Do you want to become a witch?
Witch Hat Atelier S1 E9
The first season debuted in April 2026; the first eight episodes are now streaming on Crunchyroll, available in both Japanese (with subtitles) and English. Episode 9 debuts Monday, May 25. Subsequent episodes will debut every Monday. I've seen the first nine episodes.
Some 40 new shows have debuted during the Spring 2026 anime season. Of the 31 that I've sampled so far, Witch Hat Atelier is among my personal favorites. It's also at the top of the fan-voted chart at Anime Trending, and has rated 4.9 out of 5 by viewers at Crunchyroll.
The lighter comic series The Classroom of a Black Cat and a Watch also debuted this spring, to less immediate success. Witch Hat Atelier displayed a similar lighter touch in its first episode, as young Coco yearned to be a witch, even jumping off high places in hopes of somehow flying.
Very soon, however, it shifted to deeper emotional waters when Coco accidentally cast a spell that froze her mother in place. Visiting witch Qifrey, wanting to find out how Coco came into possession of a book that taught her spells, takes Coco on as an apprentice at his atelier, or private workshop.
Episode 2 establishes the stakes involved for the series as a whole. At the atelier, Qifrey's three other apprentices are introduced; two are of similar age as Coco, while Agott appears to be a bit older, further along in her apprenticeship, and suspicious of Coco in general. Quifrey lays out the show's world, in which magic is strictly regulated, limited to a few who must understand the limitations that have been placed upon them, lest humans run wild with magic and create chaos.
The succeeding episodes introduce the masked witch who supplied the magic book to young Coco, with the hope that one day she would bloom into a possible, powerful ally for her and her other masked, presumably evil, witches. The episodes also follow Coco as she gets into what are, in effect, locked rooms with no escape; through her advance intuition, however, she helps her fellow apprentices to escape from a dragon's lair and rescue hapless humans who were trapped by a flooding river.
The episodes sometimes feel like procedural tick-tocks: here is a spell to learn, here is a lesson to reason upon, here is a situation that requires a witch to think beyond the box, as it were. They are all beautifully animated, though, with richly detailed backgrounds and distinctive foregrounded characters, and so it's always a pleasure to watch. The swift pace of individual episodes, along with the occasional nightmares, certainly keep things compelling.
Episode 9, which will debut on Monday, May 25, starts a new arc, even as it picks up immediately from events in Episode 8. The nearby town's magical stationary shop, introduced earlier in the season (Episode 4), is owned by the kindly Nolnao, who just had his memory wiped by Qifrey in the previous episode. Nolnao's grandson and shop assistant Tartah, does not know about the memory wipe, and questions whether Qifrey was involved.
We then pick up with Qifrey and his similar-aged apprentices, blonde Coco, cheerful red-haired Tatia, and more reserved blue-haired Richeh. They are joined by the frequently scowling, dark-haired Agott. Quifrey explains the tests that need to be passed in order to become a full-fledged (and approved) witch, and then take on apprentices; Coco has passed just one, so far. The apprentices discuss their future.
The episode goes deeper into Coco's memories and Qifrey's genuine desire to help his young charges, balanced with further light-hearted talk by the apprentices, and reminders about the very dangerous world in which they live.
Adapted from a manga series written and illustrated by Kamome Shirahama, the anime series is directed by Ahumu Watanabe. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of fantasy series in general, Witch Hat Atelier's combination of dark fantasy, relieved by light-hearted moments with the young apprentices, and a convincing world makes it easy to recommend.
All images: ©Kamome Shirahama/KODANSHA/ Witch Hat Atelier Committee