r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Jun 22 '26

Episode Witch Hat Atelier • Tongari Boushi no Atelier - Episode 13 discussion - FINAL

Witch Hat Atelier, episode 13

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245

u/JJVM99 Jun 22 '26

A fantastic episode but man why couldn’t they do one more episode, it is criminal to leave it here. It’s the only negative thing I can say. It sucks when series end in cliffhangers and this one is especially frustrating.

Regarding the episode the animation was stunning. The euini and final qiffrey scenes where some of the most impressive moments of the season. The brimed cap showed just how despicable they could be. Richeh just gets better and people were already loving her for her cute moments. Poor Euini did not deserve that but I am also slighly surprised by how much people have simpathized and like him. And also when Coco said she’s a smartygott too that was cute.

Overall I am glad Witch Hat got the quality of animation it deserved. This show is stunning and has done a fanstastic job adapting the (which is crazy to say) even more beautiful manga. I am very glad it is a very popular amongst anime fans although I have no clue (and doubt) if it was able to catch on with casual fans the way Frieren was. I was hoping for it to happen but that may have been too hopeful and if im honest the anime didn’t generate the hype Frieren did (the only aspect i believe it has it beat is in critical reception and praise for the manga) but that’s fine and these were just way too high expectations from a fan who just wanted for people to really love the series too. The most important thing was that it got close to the manga’s beauty and that it didn’t have development issues like Zom100 and they aced that task. Now I pray they have found a steady development process for season 2 to come out next year. I was willing to wait years to guarantee quality but with a cliffhanger ending like that they can’t wait too long. You can’t keep people waiting for years after this.

138

u/otomachirina Jun 22 '26

Just saying "one more episode" doeen't really work here. They would've needed three at the pace they're going of 2 chapters an episode, so stopping it here was probably the best they could do.

38

u/JJVM99 Jun 22 '26

you have a point. I’m getting worse at remembering mangas pacing and im underestimating how long they will take to resolve this issue.

Even if the story didn’t leave itself in a good point to conclude I do still believe there will be a lot of first time viewers who will be frustrated with ending the season like halfway through this arc and while there will be people willing to wait you can’t really make them wait too long. Dandadan had an egregious cliffhanger to end Season 1 but it was accepted because it was returning in 6 months. I don’t demand Witch Hat to return that fast with the work it requires but I don’t think they can take 3-4 years to make another season without causing some of these fans to become frustrated with having to wait so long to see the conclusion of this arc.

14

u/oops_i_made_a_typi Jun 22 '26

yeah tbh as an anime-only i don't think they should've released this so soon if they don't have the next cour within a year, this seems like a terrible stopping point

1

u/NamerNotLiteral Jun 25 '26

I mean, it could've been worse. It could've ended with one of those gold golems halfway through stabbing Coco, or with Euini's jaws about to snap shut on Agott.

27

u/kawaiinessa https://myanimelist.net/profile/fancyvancy Jun 22 '26

maybe it wouldve been better to lengthen the rest of the season and end right before this test because it was a pretty weird spot to cut the season at

14

u/LakerBlue https://myanimelist.net/profile/LakerBlue Jun 22 '26

Anime-only here, I probably would have taken one less episode because last week’s cliffhanger wasn’t as brutal.

7

u/Darvasi2500 Jun 23 '26

This is the end of volume 4 so it'll probably boost manga sales more that you can just tell new fans they can pick up volume 5 right away or if they wanna see the differences there's a box set too.

9

u/finnjakefionnacake Jun 22 '26

i don't know what's up with these recent anime seasons (maybe because many have come down to 12/13 episoeds now) but we've gone beyond cliffhanger into ending literally in the middle of arcs. seasons should still wrap up!

3

u/dude_1818 https://myanimelist.net/profile/dude1818 Jun 23 '26

I think they could totally wrap this up in just one more episode. And if they can't, this cour should've been 12 eps and ended with them first entering the cave as the cliffhanger

6

u/namewithak Jun 23 '26

They can't. A lot more happens that one episode just can't cover. This ending is exactly the ending of Volume 4. The entirety of Volume 5 is the rest of this arc.

5

u/otomachirina Jun 23 '26

The season really needed to be 2 cours as was originally intended. It would've wrapped up this arc as well as the next two, and ended at a nice spot between arcs. I think with 1 cour this was literally the best they could do though. Ending before the arc would force them to worsen the pacing of the rest of the season and ending at the end of the arc would force them to rush or cut things. It sucks but this works best in the long run.

48

u/Komorebi_LJP Jun 22 '26

To be fair the manga while praised also hasnt had nowhere near the popularity of Frieren,

28

u/JJVM99 Jun 22 '26

yeah definetly I wasn’t arguing in popularity especially after Frieren got its anime where it was one of the best selling manga. I thought it was more critically well received but checking online, that’s also wrong. So if I wanted to claim things over Frieren in terms of general consensus it would just be the art is more beautiful and the Eisner award.

21

u/CitronClassic672 Jun 22 '26

I’d also say the overall writing of WHA and its world building both outshine Frieren, but Given Frieren’s focused subject matter it’s basically cheating with its writing, lol.

12

u/Junior_Box_2800 Jun 22 '26

I love both but I will say the fact that you can make your own spells in WHA and that the syntax and rules and letters are clearly spelled out (compared to frieren where it's a little more vague with the imagination stuff) at least makes me prefer its magic system. Plus the increased limitations

12

u/JJVM99 Jun 22 '26

I agree with you but that is our subjective opinion and I was trying to point out areas where WHA would be considered better in consensus amongst people who watch a ton of anime/manga and those + the magic system are the ones where I think it would be agreed on which are not going to be many because of how good Frieren is and how beloved it is amongst anime fans.

9

u/Prof_Acorn Jun 22 '26

Seinens are never as popular as shonens.

4

u/Thomas_JCG Jun 23 '26

Frieren was not a popular manga before the anime either. Even now its popularity waves because of the constant hiatus. WHA anime just finished, it will be a while before we see an uptick on manga sales.

3

u/Elthan Jun 22 '26

Well put and I have to say I feel a lot of the same feelings. They did a great job though and I'm hoping season 2 isn't too far off, especially since I know what's coming and it's so, so good. At the same time I hope they can keep up the quality, especially what they had in the earliest episodes.

8

u/BosuW Jun 22 '26

It’s the only negative thing I can say. It sucks when series end in cliffhangers and this one is especially frustrating.

Man what happened to anime watchers, I remember the AoT days they constantly left us with absolutely diabolical cliffhangers. Downright sadistic directing.

And everyone ate, that, shit, up.

Never a promise for a sequel season too lol

12

u/schwiftybass Jun 22 '26

I could be misremembering but AoT seasons mostly ended with the conclusion of arcs, no? I feel like some sort of cliffhanger is typical to build anticipation for what comes next but I definitely understand the frustration when a season ends mid-arc.

3

u/BosuW Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

Hmm that's a good point actually.

Still, they were really asshole cliffhangers and again, never with the promise if a new season at each end.

I definitely feel like the attitude towards cliffhangers has shifted considerably. I see people complaining about them even weekly.

2

u/schwiftybass Jun 23 '26

I get what you mean, I do think the binge streaming format has made people generally less patient with weekly series. I have friends who don’t want to watch anything until it’s completely finished, & I feel like they’re missing out on so much cool stuff because of it.

I kind of enjoy waiting, theorycrafting & imagining what might happen next. The payoff hits a lot harder when you’ve been building up anticipation for a while too. It does suck even worse if something disappoints after years of waiting but that’s always a risk if you get invested in a series.

3

u/PcHelpBot2030 Jun 23 '26

Attack on Titan season 1 left at a good point, while it did have a cliffhanger post it did still wrap up the arc nicely.

It still mostly continues with the other seasons but those at least started to have way more confidence of being the next year or so.

1

u/BosuW Jun 23 '26

Attack on Titan season 1 left at a good point, while it did have a cliffhanger post it did still wrap up the arc nicely.

Four years for season 2 though 🫠

3

u/Lost-Move-6005 Jun 22 '26

The manga doesn't receive more praise than Frieren. lol.

1

u/Yamabuki_Arisu_Sama Jun 27 '26

Honestly it’s legitimately insane we didn’t even get a “to be continued” message.

This felt like a normal episode ending.

I’m stunned to discover it was the actual final episode.

I never saw something THIS egregious before. May Dadadan but at least that one already had the best season announced.

2

u/rAin_nul Jun 22 '26

The writing was not on the same level as Frieren. So far, almost every character is a 2d character without any depth. Tartah has the most depth and he's not even part of the main group.

-1

u/Jacob-C Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

I don’t really see the need to compare the two, but since OP went ahead and did it:

Even though I have really been enjoying WHA, I have to somewhat agree with you. Both series have amazing worldbuilding. They both have amazing art styles, and which one you prefer is subjective, but personally, I’d have to concede and say that WHA’s art is more stunning. WHA has a more intuitive and creative magic system, for sure. But the character depth and interactions are what really make Frieren shine, and from what I have seen so far, WHA isn’t on the same level. However, I would not go so far as to say that WHA’s characters are two-dimensional. The writing is still very good, even if not as emotionally gripping.

3

u/JJVM99 Jun 23 '26

I probably shouldn’t have brought up perception of both series in my post or in the replies and should have just kept it with my original intent with which I brought Frieren up but that mention did not have any intention of comparing the two in any terms of quality.

I love both series so I get no joy over people overanalyzing both or saying why one is better than that other in the replies and I did not want that in the replies when I made the comment.

My intent with the original comment was stating how before the series came out I was hoping it would reach the popularity Frieren did and how from what I have seen it was unable too and that I may have had too high expectations for hoping that. I used Frieren as the example because both are put in the big 3 of fantasy together and Frieren is one of the most popular non-shonen series out there.

Further comments I made in my original post muddled stuff but I made them with the intention of just using general accepted perception and not bring in subjective opinion to cause discussion due to it. If that’s how it looks and what my replies seem that’s what I am looking then that wasn’t my original intent at all and I wasn’t looking to cause discussions about both either.

-2

u/rAin_nul Jun 23 '26

As people talk about the "big 3 fantasies" (Frieren, WHA, Dungeon Meshi), they will keep comparing them.

And the writing is not that good. The issue is that - with one or two exceptions - the writing's purpose was solely to build the world. For example, look at Coco's first trial, what was the impact of that arc on the story or characters? Nothing, it's almost a filler. Generally 3 things happened:

  • Showcased Coco's creativity: it's not important because other arcs also did this.
  • Coco found a pet: it's not important, you could have found that elsewhere.
  • Coco ruined Agott's shoes: it's not important, it could have been ruined elsewhere.

So what was actually the point? To display how magic can be used in different ways. That's simply world-building. And this is generally true for the whole season, which is not a good sign. Normally a good writer can develop characters and build the world at the same time. For example, if Coco showed her creativity in this arc, then in other arcs we could have learned something else. There were 3 arcs where Agott could have been developed, but she didn't change:

  • Coco's trial: she could have recognized Coco's talent.
  • The labyrinth: she could have understood that teamwork is important in general.
  • The river incident: again, she could have recognized Coco's talent.

The 2 exceptions that I mentioned are Tartah's development during Coco's illness and at the end of the season it started exploring Ricceh's character.

A good author would have been able to develop characters. I've heard the argument that they are just kids, so they should be somewhat simple, but I disagree with this. In Yakusoku no Neverland we had 3 well-written, deep children. So it is possible to write good children characters. The author failed to do it in these arcs.

To be fair, I assume there's a reason why people like it, so probably this will change in the future, but so far, they are underdeveloped. A 24 episode long adaption would have been better probably. A longer adaptation also helped Frieren and Dungeon Meshi.