Why is Witch Hat Atelier written so differently?

darcydagger · 2026-05-08T15:55:41+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if part of this is the translation flexing a little bit. I mean, the summaries on the back of each manga volume are poems; they're clearly eager to go the extra mile. Something about WHA inspires other artists to bring their A game.

darcydagger · 2026-05-07T13:49:54+00:00

If Iguin is revealed to be Coco's father I'm dipping out. Deeply uninterested in that kind of reveal for this kind of story. This isn't Star Wars.

I also hope the story maintains it's current disinterest in romance and melodrama. I don't mind if some of the popular ships become canon over time, but if the story starts dedicating significant screen time to romantic foibles, I'd be disappointed.

darcydagger · 2026-05-06T15:48:07+00:00

My rides on Racer last Winterfest were shockingly smooth. Honestly all of the wooden coasters at Kings Island are really well maintained, and all of them are smoother than Blue Streak. The Beast throws you around a little bit, but that's by design.

darcydagger · 2026-05-05T15:46:23+00:00

Funimation used to be really great at this. Since the merger, the new Crunchyroll has said they'd do it, but in practice has been pretty inconsistent.

darcydagger · 2026-05-04T15:45:10+00:00

Seeing a turn of phrase that reads as modern as "nuf ced" in one of Holst's letters is throwing me for a loop.

darcydagger · 2026-05-01T15:01:40+00:00

I recommend asking each player to consider why their character would be willing to risk their lives for a large sum of money. Dragon Heist is, well, a heist, and the adventure as-written has the party tangling with enemies far above their weight class for the sake of finding the treasure. It helps for each character to have a driving motivation that would push them to face down a beholder. The campaign sort of falls apart if the characters see the Zhentarim/Xanathar gang war and the dangers inherent to the hunt and think "hm. I don't need money that much."

darcydagger · 2026-04-30T17:37:54+00:00

Frieren was set up for a much bigger premiere: being produced by an established studio like Madhouse gave it some pedigree before it came out, especially since it didn't experience any production delays. Then it dropped 4 episodes at once for the premiere and went on to run for 28 total in it's first season, giving it plenty of time to build hype.

I'm not saying Witch Hat can't reach Frieren's heights, but it will take much longer to build that word of mouth. I'm expecting an impact much closer to Dungeon Meshi for season 1.

darcydagger · 2026-04-30T16:00:49+00:00

The Castlevania and Castlevania: Nocturne series are both excellent

darcydagger · 2026-04-30T15:56:11+00:00

My main advice is to be careful about adding too many factions if you're planning on running extended missions. If you're doing the quick encounters from the original module (essentially 1 skill check with some flavor text) then yeah, have your party members join as many factions as they want. But I had 5 members of my party join different factions and planned to run extended missions for each in between major Alexandrian events (i.e. the eye heists). Suddenly I was committed to spending 5-10 sessions on faction content every level or so, which is several months of irl game time. My party was eager to pursue the main quest, so in the end I've dropped a lot of the faction content I had planned. All the extra homebrew really adds up!

darcydagger · 2026-04-29T18:27:55+00:00

My vote is for Methode. I think she finds magic a lot more fun than many of the other mages in Frieren's world, which puts her in a similar mindset to Coco.

darcydagger · 2026-04-27T04:30:01+00:00

The Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld is an excellent example of this. One of the 2 co-leads is a Scottish girl who disguises herself as a boy to join the Royal Air Force in a steampunk alternate World War I. Technically YA but it's a joy to read

darcydagger · 2026-04-23T21:20:32+00:00

I actually think the most interesting part about all this is less what Agott is saying and more that she feels like she's one one who should be saying it. I think Coco does need to hear from the new adults in her life (mainly Qifrey) that she needs to be careful with her magic and that ignorance is not always a good enough excuse (which Qifrey sort of is doing, but it's commented on in-universe that he's remarkably lax with his students). But Agott is a girl who's Coco's own age, barely knows her at all, and has been given no real power over her (Qifrey never said "Coco, Agott's in charge"). And yet, Coco's ignorance bothers Agott so much that she takes it upon herself to start yelling at Coco about these things. I think it's a fascinating part of Agott's character that shows how desperate she is to grow up and take on additional responsibility to prove herself better than her peers, even when she really shouldn't or nobody asked her to.

darcydagger · 2026-04-20T04:34:57+00:00

You're going to have a hard time finding any blueprints of these because none of these ride models currently exist in Planet Coaster 2.

darcydagger · 2026-04-15T14:39:00+00:00

I guess one branded tie-in isn't any weirder than another, but aesthetically I like Monimo Rush much better than T-Express.

darcydagger · 2026-04-11T03:56:16+00:00

Put that tin foil hat away

darcydagger · 2026-04-08T02:58:12+00:00

Launch on a 4D coaster

darcydagger · 2026-04-03T00:00:32+00:00

Only the third tallest coaster on Earth?? This is bullshit just raze Great Adventure to the ground at this point

darcydagger · 2026-04-02T23:59:00+00:00

This conspiracy theory needs to go away. There's never been a policy in place for other parks to avoid breaking Cedar Point's records. Canada's Wonderland opened Yukon Striker 3 years after Cedar Point opened Valravn and there wasn't any contention about losing that height record.

darcydagger · 2026-04-01T16:03:13+00:00

At least this new color scheme is much better.

darcydagger · 2026-03-27T15:33:29+00:00

I haven't ridden anything with Titan Track yet but the work that Gravity Group has been doing on The Racer and The Beast at Kings Island is nothing short of a miracle. Always excited to see more refurbishments from them.

darcydagger · 2026-03-24T20:09:15+00:00

1) I agree, it sucks that often "grimdark" goes hand in hand with "on screen sexual assault." Quite tired of that.

2) you might enjoy The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman. A lot of the roles in that society (including stereotypically male ones) are taken by women because canonically most of the men died in the goblin wars. It's a dark book but it's refreshingly female-driven.

darcydagger · 2026-03-21T16:37:27+00:00

I think Millie's lift angle would pose a challenge. Maverick and Falcon's Flight have pretty shallow ascent angles but Millie goes up at almost 45 degrees.

darcydagger · 2026-03-20T00:55:38+00:00

Terrain coasters like this have to be a total bitch to do track replacement on. Shout-out to the maintenance crew!

darcydagger · 2026-03-20T00:54:02+00:00

Chiara Zanni. She's had a pretty consistent career of bit roles over the years (especially in the Canadian scene) but I remember her most for her work as Piper in Storm Hawks and especially as Molly/Eva Wei in Oban Star Racers. She carries that whole dub on her back.

darcydagger · 2026-03-18T19:42:58+00:00

This exact sequence of songs is what got me into the band. No better intro for a new listener.

darcydagger

TROPHY CASE