 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 born with a gift for magic. Hey everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode, Gio here and today we are talking about the witch hat atelier and I know that I am so behind, this came out in 2019 and everybody talked about it and I'm probably one of the last people on YouTube talking about it. I don't care, I just read it and I thought it was a wonderful book and I'm here to geek out over it and just tell you how much fun I had reading this book. So yeah, there's your Too Lazy Didn't Watch review right there, I love the book. But yeah, in all seriousness, Witch Hat Atelier is written by Kamome Shirahama and this is a very simple story but big in execution. Part of what makes this such a successful title aside from the art and we will get to the art because it is fantastic. But what makes this title such a fun great read for all ages and for everybody to enjoy is that you're able to take a simple concept that is magic that, you know, we've had countless manga in the past, we've had countless anime, comics, novels, light novels, talking about the subject matter, you're able to take this idea, flip it over and do something new with it by introducing new concepts and sort of reinventing the wheel but it doesn't stray too far from the basics that, you know, established the genre if you will. So like I read at the beginning, you follow the character of Coco, this sweet, funny wholesome young girl. Her dream is to be a witch and when she was young, she got a book or she thought it was sort of like a picture book that was sold to her with the promise that she would become a witch. That comes into play later on in the plot when you find out why or how magic is done in this world. But regardless, the story starts out with Coco wanting to be a witch and she gets this opportunity to a series of unfortunate events that really play to the trope of the hero going on this epic quest to save a loved one. I'm not necessarily going to spoil that fact. Why is it going that route? I'm not going to dwell too much on that but just know that it follows story beats that we've heard and read before but it doesn't in such a flawless, quick paced, beautiful matter. The story is very kinetic. As soon as you start reading, you're just entranced by the characters, by the beautiful scenery, by the way that these characters act and behave. You have such a wholesome protagonist yet at the same time, she's very comical in her reactions and then when she meets the character, and I am totally going to butcher this, key free? I don't know if I said that right so you'll have to excuse me on that. When she meets him, just the sheer delight on her face when she realizes who this character is, spoilers, it's a witch. She loses it and we've all had that situation at one point in our lives I guess. So Coco is a very relatable protagonist. She's very wholesome and endearing and you are rooting for her. She sets herself up for a tragedy and is seeking her own sense of redemption to right the wrongs that were committed by becoming the very thing that she's always wanted to be, which is a witch. I mean it's no secret if you look at the cover image for the manga, then you know she's a witch. So how that happens is very cinematic. I could easily see Witch Head Atelier be its own live action property. It translates so well that you could adapt it to a different medium and it would still work. And that is due to Kamome's skill as a writer which I think she has done a fantastic job. Very relatable characters even though the setting is more fantastical and you have these characters in this European like setting with the you know stuff like the cities at the marshes and the prairies and stuff. It looks very ancient and the world building in here is top notch. This is an excellent example that I will, from now on I will refer to of how to world build a manga series without too much effort. You're not introduced to a whole lot of elements from the get go, but as soon as they start giving you the trail of breadcrumbs it just opens up into something bigger and more bold and beautiful and daring. I love how the cityscapes look, I love how the characters behave and interact with each other. Coco you know when she is doing her internship, apprenticeship or whatever ship you want to call it. And she sees her peers and they are also distinct too. Not one character feels the same to me, they all have very distinct personalities just from the looks alone and when Coco meets them these characters behave in a very different matter to each other which I thought was great and really gives you a sense of this being a living breathing world teaming with exposition and it's done in a beautiful way. It's an easy method to introduce concepts to the reader via books and the main character learning about this stuff and reading it. You get to read it as well and you get to take all this info in about the sigils and how the magic in this world works which is, I don't want to spoil it but it is a very clever way of presenting magic and how society views it and how it is affecting the lives of others and its secrecy and all that stuff. I love that aspect so much, it intrigued me so much and I want to keep reading this series to find out more and more about this world. The antagonist, even though I know that later volumes will probably explain it a little bit better but I would say the only fault in it is that we don't have enough time to understand who the bad guy is going to be so it comes off a little generic for me, you know, don't hate me, just for me it comes off a little bit generic but that is to be expected on a story like this because as the story progresses you start learning about the villains and the world and all that stuff and everything becomes a little bit more complex and, you know, it's sort of an enriched reading experience when you have concepts like this being explored and the whole world building aspect, just overall a fantastic series, very quick to read, a very satisfying panel to panel, everything flows so well that you don't even realize that you're done with the first chapter until you see the second one, right, it flies by and you just have a great time, it's very cinematic in its approach and the art, like I mentioned earlier, is simply breathtaking, I love this so much, it is so rich in details for the human characters and even if there's a scene where you don't see a background, you just see the person, it looks rich in detail and flavor and it's gorgeous to look at, the attention to detail when it comes to the books, to the houses, to the attire, to the magical effects, to the cityscapes later on, to the villain and the wardrobes and everything just has such a good personality to it, it's fantastic, I was blown away, I'd loved every single second of this book while I was reading it, I cannot recommend it enough and I can see why so many people fell in love with this title and do recommend it, I'm late to the train, the first manga came out last spring 2019 so I'm a little behind but I do plan on collecting this series as soon as I can, I read the first volume digitally on comicsology so looking at it on your iPad or on your tablet, it looks even better, it's so gorgeous to look at, I cannot wait to read more volumes, I loved it, fantastic characters, a wholesome and daring protagonist that you want to root for, a wonderful side characters and supporting cast I should say, excellent world building, a rich tapestry of art in display and just everything, it oozes with confidence that when you turn to the next page you're greeted with more great art and that's very hard to do, that's very difficult to pull off and I think Shida Hama does it beautifully and with elegance and grace presenting an all-ages story that a lot of people can get into and enjoy so yeah if you like magic stories, excellent characters and epic world building which had Atelier is a fantastic manga that hey, even if you don't like manga, this is a great book to recommend for somebody that doesn't like manga so think about that, it's really freaking great guys so if you haven't read it, I do wholeheartedly recommend it, I think you'll have a good time with it, it's a very quick read even though there's quite a good amount of pages inside which surprised me so yeah overall fantastic A-plus material, I don't usually rate stuff on this channel, I just tell you if it's good or not, if I like it or not but yeah A-plus, 10 out of 10, whatever, I'm all in and I'm excited to continue with the adventure, have you read which had Atelier, let me know in the comments section down below and if not recommend me your favorite which themed manga or anime, that's pretty interesting, same with comics too, let me know in the comment section down below, guys as always thank you for liking, commenting, subscribing and being a part of a week in geek them, it truly does mean the world to me, thank you so very much, as always click the little bell icon so you know when new videos pop up, follow me on social media, sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that fun stuff, I've got to go, I've got more stuff to read and review so I will catch all of you guys on our next episode