A beautifully-illustrated story about a girl who longs for magic in her life and learns that, on the inside, she already is what she wishes she could be. Reminiscent of Studio Ghibli, this lushly-drawn story has captured the hearts of fantasy fans worldwide.

In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: She wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch…until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem…

In this beautifully illustrated manga, magic is common and a part of everyday life, but only those who are born to become magicians can wield it, while everyone else simply enjoys the fruits of their labor.

At least, that’s what everyone is taught to believe. When Qifrey, a witch, visits Coco’s home (which doubles as a fabrics shop), there is an accident with the flying Pegasus carriage that has stopped it from moving, so Qifrey offers to cast a spell to fix it. But he tells everyone it must be done in secret, and he charges Coco with keeping prying eyes out of the room as he does it. Coco, of course, is excited and decides to sneak a peek…

And realizes that magic is cast by simply drawing sigils. There is no barrier of birth to it–anyone can do it if they can draw! This leads to Coco holing herself up in her bedroom in the night to cast her very first spells. She purchased an old spell book and wand from a mysterious Brimmed Cap witch as a very small child, and has treasured the book over the years. She starts drawing the sigils she sees in the book, and summons fire, water, etc. She finds a more elaborate sigil and decides to trace it, and in doing so activates forbidden magic: the house is swallowed up by stone crystals, including Coco’s own mother. Coco is only spared when Qifrey mysteriously appears and saves her. He says that witches keep it secret, that anyone can perform magic, to preserve the safety of the realm, and that he will have to erase her memories. But Coco mentions the magic book she has, and that has captured Qifrey’s attention enough that he completely changes his mind and agrees to take Coco on as an apprentice at his atelier so she can learn magic and find out how to undo the spell on her mother.

Coco joins Qifrey’s atelier, which has three other girl students–Agott, Tetia, and Richeh. The students are all quirky and have great personalities, except Agott, who’s competitive and a total snob and causes trouble immediately for Coco, pushing her to do things well before she has the understanding or training to do so. For example, it’s maybe the first or second day Coco’s there, and Agott is forcing Coco to take the first test in order to truly be allowed to become Qifrey’s apprentice. I won’t go too much into detail about what Coco has to do, but of course it involves magic, and Coco is great at improvising and rises to the task.

The magic system of Witch Hat Atelier is really cool and deceptively simple. Sigils have long existed historically, but the mangaka Shirahama has carefully laid out rules and patterns to make it work (and illustrates the rules beautifully, too):

I saw a reel on Instagram where people were talking about how the magic system is so accessible and creative that people have been making their own sigils to create their own spells, some incredibly complicated!

Anyway, there are challenges to having to draw your magic–no one can see you do it, and therefore you usually have to have sigils pre-drawn and then assembled on the spot (like on Agott’s and Qifrey’s shoes, where if they put their feet together, the sigil is completed and allows them to fly), or you have to draw them in a notebook underneath your cloak so no one can see you casting. Plus, a spell doesn’t work until you close the circle, and if you draw something too large or too small or too crooked, the spell is affected. It’s simple and yet so brilliant.

The magic has a lot of rules to it too, not just in terms of casting, but use. You can’t do any magic that transforms the human body, for example–so no magical healing or curing death. This is forbidden magic. Long ago, wielders of magic got greedy and too creative and came up with monstrous ways to use magic to hurt people, so there is an organization called the Knights Moralis that keeps magic users in line, erasing the memories of transgressors and witnesses as needed. The secrets of magic are kept strongly enforced!

There are lots of mysteries to this manga that are introduced side-by-side with brilliant worldbuilding and storytelling. Who is the witch wearing the eye mask that keeps tabs on Coco? Why is certain magic forbidden if it used to do good in the past? And Qifrey seems to have his own mysteries, too.

It’s an engrossing series opener and I immediately plowed through the next six volumes. While volume 1 didn’t earn a 5 star in my opinion, there are 5-star books in this series, so you absolutely have to keep reading.

I haven’t had a manga excite me like this in quite some time when it comes to the fantasy genre. I also recently enjoyed the anime, which prompted me to dive right into the books. It’s all I’ve been reading the past couple of days. Once you start volume 1, you won’t be able to stop reading. I highly recommend this series right from the get-go.