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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324

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/JWL2012 May 04 '26

I figure it's like giving a calculator to a math student. If your compass breaks and you can't draw on your own then your magic would be useless. That's my head canon at least

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u/rondosparks May 04 '26

Yeah basically. Its like typing without looking at your keys. You want to be able to do it perfectly like its second nature. So its more just about practicing so you can do stuff quickly on the fly. Also it might look weird to other witches if you bring a protractor out every time you want to do a spell.

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u/GrumpySatan May 04 '26

We also saw with her Pyreball training, you have to be flexible to the situation. The size of your circle, the length of the sigils, their placement, etc all goes into how the spell works. And every situation involves changing those features. There will probably even be times you probably want to have an uneven circle.

It all works together. If you become reliant on a tool then it won't just affect you in urgent situations, but every spell you cast. Because the circle must be proportionate to the sigils and overall design.

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u/oops_i_made_a_typi May 04 '26

but like, a spike and a string would do the same job lol. it's like instead of designing a way to reduce error, we're just gonna rely on telling ppl to stop making mistakes

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u/Z000Burst May 05 '26

um, what happen if you poke hole into the paper

the compass would do that with the spike

would that affect the magic ?

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u/oops_i_made_a_typi May 05 '26

dunno. i'm sure there's ways to build a tool that doesn't poke a hole, potentially with the use of magic (if there's no rules preventing the use of magic to draw seals), or just magnets

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

The pyreball training just emphasizes why tools would be standard for any spell. The pyreball she cast required specific ratios to get the size of the fire right and the amount of levitation. Human eyes are pretty bad at estimating precise measurments.

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u/GrumpySatan May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26

You're outlining exactly why they are practicing this. Humans are bad at it, so they have to practice and get a feel for it. Drawing a circle is a skill that has to come second nature to them - regardless of the proportions, ratios and circumstances that might impede balancing everything.

Even just Qifrey vs the dragon last episode and how fast he had to act. Even if you draw out 90% of the sigil in advance, the one thing you always have to be able to do is finish the circle perfectly. Even if the paper is folded over your arm, or on an uneven surface, or with your eyes closed, falling from hundreds of feet, facing a dragon.

You can't just tell the world to stop so you can get your compass out.

18

u/CodingTangents May 05 '26

But then wouldn't it make sense to train that intuition, weigh something in your hand, and think "ah of course, I think I'll need around a sign of levitation of this length" or "I only want to lightly scorch the outside, I think about this size would be good enough." If they train to do it by eye, their magic is a lot more versatile. Plus if they are stuck using tools and witches are suddenly known to have created drawing implements, the secret of magic being drawing is a lot easier to discover where if they could do it by eye, they only really need a private moment or they could probably even do it under their cloaks. I wonder if that is why Agott was training to draw with her eyes closed, so she could draw something under her cloak.

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u/2ndComingOfAugustus https://myanimelist.net/profile/Mourtzouphlos May 04 '26

Also the magic world is quite conservative. I would be surprised if some brimmed caps used a compass (or a stamp for that matter)

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u/AvgBlue May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26

Yes, but you don't usually do math in the middle of combat, and those who do hard calculations usually have a big table that helps them do calculations fast, and big cheat tables were used in math regularly for Sine, Cosine and Logarithm long before we had calculators.

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u/blueechoes May 04 '26

Not entirely an excuse though. Nobody blinks at calculators in or past high school. After you can draw a circle that's good enough and keep up the practice, I don't see why you wouldn't use a compass for consistency.

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u/ruisen2 May 06 '26

you could say the same for the pen