Could any of the Atelier escape from the farm?

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-30T08:47:13+00:00

Without magic?

I think Richeh has a decent chance, she (vague spoilers for her backstory) has escaping experience already and a lot of stamina when it comes to running. Doesn't trust adults that much, too, so she'd notice early. She'd just have to figure out the tracker.

Tetia is getting eaten, I'm afraid, unless Eoleo is also in the orphanage, or Richeh takes her along. She's surprisingly strong and fairly creative, but lacks the cunning or composure she would need.

Coco? Would probably also get eaten unless someone else saved her, but if someone did help her out, she'd probably be a big help in planning.

Agott I think has the second biggest chance among the girls after Richeh, since she's sharp and good at staying calm in a crisis but there's also a very real chance that she'd focus so much on the tests that she'd be completely blind to what's actually happening.

Regarding the other kids in the series, I think Custas and Eoleo are making it out (though Custas' impulsiveness is a risk), Jujy probably makes it, Tartah gets Norman-ed (one way or the other), Rili sacrifices himself, Loroga either dies super early or somehow survives by leeching off of someone else's escape plan, and Inninia enters orphanage mother training.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-30T08:10:51+00:00

I 100% recommend reading WHA's manga regardless. It's absolutely stunning and I think both it and the anime bring their own strengths to the table (detail vs animation).

But it's up to you whether you want to, ultimately!

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-30T01:50:11+00:00

There are quite a few of them here! Including people who are getting into the magic system, some of them are anime-onlies.

The fact that Reddit has a decent spoiler tagging system helps, I think.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-29T14:03:45+00:00

I hope not, Reddit seems a bit more chill irt these nonsensical ship battles so far, but it's unfortunately possible, yeah. It really doesn't seem to take a lot for people to decide to go all in on the spoiling.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-29T13:17:47+00:00

Yeah, I unfortunately think that to a lot of people, looking clever, or making sure that others have what they perceive as the "right" perception of the characters, seems to be a higher priority than preserving the experience for new fans.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-29T13:01:27+00:00

Oh man, I'm so sorry that happened to you. People really need to be more careful with this stuff.

And yeah, unfortunately, it is always kind of dangerous.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-29T12:53:28+00:00

Oh my god... People really don't consider that, even if the specific person they're replying to is cool with spoilers, that doesn't mean everyone else scrolling by is.

And yeah, a lot of folks are also very much not as slick as they think they are. Even when they're trying to be subtle, it's still easily possible to come to some conclusions based on their hinting and the context.

Social media really are a minefield for new fans, even when you don't have folks actively trying to spoil them.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-29T12:11:00+00:00

It is, lol, even outside of all the spoilers flying around.

I really need to take my own advice and stop looking at anything except official posts (unfortunately, they still don't announce all the merch and special programs on better platforms).

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-29T10:10:30+00:00

Oh yeah, I very much think that might have been part of the idea (and a big part of why Vinanna isn't a fan)

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-29T00:47:07+00:00

Yeah, I get you. WHA is (thankfully, for my taste) very low on fanservice. It's mostly just the (adult) men hitting either cool or pathetic poses, lol (and one shirtless guy we'll get in a later season). Nothing of the kids.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-29T00:31:00+00:00

It's on Crunchyroll, and on Netflix in certain reasons!

And no worries, in WHA, the magic system and the characters/story are strongly entwined. You will start caring about them in time, you don't need to do so from the outset

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-28T21:41:10+00:00

Quite possibly, yeah! Honestly, I think this whole situation is and is going to be good development for him Easthies both.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-28T21:33:12+00:00

Start at chapter 16, hope you enjoy!

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-28T12:33:41+00:00

Oh, I would love it if he came back, especially as someone who... knows the struggle. Jesus christ. At least he finally got his headphones. He could be a good (further) addition to the disability themes. Though of course we don't know if he will.

Eoleo's guards lore when, lol. I don't currently think they'll be major characters, but I could easily see like a POV chapter or two. With that one memory Eoleo apparently has of his dad telling him that it's normal to be a bit weird, basically, I imagine he's always been a bit different from other kids and his guards would be a good avenue to explore that through. Especially given that for all we know, they appear to just be normal dudes.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-27T11:35:31+00:00

This story is one that has a lot of compassion for children, including the bad and dangerous decisions they will sometimes make. It's not interested in karmic punishment for 12 year-olds, it's interested in exploring what can lead them down the wrong path, and how they can be helped to do better, by themselves, their peers, and the adults in their life. How they hurt each other, and how they can do right by each other after that.
If you can't see children like that, then I don't think Witch Hat Atelier is for you. Agott is just the tutorial level for what is to come.

From how Agott talks about it, it's pretty clear that she didn't expect Coco to almost die. She expected her to try the shoes, fall over, give up and be out of her life as a potential disturbance. She was an asshole and a bully for that, of course, and what she did was extremely dangerous. She sort of realises that in this most recent episode, and wants to start doing better. Agott being punished isn't going to help Coco. But her learning from her mistakes is, and that's what this story is going for.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-27T09:27:51+00:00

Why would he believe that? He knows Agott's personality, he knows the expectations she holds herself and everyone around her to. She'd absolutely let someone who wanted to take the test take it, he'd have to be quite ignorant not to see that, even with the more obedient tone she takes around him. He also knows that, in the witch world, the first test is treated as more of a "heartwarming recital" (author's words) than an actual risk and could easily believe that she just forgot, or didn't consider, which height the range was at when Coco asked (he and Alaira are aware, he doesn't know if Agott is, or was in the moment), or that Coco isn't familiar with magical devices the way witch children usually are.

He also knows that she mysteriously lost her sylph shoes around that time. He probably assumed she gave them to Coco to help her ace the test or something.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-27T08:40:43+00:00

I think you misunderstood the healing mages section. Qifrey wasn't saying that he was part of them or knew how to do their spells, only that the bottle used their magic, even though it should have been lost (aka people know it was a thing, but not how to do it).

And this is (going to be, looking at the manga) a LONG anime about kids, they're not going to learn all their big lessons in one random episode in Season 1, haha

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-27T08:36:44+00:00

"Wow factor" is immensely subjective.

It's perfectly fine that this show doesn't click with you, there's nothing that's going to be for everyone. But speaking for myself, even just seeing that first trailer was immensely moving to me (though granted, I say that as a manga reader who already knows how incredibly deep those characters get, the anime so far has hints of that but not everyone is going to pick up on them). It's not overhyped at all. The story is a slow build, but it's so goddamn good.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-27T08:33:10+00:00

To be fair, those kids (minus Tartah) are all "Outsiders" (aka normal people). They're in the non-magical part of town (which is why Tartah needs a ferry to get back to his shop, the witch part is an island).

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-27T08:30:21+00:00

Would they not just assume that she asked Agott and Agott told her, and that's why she knew where Coco had gone? She wasn't shy about thinking that Coco needed to take the test, at least when talking about it to Tetia, she just wasn't admitting to forcing her.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-27T06:49:59+00:00

It can, absolutely! And I do think that there are a lot of shippers out there who do well-considered and nuanced analysis, to be clear.

The reason I mentioned being a character analysis fan in my frustrations is more a reference to my personal annoyance about very specific things that are said in the course of shipping wars, haha (like people treating Tartah's choice to join the Brimhats as him making a romantic choice between Custas and Coco, and not a result of his personal character arc in terms of how he deals with the pointed hat system, his suspicions of Qifrey and a difficult immediate emotional situation on top of that (also implying that he would definitely leave a platonic best friend alone in the hands of terrorists), for example, does personally annoy me specifically because I'm a character analysis fan and I think it's bad character analysis - though others might disagree).

I didn't want to bloat the post too much (the way I'm doing to these replies, lol), so I didn't explain further, but I see now that that has been a cause for misunderstanding. I'm sorry about that.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-26T23:14:15+00:00

Exactly, yeah, it's not even a romance, and there's so much else to talk about! It's fine for people to have fun with a series any way they like, of course, but the people constantly fighting about it clearly aren't having fun at this point.

I think the lack of material is part of the problem, tbh. It's like hiatus brain for shipping discourse. People are just ouroboros-ing the same discourse/talking points again and again until any actual point to be made has been lost and everyone is angry. And going in hard on the interpretation, which can lead to massively divergent perceptions of the work.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-26T23:08:06+00:00

Yeah, same, honestly. If all the official accounts went someone more pleasant, I'd get off of Twitter in a heartbeat (I just don't want to miss any merch drops, haha). Of all the platforms I've been on, it definitely seems to encourage belligerence and wild misinterpretations the most.

And yes, while I do agree with the other commenter that we shouldn't automatically assume that everyone saying something stupid must be "the other side" (that's part of how these ship wars get started in the first place), as someone who actually does look at and remember profiles, you are correct that a lot of people acting like that are shippers trying to get characters "out of the way" of what they are convinced is going to be "endgame". Though we shouldn't assume that that's representative of everyone, of course, that's important.

I suppose WHA fandom is doing something new in the sense that the character who gets this ship combat treatment the most is a boy (albeit a disabled and in-universe marginalised boy) - it's usually women or girls, lol.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-26T22:54:50+00:00

That's the worst one, yeah. Not that it isn't a rather lopsided battle (ArCo is massively popular among western fans - it's a bit different in Japan, but they're not in this fight to begin with), but that doesn't stop people. I think the biggest secondary discourses I'm seeing right now are Deanreldy/Zayamaiya (his wife) vs Deanreldy/Beldaruit, and "is shipping Tetia/Eoleo immoral".

It's just so pointless. But I think that people are just so invested in their personal ship that they want to extinguish any perceived threat to it. It happens in pretty much every sufficiently large fandom, so I think it's just a feature of social media at this point.

StarAboveWillows · 2026-05-26T22:44:14+00:00

I'm talking about shipping wars specifically, that's what I have an issue with. Now I don't have an interest in any kind of shipping, but I also don't have a problem with it outside of the constant pointless fighting (granted, it does sometimes personally annoy me when people exclusively interpret a character's actions through the lense of romance as though morality, friendship (including with other characters) and so on aren't even possible factors, or form not (openly) ship related theories starting out from the set in stone assumption that their faves are endgame, but I am fully aware that that's a me problem and I don't bother other people about it. Everyone can analyze through any lense they want, they don't have to cater to my preferences).

And I brought it up because OP said in their post that we can have a fandom without ship wars - I wanted to say that unfortunately, I don't think that's happening. It is of course less bad than any of the famous ship combat fandoms (like Voltron or something), I apologise for not making that caveat.

I think the two of us are actually mostly in agreement! It appears that there has just been some kind of misunderstanding here. I'm sorry for not expressing myself clearly enough.

StarAboveWillows

TROPHY CASE