a breath of fresh air. I think a big reason that Frieren and Witch Hat Atelier have gotten so much buzz is because they are doing something different than the overdone power fantasy isekai and the protagonists aren't the generic male self-insert power fantasy characters.

 

[Light Lucario]

I heard good things about this series for years, so I figured that I'd give the anime adaptation a try. The first episode was pretty good. Coco came off pretty likable and her passion for magic made her more endearing. Qifrey wanting to keep even performing the magic spells a secret seemed a bit odd at first, but it does make it stand out from other magical worlds. There was some interesting setup with Coco meeting that witch who gave her the picture book, especially when Qifrey seemed to realize something about that too late. Coco being so enchanted by making spells was kind of cute.

I figured that something would happen to Coco's mother. They already established that Coco wouldn't want to leave her mother, so in order for her to become a witch, something had to happen. I didn't expect Coco unknowingly using a forbidden spell that sealed her house and mother would be the reason why Coco left. Magic being a secret only for a select few to know the truth and erasing memories of those who find out was also interesting. Fortunately for Coco and her mother, Qifrey didn't erase her memories. It was seemingly a way to benefit them both since Coco obviously wants to save her mother and Qifrey would lose his only connection to this mysterious witch that Coco met before. I thought at first that Coco would hate magic because of what happened to her mother, but then she wouldn't be the protagonist of this story. She is shown to be nervous even just holding her pen later though.

The second episode was pretty good too. Qifrey seemed pretty kind of gentle with Coco as she understandably grieves for her mother. She is still alive I assume, but she is effectively gone, Coco still blamed herself for using the spell and she just told her mother that she'd never leave her alone. That's a lot for anyone to deal with, let alone a little girl. The other students seemed pretty interesting. Although, I was surprised that they had already heard about Coco's story. I thought that it had just happened and there was little time between the first two episodes. I think that they do mention that news travels fast and with how magic is a secret in this world, that would make sense, but it still felt kind of weird for these girls to know what happened to Coco's mother.

The world building was pretty interesting. The idea that magic was abused by people is sadly all too believable. As cool as it would be to use magic, it wouldn't take long for people to use it to hurt people. Having it be a secret to only a select few while everyone else think that you have to be born to use magic is a more unique setting for a magic world. I could understand spells being used on a person directly being forbidden, but it was strange that healing was considered forbidden. It could put too much of a target on magic users and it could also probably be abused, but it seems like the only exception among those spells is erasing people's memories. They have another bit of setup with Coco having to study to pass the Librarian's Test in order to find a copy of the picture book.

Agott stands out the most among Qifrey's other students, but she's also more passive aggressive. Given how hard she studies to become a witch, it does make sense that she wouldn't look at someone who stumbled into this secret position. Telling Coco that she's the reason her mother will never be flesh and blood again was rather cold though. It does setup an interesting dynamic between the two and lead into Agott giving Coco her own trial to see if she's worthy to be a witch.

 

[Yojimbo]

Episode 3 "The Dadah Range Test" - April 13, 2026

While Qifrey is away, Agott pushes Coco into taking a dangerous test.

 

[Frontier]

Qifrey floats into what appears to be an underground atelier surrounded by the seabed, where he's greeted by Alaira (Kotono Mitsuishi!) a tan and bewitching beauty who remembers well when Qifrey was the "problem child of the Great Hall" (which speaks to how unconventional his own magic community probably sees him). She's also aware of his new apprentices and his hunt for the "Brimmed Caps" (which is plural), though Qifrey says Coco's apprenticeship isn't JUST about tracking them down. Which is why he's in no rush to have her go through the apprentice trials! It's still too early and the Dadah Range isn't safe for her either.

So of course Agott is sending Coco straight to the Dadah Range. I mean, if she wants to be taken seriously as an apprentice, to be like one of them, then she needs to actually put in the effort and do the same things the other girls have done. She even gives Coco her float shoes! I'm sure she has EVERY confidence Coco will succeed!

The Dadah Range itself is a bunch of floating green spheres, with a flower laying on top of one of them that Coco must grab and bring back. Luckily...she flies now! Or she will after practicing (and crashing) for a bit, but either way she finally gets to know what it means to fly and soar through the air, which is a beautiful thing!

So Qifrey definitely wants to avoid the Great Hall as much as possible, which is why he uses Alaira to shop for resources, and he wants to keep his apprentices away from it too. I'm definitely sensing some bad blood there.

Coco's new brushbuddy pal is adorable, but also ends up causing her to fall into the water below her and spill her precious ink. And like a normal person she tries to dry her shoes...and the Float inscription she needed to fly. Is this the end of Coco's future as a witch? She's already self-conscious about the experience gap and natural affinity of the other girls.

Heck, Agott was counting on her failing because she had no intention of being with an outsider who couldn't keep up, it's not worth her time. At least Tetia cares! And maybe Richech too, it's hard to tell sometimes.

But inspired by precious and beautiful memories of her mother and the work they did, Coco is able to create magic through the skills she honed for years! Next thing you know she's got a sailboat, which turns into an impromptu glider, which turns into an impromptu flying broom! And with that Coco succeeded!

Maybe Agott still won't acknowledge Coco, even after she accomplished her first apprentice trial, but for Coco's efforts she deserves to be acknowledged with her witch robes AND her witch hat courtesy of Qifrey! This is truly her Witch Hat Atelier!

But it seems like the masked mage who started all this for Coco is aware of her efforts...and sees her budding as planned.

 

[zoombie]

I wish someone would explain the European accents in the English dub by all the witches. Is Coco going to develop an accent as she gets better at magic? Did she have a bit of an accent at the end?

 

[Light Lucario]

I thought that this week's episode was pretty good. Qifrey seemed to have some history with both The Great Hall and Alaria. She could already guess that he took on Coco as an apprentice because she could lead him to the Brimmed Caps. He said that wasn't the reason why, but it was at least one factor as to why he decided to not erase Coco's memories. Qifrey didn't seem interested in living in the Great Hall. Since there was no issue with him going there for supplies or for the option for him and his students to live there, I assume that he just had some bad experience there in his own mysterious backstory. He also mentioned that the Dread Range would be too dangerous to take this time of year, so of course, that's where Coco was headed for her test.

Agott really left a bad impression here for me. She gave Coco limited information about this test, told her that she only had one chance to pass after pushing her out of the portal and was setting her up for failure from the start, right with giving Coco her shoes to fly with. Wanting to make the outsider fail because she doesn't want someone like that in her rank was bad enough, but knowingly sending Coco on this test where she could have easily died or been injured was really messed up. Obviously, Coco isn't going to die. She's the protagonist and this is only the third episode, but it's just the intent that rubbed me the wrong way. Coming off as so stuck up doesn't help matters either. Having more tension is necessary and I'm sure that Agott will be more fleshed out and likable later, but sending someone to potentially die because you didn't want someone like her to climb to their ranks does make her look pretty bad.

Coco getting her shoes wet after struggling to learn how to fly wasn't too surprising. I didn't think that she'd pass the test using someone else's magic. At least she found a cute magic animal mascot. While feeling doubt after reaching rock bottom was understandable, it felt weird when she said that the other girls had been using magic since they were kids when they are all still very much kids. I really liked how Coco made use of her skills as a dressmaker to help with performing magic. It was a nice way to connect the skills she used helping her mother to becoming a witch, especially when they both involve drawing to a degree. It's also a sweet way for her to still feel connected to her mother. She even realized that what she used to help her mother helped her to use magic. I thought that the boat would float, but turning into a glider instead was pretty cool and still made it more difficult for her to get the flower.

Qifrey's concern was understandable since he knew how dangerous it would be, but fortunately, Coco was fine and had passed the test. I was hoping that Agott would get some kind of punishment for knowingly putting Coco through a dangerous test. Qifrey had left her in charge of helping Coco and immediately putting her in harms way, even if it did work out, should have warranted some kind of reaction from Qifrey. She basically ignored Coco and ran off, possibly being embarrased in front of Qifrey. Qifrey pointing out how reckless Coco was by using magic that she didn't understand was a valid point, but I still think that they missed the bigger issue of Agott basically throwing Coco to the wolves. Maybe that will be addressed later, but that did annoy me a bit. At least he pointed out that the test wasn't necessary for him because Coco was already his apprentice. He even got her the formal witch outfit as proof. The Masked Witch watching Coco from the shadows this whole time was a pretty decent twist though.

 

[Yojimbo]

Not too shocked Qifrey didn't stick to the norm, heh.

And we got a name for the bid bad, Brimmed Caps.

Ever since he saw her cut that cloth, makes sense Coco is more than just a lead to him.

Oh boy. Gotta work on coordination just a little...

Floating pieces of land. Neat.

Whoa, an underwater city. Cool.

Mmm, feels like this Great Hall may be too conservative for Qifrey's tastes. And that's perhaps why Coco was very lucky the witch she met was him. Great Hall probably loves someone like Agott who wants to protect this world of witches even if it means sending an outsider on a test she's supposed to fail.

Tetia is clearly the heart of the team.

Cute animal anime buddy. CHECK.

Ooo, points for Coco filling in the gaps of experience with ingenuity!

That was mean spirited of Agott to give her an unsanctioned test when Qifrey was away but it blew up in her face.

Official outfit. CHECK.

"And take a bath." lol.

Wha... that witch was there observing Coco all along?!

edit: updated the OP with the opening and closing songs.

 

[zoombie]

A magic school anime? Cue the Harry Potter comparisons. The visuals and worldbuilding are great in these first two episode so at least the execution is very good. The hook looks to be the protagonist undoing the ice spell she accidentally did in the first episode. Okay, considering how power fantasy isekai anime have long superseded the magic school genre, returning to the magic school genre is a breath of fresh air. I think a big reason that Frieren and Witch Hat Atelier have gotten so much buzz is because they are doing something different than the overdone power fantasy isekai and the protagonists aren't the generic male self-insert power fantasy characters.

A magic school anime? He only has 4 students, hardly call that a school.

 

[Frontier]

Agott really left a bad impression here for me. She gave Coco limited information about this test, told her that she only had one chance to pass after pushing her out of the portal and was setting her up for failure from the start, right with giving Coco her shoes to fly with. Wanting to make the outsider fail because she doesn't want someone like that in her rank was bad enough, but knowingly sending Coco on this test where she could have easily died or been injured was really messed up. Obviously, Coco isn't going to die. She's the protagonist and this is only the third episode, but it's just the intent that rubbed me the wrong way. Coming off as so stuck up doesn't help matters either. Having more tension is necessary and I'm sure that Agott will be more fleshed out and likable later, but sending someone to potentially die because you didn't want someone like her to climb to their ranks does make her look pretty bad.

I think the only defense I can offer is that she seemed convinced that Coco would give up so I don't think she was really aware of how dangerous it would be for her.

It doesn't justify anything but I don't think she seriously intended for Coco to get hurt.

 

[Light Lucario]

I think the only defense I can offer is that she seemed convinced that Coco would give up so I don't think she was really aware of how dangerous it would be for her.

It doesn't justify anything but I don't think she seriously intended for Coco to get hurt.

That would make sense. I can believe that Agott was so confident that Coco would give up before risking her life to pass the test. But that still makes her look pretty shortsighted at best here. She already knew about Coco's mother, so being told that she only had one chance to pass the test before being kicked out would make her more determined to do what she could in order to pass. She stayed for about a day in order to pass the test, which is a lot more time than Agott expected. Maybe she doesn't know that Coco wants to find a way to save her mother by learning magic, but even if that was the case, she was assuming a lot about what Coco would do under a stressful situation without factoring in her own personality or her desire to save her mother.

Even though I don't think she seriously intended for Coco to get hurt, she was still pretty thoughtless with this setup. Giving her limited tools and knowledge for this test with the intent of making her fail still could have easily led to Coco being hurt regardless of her intentions. Agott was angry at this outsider trying to climb to her rank without working for it like she had, so she wasn't really thinking clearly. She just wanted to force her out, but she was still endangering her life with this thoughtless and reckless plan. Not to mention it still pretty messed up to do it after Qifrey left her in charge of helping Coco. Using her position as an older student to force the new student into a dangerous potentially life threatening test as soon as their teacher left her in charge really brings up a lot of concerning red flags.

 

[Yojimbo]

Episode 4 "Meetings in Kalhn" - April 20, 2026

Qifrey takes Coco to the witches' town of Kalhn, where she has an unexpected encounter.

 

[Frontier]

I don't know if they needed the most attractive spirits of all time to showcase the Primary Tetrad of sigils representing the four elements, but it definitely made it look cooler.

When playing with fire sigils, always have Tetia and some summonable water at the ready! And also if you want to see someone who REALLY loves to fly, watch Tetia zoomie-zoomie-zoom around everywhere!

It's nice of Coco to want to fix the levitation shoes for Agott, even if it's more than Agott deserves, but the next step in her witch training is finding a "wand" she can properly write with. Which takes her, Qifrey, and her fellow apprentices to Kalhn, a genuine city of witches! Not only does Coco get to see the wonder of a city filled with magic and witches for whom magic is just second nature, but she finally feels like she's stepped into this world of magic. Even if Agott still wants nothing to do with her.

Welcome to the Starry Sword! Where the elderly witch Nolnoa and the young boy Tartah show Coco how the magic is made! Literally, with the Silverwood tree and its branches that they draw conjuring ink, the lifeblood of witches, from!

Oh snap! It's Coco's nemesis, the Brimmed Cap! I'm not surprised she'd chase them down, even if the rest of her apprentices are right behind her (including Agott who was planning to buy new shoes for levitation I guess and is now stuck babysitting Coco against her will). Of course none of them counted on being teleported by mist into a white labyrinth city...where a 2D animated dragon awaits them! Welcome to the wonders of magic, Coco, hope you survive your next "lesson!"

Y'know, Qifrey, I respect how much you appreciate a magic stationer store, but like...can you keep a proper watch on your apprentices for more than FIVE minutes!?

Agott's not my favorite witch, but her cool and mature head is probably good to have in a crisis situation. Tetia, on the other hand, is not handling things well and it seems like her life goal is to leave a single spell to her name which is why she can't die...and she can't help but look accusatory at Coco for getting them in to this mess. Even if a part of her feels bad for thinking that way. And to think she and Coco were the apprentices who got along best.

I feel like Agott is going to regret not hearing what Coco had to say about the sigil she saw on a stairway...but Coco interrupting her sigil writing just finally makes her unload on Coco and how everything is her fault and how she has no business in this world. At least while the girls are fighting, Richech is being efficient and effective, but that's not going to make Coco feel any better. Is she really nothing more than a "dead end" to her fellow apprentices?
Brushbuddy you are truly the MVP

!

That visual of the Brimmed Caps feels totally like an anime villain showcase

.

 

[Yojimbo]

More world building.

Heh heh, Nolnoa playing it cool with the compliment.

Sigh, Coco didn't listen and here we go again. One of them should have held her hand the whole time as infantile as that sounds, but c'mon, they didn't think Coco would be overwhelmed by the sights and lag behind? Yeah, Coco has to learn to control her impulses, too. Agott and Tetia weren't exactly wrong in their anger but in the heat of moment that was cruel. And Qifrey did let himself get distracted in the shop...

Richeh was pretty clutch with the wall breaker spells and I was not surprised she was the most calm and collected of the 4.

Brimmed Caps are wearing old school hats. Hmm. This one in particular thinks Coco is "the one"? Double hmm.

Wonder what that advanced sigil was. Tied to the dragon and / or the teleportation?

Phew, good thing Brushbuddy saw the spell and didn't run into it with the girls.

Got a feeling Coco is gonna do something gutsy out of guilt like try to break that advanced sigil.

 

[Frontier]

Sigh, Coco didn't listen and here we go again. One of them should have held her hand the whole time as infantile as that sounds, but c'mon, they didn't think Coco would be overwhelmed by the sights and lag behind? Yeah, Coco has to learn to control her impulses, too. Agott and Tetia weren't exactly wrong in their anger but in the heat of moment that was cruel. And Qifrey did let himself get distracted in the shop...

There was no reason to bring up Coco's mom again .

 

[Light Lucario]

I thought that this episode was pretty good. Seeing the four elemental spirits that are the basis of magic was pretty cool. Coco needing her own pen, or her own wand in a sense, could explain a bit more of her struggles with magic. Not that I expect her to get through everything easily once she does have her own pen, but just having something more suited to her would probably make it more manageable for her at least. Getting to see a whole city for witches was cool too.

I was disappointed that they didn't acknowledge anything about what Agott did in the previous episode. I wasn't too surprise. Qifrey does not come off as the most strict teacher or the kind that would deal out punishments to his students, but it still feels strange that he only asked Coco how they were getting along. I assume very little time had passed between episodes. Agott is still presented as the mean girl of the group, but I do think it's messed up that there wasn't any kind of acknowledgement that her actions were so thoughtless and dangerous within the show. She just ran away, possibly embarrassed in front of Qifrey that her planed to fail Coco backfired and that was it. Qifrey only talked to Coco about how dangerous it is to use magic that you don't understand. While that wasn't unwarranted, I feel like he and by extent the show really overlooked the bigger problem with Agott.

While people have said that the accents in the dub are strange, I kind of like it. It adds some nice charm to the world. Although, being Irish myself, hearing Irish accents in an anime is really cool and charming. Seeing how magic ink is created was pretty interesting. It does make me wonder if the trees are a more limited resource. I doubt that they'll have an issue with being low on ink since that's how magic works in this world, but that could be another reason to keep magic only for a select few.

Coco running after the Brimmed Cap witch was understandable, but still reckless after everyone told her to not get loss. I didn't expect the whole group to be transported into a Dragon's lair. I didn't even think dragons existed in this world. It's no surprise that teleportation magic like that is forbidden when the girls didn't even know that they had been teleported until after the fact. The Brimmed Cap saying that Coco is the one was interesting. I wonder if part of the reason he gave her that book on forbidden spells was so that they could start sharing magic with the world again instead of keeping it a secret. As much as the logic behind keeping magic a secret for most of the world makes sense, the Brimmed Cap witches wanting to overthrow that order would be interesting too. Magic being widely available would cause a lot of damage, but it could be argued that it would help a lot of people too.

Tetia nearly blaming Coco for their situation before she stopped herself was a bit harsh, but I can understand in the heat of a life threatening moment why she'd say it. She might be the youngest out of the group too. Although, it does make me question her sincerity with her whole "thank you for your thank you" bit, but I assume that this is the first time she felt like she was going to die. I have far less sympathy for Agott's outburst. Coco did cause her to mess up her drawing, but in the time she took to yell and belittle Coco, Richeh made a bunch of symbols. That does make me wonder if Agott is as good as she claims that she is after all of her effort or more likely that she is more of a perfectionist.

Saying that it was Coco's fault for her mother's pertification wasn't just pouring salt on the would. That was stabbing the wound with a dagger and twisting it around. As much as Coco is in awe of this new world of magic, she is also fully aware that the only reason she's here is to learn how to undo the spell she put on her mother. That and her connection to the Brimmed Cap witch is something that Qifrey wants to look into, but I don't think she's fully aware of that at least. Regardless, she already blames herself and misses her mother dearly. As reckeless and as dangerous as chasing the Brimmed Cap witch was, that's why Coco did it. He gave her the book with the forbidden spells and finding him could have potentially given her a way to save her mother. I doubt that would have happened even if she didn't land into his trap since we're so early into the show, but I can understand and sympathize with her logic, something that Agott doesn't want to do or is unable to do so completely. It also seemed rather harsh to blame Coco for being trapped. She wouldn't know the potential for such a dangerous trap just for chasing after the Brimmed Cap witch. Not to mention Tetia technically was the one who dragged them along to chase after Coco. That might be splitting hairs a bit when Coco was still the reason they ran into this trap, but it wasn't something any of them could have been made aware of before hand.

I think one reason why Agott has bothered me so much in the past couple of episodes is that she has a disturbing lack of empathy. To her, Coco is just an outsider, someone unworthy who climbed to her rank without actually working for it. It's rather telling that she never acknowledged that Coco passed the test in the previous episode. Not that I expected her to change her tune overnight, but the fact that Coco passed the test that Agott deliberately set her up to fail should have counted for something at least. But it didn't seemingly because it would make Agott realize that she was wrong and she clearly doesn't want to be wrong about Coco. It's easier for her to see Coco as an outsider who doesn't belong with them instead of a girl losing her home and family and being thrown into a brand new world. I don't know if it's part of an issue with the magic society, but more likely than not, it's something with Agott's backstory that makes her treat Coco this way. These are pretty young girls, so I don't expect them to be the most emotionally mature and intelligent people out there, but considering that Coco's mother is effectively gone and she is grieving, you'd think that the seemingly oldest apprentience would be able to connect the dots more easily.

Agott did for a moment clarify that the dragon was the dead weight, but she delberately made an effort to say that you could interpret it another way just to make Coco feel worse. Honestly, after being lashed out that badly, I don't know how they'll become friends. I'm sure that they will since they live together and Coco will probably save the day by using the seal she saw to get them out of the maze, but being treated like that would make me a lot less eager to be friends with Agott. Coco does seem too nice for her own good, or possibly desperate to form more connections after losing everything, so she'll probably forgiven Agott and Tetia pretty easily.

 

[Yojimbo]

Episode 5 "The Dragon's Labyrinth" - April 27, 2026

The four apprentice witches strive to find a solution to their calamitous situation.

 

[Frontier]

Tensions are high on all fronts. The girls are on the run from a dragon in a maze labyrinth, they keep coming back to the same spots which means they're clearly running in circles, they have no solution to defeat the dragon OR escape, and the dragon may or may not be getting bigger.

But at least Coco has Tetia's witch cap! And an apology for getting everyone mixed up in this...yet Coco being such a caring sweetheart is enough to make Tetia realize it was unfair to blame it all on Coco, and what better way to patch things up between them than with Tetia's original magic: a warm, fluffy, cloud bed where they can mutually apologize and Tetia acan express her desire to be a good Senpai for Coco! Their friendship is restored AND strengthened in the most adorable way possible.

I love how Agott enters into the cloud just to criticize it and try to improve it with practical means. Richeh just wants the warm fluffy vibes to relax in. But it's when all four girls are finally together and relaxing that Coco realizes how they can stop the dragon. Because even though it's been hunting them down, she was still conscious of it injuring itself and wants to make IT happy too! Because what is magic, at its core, then something designed to help and make others happy? Even Agott has to finally acknowledge and look, really LOOK, at Coco when she realizes how much Coco truly understands and cherishes magic! We've unlocked Dere Agott!

Also since they're finally listening to Coco, they can tell where the Casting Seal that got them into this mess is.

And thus began the plan to create the fluffiest cloud bed a dragon ever slept on! Smartygott's smart and the other girls are good at drawing seals in their own right, but it's Coco's persistence to catch up to them and cast her first stable pyreball that gives Smartygott the idea they need to make it stable.

It's the scene of the girls running from the OP! And leaping from rooftop to rooftop to finish their building destruction/sand creation/cloud bed repetition plan! The dragon absolutely loves it! The Dragon Disabler Cushion...I mean, the Serpent's Bed of Sand plan worked!

Note to self: do NOT break a Casting Seal made with forbidden magic, otherwise you'll have Agott trying to protect Coco and then nearly falling to her death if not for Qifrey arriving in the nick of time to save her AND SUMMON A GOLDEN DRAGON OF WATER TO DEFEAT THE DRAGON. Qifrey's definitely legit in the spellcasting department!

What did the Brimmed Cap do to Coco? They act like Coco's second teacher who is helping steer her in a direction of truly blossoming, but what was the "gift?"

Everyone's safe and back in Kalhn, but Coco is still overcome with the grief that it was her business that got everyone in trouble...but yet everyone acknowledges that she also exhibited the true traits of a Witch in helping come up with the spell that saved everyone. Coco DOES have a place with all of them.

Okay, Qifrey takes this Brimmed Cap business seriously to the extent that he wants Nolnoa to figure out their ink and he won't get the Knights Moralis involved and gives Nolnoa a look to keep quite that's more scary than the dragon. Jeez Qifrey.