How Witch Hat Atelier's Manga Creator Made Magic for Everyone

A packed room of enthusiastic fans gathered in the hall at the Kodansha House pop-up in NYC for the chance to have a live Q&A session with the mangaka of Witch Hat Atelier, Kamome Shirahama. The session began by introducing the moderator and local librarian, Joe Pascullo, who spoke about his own enthusiasm for the series when bringing it up on a list of recommendations for books to be carried on library shelves throughout the city. He then welcomed Shirahama on stage to ask some questions about her work leading up to the creation of Witch Hat Atelier while she did a live drawing of the series' protagonist, Coco.

Shirahama stated that she had actually begun her career in art as an illustrator, but eventually moved into manga because of its capacity to tell interesting stories. Because of this, she feels that her art style leans closer towards that of illustrations rather than manga, and when she decided to base the art style for Witch Hat Atelier on the illustrations of classic children's books, she realized how difficult it can be to draw manga that way and why a lot of other manga artists don't usually attempt it. She also spoke about some of her previous work with Western properties like DC Comics and Star Wars, and how she grew up watching the animated versions of X-Men and Justice League, and was also a big fan of Star Wars. She was very insistent about having the opportunity to work on those franchises. One particular memory she recalled about her time working on Star Wars was drawing an incredibly detailed spaceship, only for it to get blown up in the span of a few pages, and thinking that this must be what it's like to work on something that big.

The conversation then moved on to her work on Witch Hat Atelier and its creation. She stated that one of her biggest influences for creating Witch Hat Atelier was actually Lord of the Rings and that she enjoyed watching the movies as a child. When thinking about the magic system featured throughout the series, she wanted something simple and practical enough that even children could pick it up, and made that one of the big sticking points for the series. She was also briefly asked about the upcoming anime adaptation and said she's excited about the opportunity to gain new readers and receive more feedback. Finally, she was asked about the positive critical reception that the series has received in the West, having won several awards, including the Harvey and Eisner awards, and stated that while she did have an international audience in mind while creating the series, she was surprised at how well-received it's been outside Japan.

The floor was then opened for questions from fans, who asked about her other inspirations and how she came up with some of the fashion featured in the series. For inspirations outside of Western properties, she said that she also drew a lot from lesser-known shojo titles such as the 1987 series Knights of Alfheim by Seika Nakayama and Yūho Ashibe's 1981 series Crystal Dragon when creating Witch Hat Atelier. Regarding fashion, she stated that she's mindful not to draw too much from one specific region of the world, and tries to draw inspiration from various cultures. She was also asked about the level of diversity featured throughout the series concerning race and sexual orientation and how much of that was intentional. She stated that she sees that kind of diversity as a very natural thing, and since she saw a lot of diversity in the works she grew up on as a child, it was something that she wanted to see reflected in her own. The Q&A ended with a reminder to the fans to look forward to some future illustrations related to Witch Hat Atelier before transitioning into an autograph session with Shirahama.

Before the session began, we also had the chance to speak with Shirahama-sensei regarding her work on Witch Hat Atelier.

The background art and shading in Witch Hat Atelier feel very reminiscent of the illustrations you find within the pages of classic literature or fairy tales. Is this a deliberate choice based on a specific era of illustration? What is your process for creating such highly-detailed background art? Do you use digital tools, or do you work with traditional media?

SHIRAHAMA: Yes. I have studied the techniques often used in the 14th to 16th-century Renaissance era, such as the dotted art style or cross-hatching. Those are the types of textures and art styles that I referenced often when I wrote the story. In terms of the artwork process, I do everything by hand up until the inking process. However, for everything after that point, where I put in grayscale tone, I use digital tools.

The series runs in a seinen publication, but there are a lot of little features like learning how to design your own witch hat or games included in the volume releases and feel designed for younger readers. What made you want to include them, and did you envision children as part of your target audience for the story? Or was this sort of feature intended to encourage all readers, regardless of age or gender, to become involved in the story's world? Does Witch Hat Atelier have an “intended audience” in your eyes?

SHIRAHAMA: So in Japan, manga is usually categorized by the target demographics of the magazines they run in. For example, shōnen is for the younger male audience, josei is for the mature female audience, and so forth, but seinen is kind of unique in a sense. It's kind of like a mixed bag of topics. It doesn't quite fit into a particular demographic, and it's really just a matter of exploring the stories. So when I got a chance to write for a seinen magazine, I started thinking that this manga wasn't just for a mature male audience, but for a wider audience as well.

In that sense, seinen manga is like a genre of all genres in Japan. As for my own manga, I do actually consider children around the same age as the characters the main target audience for the story, but I also like to make the story enjoyable for a broader audience.

Education is a big theme in the series, especially when it comes to allowing children the freedom to think and learn for themselves rather than blindly listening to adults. Why do you think that's so important?

SHIRAHAMA: I think it's really important for children or people of any age to think independently. When what's considered common sense seems irrational, they should be able to question it themselves. So educating children to think on their own, and make decisions based on their own thinking, is really important. To encourage the readers to think in that way, I've included these kinds of themes in the story to encourage people in real life to apply them to their lives as well.

We see through characters like Tartah and Custas how society can often fail to accommodate people with disabilities. Was there anything that made you want to discuss that topic in your work?

SHIRAHAMA: This is also kind of a theme that's throughout my series, as well. When there's a problem, or a difficult situation emerges, there's something you can always do with creativity. Although it's true that the world has not been built to accommodate everybody just yet, everybody can come up with their own creative ways of filling in for those difficulties. And I hope that would become something that readers of the series would think about.

If I could use magic, I'd like to use those powers to help make the surroundings of someone who uses a wheelchair barrier-free. If they had to do something like pick up a book on the highest shelf, it would make it come down. Those are the kinds of ways that I would like to use my magic. If I could influence even one person to think in this way, maybe each of us could help accommodate everybody.

Qifrey's motives at times feel very mixed - he took in Coco despite her not being from a witch family, and he seems to have his own agenda. Can you discuss the process of coming up with his character? How much of his desire to be a good teacher towards Coco is genuine versus seeing her as a means to get revenge on the brimmed caps?

SHIRAHAMA: So I do feel like Qifrey is a really complex character, and he's really hard to define. Sometimes, he's really compassionate and considerate to his students, and other times, he's just using people for his own benefit. So yeah, he's not very easy to pin down. Sometimes I get confused, too, when I'm drawing him. Even then, I feel like he really aspires to be a good teacher to his students, so I feel like I have to root for him.

How did you develop the plot point about brimmed versus brimless caps? In the West, the brimless look (a tall, conical hat) is more associated with princesses than magic users - have you encountered any feedback about that?

SHIRAHAMA: This is actually the first time that somebody has ever given me feedback about that [laughs]. The reason why the brimmed caps are fighting against the brimless caps is still secret and has yet to be revealed in the story. At this point, it's going to be a spoiler, so I'm not going to go into too much detail. However, in the near future, you might see why those two groups of witches are fighting each other. [laughs]

In terms of how pointy conical hats are considered for princesses, that wasn't the image I had when I was in Japan. This is actually the first time I discovered this, so I thought, “Oh, that's how people interpret it here in America.”

Thank you to Shirahama-sensei for answering our questions. The manga for Witch Hat Atelier is currently available through Kodansha USA, BookWalker, and the K-Manga app. The upcoming anime adaptation for 2025, will be available through Crunchyroll.