FIRST REACT to Witch Hat Atelier as a Literature PhD | 1x2

[00:00:00]Hi my darlings, I'm Sophie darling and welcome back to the channel. If you're new here, hello. My name is Sophie. I have a doctorate in literature, which means I get way too emotionally invested in the stories that we're watching. So, if that sounds like something you will enjoy, why don't you hit that subscribe button so you never miss a video. Today we're reacting to episode two of Witch Hat Atelier and last episode was phenomenal, very beautifully animated. I love the storybook aesthetic. I'm now fully not trusting any anime where children are allowed to draw things because it just never ends well, whether it's Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood or Witch Hat Atelier, something is not going to go well. We have Coco now on this journey to become a witch. She remembers the book that she was given.

[00:00:47]Kiefer was interested in the book because there's forbidden spells in it and it sounds like he's tracking down a group that are maybe distributing spells that they shouldn't be. So, the fact that Coco remembers what's in the book, she has vital information that he can't just erase, he needs her. So, she is now on this journey to become a witch. She is going to be taken somewhere to train, probably. She's also going to have this side mission of helping Kiefer to undo what's been done to her mom, that there might be a potential way to save her. I hope it does have a happy outcome. I have a feeling this is the type of anime where like it's fantasy cozy vibes that she may actually save her mom, but it'll be like a long running journey, but I'm hoping there's a positive conclusion to it. But, without further ado, we're going to jump straight into episode two.

[00:02:00]>> Where are you going?

[00:02:07]A village?

[00:02:10]Oh, it's a school.

[00:02:13]So, is he like the principal of this school or is he just like a teacher?

[00:02:26]Aw, but also protects her mom until they can undo the spell.

[00:02:32]He's such a good guy.

[00:02:38]Oh, she's so small.

[00:02:45]Aw, Coco.

[00:02:48]You'll be reunited with her.

[00:02:53]My maternal instincts are kicking in so strong with Coco. She's just so cute.

[00:03:04]Oh, wow.

[00:03:09]>> [snorts] >> She must feel so conflicted because on one hand she's really excited to learn about magic and to be a witch, but on the other she feels guilt over what happened with her mom.

[00:03:26]Are there going to be other children like her age that are also learning because he said it's a school?

[00:03:33]Oh, there we go.

[00:03:35]>> [laughter] >> Aw, her hair's adorable.

[00:03:53]That's cool.

[00:04:02]>> [laughter] >> Oh, she is adorable.

[00:04:12]>> [laughter] >> Like this is just going to be endless.

[00:04:21]That's me when I cut my bangs too short.

[00:04:24]>> [laughter] >> Oh, no, she is.

[00:04:40]So many questions.

[00:04:54]Oh, they know?

[00:04:55]How do they know?

[00:05:03]Oh.

[00:05:08]Okay.

[00:05:20]Oh, God lover. She's like I didn't mean to. It's not her fault.

[00:05:34]Yes, I'm set. Tell me.

[00:05:51]>> As anything powerful does.

[00:05:57]Yeah.

[00:06:01]So it became regulated?

[00:06:05]Jesus.

[00:06:19]Okay.

[00:06:20]And then there's stories that are sowing chaos and discontent.

[00:06:24]By entrusting magic to just anyone.

[00:06:33]Okay. And that's who he's tracking down.

[00:06:42]Coco, you didn't know.

[00:06:55]>> [gasps] >> So the only magic that exists now is magic to help people.

[00:07:10]He's such a good guy. He's such a dad figure.

[00:07:32]So healing them is banned. Okay.

[00:07:37]Interesting. What I thought healing magic would be seen as but then again, it's not concealing the fact that magic exists if you're seeing healing someone with it. Also has the potential to be harmful in the long run, I guess, if people become dependent on it.

[00:07:53]So, magic is solely a tool now.

[00:08:19]Oh.

[00:08:22]Yeah, not the safest >> [laughter] >> lake to traverse.

[00:08:28]I will close that window.

[00:08:30]>> [laughter] >> This is a good lesson to teach her that she can't just run headfirst into succeeding. She needs to take baby steps.

[00:09:02]Aw, I love that he's reassured her and now he's building up her confidence to see the beauty of magic.

[00:09:11]This is such a pretty anime. It's beautifully animated. It really is.

[00:09:21]I'm glad that she's got other kids her age around so she can kind of experience this with.

[00:09:31]>> [gasps and sighs] >> Aw, so they get their own like space.

[00:09:40]They don't have to share a bedroom. They just share a work space. I love that.

[00:09:44]They get their privacy.

[00:09:53]>> [sighs and gasps] [laughter] >> She was around all along.

[00:10:36]Oh, you shouldn't be saying that. That's not nice.

[00:10:40]But you also don't know that.

[00:10:54]Oh, the resentment.

[00:11:02]It's not on you to test her though.

[00:11:04]You're not the teacher. Keyfree is. So I mean But she also doesn't know that her mom won't be okay. She's making a huge presumption. She's a child. She doesn't know more than Keyfree does. If Keyfree think it's a possibility, then I'm going to trust him on this.

[00:11:41]>> [laughter] >> Well, the food looks really good. I love how fluffy the bread looks.

[00:11:52]Is there anything this man cannot do?

[00:11:55]>> [laughter] >> He cooks, he's a good dad figure, he's hot.

[00:12:01]>> [laughter] [crying] >> He's an all-rounder.

[00:12:11]Aw, she's still always going to miss her mom. It's just never going to really feel like home for her.

[00:12:29]Surely, Kii Free would explain this to you.

[00:12:47]Can't save her unless you try.

[00:12:58]>> [laughter] >> It's more exhausting than she thought it was going to be.

[00:13:03]>> [laughter] >> Okay.

[00:13:36]I feel the same way, Koko. I'm trying.

[00:13:38]>> [laughter] >> We'll get it together.

[00:13:45]Like, where do I start?

[00:13:47]>> [laughter] [laughter] >> Okay.

[00:14:14]Yeah, we learned that in episode one.

[00:14:16]>> [laughter] >> He complimented her steady hands in episode one, so she's going to get it in time.

[00:14:40]>> [laughter] >> Oh, she's going to be pissed.

[00:14:56]>> [laughter] >> I didn't try to knock Koko.

[00:14:59]Oh.

[00:15:09]The direction?

[00:15:12]Okay.

[00:15:17]Koko's like, please, no.

[00:15:19]>> [laughter] >> Please, don't leave.

[00:15:23]Oh.

[00:15:34]She's like she doesn't like me though.

[00:15:36]>> [laughter] >> Oh, she's going to be a little taskmaster, isn't she?

[00:15:58]Well.

[00:16:04]Poor Coco.

[00:16:06]>> [laughter] >> Oh, that's beautiful. I love that like it shows the last scene as like the ending of that chapter and then we'll enter into a new one in the next episode. Honestly, the animation in this is absolutely phenomenal. I feel like her and Agate are going to become friendly over time. It's just there's a little bit of resentment there. I think I can understand Agate has had to work so hard to become an apprentice. She's had to draw and draw and draw until her fingertips turn black. Same with the others and I think there's the frustration that Coco can do a forbidden spell and just become one and it's perfectly fine. And she's like, "Well, what did I do all this hard work for? What did I do all these tests for to prove myself if she can just do that and it's perfectly okay." You can understand because if you were Agate, you would be pissed as well.

[00:17:13]You'd be like, "What the fuck?" Like but the whole you have to prove yourself to me it's kind of a bit like does she though? There are tests that she obviously has to do to prove herself as an apprentice which is what I think Agate is referring to, but it's the fact that Qifrey hasn't even mentioned these tests and all of a sudden it's Agate that is like you need to prove yourself and our test begin now, but I think they're going to like bond together. I think Agate is quite abrasive but she'll maybe soften over time that maybe Coco will kind of get through to her. That is quite harsh to say to Coco your mom's never going to be human again. She doesn't know that, let's be honest. If Qifrey thinks there's a possibility for Coco's mom to be turned back to normal, I'm going to trust Qifrey over Agate who is still learning. She is still training to be fully fledged witch whereas Qifrey is a witch to the point that he is actually training others. He has a school of his own and he also is communicating with someone about them allowing him to take Coco as an apprentice. He was thanking them. So there is also a higher individual that he's communicating with maybe like council because they were talking about how magic was accessible to everybody. Then it sowed chaos as power does when it's unchecked and this led to people unifying to create a community where they decided that only those that could be trusted to handle the knowledge of magic would be allowed to practice magic. So then magic was erased from the memories of humans and only select a few would continue that legacy on. Those that prove themselves.

[00:19:18]So, he said that like magic, even healing magic is banned, which surprises me. But, I don't think it's the fact that healing magic can be harmful. I think it's more anything that could be revealed to someone that isn't aware of how it works isn't allowed and is harmful because they're talking about if anyone who isn't trusted with the information learns how to do it, then what's going to happen is chaos. It's going to cause conflict once more, which is why Keyfre in episode 1 was hell-bent on nobody seeing what he was doing when he was fixing the wheel. He obviously tells people he's a witch. It's a title, but he doesn't let anyone see the magic that he performs because it needs to seem like it's something that he's born to do, providence, something he can do with signs and sigils and the ring and ink.

[00:20:14]So, we saw the result of someone witnessing him doing it, which was Coco, because then Coco realized that all it takes is to draw these symbols and sigils and I can do magic, too. It's not something you're born with, it's something that anyone can do. And we saw the aftermath of that firsthand, which is why now magic is only entrusted to a few people because when all humans had access to it, it was chaos. But, what it seems like is there's an organization that do believe that everyone should have access to magic, not necessarily because they believe that everyone should have the equal right to it, but more they want to sow chaos. Maybe because they think in the resulting chaos they can achieve power and control themselves. That would be the only reason that they would distribute books with spells inside and some of them being forbidden spells that were banned because they were harmful. So, I think that's what Qifrey's mission is is to track down these people to try and maybe bring them to justice or erase their memories of magic so they can't continue to sow chaos and discontent and potentially throw the world into disrepute and conflict to initiate again. So, in that context it makes sense that if you're healing someone, they can see what you're doing and you're kind of revealing the secret. So, basically everything has to be done like very hush-hush, which makes complete sense now that you think about it. But, this is really building to be a phenomenal journey, especially because they're setting up the fact that Coco will have to do trials to get to the library and then we saw the big sea monsters in the lake. But, I love that Qifrey is really understanding of Coco and the trauma of her situation in that she's scared and apprehensive of magic because of what happened with her mom and she didn't mean it, but obviously she's blaming herself. Of course she's going to blame herself. She is responsible for it, but not intentionally. It was an accident, she didn't know. And Qifrey's trying to explain that to her, but she's so young that she can't help it feel that guilt.

[00:22:35]So, I love that he is like explaining what spells are forbidden and that he's trying to comfort her, but then at the same time he's trying to show her also the beauty of magic. That it's not something to be scared of, that there is something whimsical and beautiful in it, that it can bring joy and happiness to people and that she'll be able to find that joy and happiness, too. And you also have to really feel for Coco cuz she's really conflicted because at the same time she's so excited. This is all she's ever wanted, but it's come at the cost of her mom being sealed in this spell that she promised she would never leave her mom alone, and she's had to leave her mom alone because her mom's been sealed into this crystal, and now she's gone on to become a witch. And it's like how do you reconcile being happy with having this new found opportunity that you have always dreamed of and now it's a reality, but it's come at the cost of losing your mom. I think that guilt is always going to weigh on her, and as we saw she's like shifting in the bed because it's not home, and she's trying to get comfy and it's a strange environment. I don't think she's ever going to really feel like home. I think every time she finds like a moment of happiness or excitement, there's always going to be that sadness and guilt as well that comes with it because of the loss of her mom and this pressure to get to where she needs to be in order to bring her mom back. But I'm glad that she has other kids her age, and she gets interact with other children that are also learning. And as Kiff said to her that she'll learn a lot from interacting with her peers, and I think having other children that can maybe understand her situation, not understand it in the sense that their parents have also been turned into crystallized figures, but more so they're learning how to home magic themselves. They can sort of help one another.

[00:24:34]And we saw with Agathe she was able to see instantly where Coco was going wrong and kind of give her advice on it. So I am looking forward to the dynamic of Coco making friends and seeing how they all bring out different aspects of each other. I think there's going to be some like sisterly bickering at times because they're young girls, it's going to happen, but I am looking forward to seeing Agate maybe soften, Coco gaining more confidence. I think Agate will be really good in boosting her up when she needs it. But also the dynamic with the two other girls, I wonder if they're the only students of Key Free and if maybe there'll be others later down the line, but we shall have to see. Thank you so much for watching.

[00:25:24]If you enjoyed this video, please consider liking, subscribing, and leaving a comment below to help boost this video into algorithm. And until next episode, bye.