Witch Hat Atelier: Beginner Scene Masterclass

Humor. Information. Character Development. Come one, come all.

May 23, 2025

I can’t tell you how excited I am to be doing another of these “Scene Masterclass” posts, because, while they take the longest of any other post here on MangaCraft, I also enjoy them the most. Don’t tell me if you also enjoy them the most or not, I’m just going to believe that you do.

So today we’re going to a much different kind of scene than the first time we did this with Hell’s Paradise: Forest of Misfortune. This one only has one page of really breathtaking art, which we’ll get to, but most of why it’s such a great scene comes down to story and how many ways the scene advances various elements of the series.

So, before I get into it, here’s what’s been going on up to this point.

Coco, who is enamored by magic but isn’t a witch, per se, accidentally uses magic and turns her mom to stone. Luckily, a kindhearted wizard named Qifrey was there and takes her in to teach her magic. But Coco is an outsider to his atelier—which is a fancy word for a little abode where Qifrey teaches his four apprentices.

Coco is just getting into her studies, she’s practicing her magic (which is performed by drawing) and she is trying to be friends with her fellow apprentices. One particular apprentice who will appear in this scene, Agott, is particularly cold towards Coco. Agott doesn’t believe Coco should be here, she hasn’t earned it. In fact, she’s recently told her exactly that. Agott has no filter.

Okay, so here we go, Coco is studying with Qifrey, ready?

Begin.

So as we begin, we are about to segue into exposition. That’s always a bit of a precarious situation because, in general, exposition, or info dumping, can be clumsy and slow. And unnecessary. And easy to gloss over. And a lot of bad things. But in order to set the scene, we have to know where we’re headed.

Plus, we get a fun little Coco moment at the end.

Now we get into the exposition, but it’s not really an info dump, see? Because Shirahama-sensei uses gorgeous art to pad the exposition and give it more life. Plus, this is all necessary information in helping the reader understand how magic works here.

Plus, we get another fun little Coco moment at the end.

And here is wonderful teaching moment from Qifrey, who conjures a flower made of water. Which, by the way, is just another showcase of Shirahama-sensei’s artistic genius. Every time she depicts magic, it is stunning. And this is really such a small depiction of it, yet no less stunning.

Coco agrees.

Thus begins the humor. We’ve had the exposition to explain the magic we’re about to see, we’ve seen Qifrey’s calm temperament as a teacher, and now it’s Coco’s turn to take the stage. Her ambition quickly turns to frustration as she realizes she’s nowhere near as good as Qifrey. Of course she isn’t. But it’s quite a funny moment, and again, it shows such strong chemistry between student and teacher.

This is the most wonderful of moments. This moment of Qifrey talking Coco down, telling her it’s okay, let’s just use the spell and see what happens so you can learn from it. The calm before the storm if you will.

And then the final panel… it all goes awry. The spell misfires and soaks Agott, the early rival of Coco. What’s so great about this is we had no idea Agott was even there, because this scene has been all about Coco and Qifrey and their shared experience. So for Agott to appear here, just to get soaked by Coco’s misfired spell, is just perfect.

Remember—just before this, Agott made her thoughts of Coco abundantly clear. She does not like her. So the expectation is conflict.

Aside from being just as funny in the aftermath, there’s also the prolonged tension of what will Agott do. Because While Coco is freaking out, and Qifrey is curiously watching Coco freak out, Agott has yet to move. She’s sopping wet, but completely still. Is she calming herself? Is she fuming? Is she plotting her revenge?

For the first time, Qifrey tries to intervene because it seems as though he, too, expected Agott to be upset. But the big moment here is Agott appearing to be kind and reasonable, even offering to teach Coco rather than rain fire upon her. She even diagnoses the issue right away.

Agott continues to diagnose the issue and offers to help, so much so that Qifrey willingly excuses himself to allow Agott to take over tutelage of Coco. Which is, in and of itself, it’s own twist because just after this, as soon as Qifrey has left, Agott becomes her dark, manipulative self, conning Coco into a magical test she is in no way ready for.

Meaning that, whether that was always the plan or not, it’s reasonable to think that she contained her anger to convince Qifrey that he could leave Coco alone with her, before then unleashing her plan to get Coco once and for all kicked out of the magical world. It’s so devious, but it’s expertly executed by Agott.

Okay, so a lot happens here, for a lot of different storytelling elements. Let’s take them one at a time.

Character Development

In terms of individual characters, we get really valuable windows into three of the main drivers of this series—Coco, Qifrey and Agott.

For Coco, we get to see her enthusiasm, her self-doubt, and her kindness and empathy. For Qifrey, we see how good of a teacher he is, how compassionate and empathetic, but also how effective. And for Agott, we see her calm temperament, but also just how devious she can be. This is the first time we see her being truly conniving.

Relationship Building

In addition to the singular character development, we also get really great windows into three different relationships as well—Coco and Qifrey, Coco and Agott, and also a bit of Agott and Qifrey.

For Coco and Qifrey, that teacher/student bond is just developing. There’s a playfulness there, but it’s also such a positive relationship. For Coco and Agott, it’s quite the opposite. Coco has such fear of Agott, while Agott is, again, quite devious. Spoiler, they will grow to become friends, so this as the base of that friendship adds layers to make it more compelling.

I find the window into Qifrey and Agott to be the most interesting though, because Qifrey either doesn’t know, or chooses to ignore, that Agott has a devious side. Perhaps he’s just a bit flippant, but to leave Coco alone with Agott was an absolute mistake, as he finds out mere pages later. So does Qifrey not know Agott’s devious side? Does Agott only have a devious side because of Coco’s arrival and Qifrey hasn’t seen it before? Or is Qifrey not such an observant teacher after all?

Delivering Information

I want to go back to that singular page of exposition, because it accomplishes so much in a small space. First off, exposition dumps usually take up a lot of real estate. This one doesn’t thanks to an effective layout, gorgeous artistic flourishes, but also the fact that it is indeed needed information to help us understand the basis of how spells work.

Comedy

I will always think humor is the most valuable resource of a story, especially when it’s wielded like it is here. There are several comedic beats here. Coco’s flusterment (that’s a word, trust me), Qifrey’s background antics, Agott’s sudden appearance at the misfiring spell, and the self-imposed crisis of Coco trying to apologize. It’s all hilarious, but what adds to it is the sudden shifts.

I always, always love when a story can shift from serious to funny quickly. Here we go from Coco learning valuable information and pushing herself to learn, to her unintentionally soaking Agott. It’s a brilliant segue.

There are undoubtedly going to be more masterclass scenes from Witch Hat Atelier, because it’s a masterclass itself on so many levels, but this one, especially so early on in the series, is just buckets of fun.