spiritsphere | Entries tagged with witch hat atelier

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Saw people posting about the game "In Stars and Time" on tumblr and it sounded interesting so I'm trying it out. The start was okay, I was charmed by the characters, but a few hours in I'm getting kind of tired of the constant, let's call it "aggressive wholesomeness". I like Siffrin though, so it's not a dealbreaker (yet).

Reading Witch Hat Atelier is also a good reminder that cute and wholesome makes for a great contrast to darker themes. The cuteness and wholesomeness in Witch Hat Atelier can get a bit much at times too, but usually when it gets to the point I'm considering a break for something darker (like bitter coffee after sweet cake) it hits me with some emotional gut punch that, due to the aforementioned cuteness and wholesomeness, always catches me unawares.

In the end though, my patience with cute and wholesome things is limited (though not zero).

I'm currently reading the manga "Witch Hat Atelier" (in Japanese) and I'm really enjoying it. I'm only on volume 4 so far, but the conflicts that have been set up are interesting, the characters and relationships are cute and the art is great. The world and the magic system is also fun, and makes me want to draw. The commentary on drawing as magic and as a skill is kinda meta considering it's a manga, a drawn medium.

I avoided this for a long time because I thought it was a cutesy children's manga, but it is clearly meant for adults (the Japanese version lacks furigana) and the story goes surprisingly hard. It's still cute though.

Also really curious what Qifrey is up to. The contrast between how good he is to the girls and his sometimes worrying actions makes him very compelling.